At the ripe old age of far too young, I was simultaneously discovering YouTube, horror media, and anime. This eventually led me to me repeatedly looking up variations of 'top ten scariest animes', and eating up whatever I could get my grubby little hands on. I've seen all the classics. Another, Higurashi, Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, you name it. This led me eventually to the brand new Corpse Party: Tortured Souls, a four episode OVA from 2013 based on this game. I was fascinated and horrified by it in equal measure, and when I found out it had a game, I wanted nothing more than to play it. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly ask my parents for a game with Corpse Party in the title and I was a wee little guy who hadn't heard the word emulation before. So I was stuck watching YouTube playthroughs and obsessively reading the wiki.

Corpse Party was a part of my life for a good long while. I'd tell anyone who listened my opinions on all the characters and which parts were the scariest. I drew fanart in all my notebooks, and I vividly remember my mom asking if a drawing of Sachiko was meant to be a self portrait. Seiko probably contributed to me figuring out lesbianism was a thing, and it was a thing that applied to me. I listened to the soundtrack on loop for hours. For a preteen (and eventually just teen) edgy bitch, Corpse Party was like catnip to me.

That all started about a decade ago, and I'm in college now. I found myself reminiscing about Corpse Party a while ago, and I remembered I'd never actually beaten the game for myself. So there I was, curious as to whether this game that should probably not be nostalgic for actually holds up. Surprisingly, it mostly does.

Corpse Party (and yes, I do know this is not the original version of the game at all, but I'm not typing out that whole title) is a game that excels in atmosphere. What it lacks in visuals, it more than makes up for audio. Audio is by far the strongest part of the game. From voice actors giving it their all with horrified screaming and deranged laughter to the disgusting array of sound effects to the fantastic (and sometimes banging) music, this is a game you want to play with a good pair of headphones.

The characters, much as I loved them, really aren't the most fleshed out and interesting in the world, but the story is great. The various reveals are perfectly spaced to keep you engaged and really feeling like you're untangling an old mystery. And while the other three dead characters are mostly just fodder, Seiko is arguably the emotional core of the story. The last scene in the game still gets me a little bit.

The gameplay is... not always straightforward. You'll want a walkthrough handy, because making one mistake can lead to a wrong end several hours and saves later if you're not careful. My extensive wiki reading back in the day mostly spared me from this fate, but these characters can and will die horrifically if you don't play your cards exactly right. It's not old school adventure games levels of cruel by a long shot, but it's enough that it can be annoying.

Finally, the last main thing I want to talk about is the game's.... for lack of a better term, anime bullshit. You know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. It's the main reason I didn't rate the game higher. When I was younger and I didn't know better, it didn't bother me nearly as much but now that I'm older, the obnoxious sexualization of all the girls, who are all high schoolers or younger is harder to stomach than the gore. I know it's a horror game, but that's a poor excuse when it's clearly not played for horror, and sexual violence is effectively played for horror later on in the story. I wish it wasn't present.

This has been a mostly fun and spooky walk down memory lane for me, and I thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. Corpse Party was very important to me, and it was nice to visit an old friend, warts and all.