Video Game / Corpse Party (PC-98)

"We...may have done something irreversible. And thrown open the curtain to nightmares..."

— The tagline

This is the original version of Corpse Party, created by KENIX-SOFT and developed using the Dante 98 program. It was then released in Japan on April 22, 1996, and is one of the earliest examples and originators of the Explorer Horror genre. It is very different from later entries in the series with a simpler mode of gameplay, smaller cast, and a very simple story.

The story begins with Ayumi Shinozaki telling a scary story to her friends when they stay after school to clean up after the cultural festival. For Satoshi Mochida, the sound of someone knocking on the door is terrifying, but he's compelled by the others to open it anyway. To his surprise and relief, it's just his little sister, Yuka, who came looking for him. Following introductions of each character, the classmates try to tidy up the room, but they're interrupted by a strange sound. Frightened, they try to leave, but a sudden earthquake catapults them into an abandoned schoolhouse.

Unlike Corpse Party: Blood Covered, there are no shifted dimensions separating the characters, but they do decide to form two groups to investigate their strange new trappings and find a way out. Group One is composed of Satoshi, Yuka, and Naomi, and Group Two has Yoshiki and Ayumi. While Satoshi's group heads south, Yoshiki and Ayumi go north and the game follows their exploits in searching the school for clues. Soon enough, it becomes frighteningly clear that the school is haunted by the ghosts of other victims who became trapped there. It is an alternate dimension where people who are killed there cannot find peace. Both groups come across many diseased spirits, some of which are kind and helpful, while others are angry, dangerous, and psychotic. If the five teens want to live to see the light of another day, they must solve the mystery of both the school and a mysterious young girl in a red dress.

The original game has never been released in English or outside of Japan, but it's had several notable remakes so far that have been localized: an official adaptation into a PC game, titled Corpse Party: Blood Covered which expanded the story and reworked the characters; a fan made faithful remake by an anonymous member of a Japanese message board with the permission of the original developers, titled Corpse-Party =Rebuilt=, an update of said remake with additional content and endings inspired by the rest of the franchise, titled Corpse-Party ~Rebirth~; and finally Corpse Party: Blood Covered ...Repeated Fear, the second official remake, this time for the PSP. This page covers tropes for the original and Rebuilt.

A direct sequel of the original game was in-development but ended up getting scrapped for multiple reasons. A fan recreation was eventually made: Corpse Party 2: Satsuki's Heart, bringing light to numerous lost concepts and character ideas.

Several Fan Sequels were inspired by this game. Corpse Party Zero serves as a fan Prequel; Corpse Party if... follows the events of one version of Ending C, and Corpse Party D2: Depths of Despair and Fatal Operation continue off of the D-2 ending. The aforementioned Corpse-Party ~Rebirth~ has additional endings that directly reference these games.

The Main Cast:

• Satoshi Mochida - The protagonist, easily frightened and has no love for ghost stories. He's gentle, compassionate, and a lot braver than he seems.
• Naomi Nakashima - All around Tsundere and Satoshi's best friend. She loves teasing Satoshi relentlessly.
• Ayumi Shinozaki - The ghost story loving Class Representative of Class 2-9. Seems bold, but is actually not as secure as she looks.
• Yoshiki Kishinumi - A laid-back fellow with a tendency to skip classes. Much nicer than he seems.
• Yuka Mochida - Middle schooler and Satoshi's younger sister. Immature for her age, and tends to cry a lot.
• Sachiko Shinozaki - The mysterious young girl in a red dress who wanders the school. Her death is the subject of Ayumi’s scary story.

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This game provides examples of:

