Corpse Party - Special Halloween Edition

Hey there people reading this, whom I'm assuming are blog readers that also like video games, I'm back with a new review. A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN REVIEW!!!!! *ghost sound effects*

Fairly recently, I came across a game Corpse Party. By no means does this game fit under the definition of "retro" but it deserves some recognition none-the-less.

 The game is on the PSP, but I managed to play it through some other means since I do not have access to a PSP. If there are some details about the game itself that are different than what I've described through my experience, I apologize in advanced. 

And another warning. There will be spoilers based on the "true" ending of the game. Although they will be already spoiled, I still recommend playing the game based on that experience. It really changes the whole aspect of the story altogether and makes things that seem that they might have been just minor, not important details seem more significant.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. Without further ado, I present to you, Corpse Party.

I'm just gonna stop you right there.

Nirvana - Love Buzz

 

(Sorry I cant get it smaller. YouTube hates me right now.)

History & Backstory:

The Corpse Party game I'm referring to is Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated Fear. The original Corpse Party game has its roots on the popular NEC PC-98 exclusive to Japan.

This doesn't seem right...

The PC-98 isn't just only a computer, but a series of computers that started in 1982. The computers were very popular in Japan similar how to the Commodore series was popular in America. One of the more famous games that gained its popularity on the PC-98 is Hideo Kojima's Policenauts.

They're police officers that are astronauts! Get it?

The PC-98 series still continues production in Japan today and sold 18 million computers by 1999. That's a lot of computers. To put it in perspective, at the time that computer count was taken, there were 1 PC-98 computer for every 7 people. But is this blog about the PC-98 computer? If you said yes then...

Although the PC-98 series could have an entire blog written about it *writes down that idea*, this blog is about Corpse Party. The first Corpse Party game was developed with the PC-98 version of RPG maker software in 1996 by Makoto Keduin, or Kedwin, who would later go on to form Team GrisGris. The game, in my opinion, is awful. I'm sure that there are some people out there that liked it, but I thought it was stinky doo doo. I did like the music though.

Here is a sample. To understand what I am talking about, I encourage watching the gameplay footage from the English fan translation for at least 5 minutes.

I can understand the walking in place because Dragon Quest was very popular in Japan, and they were probably basing it off of that. It was very nice of game designers to draw different expressions for each character, although they may be look a little unprofessional. The music was very well done considering the  system limitations. Reusing sprite for the main characters is unforgivable though. Can they also use some other colors that are not brown? It's near impossible to discern which room is which without the location tracker in the corner.

In 1997, Kedwin won second place in the ASCII Entertainment competition, netting him 5 million yen. This is about 62,000 US dollars. This helped launch his career as a game developer and helped him to create a more professional game company. In 2008, 12 years after the release of Corpse Party, Team GrisGris released a revamped version of the game for the PC called Corpse Party: Blood Covered.

There's something wrong with these characters. I can't quite put my finger on it.

The version depicted above was not the true, final version of the PC version. THANK GOD! The game went through some more enhancements before it was officially released and the characters went from this...

... to this.

A vast improvement indeed.
 

 Corpse Party: Blood Covered was eventually ported to the PSP under Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated Fear. This version later came to America in 2011 on the PSN just under the Corpse Party. I'll be reviewing this version.

Storyline:

Describing the whole storyline of the game may be quite the daunting task. There are so many story elements that are in the game that all relate to each other in some way. It would be stupid for me to attempt to go into so much detail about every single element and event that occurs. Also, although it will be condensed, there will be spoilers. I will make sure to properly mark these areas. If you do not want spoilers, then I suggest you scroll past the very obvious spoiler warning that I will post the very obvious spoiler ending. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it.

There is an intro and five chapters I want to go through here, so just bear with me. Also, this is for the true ending of the game. If you're curious about other ending, you can search for them.

Let's start with the beginning, where all of this story starts. Duh.

This is Kisaragi Academy. It's a rainy day and a group of students are cleaning up after the culture festival the school held. Let's me introduce them for you...

From left to right: (Top Row) Ms. Yui, Yoshiki, and Satoshi (Bottom Row) Naomi, Seiko, Mayu, Ayumi, and Yuka.

There is also Morishige who is not pictured, but I'll show you the guy anyway.

Japanese names are so crazy.

These students were too lazy to do any of the work that they were assigned by their teacher and decided to just hang out and telling ghost stories instead like average lazy teenagers. They are also seeing off their close friend Mayu who is forced to transfer to another school due to family matters. To make her feel better, Ayumi pulls out a friendship charm that she found online that she says, if executed correctly, will make all who participate and keep their piece of the ritual friends forever.

Let's all participate in the satanic ritual guys! Nothing could possibly go wrong... Right?

Well, SHIT... GOES... DOWN...

All the people that participated in the ritual are now trapped in a hell-like dimension that is a dilapidated elementary school from 1973. No joke. It is literally a different dimension that is a run-down elementary school from 1973. The school was actually torn down to build Kisaragi Academy, but for some reason still exists in a severely ruined state in this universe or alternate dimension.

An abandoned school. Truly... Frightening... *sarcasm*

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPIDER APPLE SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

I totally made this to not be obvious.

So, this is where the spoilers start. There will be a lot.

Everybody, at this point, are now separated and are attempting to find each other in order to escape the school. There is a problem, although some people are trapped together, it is explained that they are not all technically in the same place.

In short, hey are still in the same universe, just in different planes.

Yes, same universe in different planes at different increments in time. When something is placed, a major event happens, or if a person dies are usually the only times when something is in all of the planes at the same time.

This will be clarified in more context in late parts of the story, but let's go on with the main story. Shall we?

