Corpse Party coming to iOS - forget Ace Attorney, you want this

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by GDSage, Jan 22, 2012.

  1. GDSage

    GDSage Well-Known Member

    Feb 4, 2009
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    http://www.siliconera.com/2011/12/30/corpse-party-repeats-fear-on-iphone/


    I played the recently localised PSP version and you want this to be localised for iOS as well. For those that don't know much about this once RPG-Maker turned Pro game, I'll tell you of my thoughts.


    Corpse Party starts off simple enough. Set in Japan, eight teens (and a teacher) stay after hours at their school to tidy up from the festivities. Now getting late and the school being empty apart from the nine, tidying up is of course replaced by telling ghost tales. Spooking out one another and daring each other to go through a ritual to confirm their friendships, laughs soon turn to screams as a huge earthquake suddenly rocks the school and the nine participants fall into darkness.

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    Late at night? Check? Empty school? Check. Time to get the hell out? Confirmed, but they're all too stupid to do that

    ... Awakened and split into groups from the others, each notice the school they're standing in is no longer the same. Instead of the Kisiragi high school they've always known, the long-condemned Heavenly Host elementary school awaits you with open arms. Common knowledge is Heavenly Host was closed and demolished thirty years ago after the gruesome murders of four of its child students and soon after, scandal after scandal involving molestation, rape and suicides. The curse-ridden building is dark, dilapidated to the point of total collapse yet every window and exit door is completely sealed off, almost as if fused into the environment. There is no escape and the only thing you can do is explore the school grounds.

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    Aw, what a cute paper charm. Surely nothing can go wrong by completing this ritual...

    ... And that's how it starts off. The tale is told really well thanks to a great localisation and the plentiful of (Japanese) voice acting. The sound effects and music are especially a high point and are used effectively (and sometimes not at all to really bump up the fear). It's in the scares that the developers employ the same trickery as the masters of horror films do, that is to leave certain parts unseen to play on your imagination and get you to actively participate in building up the picture of the spooky atmosphere and gory acts. It works wonderfully.

    To note, Corpse Party plays out like a visual novel / adventure title but with direct movement. So there's dialog windows, character portraits and art stills with multiple choice prompts abound to pick from but you navigate the halls like you would in a top-down RPG.

    [​IMG]
    Roaming the cursed halls, there's no telling what you'll find... nothing good, so we can at least subtract that possibility from the equation

    Unlike other so-called survival horror titles, there's no endless repeats of the same enemies removing the fear and surprise. No clunky combat system that defeats the entire purpose of a horror experience. No illogical puzzles of "Oh hey, I know you like your scares so here's a slide puzzle for ya, lulz" stepping in your way.

    Instead it's all about exploration. Whether to open a door or not, it could lead to certain death or it could contain information that would later save you from certain death. It's about best friends slowly becoming agitated with each other, to the point that questions pop up about trust and the people you thought had knew turning out to be something other. It's about shuddering to the bone due to the descriptive text and chilling voice / sound effects that accompany every gruesome death (and there's a lot of them).

    [​IMG]
    And the parents wondered why the school was so concerned for the well-being of little jimmy...

    One of the highlights of Corpse Party apart from being able to spook you silly with a 16-bit retro-esque presentation, is that the game encourages multiple playthroughs. There's a right ending to each of the five chapters of the game but also several wrong endings and trust me when I say you'll want to uncover the wrong endings just as much as the right ones. Of course, each wrong ending finishes with the most grisly of demises but each one are oh so satisfying as well as chilling to play through and can sometimes be as substantial as the right endings in terms of playtime.

    [​IMG]
    Certainly one of those discoveries that don't leave you with a whole lot of confidence with regards to your future prospects

    Apart from the main task at hand you'll see corpses of students that came before you littering the school grounds, each one having bowed out in their own gruesome way. You can collect their name tags to complete a list to discover brief descriptions about them and how they died. There's also the addition of EX chapters that cover loose ends within the current story and further detail the exploits for some of the previous but now dead students that washed up in the haunted Heavenly Host elementary school. Overall, for a visual novel / adventure title there's a substantial amount to do and you'll easily pass ten hours in doing all the above.

    All in all, if this doesn't get your anticipation for the game revved up then I don't know what will. Just hope a localisation happens for iOS because it is a gem of a game.
     
