Review by Clark A.
It’s no secret that the original Corpse Party is an older horror
game. The latest entry in the franchise is a polished version of that release and
retains the original’s overall aesthetics and mechanics. What’s fascinating is
that, 20 years later, Corpse Party is still a textbook case on how minimalist
game design can trump titles with bloated budgets. In a genre as intricate as
horror, that’s no feat to mock.
Related reading: This game is a re-release of the original Corpse Party. Matt has reviewed the most recent new entry, which landed on PlayStation Vita last year.
At first glance, Corpse Party appears to be fresh out of RPG Maker’s digital oven. It was exactly that on its first release, in fact, and this enhanced port doesn’t care to apply a façade by sprucing it up too much. Conventional wisdom says executing a dark and terrifying atmosphere in 2016 with the limitations of big-headed sprites and flat 2D tiles would be a Herculean achievement, but that doesn’t stop this one from being thoroughly upsetting.
The story’s tragic events largely take place in Heavenly
Host Elementary School, a dilapidated academy that exists beyond dimensions. After a class at another (normal) school perform a farewell ritual for a lass who is transferring elsewhere, the many
student protagonists and their teacher suddenly find themselves somehow transported
from their own familiar school to Heavenly Host, which is slightly less modern, so to speak. By this I mean it’s a broken-down mess loaded with wandering
apparitions. Human skeletons and mutilated corpses beyond recognition are ordinary
sights and typically the least daunting forces you’ll have to worry about. As
the children frantically search for an exit from this pit of despair, the
mystery behind the school and how they wound up there gradually unravels.
The player is tasked with piloting these adolescents through
downright miserable scenarios littered throughout the school’s rooms and
hallways. Typically this entails solving barebones “puzzles” like finding a key
in one room and using it on a door or stepping in the right spot. Yes, despite
this game’s RPG Maker origins, the one thing you won’t do is face danger as an equal in some kind of turn-based
skirmish. Whereas “survival” horror titles of the same period like Resident
Evil granted the heroes great agency to dispose of threats firsthand, Corpse
Party recognises its protagonists are vulnerable children, ill-equipped to deal
with the paranormal. The game is hesitant to let its students fight back with
anything other than the haste of their footsteps or quick wit; the most
realistic, human response to such insurmountable hazards.
Some have claimed Corpse Party would be better off converted
to a more conventional visual novel format given how limited the player’s input
is and there’s definitely an argument to be made there. For the most part the exploration is pointless and you'll need to follow through each chapter in a specific order, aside from a very few dialogue decisions to make; which sounds just like a visual novel, correct? However, I felt the horror theme was heightened by the act of wandering
and experiencing decisions with consequences. If you mess up, the cutesy
little avatar you were just manoeuvring will feel the initial pain of their
death for all eternity, never to find comfort in the afterlife. No pressure or
anything. Alternate chapter endings are based on authentic, movement-based reactions
to specific situations. As a side note, the 3DS iteration has an edge over past
releases in that there are new endings and extra chapters.
I find the on-foot exploration, however limited, actively reinforces
Corpse Party’s effectiveness as a horror game. When your character inches
forward he or she does so one tile at time on a fixed grid. There’s no spineless
tiptoeing like a 3D game would permit, you can’t shuffle in the spot to
readjust yourself, and you certainly can’t speed up. That sounds oddly stifling
for a horror game, yes, but there’s something so very pure about it. The
deceptively barebones 2D overhead presentation lets the player perceive the
world around them and grants time for dark thoughts to marinate.
On the other hand, juggling multiple save files in a movement-based
game where death is plentiful doesn’t make for a riveting game. This is almost
a necessity unless you have outstanding intuition or happen to be glancing at a
walkthrough (which somewhat neuters the suspense). It is quite possible to step
on the wrong spot and, without warning, be saddled with a “Wrong End” from
which you cannot return without resetting the chapter.
While this is an artificial design choice for conventional games
and ultimately makes Corpse Party less fun to “play”, it does seem that this
frustration was intended to have meaningful implications. A save slot’s eternal
state of failure represents what the characters themselves experience when you
botch something. In theory, it means the player’s intuition is relevant to
every situation at hand; wandering willy nilly may well cause the character
whose actions you’re directing to get killed. The upside is that this enhanced
3DS version lets you skip entire scenes of dialogue so catching up doesn’t take
eons, but it is still more chore-like than it needs to be.