• All Love Is Unrequited: There's a situation going on: Yoshiki is crushing on Ayumi, who's only interested in Satoshi, who is in turn oblivious to Ayumi, Naomi, and Yuka's feelings for him.
• And I Must Scream: Anyone who dies in Tenjin Elementary stays there, and they feel the pain of their death forever.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The kids split into two groups, one led by Satoshi, and the other by Yoshiki. The game occasionally switches between the two.
• Another Side, Another Story: ~Rebirth~has two additional side stories starring new characters:
  • Extra Chapter: MayuMori - This chapter stars the characters Mayu and Morishige, from Blood Covered. After sharing the ghost story, the two are dragged into Heavenly Host by Yuki Kanno, also hailing from Blood Covered and need to find a way to escape. This story sets up certain events that take place in the main game.
  • Extra Chapter: Sachiko - This is a prequel that follows the good half of the Vengeful Spirit, during the time when the dreaded Heavenly Host was first created. Currently, this chapter has yet to be finished.
• Anyone Can Die: Yes, yes they can. No one is exempt from dying if the player makes a mistake.
• Apocalyptic Log: Everywhere. You can find and read pieces of paper that are the last memoirs of the dead...and some of their first memoirs after dying.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can only bring three of the five survivors to the Final Boss.
• Big Bad: The evil Shinozaki is the master of the school and the ruler of the malevolent spirits who drag inocente students into the school to be tormented.
• Big Brother Instinct: Satoshi towards Yuka, naturally. That doesn't necessarily mean he'll act on it when she needs him most, though.
• Black Magic: Mentioned during the D-2 ending.
• Break the Cutie: Played straight in one of the new routes in ~Rebirth~. This version gives the player the option to have 2 characters die in Yuka's place, continuing the story with Yuka instead. After the second time, which was caused by Yuka saying the Vengeful Spirit deserved to die the way she did, Shinozaki cruelly jokes how Yuka "has a bad habit of getting others to die for her". The poor girl, realizing her mistake, is utterly crushed. Thankfully, the endings on this route are more positive than the norm for this game.
• But Thou Must!: Whenever Satoshi must make a choice during one of the endings, whatever he picks tends not to have any impact on the outcome.
• The Can Kicked Him: If you go to the bathroom, you will probably die. And in ~Rebirth~, in the men's toilet, someone did.
• Class Representative: Ayumi Shinozaki. She has the position, but refreshingly does not fall under any of the personality clichés.
• Cool Teacher: Subverted. Shinozaki only thought her teacher was this trope, but then he turned out to be a pedophile and tried to rape her. She tried to escape him by climbing out onto a window ledge and plummeted to her death, thus beginning the curse.
• The Corruption:
  • While the concept of "the darkening" hadn't yet come to the series, just being in Tenjin Elementary, with its evil aura, is enough to drive the spirits there insane and make them dangerous. Also, Shinozaki can influence people to act violently, as shown in some of the bad endings.
  • ~Rebirth~ introduces the concept of the darkening here, justifying a scene from the original where Yoshiki and Ayumi have a fight. In this case, though, it can be taken by a spirit with high aptitude, but not erased.
• Creepy Child: As always, the evil Shinozaki.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Pick any death in the game and it qualifies. Special mention to Naho in the remake, who, in the worst ending routes, gets beheaded after having her stomach slashed open offscreen.
• Deal with the Devil: At one point, Yoshiki and Ayumi may claim that they've found a way out — which involves killing their friends to earn their freedom. Ayumi then tries to change the terms of the deal by backstabbing Yoshiki so she can take Satoshi instead. This turns out to be just a case of Demonic Possession, though.
• Death of a Child:
  • Considering that the main antagonist is a Creepy Child ghost... Guess.
  • ~Rebirth~ adds in the ghost children from Blood Covered as well, so that applies here, too.
• Demonic Possession: This can happen to Naomi, Yoshiki and Ayumi.
• Despair Event Horizon: In a very literal sense, the entire haunted school is one giant black hole made of despair. It sucks people in, and then when they die, they become a part of the problem (usually by becoming a vengeful and/or pain-filled ghost).
• Developer's Foresight: Or rather, Corpse Party Mod maker's foresight. There is an optional scene where Naomi replaces Yuka in the girl's bathroom to be attacked by the Girl In Red, yet she ends up appearing okay, albeit behaving oddly at times. In ~Rebirth~ version, the party can go to the second building of the school and meet the three children, and they will act hostile toward the party, thanks to Naomi actually already died some moments ago and either got hijacked ot corrupted by the evil spirits, depending on whether Yuka keeps the charm or gives it to Satoshi.