Chapter 1:

The story of this chapter is the story of Naomi and Seiko's journey though their plane of the school. They go through the different levels in an attempt to find their lost friends and/or find a way out. While exploring the school, they find their first of many dead bodies.

No. Their chicken bones with clothes.

Then, a ghost pops out of them like a creepy jack-in-the-box and explains their current predicament. The most important parts are that there are multiple planes, their friends are somewhere, and the place is created by vengeful spirits. As he is talking, another ghost of a little girl in a red dress pops up and drawings are being drawn on the chalkboard that are very reminiscent of Clock Tower.

Killing with a comically over-sized pair of scissors. Genius.

Then, MORE EXPLORING!!!!!

If you're idea of an adventure is exploring a haunted elementary school full of dead bodies.

After some more exploring, the characters come across another dead body that is fairly recent.

This is important. VERY IMPORTANT!

Then, more exploring... Yadda, yadda, yadda... Then you come across a room with a shiny purple dot on the floor. If you're a gamer, then a first instinct should be to pick up the shiny purple dot because its an item. There's a problem, it doesn't want to be picked up. Depending on which entrance to the room the player enters, the item will jump to the other side which is inaccessible in that room. That means you'll have to use the other entrance and repeat. Once you do this enough, then the two will devise a plan to be at both sides of the room so when the player enters the room the other person will grab the item.

This will result in obtaining the infirmary key.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH KEY THIS IS?!? Is there an engraving or a tag? 'CUZ I DEFINITELY DON'T SEE ONE!!!!!!

Once the infirmary is opened THERE IS A MURDEROUS DRAGON!!!! Just kidding, there's nothing of major importance at the moment, so that means more exploring.

Once the player explores the bathrooms and the various stalls, there will be the most hilarious cut-scene about the need to apply antibacterial cream to the posterior region due to chafing.

"Buttering... Up... Your pooper..." Damn Japanese...

That's Seiko that is doing the buttering up by the way. She goes into a stall in the haunted girl's bathroom, WHICH IS COMPLETELY SAFE TO DO BY YOUR SELF. To top that, she was able to gain access to a stall that was previously locked, EVEN SAFER.

After a little more exploration and hearing voices, Seiko comes out and they discuss the issue of the stall and forget about it. After that, exploring the heard voices!! YAY!!!! Once the player finds a ghost that tells the group that they'll feel their pain forever when they die and they won't go to heaven ever, they find a key.

After more exploring and trying every locked classroom door possible, they unlock a door. There is a dead body and a newspaper. The dead body wrote a message saying don't look at the newspaper. Just read the newspaper because your curiosity told you to. The newspaper describes the details of the murders that occurred at the school in 1973. After that, the doors lock and there's no escape. After some minor exploring and looking at every item, the doors open and your free.

Well, in all of the terror, Seiko looses her scrap of the doll from the ritual.

Then, they go to the infirmary to rest. After having a horrible nightmare, Naomi wakes up to find that she's all by herself and the door is locked. After some exploring and looking a poster about how to remove a tongue, a large black figure comes out from the desk in the room and attacks the player.

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife 'cuz they rapin' everybody out here.

In a frantic attempt to get the rubbing alcohol in the medicine cabinet in order to light the hairs locking the door on fire, Naomi escapes dying. 

After an argument and vomiting in a corner, the two go their separate ways. The player temporarily takes control of Seiko until she eventually follows a voice calling out to her. Then the player goes back to Naomi who is trying to find her to apologize. She goes into the girl's bathroom to find that Seiko hung herself in one of the stalls. She is still barely alive though. Naomi is now in a desperate attempt to save her. She fails and Seiko dies.

YOU ARE DEAD!!! DEAD!!!!! DEAD!!!!

Naomi screams in disbelief and also has a flashback to a moment where Seiko tells her she has child-bearing hips and chapter 1 ends.

Chapter 2:

Chapter 2 starts off with an entirely different group of three people; these people are Ms.Yui, Yoshiki, and Ayumi. They are, to an unfortunate circumstance, in a different plane of the universe. Despite that, they hear the blood-curdling cry of Naomi discovering Seiko's body. This causes Ayumi to hyperventilate like a pussy.

Ms. Yui, being the most teacherly teacher ever, goes to find something to help the little fuck recover. They find some sort of magic crystal that doesn't help, so Ms. Yui does some exploring. In this exploration, she get's all sassy with a ghost, the ghost gets angry, and crushes the life out of her with a cabinet. She just wanted her students to be safe, but the ghost didn't believe her. Yay. Thanks to the little fuck Ayumi, she is dead.

Lesson learned from this, don't get sassy with ghost.

After some waiting and a fully-recovered Ayumi, Yoshiki and Ayumi do some exploring to find Ms. Yui and possibly everyone else. Also, EEEEEEAAAAARTTTTTHHHQQQUUUUUUAAAAKKEEEE!!!!!!! 

Also, Ayumi is now setting up candles everywhere. These were discovered in the first chapter and are used as save points. These placements of the candles implies that the events of this plane occur sometime before the events of chapter 1.

Also, Ayumi being the pussy she is, freaks out over discovering dead bodies for the first time.

Yup, those are bones.

And they spot their first ghost.

If you look him in the eye, he'll bury you alive. Super serious.

After getting around the ghost and getting an old nail puller, Ayumi goes bat-shit crazy temporarily.

We all hate you. You are a burden and can die for all I care.

After recovering from her temporary hysteria, they get confronted by the little boy ghost from earlier. Fortunately, the first time he touches you, he is deterred by the crystal because Ms. Yui's ghost protected them. Time to GTFO of this room. After some more exploring and backtracking (there is way too much exploring and backtracking), there is a boarded up door that requires the nail puller. After its only use, it breaks. What a piece of shit.