  2. GoofyJmaster.

    GoofyJmaster. Well-Known Member

    Oct 11, 2011
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  3. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    Hey GDSage -- it's nice to hear from you again. Thanks for the head's up on this. I've been tempted to pick it up for my PSP (need to work my way through my backlog, including Trails in the Sky), but I'll keep an eye out for the iOS version. From reviews and your description, it sounds a bit like The Secret of Chateau de Moreau, which is a good thing.
     
  4. master lee

    master lee Well-Known Member

    Jun 19, 2009
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    Greece kos island
    Oooowwww Yes frickin awesome!!!!
     
  5. iJoashFoo

    iJoashFoo Well-Known Member

    Oct 24, 2011
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    Singapore
    This looks good!
     
  6. senorian

    senorian Well-Known Member

    Feb 4, 2009
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    man I hope "winter release" was a typo. This game seems pretty interesting but damn that is a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time from now.
     
  7. GDSage

    GDSage Well-Known Member

    Feb 4, 2009
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    By winter, developers typically mean towards as late as February. This announcement was made back in Dec so you should probably expect the iOS version to release in Japan this month or next month.
     
  8. slewis7

    slewis7 Well-Known Member

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    Didn't this get panned as a PS3 release?
     
  9. GDSage

    GDSage Well-Known Member

    Feb 4, 2009
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    You might be thinking of a different game. Corpse Party originally saw release as a much basic (and different) game in the 90's on the PC-9801, then as a (adventure) remake for the PC and PSP platforms. No PS3 release.

    In terms of site reviews, Corpse Party has fared relatively well. If there's one criticism I can cast on the game it's the inability to fastforward text and scenes. Because a good part of the game is about discovering the alternative plots (and thus endings) in each chapter, it can become a tad frustrating that you're having to skip the dialog scenes at the same speed.
     
  10. slewis7

    slewis7 Well-Known Member

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    Perhaps it was a PSP game I was thinking of. I vaguely recall seeing a scathing review of this game in the latest Playstation Magazine. Hopefully, it will work well on IOS. It sounds interesting.
     
  11. justln

    justln Well-Known Member

    Jul 8, 2011
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    Woot! Was planning to get this on the PSP but since it's coming out for iOS I'll get it then. :D
    Corpse Party has very positive reviews, looking forward to the release.
     
  12. Misguided

    Misguided Well-Known Member

    Jan 27, 2009
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    Then I wonder why that isn't added in. 999 on DS did this brilliantly. That was also a game with multiple endings that required multiple plays to get the best ending. You could tap and hold to skip through text you had already seen at blazing speed and it would automatically stop if you encountered something new in a conversation.
     
  13. ANIMALCHOPPINGS

    ANIMALCHOPPINGS Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2011
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    Heard about this for PSP, I will definately get this if it come out for iOS
     
  14. plasmakirby3

    plasmakirby3 Well-Known Member

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    Seems a lot like Chateau de Moreau, which I loved (although the story was a bit weak).
     
  15. zeonmx

    zeonmx Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2011
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    You people do realize it's only confirmed for japan?
     
  16. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    Considering that Corpse Party is the top download game for the PSP in the US, my guess is that someone will be releasing the iOS version over here. It's not like Ghost Trick, which for all its acclaim sold poorly in the US.
     
  17. killercow

    killercow Well-Known Member

    Yeah and that's a shame because that game is one of the best "adventure/puzzle" game ever. I loved it to death.
     
  18. squarezero

    squarezero Moderator
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    I haven't played Ghost Trick, but it clearly had a big impact with critics and a select group of gamers. I would start an online petitions to get Capcom to release the iOS version in the US if I wasn't so cynical about online petitions in general ;). What really hurts is that the Japanese version has 4 1/2 stars in the Japanee App Store with hundreds of reviews, so it likely was a decent port...
     
  19. Misguided

    Misguided Well-Known Member

    Jan 27, 2009
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    Ghost Trick was good. Even real good. I played it about a year ago (real nice run there with that one, 999, Radiant Historia). I liked 999 even more, but Ghost Trick had a great sense of style, which helps in that sort of game.
     
  20. zeonmx

    zeonmx Well-Known Member

    Jul 10, 2011
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    Meh. Ghost Trick was fun, but it got really old in half way. Almost didn't bother to finish the game near the end because the gameplay got old too quick.
     

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