• Dirty Coward:
  • If Ayumi gets cornered by the model and Yoshiki escapes instead of trying to save her, they berate themselves afterward for being this.
  • Similarly, Satoshi will feel this way about himself if he fails to save Yuka, whether by running from the bathroom or sending Naomi in with her instead.
• Disney Death: Yoshiki falls into a pit at one point, and then climbs back out while everyone else is in mourning.
• Don't Look Back: Getting distracted while on the path back from Heavenly Host means you won't escape.
• Downer Ending:
  • Anything but the Best Ending, which ends with everyone getting out alive.
  • ~Rebirth~ actually subverts this for three of the additional bad endings where Satoshi and Naomi die in the school. The other additional endings that don't reference other games are just as gut-wrenching as before, though.
• Driven to Suicide: In one of the worst endings, Yoshiki admits to Satoshi he was planning on killing himself. And in one of the endings of ~Rebirth~, he does.
• Drowning Pit: Yuka ends up stuck in one—namely, a bathroom stall filling with blood. ~Rebirth~ provides the option for Satoshi to take Yuka's place and suffer the same fate.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Fans coming into this game might be thrown off by the smaller scope, the lack of multiple pocket dimensions, no Involuntary Group Split, the smaller cast, and the somewhat different rules the ghosts, Tenjin Elementary, and Shinozaki operate under.
• Enemy Without: Shinozaki's tormented, angry spirit has actually split off from her original self and is the true power behind the closed spaces.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: Yoshiki and Satoshi can end up feeling this sort of guilt.
• Final Speech:
  • On one ending path, poor Yuka is able to hang on long enough to deliver one of these, including making an Anguished Declaration of Love and asking the target to say they love them back, even if they don't really mean it, just so they can die happy.
  • In ~Rebirth~, this scene gets changed to remove any direct declarations of love, with Yuka instead lamenting that they will never be able to tell the boy they like how they feel about him. While not outright stated here like in the original game, it could be argued that she is lying about the boy "being from her class". She still asks the target to say they love her back. The reason this scene was changed is because the creator of ~Rebirth~ has a sister, and thus finds Yuka's incestual feelings in the original really creepy.
• Friendless Background: Shinozaki states that while she did have friends, she weren't particularly close to anyone, and didn't mind being alone. This was then used against her by her Jerkass teacher, who declared nobody'd believe her about the assault.
• Genius Loci: Implied with Tenjin Elementary, but nowhere near as touched on in subsequent remakes and sequels.
• Girlish Pigtails: Ayumi.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • The evil spirits are Driven by Envy of the living, to the point that they want to doom them to the same fate.
  • Yoshiki's pretty envious of how Satoshi is so popular with his own crush, while said crush is jealous of Naomi.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The players can make the characters run instead of walking by holding "Space" and directional arrows, which will be helpful in the escape sequence after defeating Evil Shinozaki. The game does not bother to explain any of this, not even in the form of in-game clue.
  • In the Yoshiki-Ayumi part of the game, the infirmary is completely inaccessible and there is no way to heal them if they receive any damage before the JRPG-like final boss battle. ~Rebirth~ gets rid of the JRPG-like boss battle sequence, so there is no way for Yoshiki or Ayumi to replenish their HP, though it becomes irrelevant by the point where the boss fight would occur in the original.
  • In the Satoshi-Naomi-Yuka part of the game, when they reach the second building of the school through a hidden passage, there is a chase sequence where they have to run away from a hulking monster. The trap/puzzle room cannot hinder the monster and the players cannot fight back. The game doesn't tell you what to do other than to run for your lives. There are two ways to escape the monster's sure kill: hiding in a locker inside of a closet and just barely avoiding getting found before the monster is distracted, or alternatively reaching the main building where the good half of Shinozaki thwarts the monster. The latter method requires finding the Iron Lever before the event occurs.
