Have you ever heard of Corpse Party, a series that began in 1996 built off the RPG Maker engine? I sure haven’t! That is until XSEED provided me with a review code for the latest port of Corpse Party: Blood Drive. Corpse Party: Blood Drive has been around in North America since 2015 on the PlayStation Vita.
With this new port for PC and Nintendo Switch, more people will certainly be able to get into the series. The problem is, this is a third part entry into a much longer overarching narrative. Realizing I had no clue what was going on within 5 minutes of booting up, I had to turn the game off and start back at the beginning, and man, what a twisted journey this turned out to be! Corpse Party: Blood Drive begins two months after the events depicted in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Ayumi Shinozaki has finally been released from the hospital after recovering from her wounds caused by the Book of Shadows.
Oct 28, 2019 Corpse Party: Blood Drive is a bloody fun time if you can get past the sometimes frustrating game play. The Switch and PC versions are the best way to experience this game! Corpse Party: Blood Drive is a bloody fun time if you can get past the sometimes frustrating game play. The Switch and PC versions are the best way to experience this game! Part visual novel, part survival horror, Blood Drive is the third game in the Corpse Party series and features the surviving cast of the prior two.
Upon returning to school, Ayumi reunites with the other survivors of the Heavenly Host Elementary School incident. All the survivors bear the guilt of those who died and are the only ones that have any memories of them. Treated as if they are crazy, the guilt begins to weigh on Ayumi. As she begins to contemplate taking her own life, a mysterious person lets her know that things can still be reversed if she returns to Heavenly Host Elementary School once more with the Book of Shadows. Corpse Party: Blood Drive is part visual novel and part survival horror game. It ditches the RPG Maker roots of the original in favor of a new 3D engine to explore the halls of Heavenly Host Elementary.
If you haven’t played the first two entries of the series, like myself, you will be lost as to what the heck is going on. Thankfully both previous games were on Steam, so getting caught up on the story wasn’t too difficult. And man, this stuff is dark, but also very intriguing.
If you have an interest in Corpse Party: Blood Drive, go back and play the first two story entries! Anyways, Corpse Party: Blood Drive centers on Ayumi and her quest to right the wrongs she has caused. Being part visual novel, there are tons of scenes involving full-screen still-art pieces and text boxes. A few of these scenes will play out in the real-time 3D environment as well.Gameplay mostly consists of exploring the environment around you, looking for items and triggering the next story elements. Heavenly Host Elementary is much different in Blood Drive than the earlier Corpse Party entries.
It seems far more sinister, with new traps scattered around to deal damage to the player. Fleshy deposits are now ever-present and can either snare you to deal damage or spawn an enemy that will then proceed to relentlessly chase you throughout the school. These Phantoms can only be defeated by using a Talisman item you will find scattered around the rooms of the school.
They activate automatically if you are attacked and the Phantom will simply vanish from existence. Talismans can be fairly rare in certain parts of the game, so escaping Phantoms by other means is usually preferred. You are able to hide in cabinets scattered throughout the school and wait for a Phantom to pass or you can just simply keep running away.
You can sprint for a short duration before tiring which makes doing either option a bit easier. If you decide to try and hide in a cabinet, be sure the Phantom isn’t in the same line of sight otherwise they will rip you from it and deal a good amount of damage. Even when you think you have hidden correctly, it doesn’t always seem to work which was a tad frustrating.Healing up from the damage caused by the environment or Phantoms can be done in two ways. First is by using bandages scattered throughout the school. The second is by visiting a candle, which doubles as a save point, and after using it your HP will be fully restored. Blood Drive does let you swap between party members, so if one is near death you can always swap to another until you can get them healed up. I am a fan of save points that restore health so this made me very happy.There is another hidden form of vitality in Blood Drive called the Darkening.
Basically it works as a meter that fills when investigating things in the school. Once it starts to get full the screen begins to get fuzzy and film grainy. Once the meter reaches max, you will get a game over screen.
The only way to heal from this is by switching characters for the remainder of the chapter or by finding a one-time use statue that will reset the meter. I found this to be an interesting mechanic and it soon had me using one character until they were nearly filled and switching out. Exploring is a major part of the actual gameplay and there is a lot to find. There are inventory items like bandages and batteries for your flashlight but there are also environmental things to examine, like bodies of past victims of Heavenly Host. Speaking of the flashlight, it has an infinite battery option that can be toggled, making needing to find batteries less of a concern. From the looks of it, the PC version is also brighter than the Vita original with the environment being still visible even without the light on.
You will also need to solve the occasional puzzle to progress but they aren’t typically hard to do.Each of the game’s chapters has multiple endings that can playout for the player depending on what they do. Only one of these endings is the true ending of the chapter that must be reached to progress onto the next chapter of the game. Every other ending is considered wrong and typically involves the deaths of characters.
They aren’t usually pretty, either, so be prepared for some more dark stuff. Now Audio is the true crowning achievement for Corpse Party: Blood Drive.
Voice work is all the original Japanese dub and sounds wonderful. Each inflection and nuanced emotion comes through well, conveying what is happening on screen. The gross effects of bodies thudding or crunching also come across well and I will admit I flinched a time or two. The music is also perfectly moody and somber which was perfect! ReplayabilityIn total there are 40 endings for players to discover in Corpse Party: Blood Drive, split between the true endings and wrong endings. After completing a chapter, an EX chapter will also unlock, giving players more to discover.
