E3 2015: Corpse Party: Blood Drive Hands-On

Something for the Vita from E3? Color me shocked! XSeed is bringing the latest Corpse Party, subtitled Blood Drive, to Sony's secret shame of a handheld later this fall. XSeed was kind enough to have a playable demo on hand this past week and in spite of the noisy show floor, there was plenty spoopy to be had. Although I wasn't a big fan of Book of Shadows that released in 2013, a short trial of Corpse Party: Blood Drive was enough to bring me back on board.

Blood Drive will put the wraps on the Heavenly Host story arc, and as Tom Lipschultz, XSeed's lead translator for Blood Drive has stated, 'this is where the story goes really off the rails.' Considering how distinctly horrific the Corpse Party games have been, I can only imagine how crazy this story is going to get. And after a quick death at the hands of an animated anitomical skeleton and seeing the gory description of my death, I am fully anticipating a story that will be both entertaining but at the same time mortifying. 

The brief demo gave me access to the game's second chapter and I was in the shoes of Ayumi and Yoshiki who were once again trying to save their friends who had been trapped in the Heavenly Host Elementary School. Eschewing the pixel art of the previous games, Blood Drive is in 3D and despite the cute character models they can also be quite horrifying, as the screenshots below can attest. Maneuvering around the Heavenly Host school means you have traps to avoid, as they'll harm you and the Darkening meter from Book of Shadows will return, so make judicious use of that flashlight. 

We're a few months away from Corpse Party: Blood Drive but it is looking like a livelier event than Book of Shadows and I can't wait to see how this all unfolds. Look for it on the Vita later this fall in both downloadable form and for the first time ever, in a physical collector's edition!