• Hate Sink: The Big Bad was ultimately born from tragedy, but the Greater Scope Villains responsible for said tragedy are another story.
  • Shinozaki's unnamed teacher, though seemingly friendly, is the one indirectly responsible for turning Shinozaki's anger and despair into the Big Bad. When Shinozaki was alive, he met her after school and showed his true colors by trying to rape her, leading to her accidental death when she fell out the window trying to escape, and her return as a malevolent spirit. Even worse is the fact that he is never caught for this.
  • The principal helped to cover up Shinozaki's death and allowed the aforementioned teacher to get away with his crimes in order to protect the school's reputation. When he is later tortured by the evil half of Shinozaki, he behaves as though he is an innocent victim, completely ignoring the role he played in her suffering.
• Helpless Good Side: Downplayed with the true Shinozaki, who does have a certain measure of power. Unfortunately, they're not NEARLY as strong as the embodiment of all her rage and envy of the living, which has taken on a life of its own.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Yoshiki can make one; so can Naomi in a seperate incident and even Yuka in one ending. All of these turn into Senseless Sacrifices in the endings.
  • ~Rebirth~ gives Satoshi a chance to do this as well to save Yuka. Unlike the previous examples, this sacrifice is not in vain.
• Human Sacrifice: Hinted at in the D-2 ending when Ayumi asks Satoshi whether he thinks it's wrong to kill someone, regardless of the reason.
• Involuntary Group Split: Zig-Zagged. Satoshi and his friends decide to split up on their own, with Yoshiki staying behind with a freaked-out Ayumi. However, their original intent to meet back up after a brief search goes awry when the Malevolent Architecture sabotages that plan.
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Just don't tell Shinozaki's story on one and you might be fine.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: In ~Rebirth~, dying against the Final Boss results in you, the player, being forced to see your party's corpses having been dumped into the Death Room.
• Kill It with Fire: The evil spirits look like angry red flames (as opposed to little blue wisps), and making a wrong move in the school's incinerator doesn't end well.
• Kill the Cutie: Any endings in which Naomi, Ayumi and/or Yuka get killed.
• Load-Bearing Boss: After the Final Boss is beaten, the survivors are forced to flee for their lives... because the other evil spirits want to ensure the closed space doesn't collapse by sacrificing them.
• Lighter and Softer: Extra chapter of Morishige and Mayu. While in their chapter obtaining Blessed Shoes is rigorously complicated and required lots of backtracking (including tackling Cursed Floor and sacrificing a bit of health), escaping Tenjin is significantly easier for Morishige and Mayu than in the storyline of the main five. This is due in part to the Vengeful Spirit being unaware of their existence thanks to Yuki's interference when they were summoned to Tenjin.
• Locked in a Freezer: At one point, an evil spirit can seal Yoshiki and Ayumi in a small room together, taunting them through a poster that "You can never leave". While this part is avoidable in the original PC-98 and Rebuilt remake, it is mandatory in ~Rebirth~ version, in order to make the Girl in Red open the Science Lab.
• Malevolent Architecture: Tenjin, so much, the floor is riddled with holes and it keeps rearranging/losing pieces.
• Maybe Ever After: Happens between Satoshi and Naomi in the Golden Ending.
• Multiple Endings:
  • A: The Golden Ending where Everybody Lives to the end. After they make it back, Naomi hangs back in their classroom, and she and Satoshi talk about how they hope they saved Shinozaki from her sad fate. As they're leaving, Ayumi suggests Shinozaki might have been the one to spread the rumor herself.
    • ~Rebirth~ removes some parts of this ending but adds a post-credits scene in which Shiho, now the girl in red, asks her sister to perpetuate the cycle of hatred by telling the ghost story to many people, likely leading to Ending B from Corpse-Party Zero. The reason for the removal of the scenes is because a "true ending" will be added that brings them back.
  • B-1: Only Ayumi dies. Yoshiki tells the others he wants to be left alone, then leaves. They never see him again. Satoshi wonders if the guilt of leaving Ayumi behind got to be too much for him, despite his vow to live on for her sake...
  • B-2: Only Yoshiki dies. Ayumi weeps bitterly over his death. The following day, while washing her face, she sees a hand-shaped bruise on her neck. Though she tries scrubbing it away, it only grows darker and darker, and won't disappear no matter how much skin she peels away...
