E3 2016 - Corpse Party (3DS) First Impressions

Originally localized in 2011, Corpse Party has been a part of XSEED's line-up ever since; whether it was last year's Vita release of Corpse Party: Blood Drive or even the title's original PSP localization, XSEED has supported bringing the series to the West regularly. Much like this year's PC release of Corpse Party, the game's 3DS release is yet another enhanced port of the title—this time with the most content yet.

For anyone unfamiliar with the series, Corpse Party is a half Visual Novel, half puzzle-adventure game detailing the horrible situation that a variety of students find themselves in, when after partaking in a ritual to remain friends with their classmate that was moving away, they get sucked into Heavenly Host, a multidimensional plane where dozens of other trapped students from across the world have died. The series is very graphic, characters will die, and when they do the game makes sure to be very explicit in its imagery. The goal of this story-based title is to try to unravel the various mysteries of Heavenly Host as well as to find a way to escape before the characters are killed.

The 3DS version of the title is by far the most feature-complete yet; it includes all of the content from the PSP version of the title, as well as 4 new chapters of its own. The game also features redrawn sprites that more closely match the resolution of the 3DS system, 3D CGs in certain parts of the game, and of course dual-screen gameplay. If you liked Corpse Party, chances are you'll like this game. It's hard to really call the game "fun," but I definitely thought my time with it was engaging.

Granted, with the type of game that Corpse Party is, it's pretty hard to actually preview with the limited amount of time I had. What I played was the very start of the story (which was basically one long cutscene) and a bit of environmental puzzles. I didn't want to play any spoiler-heavy sections of the game. During my time with it, I was able to check out some of the new 3D CGs that the port uses along with the rest of the "standard" gameplay. I thought that the game's atmosphere was only just alright, but I wasn't able to truly test out the game's signature binaural audio due to all of the background noise surrounding me. For what it's worth, I definitely look forward to trying out more of the game and leaving my thoughts.

XSEED will be publishing the title later this summer, with both a digital release (retailing at $29.99), and a limited physical "Back to School" release containing a soundtrack CD and two posable character figures for $49.99. Other versions of Corpse Party are available on both PSP and Windows PC now.

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