In this room is a strange pulley device that creates a bridge to the other pulley device on the same floor the little boy ghost is on. GREAT! *sarcasm all around*

Getting around the ghost and pulling the pulley will create another bridge to access another path of the school that was inaccessible. TIME TO GO BATHROOM EXPLORING!!! YAY!!!! In the girl's bathroom, Ayumi goes crazy again and starts running around laughing like the Joker. This causes Yoshiki to go into the boys bathroom and have a flashback to when Ayumi wasn't a crazy bitch. This inspires Yoshiki to hug the ever living crap out of Ayumi until she is no longer crazy. To everybody's surprise, it works.

Then they talk it out and Ayumi explains that it is very possible somebody they knew died in the girl's bathroom. Ayumi then continues to cry... AGAIN. After some more comforting, more exploring.

Once they see a ghost go into the infirmary, they see what all the fuss is about. Their friend Mayu is in their with two of the angry, murderous elementary school ghosts completely unaware that they might kill her.

Hanging out with ghosts is totally a good idea.

Yoshiki and Ayumi leave the infirmary in a desperate attempt to escape and try to find a way to save their friend. They also find a ghost, this ghost is recognized by Ayumi as the paranormal internet blogger Naho.

I wouldn't be talking to her. I would be running for my life.

Naho tells the two that the ghosts need to be appeased in order for Mayu to be okay. This leads to a search for the two separate parts of an old festival doll. Once the two parts are brought together, the doll speaks in the creepiest doll voice next to Chucky.

Betty Boop?

The doll immediately starts saying sorry like a broken record. Once the doll is brought to the ghosts, they start crying and go crazy. They go so crazy, they take Mayu, launch her up against a wall, and splatter all her insides over that wall. Seem familiar?

Seiko stepped in that and described it as stepping in dog poo. This has a whole new meaning.

Yup, that huge wall stain from chapter 1 is Mayu. The discovery of this causes Ayumi to freak out in such a manner that she goes crazy, but not in the murderous psychopath way.

Yoshiki attempts to stop her put is struck in the head by the ghost of the murderer. The picture at the beginning will show this perfectly.

The chapter ends showing that Ms. Yui never really died and just has a lot of broken bones.

Chapter 3:

The chapter starts with a fairly out of place conversation from two people trapped in the school whom we have never seen before. These students are Mitsuki and Fukuroi.

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!!!! I DON'T KNOW YOU!!!!

Mitsuki freaks out after seeing a body of her dead friend Emi with her head smashed in like a cantaloupe on CSI.

That'll scar somebody for life.

While Mitsuki is having a crying fit, they discover a hallway that wasn't there before, then Mitsuki runs off in a crying fit leaving Fukuroi alone to later have his head smashed in.

Yup, that's blood. Either that or barbecue sauce.

Mitsuki then runs into the headless ghost and the scene ends.

Then the scene cuts to a ringing cell phone.

Wow, that's some pretty good reception for being in a haunted school in another dimension.

Turns out, it's Naomi's cell phone. She answers the phone to hear the message "Help me." being said in a very The Ring like fashion when the person gets the call after watching the video tape. Then, she hears her mother. Naomi tries to answer her, but she cannot hear her. IT'S A TRAP!!!!! Then, the "Help me," message is played again. She immediately hangs up.

She flashes back to when she was in the bathroom crying at the base of Seiko's body. The ghost of Naho pops in to say she possibly hung herself because she was trying to prevent her craziness from setting. Naho then says Naomi will be forever alone and then Naho leaves her alone like a bitch.

Naomi throws her cellphone in anger then realizes she could possibly call her friends. She injures her leg by falling down the stairs. The pain is so bad that she vomits.

If you're gonna party, you better party hard.

Naomi then cries hysterically and then we cut to the main section of the story. FINALLY!

The scene then cuts to Satoshi and his little sister, Yuka. They talk to ghost that warns them about the dangers of the school and off they go. They spot the ghost girl in the red dress, have a brief conversation, and continue their exploration.

They then discover the plight of the item that doesn't want to be picked up. In this case, it's a loose board. After going through the process of getting the board, Yuka also gives Satoshi a scented bead charm she made earlier just for the heck of it.

Also, Satoshi and Yuka discover their first dead body and it's as dramatic as all the previous first dead body findings.

After going to the stairwell using that loose board from earlier, there is another earthquake that actually repairs some of the broken floorboards in the stairwell which allows a larger range of access to the areas of the school. THAT'S HOW PHYSICS WORKS!!!!!!

Some more exploration leads to finding the little boy ghost from earlier and an unknown key that will unlock a door to one of the classrooms to the school. Also, Yuka has to take a piss.

At least she doesn't have to butter up her pooper.

Then, there's the incredibly creepy infirmary. The key that was picked up earlier unlocks the door to this god-forsaken place. In terribly bad judgement, but needed to progress the story, they take a nap in the beds in the corner of the room. Once they both fall asleep, Satoshi has a nightmare about the impending fate of Yoshiki after his capture in the previous chapter.

He is in the perfect position to be raped.

Unfortunately, the dream ends before the player is able to see what happens but it doesn't look good.

All of the sudden, a newspaper article appears on the floor in front of them. Reading it only reveals the details of what happened to the children murdered in the school and not much else.

Going outside will reveal blood splatter on the floor from an unknown source and a nail puller. The nail puller can be used to open up the boys bathroom so that Yuka can use it to pee but no luck. 

Going back downstairs reveals Morishige taking pictures of Mayu's splattered corpse, but he doesn't know that it's Mayu and neither do Yuka and Satoshi. By the way, Morishige is loving it waaaaaaaaaay too much.

The appropriate reaction to a photo of a dead body.

Morishige then continues his journey by himself. Yuka and Satoshi are now off to find a locked cabinet to break with the nail puller. Breaking open the cabinet will break the nail puller, but reveals a small key.

