Corpse Party: Book of Shadows

A literary masterpiece that pushes the boundaries of video games being legitimate art with its suspenseful, thrilling, and unique narrative that takes the horror genre to a new level. It is a classic for those Halloween fright nights but just make sure to double check the doors are locked when you turn the lights out.

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Overall, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is a spooky and unsettling experience, but it’s not without some flaws. There is the occasional line that’s at a significantly lower volume than those before or after, making it hard to hear. The exploration mechanic also becomes quite repetitious over time, especially when events in an episode make it so any room could have something new in it, requiring players to go back and check every room they have access to for anything new.

With the fervor of the holiday season well in the rearview mirror gamers everywhere have hit a bit of a dry spell.  There has been very little in the way of new and exciting games over the past two months or so.  Sure there has been some fantastic DLC for a few games, but nothing major released.  Fortunately there is a new game of sorts for the PSP and PS Vita, which I have been indulging in for a couple of weeks now.  Corpse Party is a Japanese PSP game that never made to North American shores.  Sony’s PSP continues to thrive on the other side of the Pacific and regularly gets interesting and...

Even if the game’s visuals don’t appeal to you and you’ve never tackled any other games in the series, it still warrants investigating. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows’ frequently disconcerting and often bloody payoffs, as well as periodical dollops of psychological horror, make it worth tolerating the game’s less engaging moments.

With a title like Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, it’s immediately clear that you’re going to be in for a bumpy ride. The sequel continues the sadistic, horribly twisted atmosphere of the first game perfectly well – but it doesn’t bring much new to the table. It’s admittedly more of an expansion to the first game than a true sequel, telling several short stories from the perspective of different characters. However, these characters make a return from the original release, meaning prior knowledge of the series is almost a necessity if you want the full experience.

In a way, assigning a score to Book of Shadows feels arbitrary. It’s such a niche experience that you probably already know whether or not you want to play it. Does Japanese horror porn sound appealing to you? Well then this is right up your alley, and you’re probably going to enjoy it regardless of its relative quality as a game. If not, this probably isn’t going to convert you. Despite its best efforts, the storytelling just isn’t strong enough.