Corpse Party Message Board

Well, the time is almost upon us. A week from today – Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 – Corpse Party: Book of Shadows will be available for purchase on the North American PlayStation Store for $19.99, with a European release to follow shortly thereafter. It’s been a long journey getting this game to you guys, so it seemed prudent to give you all a bit more information about it. After all, an appetite for blood and dismay is at its best when thoroughly whetted…

And since each chapter in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows tells its own standalone story, I thought the best way to make you salivate even more would be to give a brief, spoiler-free introduction to each one. So without further ado, here’s a taste of what’s in store for you when you fire up your PSP (or PS Vita) next week.

Chapter 1: Seal

An important introduction to the “alternate universe” within which several of the game’s chapters take place. What if our poor Kisaragi High protagonists went into Heavenly Host Elementary School (the cursed plane where all the horrors of the first game occurred) with an almost instinctive foreknowledge of what awaited them therein? Would it be possible for them to avert their horrific destinies? “Seal” tracks Naomi and Seiko as they seek to answer this question, mirroring and expanding upon events from chapter 1 of the first game.

Chapter 2: Demise

Similarly, “Demise” tracks would-be transfer student Mayu under these same circumstances, weaving a rather lengthy tale that delves deep into her personality while also prominently featuring other Corpse Party mainstay characters and reuniting series fans with Musashigawa Junior High student Nana Ogasawara (whom players of the first game may remember from Extra Chapter 1).

Chapter 3: Encounter

The first of the game’s two prequel chapters, “Encounter” takes a closer look at the life and times of overzealous homeroom T.A. Ms. Yui Shishido, who’s caught herself a nasty cold and – through a series of unlikely circumstances – found herself being cared for by one of her top students, Satoshi Mochida. In her fevered dreams, she recalls her own high school life at Kisaragi, recounting memories of a boy she fancied back then… as well as a ghostly encounter that may or may not have actually happened one rainy evening…

Chapter 4: Purgatory

The second prequel chapter focuses on high school paranormalist Naho Saenoki and her best friend, Sayaka Ooue. Both girls are famous – Naho a published author and respected paranormal investigator, Sayaka a popular radio personality – and their collective star power is about to double as Naho is scheduled to appear on Sayaka’s show as a guest speaker. But it may not be only airwaves the two share, as we learn in “Purgatory” just how dangerous Naho’s research can be…

Chapter 5: Shangri-La

The longest of the game’s eight chapters, “Shangri-La” focuses on the socially reclusive Morishige as he struggles to cope with the inhumanly cruel environment in which he now dwells. Along the way, his path will cross with those of numerous other students from Byakudan High and Musashigawa Junior High, as well as the hapless cameraman Taguchi. With this many miserable, paranoid souls wandering around in an inescapable land of death and dismay, it’s only a matter of time before somebody cracks…

Chapter 6: Mire

To summarize “Mire” would be far too big a spoiler. Suffice it to say, it chronicles the adventures of stoic old Kizami, little Yuka and the girl in red herself, Sachiko. And it connects with one of the first game’s many wrong ends. (Those who’ve played Corpse Party should be shuddering right about now.)

Chapter 7: Tooth

“Tooth” takes place during the first Corpse Party and is entirely canonical with the main scenario. While the first game focused on the students of Kisaragi High, “Tooth” takes a closer look at the lives and times of the Byakudan High students, and serves almost as an “origin story” for Kizami. It also helps explain that iconic (and disturbing) image of Tohko Kirisaki from the first game, with her black eye and missing tooth…

Chapter 8: Blood Drive

Unlockable either by loading save data from the first Corpse Party and completing “Tooth,” or by viewing every single ending in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows chapters 1 through 7, “Blood Drive” continues the story right where it left off last time around. Set two weeks after the ending to Corpse Party, “Blood Drive”… well… takes us somewhere else entirely. Somewhere even more threatening than Heavenly Host Elementary School. But I don’t dare say any more than that. You’ll have to play the game for yourself to see how such a thing is possible!

So, are you ready? If not, there’s a whole new website full of information and images to peruse, as well as a brand new short trailer. Which means, if you’re not already scared out of your gourd… well, you will be. Oh, you definitely will be!

And let’s face it. You wouldn’t have it any other way.

