System Shock 2, Eternal Punishment and Circle Pad Pro

Nothing quite as scary as a crazy A.I.

Valentine's Day, SHODAN returned to our monitors as Gog.com re-released System Shock 2 to PC and also made the game very playable in modern systems. The game is a blast even though the gameplay feels a little backwards today and I highly suggest it to anyone who wanted a, quite frankly scarier experience than Bioshock.

With Eternal Punishment we will complete the classic series.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment was given an ESRB rating recently which bodes well for a localized release of part two of the second Persona game. The original Persona was remade for PSP and released on PSN in the UK some time ago and Persona 2: Innocent Sin was released in physical and digital form in the UK some time later. So far Eternal Punishment has remained Japan only on the PSP but of course this could just be a PSOne classics release of the game.

Monster Hunter benefits a second analogue stick but at what cost.

The 3DS Circle Pad Pro is getting its UK release sometime in march, no doubt to release along side Monster Hunter 3DS. I would suggest to avoid the 3DS one and just buy it on the Wii-U or maybe just stick to the Wii game. Playing Gods Eater Burst has really put me in the right frame of mind for Monster Hunter but it will have to wait. First I really want to start playing Pandora's Tower and log some more time on my Wii.

Corpse Party

This should be an interesting game to review. This PSP game marks one of the few times that XSEED has published a game to the UK. It's unfortunately only available in English through the PSN store as quite frankly it's a very niche game at best. So first a little history about the game. Corpse Party was made by a small Japanese group called Team GrisGris. Originally it was made for the PC-9801 in Japan using the RPG Maker Software. It became popular enough in Japan to spawn two remakes. One for Windows and now one for PSP. Now lets get started shall we?

The game makes interesting use of the RPG Maker software as there is no focus on battles. It's a very Japanese style horror but with a conventional RPG look. The beginning of the game starts with a company of around eight friends and their teacher staying a little bit too late after school and at the suggestion of a friend, trying out some occult ritual to stay friends forever. (as you do.) Needless to say that it seems to all go wrong and they wake up separated in the remains of a elementary school building which was knocked down at the site where their current school exists. The friends now have to search for their friends while avoiding death at the hands of murder victims of the now revived school.

Visually the game is a blast for me as I'm a big fan of the 16-bit style and the school setting was never really used back in that era. The game follows a narrative somewhat like a visual novel I guess. There are dead end choices in the game which can net you a rather gross and depressing end to your characters. The game is split into 5 chapters which have their own independent save files and there are some unlockable extra side story chapters too. The game also keeps track of your dead end choices so you can try and see them all if you wish. The game is also mostly voice acted and in Japanese, which probably works better in it's favour. I can't imagine the cheesy screams working with English voices but that's just my perspective.

The main form of action in the game will mostly be escaping from ghosts of children that chase you around the school sometimes and also bits where you must save someone before their demise. It's not always possible to save people which can be frustrating to know which ones you failed to save and which ones you could do nothing about. There is also an interesting element to the game of collecting the ID cards of other people who were trapped in the school and died. Collecting these cards often reveals their fate and it's generally a nice touch to see how they behaved in the situation they were in.

The biggest weak point for some would be it's length. Seven to eight hours for the game without collecting all the endings I would imagine and at an £11.99 price tag, it could be a little much.

Regardless there is nothing quite like it out there and the closest is probably something like Sweet Home for the NES or Famicom Tantei Club I & II for the NES and SNES. Both of which are only in English via a translation patch. While I do recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs and story heavy games. I only wish it was a fraction cheaper out of principle. 

My Score: An original game which shows just how much you can do with programs like the RPG Maker. 8/10

The People: I don't think there will be an area of people who wont like the pace of the game but fans of Japanese horror films should check it out. 7/10