Some more exploring around the school reveals a large hallway that definitely was not there before. This is the hallway mentioned earlier at the beginning of the chapter.

Is this new or has this always been here?

There is now an entirely new wing to be explored. In this new wing, there is a weird pressure that makes both of them feel strange. This leads Satoshi to believe that it is safer for Yuka to be by herself in the other wing and Satoshi will explore the second wing by himself. Dumbass. Luckily, Yuka is against this idea like she should be.

Also, there is no use using the bathrooms in this wing because they are just as ruined as the ones in the previous wing.

Exploring the art room in this wing will reveal a mystery person who is still alive and has gone completely insane.

She does nothing. Literally.

Then, we see Mitsuki walking around and nothing much else. If you follow her and try to talk to her, she just goes crazy. After that, there is another earthquake that miraculously recovers some of the broken floorboards. Eventually, Yuka has to go to the bathroom so badly that she goes outside by herself and attempts to pee in the nearby forest area. The ghosts are not exactly pleased with this idea, so one of the little girl ghosts forces Yuka back inside where she discovers Satoshi is gone.

Some more exploring will lead to discovering Morishige taking pictures of more dead bodies. He chases after you, but he doesn't do anything. He just temporarily follows Yuka around.

After running for a long period of time going from place to place. Yuka runs into Kizami.

Looks like a nice guy.

Well, Kizami has the ability to lift things which is useful. He is able to life fallen cabinets that will lead to certain items and events. From clues and possible serious backtracking, Kizami can help reveal the location of the blessed shoes to help walk over the green muck that kills people. Also, you can find Emi;s body but that's unimportant. After obtaining the blessed shoes, the player is now able to walk over the green muck in the second wing without being harmed. Doing this will reveal another item. This item is the crystal of unsealing which can unseal the seals on the doors of the girl's bathroom in the second wing.

That's a lot of seals.

Yuka can now go to the bathroom. While Yuka is in the bathroom, Kizami runs into his friend Kurosaki. 

His hand never leaves his hip. EVER!

The reunion is bittersweet because Kizami is a cold-blooded killer. He stabs his "friend" Kurosaki in the chest and pushes him down a hole. This is the last we hear from these events, but what happened to Satoshi?

Well, Satoshi was somehow magically transported to the staff room. In the room that are necessary to progress the story are a mini-DV tape and a newspaper article written by some guy named Kibiki.

After going through these things, Satoshi will have a brief conversation with Naho, who is becoming a growing pain in the ass. Satoshi then begins to fell like his insides are on fire and then whites out.

HAHA! Pokemon reference.

Chapter 4:

The chapter starts out with a flashback scene to Seiko washing her baby brother that makes me feel very uncomfortable and makes me wonder if its even legal in the United States. Really, I'm uncomfortable even talking about it. Then, it cuts to a scene between Mayu and her Mom talking about Mayu's family moving. These scene's are supposed to give insight to the personal lives of those who have died up to this point.

Then we cut to Satoshi to see where he disappeared off to. Well, Satoshi passed out only to find himself back in the main building by himself. As we have learned, being by yourself is not the best thing to happen in this game. Walking around for a little bit will result in hearing Yuka calling for Satoshi. Follow the voice and then Satoshi will hear Seiko's voice warning about Naomi and her fragile state. Walking up the stairs, Satoshi thinks he sees her, but it is just an illusion. He does find her cell phone on the ground ringing and answering it will only result in hearing the same message that Naomi heard earlier. Satoshi will freak out and throw the cell phone, but will pick it back up.

Haunted cell phones. NOW IN PINK!

Going upstairs will lead you to the bathrooms. Go in the girls bathroom and Satoshi will hear some juicy gossip going on between Seiko and Naomi about how somebody accidentally touched his crotch. None of the stalls will open, so you might as well just walk away. Hold on though, because somebody just to tried to hang themselves!

Oddly appropriate...

Satoshi does everything he can to save his friends life. Despite the odds against him, he succeeds AND HE DIDN'T NEED TO STAND ON NO STINKING BUCKET!!!

Buckets. They are liars.

Naomi, has no recollection of ever trying to hang herself for a very odd reason, and then she continues to show Satoshi the dead body of Seiko. They both agree that Seiko's body should not be left in the hung position. So, they take her down.

My reaction to them doing this. Then again, there have been dead bodies everywhere through the game.

Naomi then talks to Satoshi about the whole curse thing and the weird dead chick ghost that is sort of a bitch. Also, Naomi's hurt more than a Rihanna's face at this point and can't do jack shit. Satoshi then takes Naomi to the infirmary, completely unaware of all the messed up shit that happened in that room. In stupid Satoshi fashion, he leaves the poor girl alone passed out on one of the beds.

Satoshi goes off to find Yuka in the second building. He needs to use the magic hallway to do this, but the magic hallway no longer exists at this point in time. You want to know what he tries to do to make it appear? He tries to push the wall... Yeah, that'll work.

Now the game cuts to a scene where Kurosaki (th hip-hand guy) and Kizami are just children. Even as a kid, Kizami was a total douche. The memory is the purchase of a hamster, and Kizami offers to show Kurosaki how worthless its life is by offering to kill it. The scene also shows that Kizami was never really loved much and hated his family. He hated being the youngest and wanted to have a little sibling to watch over. FORESHADOWING!!!!!!

Now the game goes back to Yuka's current peeing predicament. She can't go to the bathroom because... Well... all the bathroom stalls are "full". 

Are all the bathrooms afraid of pee or something?

Kizami searches all the stalls to make sure of this. After attempting to leave the bathroom, this happens.

Yup. He's insane.