  • B-3: Only Yuka dies. Yuka's spirit appears before they leave, but she can't communicate with them. Returning home, Satoshi can't bring himself to tell his parents what happened. In his room, he finds a note: "Big brother... I'm so lonely..." Then he hears a knock from her room. Peering through the keyhole, he sees a familiar eye on the other side...
  • C: Naomi dies. An evil spirit uses her body to lure Satoshi closer, and Yuka is fatally wounded trying to protect him. She admits her feelings to him before passing away. From there, the ending plays out much like B-3, with the addition that Satoshi tries to flee, but collapses out of guilt over never risking himself.
    • In ~Rebirth~, this ending is changed, taking place from Yoshiki's perspective. Yoshiki goes to Ayumi's house to check on her, only to find her stabbing herself with scissors for the same ritual as in Ending D-2, except more violently as she is crushed by the guilt of telling the ghost story which led to her friends' deaths.
  • D-1: Yuka and Ayumi die. Yuka's silent spirit appears before they leave. As Satoshi tries to figure out what to tell his parents, he hears Yoshiki outside and goes to meet him. Drunk, Yoshiki nearly stabs him, then admits he was planning on killing himself. Satoshi calls him out on this, but it's unclear whether his words are getting through to him, as he keeps crying out for Ayumi...
  • D-2: Yuka and Yoshiki die. Yuka's spirit sees them off. While Satoshi wonders how to explain what happened to his parents, Ayumi comes to visit, looking strange and clutching a heavy black book. She asks if he thinks it's wrong to kill someone, then if it's wrong to revive them. Though shocked at first, Satoshi starts seriously considering it...
  • ~Rebirth~ brings the ending count up to 15, plus a few "extra" endings.
    • E-1: Everyone except Yoshiki dies. Yoshiki learns that Satoshi was killed by his sister after escaping and wonders when Ayumi will do the same to him. He then meets Sayako and gets scouted to join a Kendo club, leading to the events of Corpse Party if...
    • E-2: Everyone except Ayumi dies. Echoing Ending B from Zero, Ayumi decides that her friends must be lonely in Heavenly Host. Years later, an older Ayumi is found telling the same ghost story to a couple of girls, continuing the cycle of hatred.
    • F-1: Naomi is the only one killed. The process for getting this ending is that same as the standard Ending C route, except that Yuka needs to hold the charm. In ~Rebirth~, the ending is changed to show that rather than an evil spirit taking her body, Naomi herself has turned evil. After returning home, Yuka finds Satoshi murdered by Naomi, who is now the Girl in Red.
    • F-2: Naomi and Ayumi are dead. This ending is an alternate take on the events of D-1 following F-1. Yoshiki calls for Satoshi as before, except it's Yuka who meets him outside, telling him that Satoshi was killed by Naomi. Upon hearing this, Yoshiki stabs himself with the knife he's holding.
    • F-3: Naomi and Yoshiki are dead. This ending is an alternate take on the events of D-2 following F-1. Ayumi is told by Yuka that Naomi killed Satoshi, and decides to get her help to perform the ritual. However, Ayumi performed the ritual wrong, and gets incinerated as Yuka calls out her name. The events of this scene are based off the opening of Corpse Party D2: Depths of Despair.
    • G: Satoshi and Naomi die in the school to protect Yuka. After escaping, Yoshiki and Ayumi take on the task of caring for Yuka at Satoshi's request, and the trio goes to a crepes restaurant. A uniquely heartwarming ending after all of the other possible endings.
    • H-1: Satoshi, Naomi, and Ayumi are dead. After escaping, Yoshiki takes on the task of caring for Yuka, as if to make up for failing to save Ayumi. He brings Yuka back to his house and introduces her to his little sister Miki.
    • H-2: Satoshi, Naomi, and Yoshiki are dead. Sometime after escaping, Ayumi talks to Satoshi, noting Yuka's recovery and lamenting Yoshiki's sacrifice for her sake. She ends feeling guilty for telling the ghost story, not knowing if her words reached her deceased friends.
    • Additionally, there is one ending that can be acquired after beating the game once. The player must play through the game while keeping everyone alive, and find a specific item that is only available once the route is locked in (aka, it becomes impossible for any characters to permanently die from that point on). Close to the end of the game, instead of entering the basement, Satoshi's team stumbles upon an anniversary party for the Corpse Party franchise, with all of the major characters appearing, plus several characters from Blood Covered. This ending is based off the surprise ending from Silent Hill: Downpour.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Ayumi has always been written to show guilt over telling the story that sent everyone to Heavenly Host, especially in endings involving death. An example of this is shown in Ending D-2, where she resorts to black magic to undo the damage she's caused without first doing proper research. ~Rebirth~ puts more emphasis on this character trait, however, by having Ayumi outright state that the whole story was her fault specifically for telling the ghost story, both when talking to Naho for the first time and in one of the new endings.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: Shinozaki and her mother. She stayed late at school because it was raining, hoping the weather would clear up before heading out.
