Many gamers have long since forgotten about Sony’s flagship handheld, the PSP—PlayStation Portable—and that always makes us here at Honey’s Anime tear up a little. To those who did miss the days of the PSP, you might have also missed tons of great games and in particular missed either Corpse Party or its sequel—which we happen to be reviewing today—Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Luckily, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows returns us to the nightmare landscape that is Heavenly Host in a PC port! Is this version of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows worth playing or should you skip it for other horror games releasing this Halloween season? Scroll on down to see our full review of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows for the PC.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is a visual novel themed horror game that throws players into the shoes of several students and survivors who found themselves transported into Heavenly Host. Players will need to solve puzzles and explore various places within the school to escape alive. Though be warned, as you explore this doomed place filled with evil, hatred and sorrow, you’ll find your character’s soul corrupted by the Darkening, which makes strange audio cues occur and even might bring you to a quick death. Struggle the best you can to survive in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows returns players to the hell that is Heavenly Host for a series of stories untold in the prior titles. Players will experience side stories that show off various other students doomed to perish in the halls of the cursed school and how their actions influenced Satoshi and his friends during their trials. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows equally acts as a sequel to Corpse Party: Blood Covered showing how the survivors are dealing with their losses from Heavenly Host and their actions to undo some of the damages done. Welcome back to these cursed halls. Can you escape this nightmare once more or will your second time bring you to new hells not yet imagined?

Back in 2013—2011 in Japan—Corpse Party gained a sequel/prequel of sorts in the form of a new game called Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Unlike the original though, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows was more of a visual novel with exploration elements that removed the RPG elements seen in the original Corpse Party. The biggest issue with Corpse Party: Book of Shadows though was that it was only on the PSP and that meant many didn’t get to experience what was an awesome story filled with horror and dread. XSEED Games and Marvelous USA Inc, however, have decided to return us to Heavenly Host in a PC port of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Is this port worth enduring hell and back again as a bunch of ill-fated students? Find out as we dive back using the Sachiko Ever After Charm and review Corpse Party: Book of Shadows for the PC!

As we mentioned above, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows plays quite differently than the first main entry in the franchise. Rather than explore Heavenly Host—the main location of the game—in an overhead perspective, players will investigate various areas and such as if they were playing an interactive visual novel. This doesn’t mean all of the elements of the original are completely gone though. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows still retains some elements of the original, but we’ll explain that as we talk more in depth about the gameplay.

The main draw of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is the visual novel themes. Scattered across eight chapters, players will make choices that lead to different endings—wrong ends and a one true ending—as they engage in that chapter’s specific tale. The choices you make usually involve deciding to look closer at a specific area or to do something silly, but these result in wrong ends that are fun to witness and occasionally provide some of the darker elements to Corpse Party: Book of Shadows.

Also returning from the original Corpse Party is the Darkening. Heavenly Host is a cursed school filled with horrors from corpses—just look at the game’s title—to scary notes and strange traps. If players continuously activate these events, their Darkening Meter—which can be seen from the menu—fills and causes the player’s character to see various creepy images, hear voices and even might lead to wrong ends during some chapters. It’s often hard to max out the Darkening gauge to 100% without trying hard to do so, but the effects, even at low numbers, can make a creepy hallway turn even worse when you begin to hear footsteps approaching you from behind or sounds that weren’t there as you previously trekked through that spot.

Exploration in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is where the game falters only slightly. We truly loved the original Corpse Party and how it allowed players to enter rooms and even run from ghosts/baddies when events activated. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows removes this in favor of the visual novel aesthetic which means players can only move using simple look options and a map that allows movement through hallways—that all look the same—and classrooms. This visual novel gameplay feature was removed in the final Western installment in the Corpse Party franchise—Corpse Party: Blood Drive—which makes returning to Corpse Party: Book of Shadows a bit harder for those who want a bit more immersion in their horror experience. Though trust us, folks, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is still a terrifying game even if the images are still. Expect some graphic content that pushes that M rating to its literal limits.

With Corpse Party: Book of Shadows’ move to the PC, we had hoped some elements of the base game would be changed, and while there are some minor changes,—visuals are now HD, Steam achievements and PC controls—everything else remains the same. Unlike the Corpse Party game for the Nintendo 3DS, which added some new events to the original title, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is the same PSP game. You’re still getting the impressive audio that makes voices and sounds appear to be right behind you or next to you—especially if you’re wearing headphones which is a recommendation by us and the game. We did love the ability to play Corpse Party: Book of Shadows on a monitor versus the tiny PSP screen, but we feel a few extra chapters could have been added for incentive to players who beat Corpse Party: Book of Shadows numerous times before.

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows for the PC is a bit of a hard game to sell to returning fans. With a lack of new content and only slight alterations to visuals and so forth, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is basically the same PSP game just with minor tune ups. If you’ve only played the original Corpse Party on the PC, then we 100% recommend playing Corpse Party: Book of Shadows for its sequel elements and the fact that the game itself is a true joy of screams and terror from beginning to end. Fans also might love to re-enter Corpse Party: Book of Shadows if they wanted a visual update to the 2013 cult hit. Thus, we’ll simply say this, readers. If you want a great horror visual novel to play, you will love Corpse Party: Book of Shadows. Those who might have played Corpse Party: Book of Shadows previously more times than they can count—which includes some of us here at Honey’s Anime—might wish to skip this port.

Our review of Corpse Party: Book of Shadows was a tough one, folks, as we love the original version of this game as well as this port but equally know some will have issues with it. At the end of the day, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is a literal port and gamers often find issue rebuying a title they invested time into one before for only a few minor updates and fixes. However, we still truly feel you should absolutely buy Corpse Party: Book of Shadows if you haven’t played it on the PSP years ago and if you just want a more definitive version to play.

What are your takes on Corpse Party: Book of Shadows? Have you played the original version and are still going to buy this one or are you going to pass on it? Comment below to let us know as we always are curious what you guys and girls are thinking! Be sure to keep stuck to our hive for even more video game and anime reviews curtsey of us here at Honey’s Anime!