Now back to Ayumi, where she has discovered the second wing. Unfortunately, she had the same problem that Yuka and Satoshi had earlier and decided to stay in the first wing. Either way, it's supremely dangerous. For all Ayumi know, Yoshiki could be dead.

Going back into the main building, she sees the red dress ghost girl. Nothing of too much importance here.

First Ayumi needs to go back to the infirmary to pick up the antique doll she threw on the ground earlier. Then she needs to go to one of the classrooms to yell at Naho's ghost who is clearly going crazy. Before a cat fight breaks out, here comes Yoshiki to save the day who is clearly injured and is bleeding from his head. Naho tells the two that the antique doll might be a good start to figuring out the secrets of Heavenly Host and how to get out. As she says, everything will be "juuuuuuuust fine". 

If the player walks around for a little bit and if the player enters a certain area, the doll will begin to cry and will give the player directions on how to appease the spirits. It'll spout some weird gibberish about rats and roosters, but these are directions that are supposed to decoded with a book found in the game. Once the player figures these out, Yoshiki will find a small blood soaked bag.

WHAT'S IN THE BAG?!?!?!?

In the bag is a tongue and the ID tag of the student it belongs to. It belongs the boy ghost from the murders in 1973 at Heavenly Host. He's in the infirmary curled up in a ball on one of the beds. If you give the boy his tongue back, he will thank you in a normal voice with his tongue and then cause an earthquake signifying that his closed space is collapsing.

Time to check back on Satoshi, who is also experiencing the earthquake. He attempts to go back to the infirmary to check on Ayumi, but the door is locked. Good going Satoshi. Really smart decision making there.

Well, nothing left to do but explore. Satoshi will go around for a while and will eventually find Seiko's cell phone. Explore a little more and the game cuts to Naomi having a dream about not being to stop Seiko from bleeding from her chest. She then wakes up and sees Satoshi waiting outside the infirmary. Satoshi explains to her the plight of the second building.

There is another "item that doesn't want to be picked up" problem currently facing Naomi and Satoshi. Once they solve it, they get the key to the custodian's closet. In the closet is an LCD TV hooked up to a camera to play videos. Unfortunately, they are not working at the moment.

HOW THE HELL DID SOMEBODY BRING A FUCKING TV WITH THEM WHEN DOING THAT SATANIC RITUAL?!?!

After looking at the TV, a news article appears about the secrets of Heavenly Host and how it might be possible to visit it even though it was demolished. This visit might help to figure out the mysteries of the school and why its reputation was so tarnished.

Now back to Yoshiki and Ayumi. More exploring, more crying dolls, but this time its not a tongue but a weird key. The key goes into one of the pulley mechanisms to allow the lever to be pushed down to reveal the swimming area of the school.

Unfortunately, Ayumi is hearing voices in her head that causes her to have a nosebleed. Yoshiki now leaves Ayumi by herself in the shower (REALLY!!! THE GUYS IN THIS GAME ARE COMPLETE PUTZES!!!!) while he goes to explore the pool area. The pump room for the pool is locked, which forces Yoshiki to go back to the shower area. On the way back, he finds the key to the pump room in the ground.

Once he picks up the key, he hears somebody jumping into the god-forsaken thing they call a pool. Unfortunately, it's insane Ayumi.

OH GOD TIMERS!!! ANYTHING BUT TIMERS!!!

After some useless yelling in the shower area that just wastes time, Yoshiki jumps into the pool to try to save her. Just don't drain the pool before saving her. That will just kill Ayumi. I know; I've tried.

EVERY TIME!!!!

After saving Ayumi and draining the pool, Yoshiki goes into the pool and finds the valve wheel to turn on the water pump. Putting it back on and turning it will allow a tongue bag to pop out of the water pump.

Some more exploring around the school will lead you to the girl in the red dress, she'll direct the player to where the doll will talk next and its not pretty. Apparently, the third tongue is hidden under Mayu's splattered body. Is that just great? Well, in comes crazy Morishige to save the day. While being around Mayu's body, he found the tongue bag. He still doesn't know it was Mayu and neither Yoshiki or Ayumi tell him. Well, that was easy.

Now time to  find the individual ghosts and give them their tongues back. There's just one problem...

ONE GHOST! AH, AH, AH! TWOOOO GHOSTS. AH, AH, AH!

Luckily, if you got both tongues beforehand, like I did, then there is no problem. If you didn't get the second tongue, the player can either go back to get the second tongue or play which ghost is which. Once the tongues are given, the headless girl disappears but the other girl with the missing eye thanks them.

Yoshiki and Ayumi are brought back to the real world, but suddenly the eyeless ghost is back. She's not crazy anymore, and her name is Yuki. She thanks the two again for what they did and explains the story of her death toYoshiki and Ayumi. They're not too happy though because their other friends are still trapped in the school and some of them are dead. Yuki can only bring back Ayumi and Yoshiki though, even though she's supposed one of the spirits that are controlling the school. To explain why this isn't true, Yuki shows Ayumi the truth about the murders and who the real murderer was.

The game goes back and forth between what Ayumi is experiencing and what Yoshiki and Naomi are reading in the custodian closet.

Ayumi is experiencing Yuki's last moments of life. She sees the other kidnapped and murdered children, but still alive. She is then blindfolded by the kidnapper, the sick and somewhat retarded son of the principal. Ayumi only hears the screams of the children in front of her as they are being slowly murdered and tortured with a pair of sewing scissors.

Then, it is Ayumi's turn. AND THE MURDERER IS... *Drum roll*

TA DA!

The murderer was actually committed by the girl in the red dress. The girl's name is Sachiko. The problem is, she didn't die during the murders. The question is, why is she haunting the school?

Chapter 5:

Now we're back to the scene of the murder. Ayumi continues to go through the torture of bearing Yuki's murder, including losing her tongue. She's actually fine though.