Yet all of this is made up for with Corpse Party’s unforgettable
vision of horror. Here you’ll find less emphasis on jump scares or visual gross
outs. Revolting illustrations occasionally accompany the dire occurrences, yes,
but they’re used sparingly enough to retain their effectiveness throughout the
game’s running length. This title’s real claim to fame is its scriptwriting.
Terror in life stems from a combination of rational and irrational
forces. Being covered in insects on an episode of Fear Factor might not kill
you, but that doesn’t mean the human psyche is equipped to withhold its
protective instincts without preparation, fortitude, and motivation. Then there’s
the paranoia directed at the unknown, which says the moaning and erratic
movements of a shadow are sure-fire signs that The Walking Dead’s depiction of
zombies is real…but you can’t prove it without checking. The most petrifying
force for many would be an unexplainable one that represents an active threat
to your wellbeing; one you’re not certain it can be evaded.
In Corpse Party, there’s no way to calculate such fears
because every hallway is so damaging, agitating the students by forcing them
into contact with a myriad of possibly safe but relentlessly vile fears. This
puts both a mental and physical strain on the characters so that losing sanity
feels inevitable. Having dozens of uniquely rancid items spread around the
hallway is not going boost that confidence level. Of course, the disgust is
felt more by the on screen avatar than the player, who needs to be sympathetic
for the true dread to start taking effect.
Corpse Party is rooted in heart wrenching tragedy perhaps
more than trepidation. Strewn throughout the game’s rooms are notes left behind
by the deceased. To give you a “taste” of what these scattered notes entail, one
very early on relates the story of two starving friends, who play rock, paper, scissors to
determine who gets to eat the other. The description escalates that already morbid
concept into a far more harrowing one using descriptive verbiage. You get a breakdown
of texture, taste, and smell. The surviving party goes on to carry that friend’s
eyeball as a twisted memento of sorts and describes the experience of holding
an eyeball in detail far more vivid than I ever banked on discovering firsthand.
Watching one of the more confident students be completely stripped of their ability
to act in tight situations in the dark as their mouth fills up with dirt isn’t
much better.
It’s the perverse concepts
that cause dread to linger in the player’s thoughts. Depression and discomfort
are equal forces that collectively snowball into something traumatising on a
deeper level. Choice words can be just as soul crushing if not more so than a
visual medium, which is perhaps why the game is so successful at achieving its
goal. Whereas jump scares elicit a momentary shriek and fade away, Corpse Party’s
distinctly eastern sense of horror is like being probed directly in the brain. It’s just delightful,
then, that this game gives meticulously detailed descriptions for everything
down to the bucket of maggot-infested human meat just lying around.
Some of the most gruesome moments have no accompanying image
on the screen, just voice acting and dialogue to really let the imagination go into overdrive.
In addition to the clever writing, expertly chosen sound effects are able to
trigger appalling mental images. Whether it’s a sudden atmospheric shift, the swap
from an eerie track to dead silence, or a particularly spot-on voice
performance, they’re all ghastly. Corpse Party does plenty overall that wouldn’t
be achievable through a book or through the limitations of a film but makes use
of similar storytelling cues.
The depictions of violence are less important than how they
happen and who they happen to. The characters have likable personalities, real ambitions,
and moments of comedy or fanservice that make the thought of their passing
rather jarring. The differing perspectives of each student and the unravelling
mysteries make each subsequent chapter more thrilling than the last. Watching
them slowly lose themselves to fear, both related to the horrific circumstances
and in life itself, is dismal. Suicide (a very realistic outcome to what the characters are witnessing) is just exasperating
to watch as the actual threats. You will find yourself genuinely concerned for
their safety…which, of course, is part of what makes Corpse Party’s cruel
tendency to play with their mental states so successful.
Related reading: We have a massive interview feature with one of the legends of Japanese horror cinema about what makes Japanese horror different (and better).
Orson Welles once said the enemy of art is the absence of limitations and that rings true for Corpse Party. A game made decades ago on outdated RPG Maker software is as successful in achieving its vision today as it always was because the creator used the limited palette effectively. The reliance on imagination and familiarity with Japanese horror influences present in Corpse Party aren’t going to resonate universally, but some of that horror defies cultural barriers and speaks to the human condition.
Anime Editor
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