#corpseparty Japanese horror game Corpse Party pleased (and creeped out) a lot of Americans when it came out for PSP last fall—the morbid, horrifying adventure game is also surprisingly delightful. More »

Corpse Party on PSP. What more can you say about it? In my previous PlayStation.Blog entries, I’ve likened it to horror classics such as Clock Tower and Fatal Frame. I’ve talked about how it’s one of the creepiest, most effective horror games I’ve ever played, and how its unique visuals, its 3D binaural audio and its storytelling methods help give it an uncomfortable, unforgettable atmosphere. And you, fair players… you agreed with me. You played it late at night with headphones on, just as I suggested, and it kept you awake. It haunted your nightmares and made you jump every time your house creaked or your neighbor’s kids smacked the wall… until you realized, wait a minute, I don’t have any neighbors!

And then you were never heard from again…Presumably because you were too busy getting every wrong end in the game, of course. It’s hard to resist the charm of those horrible, horrible deaths, after all! Call it morbid curiosity if you will, but we all know you, like Morishige, get a certain sadistic thrill out of seeing (or, more often, hearing) these characters you’ve come to know and love get killed, slowly, in the most creatively twisted ways imaginable.

But then, some of you reading this might not have the slightest idea what I’m talking about, because you’ve committed the ultimate sin of never having played Corpse Party. Well, fear not! You can make up for it on the cheap, since Corpse Party will be available on the North American PlayStation Store for $9.99 – half off its regular price! – from tomorrow’s Store update until two updates later on November 6th.

But wait, there’s more! Not only is Corpse Party cheaper than ever, its sequel Corpse Party: Book of Shadows has officially been announced for digital release on PSP in North America this winter (with a European release planned for sometime shortly thereafter). So you’d best get familiar with the denizens of Heavenly Host Elementary School now, as they’re going to be coming back full-force in a just a few short months!

…Ah, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. I’ve been translating that game for the last couple months, and I have to say, it is one hell of a sequel. It’s divided into eight chapters, each of which tells its own self-contained short story. Some of them help fill in the blanks of what happened during crucial off-camera scenes from the original game. Others go into the back-story of various characters, helping to flesh them out and make their roles in the series mythos a bit clearer. Still others ask “what if?,” presenting an alternate version of events from the first game in which characters who previously died are kept alive and given a fleeting chance to stay that way. And the game’s wonderfully-titled final chapter, “Blood Drive,” serves as a true sequel, focusing on two of the first game’s survivors as they venture somewhere even deadlier than Heavenly Host Elementary School in order to dig up some answers.

The whole game is presented in a first-person point-and-click adventure game style, and is much heavier on dialogue- and narrative-driven cutscenes than its predecessor (even venturing into visual novel territory at times). The spooky atmosphere is as thick as ever, though, and the gameplay is aided by fast-forward and message log features, as well as the ability to open the menu and save at absolutely any time (even during cutscenes).

Fans of the first game are virtually guaranteed to love Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, and fans of survival horror and horror fiction in general (especially Japanese horror) who haven’t already given this series a try are strongly encouraged to do so, since it really is among the best at what it does.

Specific information on pricing and release timing will be available in the coming months… and in the meantime, that first Corpse Party is calling your name, quietly and mournfully, in the voice of a child. A dead child. And how can you possibly ignore the voice of a dead child?
How, indeed…

Corpse Party was a pleasant surprise on PSP -- well, "pleasant" in that it was a good game. There's nothing pleasant about being trapped in an inescapable nightmare dimension of malicious ghosts and dead children. And now it's moving to iOS, at least in Japan, where it will be even more convenient to access the game's unexpectedly disturbing imagery (and random asides about hemorrhoid cream).

Publisher 5pb will release a port of the PC98/PC/PSP game Corpse Party Blood Cover Repeated Fear this Thursday, on February 9. The app will sell for the terrifyingly steep price of 2,200 yen ($29). We're inquiring with American publisher XSEED about a localized (hopefully cheaper) release.

Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in, with our Portabliss column. In each installment, we'll tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Corpse Party. Technically, Corpse Party is a full-sized PSP game that just happens to be PSN-only, but it is a downloadable portable game, so I'm using this column as a convenient venue to talk about it. Because it is really, really cool. It may look cutesy and SNES-like, but the cognitive dissonance between that presentation and what is happening only serves to amplify the profound wrongness of every single moment of this game.