Now it's time to go back to Yuka and the insane Kizami. Kizami talks about finding his little sister, who doesn't exist, and Yuka should come along so that she'll stay safe. Yuka complains aboutthe extreme pains she is having due to her overly full bladder. Kizami isn't concerned, but more interested in Yuka's pain like a fucking psychopath. Yuka, being thoroughly creeped out, insists to go off by herself. Kizami highly recommends against going alone downstairs because he just knocked his best friend's body down there.

WHY ARE YOU NOT DEAD YET!?!?

Yeah, he's not dead... yet. Yuka insists on helping the poor guy who is profusely bleeding through his abdomen. Unfortunately, nice guys (in this case, girls) finish last. Kizami makes his way downstairs and Kurosaki tries to warn Yuka. She ignores him and gets kicked by Kizami. A very one-sided fight breaks out between Kizami and Kurosaki leading to Kurosaki to have his abdomen cut into several times over leading to his inevitable death. Yuka, on the other hand, urimates herself as she is passed out on the floor.

When Yuka wakes up, she see Kizami crazier than ever covered with blood holding a large knife. 

Now THIS is a corpse party!!! Where's the corpse beer?

Kizami now chases Yuka around the school threatening to kill Yuka as she tries to find a way to escape the second building of the school. As long as Yuka is not caught by Kizami and find the key to the door and the way out, everything will be fine and Kizami will get his head bashed in by the retard ghost.

MEANWHILE! Morishige is slowly losing his sanity. After a flashback that shows insight into the life of Morishige and Mayu. Then, Morishige looks at the pictue of splattered Mayu and then through a ghostly phone call FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (spooky), Mayu tells Morishige to stop looking at her insides. Morishige finally connected the dots in his head and is now hysterically crying and insane. Two great tastes that taste great together.

Then, back to Naomi and Satoshi who have now learned that Sachiko never died in the stabbings and question why she is haunting the school. They are cut off by an extremely rude earthquake.

Now back to Yoshiki and Ayumi. They now know the truth to every last detail about the murders... except for poor ol' Sachiko. They have the option to go back to save their friends in the elementary school, and they both do. Yuki warns them about the impending dangers, gives them a fairly important marble statue, and off they go.

Also, Yuka hid her wet underpants under a sink and screamed for her brother.

Finally, we have a main storyline that won't immediately cut to a cut-scene. Yoshiki notices that Ayumi has some butt blood going on.

There's no delicate way of saying that she has blood on her ass.

Minor freak out and then back to adventures. Also, they find Naomi's ID and paper scrap laying on the ground which is a sign that she might be nearby.

After finding the ID, the game cuts to Satoshi having a flashback. A fairly weird but endearing flashback at that.

THOSE EYES!!! THEY STARE INTO MY SOUL!!!!

Then, Satoshi wakes up after passing out from having something hit his head in the latest earthquake. When he does, he accidentally grabs Naomi's boob, but that's unimportant.

After that, the TV finally turns on despite not having any power. The tape they inserted into camcorder is now playing showing the events that went down when Kibiki, who is the writer of the strange but true articles (with awesome hair), and his researcher, Taguchi (with an awesome beanie), went to conduct and record their research about the haunted elementary school dimension in 2005.

THAT HAIR!!! AND THAT BEANIE!!! MUST!!! HAVE!!!!

They unfortunately did not fully grasp the situation they were in at the time. They did not realize the amount of dead bodies they would find from their time period. The sheer horror worried both of them. Before Kibiki could even state the way out, stupid Taguchi freaked out after hearing the voices of the children who haunted the school. The tape ends after Kibiki looks for the spares.

What is also mentioned in the tape is that they knew Naho, which is important. Whats more important is that THERE IS A WAY OUT OF THE HELL DIMENSION THAT IS THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! It just wasn't mentioned. Also, Satoshi and Naomi go outside in an attempt to do more exploring, but the whole school has changed from when they originally entered the janitor closet.

Time to go back to Yoshiki and Ayumi. After a little bit of exploring, there is another Strange but True article found revealing nothing of importance besides that Kibiki was Naho's mentor. Some more exploring and there's a REUNION!!! EVERYBODY BACK TOGETHER!!! Except those who are still missing and/or dead. 

So... Anything new with you guys lately?

They exchange information about their experiences with each other, including those who are confirmed dead and what the truth really is about the murders in 1973. Then, MORE EXPLORING!!!

The game starts you off with just Yoshiki and Ayumi, but the player can switch to using Satoshi and Naomi anytime when the player steps on an upside-down pentagram. Totally normal. Also, don't step one of just yet. A little more exploring can go a long way.

With the first group, the player can find the various scraps of Naho's notebook that lead up to her true incentives and her death.

Something so girly, yet so evil.

Initially finding the journal will only reveal the first part. The other pages of the journal are scattered across the school and can only be found by Yoshiki and Ayumi.

The first part does mention some important details, such as the Shinozaki estate and Naho's love for Kibiki. The second part mention Kibiki's warnings about the dangers of the school. The third part reveals the details on how to reverse the charms effects. All these details on this page aren't fully revealed to the player until Naho is confronted, which means they are very, VERY important.

This a caption about something being very important.

After the third page, there isn't much else Yoshiki and Ayumi can do but step on the upside-down pentagram and let Satoshi and Naomi do their thing. After stepping on the satanic symbol, the game will cut to Satoshi and Naomi going into the second building of the school to find Yuka.

They find Yuka's shoes among with many other things Yuka had to witness. Then, the game cuts to Yuka talking with Sachiko (GREAT IDEA!) and Sachiko threatens to kill her before the game cuts back to Satoshi and Naomi. They also find Morishige's cell phone where there is a recorded message. It is implied that Satoshi went crazy after connectingthe dots in his head and killed himself by jumping out a window.

