XSEED Games has announced it plans to release brand new versions of the much-lauded horror adventure, Corpse Party, for the Nintendo 3DS and Windows PC, both with exclusive content never before seen outside of Japan.
Originally developed as an independent title by Team GrisGris, and previously released by XSEED Games for the PSP, Corpse Party is a chilling visual novel-style experience that takes players on a terrifying journey where each step could be their last.
This summer, Corpse Party will receive a limited ‘Back to School Edition’ physical release for Nintendo 3DS priced at $49.99 USD, which will include high-quality miniature figurines of characters Naomi Nakashima and Seiko Shinohara, as well as a soundtrack CD containing nearly 80 minutes of music from the game not previously featured on the ‘Songs of the Dead’ compilation, including three tracks exclusive to this Nintendo 3DS version.
Corpse Party will also see a digital release in the Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS for $29.99 USD. Remastered from the 2011 PSP game, the Nintendo 3DS rendition of Corpse Party will feature redrawn, high-resolution character sprites, newly arranged music tracks, and 3D art stills, as well as four new Extra Chapters exclusive to this version that provide insight into lesser-shown characters and plot elements previously left unexplained.
This title has been rated “M for Mature” by the ESRB. The game is set to be released this Summer.
In Corpse Party, players take control of a group of Japanese high school students who inadvertently engage in a pagan ritual and find themselves inexplicably transported into a whole other space: an inescapable echo of a long-since demolished school building where a series of gruesome murders once took place. They must now evade the grasp of the tortured souls who roam the halls of the doomed Heavenly Host Elementary School, lest they join the ranks of the dead themselves.
Corpse Party is presented using crisp 2D sprite graphics in a classic 16-bit style, brought to life with gruesome and horribly detailed hand-drawn anime-style portraits and art stills featuring vividly descriptive text, and binaural 3D audio in the Nintendo 3DS iteration, players’ minds are prone to wander, providing a uniquely engrossing horror experience. Put on a pair of headphones and Corpse Party becomes even more terrifying, with creepy background noises that bring the terror of the game’s environment directly to players’ ears.
As players advance through Corpse Party, they will strive to avoid the game’s more than 20 “wrong ends,” in which tragedy takes over and one or more characters suffer a grim demise. Whether buried alive, forced to swallow scissors or cannibalized by a friend, wrong ends are often as disturbing as they are morbidly intriguing. To advance through the game, players must reach the one true ending in each of the game’s five chapters to unlock the next leg of the journey. The game features several “true” endings depending on how many characters survive the journey through the haunted school – and at Heavenly Host Elementary, survival is no easy task.
Having previously gained a considerable fanbase when released digitally on the PSP system, this reimagining on the Nintendo 3DS system represents the first time the original cult classic horror title that spawned a new indie sub-genre will see a physical release in North America. Exclusive new features include 3D art stills, Touch Screen menus, four additional Extra Chapters, expanded story scenes, an in-game character encyclopedia, redrawn character sprites, and newly arranged music tracks. This is the definitive version of the classic horror tale that spans over 50 years of tragedy, where player choices determine both how the story ends and who lives to see it through.
