[Review] Corpse Party: Blood Drive - Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Team GrisGris
Published By : XSEED
Category : Survival Horror
Release Date : October 10 2019

Warning: This review may contain spoilers for Corpse Party: Blood Covered and Corpse Party: Book of Shadows

Corpse Party: Blood Drive is a survival horror game developed by Team GrisGris and published on the Nintendo Switch by XSEED. It is the sequel to Corpse Party: Book of Shadows and the conclusion to the Heavenly Host Arc.

After successfully escaping Heavenly Host Elementary School, a gory and haunted school which only exists on a different plane, Ayumi Shinozaki, Satoshi Mochida, Yuka Mochida, Naomi Nakashima, and Yoshiki Kishinuma are trying to get back to their daily student lives. But it’s difficult to go back to that, after the challenges they faced by various evil spirits and discovering that their deceased friends were completely erased from the universe.

One day, Ayumi discovers that the spiritual Heavenly Host still exists and that she might be able to save her deceased friends by using the Book of Shadows. She must venture back into the school and try to save her friends once and for all. But there will be many obstacles along the way since the spirits are angrier than ever before!

The game can be divided into two parts: the more text-heavy part and the actual playing. There are visual novel segments that can last long while and the survival-puzzle solving part. The game is almost entirely voice acted in Japanese. The visual novel parts are important for the story, as there are no decisions to be made that can impact the game. The actual gameplay instead has a range of various features. It is divided into 10 Chapters plus some extra chapters to play to know more about the story.

Angry spirits and other various terrifying creatures will chase you around the school, and they are able to damage you. You can try to outrun them or hide in a closet hoping that they don’t find you inside. Other things, such as shattered glass or weak wooden planks may damage you. You can use bandages to heal yourself and if there are more characters in your party you may switch with them to take more damage too.

Sometimes you will be asked to make a quick decision. Taking the wrong decision will lead to a bad end, hence a game-over.

The Switch version plays and is executed very well. Surely, the chibi art-style may not suit the genre well, but it works. Both the character and environment design are great and the story is well written, but you need to know the previous games to know what is going on.

The game has some flaws too. One of the first things I noticed was the lack of a map. While you are meant to explore the school, it’s hard to keep track of everything, and considering that there is no “objectives” screen it gets even harder. The start of the game is extremely slow, as it takes more than an hour to start playing. The game also lacks the HD Rumble feature, which would have been great for a survival horror game.
As I already mentioned, the 3D chibi art-style doesn’t really work with the setting and one thing that was extremely wrong for me was the over-sexualization of mostly underaged female characters, with both panty shots and naked CG scenes

Those are more (mostly) “nitpicks” than anything, and in conclusion, I can say that the game is still great if you are looking for a more “anime” styled horror experience. The series has numerous entries and fans will enjoy this one, even if there is nothing special about the Switch version.