After exploring every possibility in the second building, Yuka will be found in the corner of the entryway passed out with another tape of Kibiki's research. The tape reveals how to escape the school and that Naho was enveloped by the curse of the school before killing Kibiki and herself. The two bodies are in the room behind a door that leads to the storage area in the janitor's closet. In the closet is a secret passageway that leads to one of the stalls in the girl's bathroom, the exact one where Seiko was killed. 

After some Seiko talk, there is more exploring. Yuka finds another tape with no label. It can't be viewed right now because the camera they were using to view the other tapes broke.

After some more exploring and a using a pulley mechanism to create a bridge for the other team. Then, step on a glowing devil symbol to switch teams.

This bridge leads to the science room where there is the fourth part of Naho's journal that is nearly illegible. Just avoid the human body model and there will be no killing.

I'M A SPOOKY GHOSTY!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!

If the body model can't be evaded because of curiosity, like me, just find the lab key and unlock the door to escape.

The fifth and final part of Naho's journal has nothing written on it. Suddenly the pages start writing themselves. They state that Naho was enveloped by the darkness and killed Kibiki. Time to confront Naho in the reference room.

SHIT! IS! GOING! DOWN!!!!!!!

Naho is told the information that Sachiko is the murderer, but they don't know who Sachiko is. After attempting to leave to "find somebody". Ayumi confronts Naho with the fact that she put in the wrong directions to perform the Sachiko Ever-After Ritual in her blog intentionally in order to create a sample size for her beloved Kibiki and his article. After this is presented, Naho says anyone who believes the blog is a "fucking dumbass". Once Naho is told that she succumbed to the darkening before killing Kibiki, she goes crazy, disappears, and leaves behind the second marble statue to progress the game with.

Gross.

Once the marble statue is given to the other group, they can be placed in front of the newly formed infirmary. This will unlock the doors in front of it leading to a narrow hallway. The girls can't pass due to massive headaches and nosebleeds (periods, am I right guys?) but Satoshi powers through. There is note for Sachiko on the door to the infirmary. Satoshi is told to come in by an unknown voice. This voice is Sachiko's mom who also confronts Satoshi, but doesn't kill him.

I like your belt.

Satoshi can also take the journal on the desk that was previously only a model affixed to the desk. In it are the writings of Sachiko's mom after her death in 1953. The principal attempted to rape her on Sachiko's seventh birthday. Sachiko's mom died falling down a flight of stairs while running away from the principal. It is revealed that Sachiko also died after witnessing this incident. They were both reported missing, but were never found. Sachiko's body was buried in the basement of the school.

Fortunately for Sachiko, she was able to get her body back in 1973. She used her new life to kill children for her mother because she knew that her mother didn't want to be lonely and unhappy in the afterlife.It does not make her happy, but Sachiko doesn't know that. She later changes her mind. It is also stated that the principal killed himself after the schools closure and that makes her even more happy.

Time to go outside to the second building and watch the principal kill himself.

Let's jump off of buildings. It'll be fun!

This will result in getting the key to the principals office where Sachiko's tongue can be found. Explains all the tongues being cut out. The principal actually cut out Sachiko's tongue after he buried her because of nightmares he's been having involving Sachiko. CRAZY ASS SOB!!!!! After using another weird pulley mechanism to create a bridge, time to go back to Yoshiki and Ayumi.

After some exploring, there will be a mystery room with a weird witchcraft-like symbol on the ground.

Totally safe and normal.

Yoshiki is told to go to the incinerator by himself while Ayumi investigates. Suddenly, a wild Ms. Yui appears. Her blood unfortunately activates the seal. Ayumi is able to save herself, but Ms. Yui is not as fortunate. Time to go towards the incinerator where the principal's ghost is. Inside the incinerator, the two can see the yellow ribbon from Sachiko's dress. The two choose to climb in, but Sachiko sees them.

TIME TO GO BACK TO OUR THREE MUSKETEERS!!! There is a secret entrance to the basement in the principal's office that is now uncovered to be used. IT IS MESSED UP IN THERE!!! DEAD BODIES EVERYWHERE!!!! 

As long as it's not animals, PETA is fine with it.

Also, there are special paths in the basement the player is forced to take in order not to activate traps. A ghost will give instruction on how to accomplish this.

Then the player meets Taguchi, who is still alive.

Oh, hello.

Taguchi is immediately freaked out by the appearance of Naomi, but for an unknown reason. Time to use a hell of a lot more pulleys to build a hell of a lot more bridges. Then there is another maze directed by a ghost. After solving this, it's time to visit the storeroom of bodies.

After some exploring in the room, somebody comes in. First, it's Taguchi to hide in the closet from something. Then, it's the ghost of the principals son with Seiko's body.

IT'S A FULL REUNION!!! Sort of...

 Taguchi is then killed in the closet. Naomi, completely enraged, chases after the ghost with Seiko's body to stop her.

Also, Yuka has to pee again. They find the bathroom and she uses it. IT'S ACTUALLY USABLE!!! After that Yuka and Satoshi have a little conversation before the game cuts to Ayumi. She disappeared and woke up to be surrounded by a sea of bodies. 

That's way too many bodies.

Thankfully, she is alive and so is Yoshiki. Leaving the area, they will pump into Satoshi and Yuka who will tell them about their current plight and Ms. Yui's death.

Going in a straight path will lead to a dead end. This is where Yuki will pop up and tell everyone that Ayumi is beginning to succumb to the darkening and Naomi is busy with her own things right now. Also, it may even be possible to appease Sachiko.

Going to Sachiko will also result in finding the hung body of the principal's son who went crazy. Also, upon finding Sachiko, she is not happy.

I am not amused.