• Never My Fault: When Satoshi meets the trapped spirit of the Principal, they insist that they don't deserve to be tormented because they didn't murder Shinozaki. Of course, they're completely ignoring that they helped cover up her death just to protect the school's reputation.
• Pet the Dog: Rarely happens in any Corpse Party game. In ~Rebirth~, there is a scene where Yoshiki and Ayumi are being attacked by vengeful spirits near the swimming pool. If one of them died in the Science Lab before arriving at the swimming pool, the vengeful spirits will not appear there, allowing Yoshiki or Ayumi to access the pump room and drain the pool water undisturbed.
• Plot Armor: While all of the other four can be killed, Satoshi survives the horror in all endings. Subverted in ~Rebirth~, where all of the characters are able to die.
• Power Crystal: The Crystal Cluster found in the Infirmary, which is useful to defeat an evil spirit who trapped Yoshiki and Ayumi in a sealed room. Interestingly enough, if your party managed to encounter the Final Boss without using said Crystal Cluster, the crystal can be used to increase MP to all party members in unlimited usage. In ~Rebirth~, Power Crystal exists but it has a completely different use.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • If Ayumi gets cornered by the anatomical model, their companion is forced to make one: sacrifice his own life to save her, or escape while it's distracted?
  • Satoshi has to make one if he goes into the girl's bathroom with Yuka: stay with his sister when she's trapped, or go after Naomi after hearing her scream? As Naomi's actually being confronted by friendly spirits, the right choice for the Golden Ending is the first one.
• Save Scumming:
  • This game encourages the players to save anywhere and anytime before making important decisions, as there is no limit to the amount of saves the players can make. Be careful, saving in the wrong place at the wrong time can lock the characters in Unwinnable scenario, thus forcing the players to reset and start a new game.
  • ~Rebirth~ subverts this trope by removing the ability to save anywhere, with saving instead being done by touching candles found throughout the school. This prevents players from being able to trap themselves in unwinnable scenarios (except when glitches are involved), but makes certain parts of the game harder. For example, the boss fight and escape sequence must be done in one go now, unlike before.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Satoshi gets teased about this in the prologue.
• Schmuck Bait: The Science Lab. The door to it is explicitly opened by the malevolent spirit that is the game's Big Bad, and there's even a note that blatantly warns you to stay away from that place. If you go in anyway and awaken the anatomical model as a result, tragedy is highly likely.
  • In ~Rebirth~, entering the Science Lab is mandatory as it contains the Blessed Shoes for Yoshiki and Ayumi, however the game will warn you before taking them that it might be a bad idea. Thankfully, there is an item in this version that allows both Yoshiki and Ayumi to survive the encounter with the model, blowing it up rather dramatically in the process.
• Senseless Sacrifice:
  • If Naomi dies protecting Yuka, it's later rendered tragically invalid when an evil spirit hijacks her body in order to get close enough to kill her instead.
  • In the B-2 Ending, Ayumi ends up dying the day after they get back, rendering Yoshiki's sacrifice pointless.
  • B-1's ending also implies Yoshiki meets a similiar fate, though the others never find out exactly what happened as they just 'never see him again'.
• Sequence Breaking: In ~Rebirth~, the swimming pool trap sequence can be skipped altogether by letting either Ayumi or Yoshiki dies in the Science Lab. Apparently, killing off Ayumi is one of %ANY speedrunners' favourite tactics to finish the game.
• Slave to PR: If not for this, Shinozaki's murder would have been settled when the principal caught her teacher trying to hide her body. Unfortunately, he was more concerned about the school's reputation than bringing a sexual predator to justice.
• The Stinger: Used for all the endings from B-2 on down.
• Shout-Out: Being the first game, the original doesn't have any. ~Rebirth~ on the other hand has several of these from across the entire franchise.
