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.

You have to make concessions for a lot of old games. They're super important and influential, sure, but time is harsh to many of them. So perhaps the most impressive thing about Super Mario Bros. is how playable it is. You can jump around and play Super Mario Bros. and it feels fine and functional. Sure, it's not good. Level design is pretty awful, look at the multiple levels that are just a mostly straight walk to the goal with fish jumping up at you but hey, it works, and it has that instantly iconic quality. Y'know. Mario.

Not much has changed, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because that Classicvania action is as good as ever, and bad because this game commits the same sin of its predecessor in requiring you to replay the whole thing to see the ending which is something that I just... do not have a lot of interest in doing right now. I'm told said ending sequences are really cool, and maybe I'll revisit this game someday. But for now, I'm content.

I think I preferred the first game a little bit, but this game did make a few improvements. Unlike the first game where I pretty much exclusively used Miriam, this game actually makes four useful characters that you are motivated to use. They made Zangetsu not pathetic in his own game! Good job!

I'm so happy Bloodstained exists, and I hope we see more of it in the future.

This is a much better game than its predecessor, but I can't help but feel like it lost some of its uniqueness in becoming that better game. You can feel those five years between games, and what came out during them. Let's start with the positives, movement is much better. Triple jumping and being able to stick to walls help mitigate some weird movement, and launch is such a fun ability. Combat is better too, you have more options than you did in the first game.

I think I prefer the story of the first game, but the beginning and ending sequences in this game were both beautiful and touching. However, having NPCS to talk to did nothing for me. They feel tacked on, this game is always strongest when there are no words. Their quest system and purchasing upgrades instead of having a skill tree also feels tacked on, more an obligation than something that really suits the game. It's very... video gamey. And there's nothing wrong with video gamey, I love video games, but it's out of place here in Ori's world of beautiful simplicity.

It's frustrating when there are two pieces of art that could become something more fantastic than either of them if they just married their best traits (the 2003 FMA anime and the manga/Brotherhood is my go-to example) and I think this is another case of that. Ori is best enjoyed one game after the other I feel.

This is a very neat and well put together project (the art is just lovely), but I can't help but feel like these are two different games that never really come together. Your girlfriend burying you alive as a metaphor for a failing relationship and loving someone much more than they love you and befriending and playing card games with a weird rat girl underground didn't come together for me, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't find one much more compelling than the other. But like it's literally free and cool there's no good reason not to play it.

I love metroidvanias, and I'd heard a lot of good things about this game, so I assumed it would be a slam dunk for me. Unfortunately, while this is still definitely a good game, I found myself a little disappointed.

One of the core appeals of metroidvanias as a genre is slowly unlocking more and more movement options to allow you to explore your environment and eventually uncover every nook and cranny. For that to work, the movement has to feel good. There really is nothing like playing a metroidvania with fluid, perfect movement. Ori and the Blind Forest just doesn't do it for me. This game isn't mechanically tight enough for my liking, which wouldn't be as big of a deal if the game didn't have some of the demanding segments present here. It should feel much better to play than it does.

Combat is so pointless I wonder if it was just included to tick a box. It's incredibly simplistic and never evolves, aside from bashing projectiles back at enemies, and the enemy variety is paltry. The game already nails tense and climactic finishes to dungeons (the escape sequences) without big boss fights, so I honestly think the whole game would be better if more attention was given to the movement and combat was cut out.

As for something else I feel could have been cut, I wish the story was told completely wordlessly. It's simple, but charming and beautiful, and I think not having narration would just amplify that. Nothing is stated that isn't obvious visually, so the descriptions are just distracting.

I wish I liked this game more, and the pieces are here for something special. As it is right now, it's just a better than average metroidvania, with plenty of better options out there.