The game will cut back and forth between Sachiko and Naomi. Naomi will find that she went insane and was the one responsible for Seiko's death and it was recorded by Taguchi on film. With Sachiko, the whole group is frozen in place.

Now, it is time to appease Sachiko. Offer her her own tongue and the black cat plushie found earlier (forgot to mention that) and then the group will perform the Sachiko ritual when Naomi comes back. Perform it correctly and Yuki will tell the group that they have a chance to escape, but they must hurry. Make it to the bridge in time will bring everyone back to the real world.

SUCCESS!!!!

The next day, nobody but those who performed the ritual and were in the school remember those who died in the school. Their existence was erased from their universe.

Then Naomi explains to Satoshi what really happened to Seiko and that she almost was taken by the curse of the school. She was receiving text messages from Seiko, the same one she meant to send before her death. This saved her from being overtaken. Seiko knew that it wasn't Naomi's fault and this was her was of telling her.

YES HARD FEELINGS!!!! SHE KILLED YOU!!!!!

Then the credits roll.

SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gameplay:

The gameplay is reminiscent of an old SNES RPG, without all of the fighting. The overhead view, the small but detailed sprites, lengthy text sequences, and all the exploration definitely remind me of Final Fantasy VI.

Good times.

The story for the game makes so many twists and turns (Don't worry I won't spoil here). Just like when the *blank* aren't actually *blank* and *blank* actually didn't *blank* in the *blank* but *blank* the *blank*.

 It is also interesting to put many antagonists in game with different backgrounds, but all have the same objective of killing.

There are also multiple endings in the game that the player can access through a series of different events being activated. The so-called "wrong endings" also each have their on unique touch added to each one. The game doesn't just half-ass each wrong ending and make them all the same, the developers wanted to make sure that the game was truly detailed in each event. Some of the wrong ends even have their own dedicated anime style panels, which do not occur too often unless there is an important event, to demonstrate what happened.

Totally normal to have yellow eyes and drag your dead friend around. I call that Wednesday.

The developers even took the time to create a level of depth for each character by showing cutscenes every now and again of what the character did in their normal life. For example, Morishige wasn't just the nerd who only cared about his studies. It is shown that Morishige also had a hidden passion for acting and singing, but he never had the confidence to go through with it. There are so many other characters this was done with that the player will start to develop an emotional connection with each one, sometimes making the death of each character more saddening and dramatic. This is where the RPG elements end though.

The games horror elements are more reminiscent of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Although, it has the feel of an RPG, it is not an RPG in the true sense of the term. There is no fighting with enemies with weapons, the game is all about being able to avoid what is attempting to kill the characters in order to survive and make it to the end.

Thank God for no sanity meter.

With no means of defense or attack against the approaching enemy, this really creates anticipation and fear in the player. There is no way of really knowing what is around the corner, and what could possibly kill the characters in the game if given the opportunity.

The AI for some of the antagonists are absolutely terrible. The programmers forgot to make sure that the killer at the time in the story would be able to go around an obstacle like a hole in the floor or broken desk.

Another problem that can happen sometimes is the amount of back-tracking. By no means is it on the same level as Metroid...

OH GOD!!! NOT YOU AGAIN!!!

.. but with the constantly changing landscape, it can hard to determine what is supposed to accessible and what isn't. It also will get somewhat repetitive exploring the same places over and over again to find something new.

The background and setting of the game are very atmospheric and play in very well with the rest of the game. The dead bodies also scattered about the school all have their own personal story to them too. The player can collect the name tags from these bodies and learn the story of their deaths giving even the most minor characters some importance.

Truly a masterpiece of storyboarding.

Bleeps and Bloops:

Even though it is a survival horror game, which do not typically have music, it has music at some points when necessary.

There is some music that will play just as a sort of over-world theme to provide set the mood at certain periods of the game.

Chapter 1 Main Building
 
The Nightmare of the School Years
 
Strange Annex
 
Chapter 5's Main Building Theme 2
  This one is especially awesome.
Chapter 5 Annex
 

I'm sure there is more, but I want to move on to the minor music.

Acquisition
When getting an item.
Evasion
  When running away from an enemy.
Game Over
  When getting a wrong ending.

AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!

All of these Major and minor themes are very well composed, some even orchestrated. Some of the songs are not typical of a horror game, but I find that each theme goes well with what is on the player's plate at the moment.

Also, some of the music is actually remade music from the original Corpse Party game on the PC-98. There's your fun fact for the day right there.

Overall:

The story of the game is very lengthy, but detailed like an RPG. There is also a certain amount of depth with each character, even the several minor dead bodies scattered across the floors of Heavenly Host. Unlike an RPG, there is no fighting or weapons to be used. It's survival horror in its purest form. If there's something threatening the life of the character, don't grab no shoes or nothing Jesus. Just RUN FO YO LIFE!!!! Yes, you will have time for that.

There are some minor flaws that could have been fixed, such as the horrible AI can affect the gameplay at times, but not during the whole game.

The music is not completely typical of a game of this genre. There are some tunes that will provide background music for the exploration of the building. Other tracks are more typical of the genre that provide more suspense to the that particular section of the story or gameplay.

Score:

Given all of this, I'm giving the game a 9/10. There are some minor flaws that can make the game seem less scary than it actually is at times. Some of the techniques implemented, such as the Japanese humor and lengthy story portions, are some things that I'm not sure will go fully appreciated by some players.

However, the game is great. If I would get could get hold of a PSP, I would buy it just for the purpose of getting this game. It is a hidden gem on the PSP and deserves more recognition than the miniscule amount it currently holds now.

Well, I'm so glad I am finally done with this blog. It has been approximately a month, but it is now done.

Happy Halloween bitches.

This is MisterBo signing off.