Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Halloween Sales Are Here


In today's Store Update, there's, among a lot of other things, a rather large sale based around the Halloween season, putting a grip of Horror-themed games on sale for scary low prices.  (Yes, I fucking went there, no, I didn't have to)  From Resident Evil in a few different iterations, to Dead Island to The Walking Dead and even including The Last Of Us (which is a very specific sub-set of horror, I'm sure), there seems to be a little something for everyone no matter your tastes and all of them seem like good picks to get into the holiday season, as it were.  There are two games in the sale, however, that stand out a little more than the others to me, and it's because of some very specific reasons.

Corpse Party and Corpse Party:  Book of Shadows for the PSP (Vita-compatible) are both on sale for half-off the normal price ($10 instead of $20) and are both definitely something you should look into.  Brought over to American shores by the always-wonderful XSEED Games, Corpse Party seems to invoke little else but disinterest when one looks at the basic sprites and presentation, but looks are quite deceiving.  Encapsulated in Corpse Party is one of the tensest, most fucking frightening experiences I've ever had in a video game and it's due in no small part to the minimalistic presentation (aside from the Visual Novel-esque full art static screens) and the Voice Acting.  To keep costs down, as well as hold true the actual mood of the game, the Voice Acting in the game is all the original Japanese and it...well...Nobody can do Horror like the Japanese.

I'm going to be honest with everyone here - I bought Corpse Party on a Halloween Sale last year and I was determined that I was going to enjoy the experience as everyone suggests.  Played on the Vita (for the crisper visuals, if just slightly), in the dark (to set the mood) and with headphones (to truly enjoy and experience the voice-work and the directional sound design) is supposed to be the key environment for some Corpse Partying.  I was doing that.  Here's a little useful tip:

Don't do that.

Well, actually -do- that, just don't be surprised when you find yourself in fear for your fucking life.  I played the first chapter of Corpse Party and got all three endings for it.  That was all I could do.  The chapter was not very long, but I still required three different sessions of gameplay to complete it because I got so tense and out of sorts that I just literally could not function.  It doesn't help that one particular scene is burned into my brain so that I can perfectly recall it at any given time, mostly thanks to the VA because nobody screams like Japanese women.  I should state that I do not regret my purchase at all - in fact, I encourage yours and I know I'm going to drop $10 on Book of Shadows as well.  However, I do so with full knowledge that I will likely never play it because it is fucking terrifying.

So basically my point is that Corpse Party and Book of Shadows are perfect for this time of year because the whole point is to get scared shitless.  There are few things that are $20 or less that will offer quite as many scares.

seriously, hearing that screamed line is never a good thing and it happens all the time and goddamnit brain -stop doing that-

No comments:

Post a Comment