Imagine watching a horror film. Its atmosphere and violence tug at your gut, inciting unease over the brutal suffering of characters you've grown to love. As you sit, perched on the edge of your chair, the hero stumbles down a hallway running from certain death that claws at his feet. At the last moment, just when he hopes to escape, he dies. A grisly death...

Halloween may be over, but if you’ve ever wondered what Thanksgiving might be like from the turkey’s point of view, Corpse Party’s totally got your back!

Releasing for the PSP later today as a PlayStation Store exclusive download (at a mere $19.99), Corpse Party immerses you within the creepy confines of a dangerously haunted, completely inescapable school building as you struggle in vain to rescue your friends from the clammy grasp of death and find a way back home before suffering a complete descent into insanity (or worse!).

So after you’ve feasted upon the supple flesh of the holiday bird this week, let the tryptophan lull you into a false sense of comfort, dim the lights and get ready to have some serious nightmares. This party’s just getting started – and it ain’t messin’ around!

For more information on Corpse Party’s gameplay, please direct your attention to this previous PlayStation.Blog entry; or, if you’d prefer to learn a bit more about what makes it such a frightening experience, direct your attention here instead. There’s also an official website for the game, wherein you can learn specific details about its story, characters and history as an independently-developed Japanese PC title.

You think you’re thankful this Thursday? Wait till you play Corpse Party! It may give you a whole new appreciation of what it means to be alive…

Halloween may be over, but if you’ve ever wondered what Thanksgiving might be like from the turkey’s point of view, Corpse Party’s totally got your back!

Releasing for the PSP later today as a PlayStation Store exclusive download (at a mere $19.99), Corpse Party immerses you within the creepy confines of a dangerously haunted, completely inescapable school building as you struggle in vain to rescue your friends from the clammy grasp of death and find a way back home before suffering a complete descent into insanity (or worse!).

So after you’ve feasted upon the supple flesh of the holiday bird this week, let the tryptophan lull you into a false sense of comfort, dim the lights and get ready to have some serious nightmares. This party’s just getting started – and it ain’t messin’ around!

For more information on Corpse Party’s gameplay, please direct your attention to this previous PlayStation.Blog entry; or, if you’d prefer to learn a bit more about what makes it such a frightening experience, direct your attention here instead. There’s also an official website for the game, wherein you can learn specific details about its story, characters and history as an independently-developed Japanese PC title.

You think you’re thankful this Thursday? Wait till you play Corpse Party! It may give you a whole new appreciation of what it means to be alive…

It's almost time to let the PSP rest in peace and welcome the PlayStation Vita, but that doesn't mean there won't be any new PSP games. Xseed announced today that Corpse Party -- its high school horror adventure game -- will arrive on the North American PlayStation Network November 22 for $19.99. No date or price was announced for other territories...

On today of all days, the haunt of all haunts, Corpse Party publisher XSEED chose to announce a November launch for its upcoming download-only PSP horror title. And while XSEED is "sorry to have missed Halloween," this carton of rotten eggs we plan on throwing in the company's general direction just isn't hearing it, frankly.

At very least, the publisher has a decent explanation for the missed opportunity. "We wanted to make certain everything was perfect," a statement from XSEED localization specialist Tom Lipschultz on the US PlayStation Blog reads. He unfortunately didn't nail down a solid date for the game's launch, but did drop a brand new trailer, as seen above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XIVd_n3Pg3s Nine students trapped in an otherworldly school building in which spirits are trying to kill them in grisly ways, if they don't eat each other first; we don't need high-quality 3D graphics where the downloadable PSP title Corpse Party is going. More »

We love to be scared. There’s something so primal and universal about fear, and a good horror story can really bring out the best of it, making our hearts race and our minds veer toward the darkest recesses of the human psyche. And we just keep going back for more!

Yet by the same token, horror has become so passe that we barely even react when we encounter imagery of skeletons, zombies, witches, bats, vampires and ghouls. True primal fear is hard to come by in the modern world, and this applies to video games as well. When you hear the term “horror game,” what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Probably “zombies” since that seems to characterize much of the horror genre nowadays. Most modern horror games assault you with wave after wave of zombies, and you can typically one-shot them back to their graves. They may look scary, but when’s the last time you were actually frightened in a zombie shooter game? Maybe you had an exciting time playing one, and jumped at a handful of startling moments, but the mere fact that you’re able to defend yourself – that you have a means of fighting back – makes just about every entry in the genre less horror than action.

