Corpse Party originally released for the PC in 1996 in Japan, long before its eventual worldwide release in 2016. The title became a cult classic among horror aficionados. It is largely viewed favorably among those who have taken the time to dive into what psychological scares the game has to offer. Now available on the Nintendo Switch and other platforms, Corpse Party Blood Covered: Repeated Fear is its latest reincarnation. While the visuals of the series haven’t aged spectacularly well, it remains as effective as ever.
Corpse Party Blood Covered: Repeated Fear offers sixteen extra chapters to its already robust narrative. It also comes with new side stories. Additionally, it features Japanese voice acting which helps enhance the experience. While the dialogue or translations haven’t improved since its original release, which can sometimes detract from the tension, the atmosphere is quick to suck the player back in to the story.
Corpse Party begins during an after school ritual among class members to ensure they’ll be friends forever before Mayu moves away. It promptly transports them into another dimension after a sudden earthquake. The transition is odd and fast enough to make it work. This is complemented by quick scares thrown at the player among the mounting dread that comes whenever the oddly RPG-esque music plays while exploring the otherworldly Heavenly Host Elementary School.
The lack of distinct, or rather detailed, visuals serves Corpse Party well. There is a lot of room for the player to imagine the gruesome events that took place prior, with skeletons littered in the hallways and ghosts left to amorphous black shapes made of hair. Again, some of the dialogue in the game did sometimes suck me out of the experience. However, the tension that kept me invested. Finding notes left behind by former students of Heavenly Host kept me interested, and the plot doesn’t waste time in progressing the story.
It always feels as though something is at stake and that the player should progress with caution. Especially since you can lose characters at specific instances to sometimes frustrating or obtuse puzzles. Thankfully, you can save often (and frequently), then reload to prevent party members from dying. But again, sometimes the solutions to puzzles aren’t all that clear. Which will definitely test the patience of those who aren’t accustomed to old school horror games.
Since I played Corpse Party Blood Covered: Repeated Fear on the Nintendo Switch, the game was confined to a square in the centermost section of my screen while handheld and docked. The sides of the screen featured some sparse artwork, but it wasn’t distracting. It was similar to the console ports of Undertale, where artwork took up space to accommodate for the original resolution of the game. Character art ended up updated from its original 2016 worldwide release. Players can also go through logs to read any dialogue they might have skipped or to skim through anything that might contain any key information for clues.
All-in-all Corpse Party Blood Covered: Repeated Fear is a fun horror game, and will especially please those that have been looking to access it on more modern consoles. That said, the game is clearly reflective of the 1996 original, and some of its writing can be weird and sometimes puzzling in its execution. It does feature some graphic elements, like most horror titles do. So those looking for something on the more lighthearted end of things will want to look elsewhere. But if you’ve been thinking about trying something more “classic,” you’ll definitely want to give this game a chance.
Corpse Party Blood Covered: Repeated Fear is immediately available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