While it takes 15 hours to beat the game, all this extra stuff to find and see will take many more. What It Could Have Done BetterOne of the most frustrating things to me in Corpse Party: Blood Drive is the cabinet mechanic. Even when you think you have hidden correctly and out of sight, the Phantoms will come right to you and deliver a devastating blow.
It doesn’t always happen, but it was often enough to warrant mention. There is also no map system in the game, so be prepared to have good environmental memorization or to draw your own map like it is 1989!
I don’t think this is a bad thing personally, but I know many will be frustrated by it which is why I bring it up. VerdictCorpse Party: Blood Drive is an insane conclusion to an insane story arc covered in two previous games. If you haven’t played the two previous entries, Blood Drive will be confusing and won’t deliver the same impact. Seriously, playing the first two entries is mandatory and thankfully they are readily available on Steam for cheap. That being said, Blood Drive delivers a chilling experience and a ton of content for the $20 asking price. The game won’t be for everyone considering the very dark nature of the content and the horror aspect.
But for fans of this stuff, I can definitely see why the game has a cult following. Despite not being into many horror games myself, the story of Heavenly Host Elementary School has been one of the more interesting things I have experienced in some time and worth checking out!
The Japanese horror genre has brought forth some very creepy games over the years, but the Corpse Party series has definitely been one of the most interesting. Initially made within RPG Maker, this cult series transitioned to a polarizing visual novel style in the sequel. To conclude the Heavenly Host trilogy though, a hybrid of the previous entries has arrived in Corpse Party: Blood Drive.The Corpse Party series has first and foremost been focused on the story, and that is definitely still the case here. That reliance on story does have its issues though, mostly with introducing newcomers to this world.
Corpse Party certainly isn’t a huge name in the industry, being limited to platforms like the PSP, so someone that decides to jump into the series with Corpse Party: Blood Drive might feel lost. The game does reference past events, but a recap of sorts even in the menu system could have been useful for such a story driven series. Regardless, the story is very well written, with it serving as a satisfying conclusion to the first trilogy of games.Corpse Party: Blood Drive made the interesting decision to change the way the game looks, outside of the visual novel sections at least. Rather than a 2D RPG style look, they instead decided to utilize a 3D look. Most modern games have adopted 3D art styles, so this makes sense overall, and the locations look fine for a handheld. Rather than using the visuals for scares, instead the game is more focused on evoking fear through the unnerving story and disturbing situations. This is really where Corpse Party: Blood Drive shines brightest, with a story that adds in some mystery elements, while also throwing downright creepy elements in throughout.Corpse Party: Blood Drive itself is split across numerous chapters, each of which is treated like its own section of the game.
Upon the completion of one, you save and go back to the main menu to start the next, which does kind of slow up the game itself. However, this does allows one to jump in and out of each chapter at will, which is a useful option for those that may want to go back and play one specific chapter without having to play the game all over again.Within each of these chapters, the game essentially mixes up the gameplay of the previous two games into one. There are an abundance of story based segments, which are done in a visual novel style, with two characters animations talking while overlaid upon a static background. The biggest issue with these is that they often run way too long, even for a very story centric game, to where it can feel like a chore to watch them again and again.The other style of gameplay, which is much more of an actual game, are the 3D exploration areas. These are kind of a mixed bag, though they do get better when they are utilized more and in longer sections.
These consist of the player controlling a character through an area without much in the way of directions. This requires a lot of looking around and opening of doors until you find the right way. There are some creepy enemies to come across that will chase after you and try to kill you, but as previously mentioned, it’s hard to really feel any level of fear here with the chibi designs. Within each of these areas, there are random items that can be found, such as bandages or batteries, as well as more specific items for that area. Once an item is picked up, it goes into your inventory, and then you will be prompted to use them at certain areas. This adds a puzzle element to the game that definitely does enhance the gameplay a bit, though it may be a little hard to see some items.Someone that decides to jump into the series with Corpse Party: Blood Drive might feel lostThe halls of Heavenly Host Elementary School are very dark throughout, which pretty much requires the use of a flashlight to correctly navigate. The problem would seemingly be that these are battery powered and run out before too long.
However, the game includes a feature known as endless batteries that can simply be turned on by pressing the select button, as long as you currently have some power left. This was a weird design choice, as this is something that maybe should have been an option at the start, rather than something to switch on and off in the game.The actual navigation through the various areas in the game can become somewhat of a problem at times, as the frame rate tends to slow down at certain times.
Even worse are the load times, which are about as bad as they come. Even just getting back to the game from the pause menu can sometimes take more than 20 seconds, which really makes you want to avoid pausing altogether. On the upside, the audio performance is quite fantastic throughout the game, which is certainly nothing new for the series.
The developer conjures up not only a fantastic soundtrack, but also very fitting sound effects that greatly enhance the horror based atmosphere. The VerdictCorpse Party 2 may be on the horizon, but the conclusion of the original trilogy is here first. The puzzle-based exploration can be fun and the series’ signature horror themes are ever present here, but the clashing character design choices and other questionable decisions keep Corpse Party: Blood Drive from being an entirely bloody good time.- This article was updated on:October 26th, 2015.