REVIEW: Corpse Party (2021)


Title	Corpse Party (2021)
Developer	MAGES
Publisher	XSEED Games
Release Date	October 20th, 2021
Genre	Horror, Adventure
Platform	Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X\|S, PS4
Age Rating	Mature
Official Website

Corpse Party is a series I have never played any games from before and knew little about going into this review. When Corpse Party (2021) was announced, however, I was intrigued enough to try it out and have something horror related to play in October. I probably should’ve been more informed going into this one though, it’s definitely a game you need to have yourself fully mentally prepared for.

Corpse Party (2021) | Ayumi suggests the charm — Little did she know, this would be a grave mistake.

Corpse Party begins with a group of classmates hanging out for their final afternoon together before one of them, Mayu Suzumoto, transfers to a new school. Since it’s Mayu’s last day at school, Ayumi Shinozaki suggests they all do the “Sachiko Ever After” charm. Unfortunately, rather than being an innocent charm that binds them all together as friends forever like they thought it would, it instead transfers them to the long ago destroyed school of Heavenly Host Elementary, where horrendous murders took place. And this is where the adventure begins. You’ll find yourself in control of just one of the classmates as they all got separated into different groups. Throughout each chapter you’ll take control of different characters and traverse Heavenly Host with the hope of finding your friends and escaping the cursed school.

Corpse Party (2021) | Infirmary chase — One of the most stressful chase scenes, which I ended up having to redo a number of times.

The gameplay involves walking around the school, clicking on stuff and finding your way forward. You’ll run into puzzles, ghosts, the occasional item to collect for future use and a lot of death. If you miss even the most minute thing, or make any incorrect choices, you’ll run into one of numerous bad ends and fail to unlock the next chapter. For the most part, the game played smoothly. However, it felt clunky trying to avoid malevolent spirits in certain close quarter areas you get trapped in. I dreaded getting trapped and hunted by the dead. But perhaps that was the point? It is what one would expect going into a horror game such as this. Nonetheless, from what little I read up on Corpse Party during my time with it, it seems that might simply be a flaw of the game’s age and not necessarily intended.

Corpse Party (2021) | Red dress ghost — Not the most frightening ghost I ran into, but still unsettling.

I was constantly on edge while exploring Heavenly Host Elementary, anxiously awaiting my death, because as I quickly realized, it wasn’t easy to get through unscathed. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the game though. Like XSEED advertised on the official website (linked above), the sound is fantastic should you play Corpse Party (2021) with headphones. All the little sounds around you, along with the music, keeps one fully immersed. I actually found myself somewhat tired out after getting completely absorbed into the many hours of horror. I ended up spending over 15 hours on the game in total, but if you’re looking to collect and unlock absolutely everything, or have some trouble getting through without hitting too many bad ends, I can see this one taking you quite a few more hours than that.

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While I’m on the topic of unlocking stuff, there are various “Extra Chapters” you’ll unlock through playing the game. From what I gathered through playing and looking into it some more, you unlock these chapters a couple of different ways. Some of them are unlocked by successfully completing the required main chapters (there are five of those) and getting their true ends, some are actually unlocked from specific bad ends, and some of them are continuations you’ll unlock after you finish the prior Extra Chapter it begins at. These Extra Chapters show you a bit of history on the characters and their relationships, in addition to what happened to certain characters during the main game; when the classmate you were in control of wasn’t with them. Plus, this new 2021 version of Corpse Party has a brand new chapter which takes place in the modern day with two new characters. Although, it seems like it’s only the beginning of their story. It covers a little bit of their life and history before Heavenly Host Elementary and then, like our other main characters, they eventually perform the charm ritual and get trapped there.

Corpse Party (2021) | A happy photo with friends — They all look so happy together, unfortunately that happiness doesn’t last long.

I wouldn’t exactly say I had a great time with Corpse Party (2021), it was indeed a dark game that I don’t think I was quite prepared for. Still, the game is exactly what it’s supposed to be and, as I said earlier, I was completely sucked into it whenever I played. Corpse Party’s story is messed up at times and, if you plan to get into it, you should be completely prepared for what exactly you’re getting into. If you happen to be a horror fan though who has never played Corpse Party before, then I definitely highly recommend Corpse Party (2021). This is absolutely the game for you and there’s no better time to pick it up than now.