In many ways, classic Japanese horror is much purer. For movies, think The Ring or The Grudge. For games, think Clock Tower or Haunting Ground. They’re all about unavoidable, inevitable death. You can run, but you can’t not die. You have no weapons. Your foes are immortal. All you can do is struggle in vain to survive, and pray that each door you open – each corridor you traverse – isn’t your last.

Most of each of the aforementioned movies and games achieve true terror through sheer anticipation. You know something horrible is lurking nearby… but you have no idea when or where it will strike. When nothing happens for an extended period of time, your anxiety grows until you reach that point where you begin to think you’re out of the woods. And then — BAM! — that’s when it hits you.

Corpse Party is one such horror experience. It plays out like the best of Japanese horror films, locking your nine main protagonists in an inescapable, otherworldly school building where vengeful spirits seek to end their lives in the most grisly, inhuman ways imaginable – all the while directly infiltrating their minds to drive them to paranoia, madness and suicide. The longer your characters stay in Heavenly Host Elementary School, the more utterly exhausted, certifiably insane and ravenously hungry they become, causing students to turn against one another, resort to cannibalism, hang themselves or simply suffer nervous breakdowns. Death is inevitable.

Any hope of rescue becomes less and less likely with each passing second, causing some to resign themselves to their fates and simply accept the first chances at sweet release that come their way – which usually take very unpleasant and deeply disturbing forms.

Make no mistake, there is a way out – for some, anyway. But finding it takes more time than you have, and more effort than you can reasonably expect most high schoolers to muster under such ludicrously taxing circumstances. There will be casualties, no matter what choices you make. The question is, how many will live, and how many will die? With over 20 endings (most of which are aptly-named “wrong ends”), you can expect to see (and hear) every single character in the game suffer greater cruelty than you’d ever considered possible… and try as you might to be disgusted, you will be morbidly intrigued. These deaths are so creatively sadistic, so drawn-out and convincingly acted, that you’ll hang on your unfortunate protagonists’ every knell – and will never forget the horrors to which you are subjected.

Oddly enough, Corpse Party’s 16-bit-style 2D visuals contribute to the terror. This visual style provides a sense of distance between you and the characters under your control, which has a rather chilling consequence. Effectively, you’re given more than adequate visual feedback to comprehend the exact situation that’s occurring, but since most everything is shown through animated character sprites, you’re left with the task of envisioning the gory minutiae on your own. And as any true horror fan can tell you, the human mind is capable of imagining pain and torment far more potent than anything a screen can display.

Sound plays a major role in this as well. Every line of dialogue is expertly voice-acted in Japanese, and many of these lines were recorded binaurally – using two microphones instead of one, to create the illusion of a 3D soundscape. Play with headphones, and you may suddenly hear the spirits of long-dead children whispering directly into your ear. Some scenes relish in killing the lights, too, playing out entirely through squishy, unsettling noises and screams of indescribable agony that sound all too believable.

Corpse Party is scheduled for release on the North American PlayStation Store this November as a PSP download. We’re sorry to have missed Halloween, but we wanted to make certain everything was perfect before unleashing this demon upon the English-speaking world.

If you’re a fan of true horror, Corpse Party will most definitely be worth the wait. But do prepare yourself: This is no hayride.

The first announcement and trailer for XSEED's localization of Corpse Party focused on squicking us out with the game's premise -- a haunted elementary school filled with dead children -- but what about the actual game through which the squick is delivered?

On the PlayStation Blog, XSEED Localization Specialist and chief Corpse Party booster Tom Lipschultz offered more detail on the gameplay. Corpse Party is a "horror adventure game" divided into five chapters, each focusing on a small group of characters trying to escape from the school. Rather than a "visual novel" style (like 999), "most of the game is fully interactive, allowing you to walk around and explore Heavenly Host Elementary as you see fit, carefully examining objects and piecing together the sordid history of the school at every turn."

You'll have to make decisions about what to do, which could lead to a "bad" ending. At other times, you'll have to move quickly to escape a pursuing ghost or leave a trapped room, or you risk joining the party.

With PlayStation Vita a mere two months from its Japanese release, the PSP is taking its last gasps of air. One of the final new games that will come to the platform is a title called Corpse Party, a game developed by Team GrisGris and published by XSEED. But as a post on the PlayStation Blog admits, no one quite has any idea just what Corpse Party is about. Until now, that is...