  • There's several references to the manga Corpse Party: Musume, including an event where Yoshiki and Ayumi are attacked by snakes and the principal's daughter's body appears in the principal's office. The addition of the character Naho Saenoki can also be seen as this.
  • Blood Covered fans, check out the leftmost stall in the men's bathroom. "SHUT THE GODDAMN DOOR!!!"
  • There is one scene that partially references the Blood Covered manga. After falling into the pool, Ayumi and Yoshiki dry off their clothes in the Security Office and talk until they're dry, hanging a dusty security blanket between them to protect each others' dignity.
  • Ayumi mentions Naho's article novel called "The Genesis of Ars Moriendi", referencing the manga Corpse Party Cemetery 0.
• Sudden Gameplay Change: You fight Shinozaki in a classic JRPG-style battle. This was changed in ~Rebirth~ to fit the standard gameplay style.
• Super-Empowering: In the original and =REBUILT=, the survivors gain special powers before the Final Boss courtesy of Shinozaki's good side giving them the rest of her power.
• Survivor Guilt: If any of their friends die, the others show signs of this. Particularly if they're Satoshi, Yoshiki or Ayumi, all of whom blame themselves for what happened.
• Take Me Instead: When evil Shinozaki tries to drown Yuka in the bathroom stall, Satoshi has the option to volunteer himself to be killed in her place. However, doing so is not necessary to save her, and Satoshi will actually spring into action faster (after just one dialogue choice instead of two) if he refuses to volunteer himself.
  • In ~Rebirth~, taking Yuka's place actually results in Satoshi's death, so refusing is the correct choice to save both characters.
• To the Pain: The evil Shinozaki is fond of these sort of rants.
• Unexpected Genre Change: At the end of the original game and =REBUILT=, the students must face a Final Boss, the only battle in the game. Made more difficult by the fact they haven't gotten any Experience Points, meaning they've got about 30 HP each... Fortunately, before choosing your party, you get a chance to learn what everyone's strengths are via an Info Dump:
  • Mighty Glacier: Satoshi's strong but slow, and doesn't have any magical ability.
  • Black Magician Girl: Naomi's the primary magic user and boasts the most MP.
  • White Mage: Yuka's role. However, despite being the dedicated healer of the group, she doesn't have very much MP.
  • The Buffer: Yoshiki can raise the attributes of his friends.
  • The Medic: Ayumi can revive anyone who gets reduced to 0 HP.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
  • All choices that involve throwing another character under the bus to save your own skin, or just plain acting like a jerk in a stressful situation, lock you out of the Golden Ending. The fanmade version REBUILT took it up to eleven by giving the picture of deceased character(s) black and white color in Ending Credits.
  • If you let someone die either in Science Lab or Girl's Bathroom, or both, the game will make sure to remind you of your mistakes by keep playing Sad Battle Music in loop.
  • ~Rebirth~ adds a new room right before the final boss called the "Death Room". Inside, you'll find the bodies of all the characters who died during that playthrough. As if you needed another reminder that you royally screwed up.
    • This room is also used in a new cutscene that plays if the player loses during the final boss. All of the characters' mangled corpses are shown in the Death Room as a gut-wrenching sound plays.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • If Satoshi tries to help Naomi after she screams, she chews him out after learning he left Yuka trapped in the process.
  • If Satoshi chooses to scold Yuka instead of calming her down after seeing a corpse and talking to a spirit in a classroom, she will cry and get angry at him to the point of refusing to go to the bathroom with him, thus confirming that the playthrough will lead to Bad Ending.
    • In ~Rebirth~, the option to scold Yuka has been removed, and in its place a new event has been added where Yuka guides Satoshi on an invisible path. At one point, the wrong instructions are given which makes it possible for Satoshi to fall. If this happens, he will yell at Yuka, resulting in a similar situation as the original game. Thankfully, this rift can be fixed by visiting the Infirmary before the bathroom event, resulting in a wholesome scene between the two siblings.
  • In ~Rebirth~, if Satoshi is dead, Yuka will badmouth the Vengeful Spirit. AKA the entity which could have killed her in the bathroom and let her walk. This leads to Shinozaki attacking Yuka in rage, which Naomi takes. In other words, Yuka got Naomi killed by being a brat.
• Your Head A-Splode:
  • The evil Shinozaki threatens Yuka (or Naomi) with a literally splitting headache.
  • Fail during the final escape sequence, and this becomes the fate of your whole group.

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