Another Fan Sequel to the Corpse Party series, Corpse Party: Cross Fear by AMISOGUMI serves as both a Sequel to Corpse Party Zero and a Prequel to their previous work, Corpse Party if....
Five years after the A Ending of Corpse Party Zero, Kaori Hasegawa still grapples with the tragic loss of her sister. Her claims that her sister was murdered by evil spirits have only landed her in a psychatric hospital, where her only friend is a young boy who was abused by his parents. To make matters worse, her doctor is a Manipulative Bastard who puts on a good face for the world while abusing and terrifying his patients behind closed doors. Pushed to the breaking point, Kaori soon finds herself transported back to the cursed school once more...
A translation of the game
was released by Memories of Fear in October 2013.
This Fan Game contains instances of:
- Abusive Parents: Seita Kanemoto was abused heavily by his own parents.
- Adults Are Useless: Dr. Amagasaki, the oldest of the four who get sucked into the cursed school this time, is an utterly useless Jerkass.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: As in Corpse Party (PC-98), our heroes are split into two groups that the player must switch back and forth between.
- Attempted Rape: Dr. Amagasaki's threats are only thwarted when Kaori deliberately tells the story that will transport them to the cursed schoolhouse.
- Battle Aura: Sayako gets a reddish one when using her powers.
- Big Sister Instinct: Kaori still has this, now towards Seita as well.
- Big Bad: The postliminary demon.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Satoshi's timely intervention helps avoid one Bad End.
- When Seita gets unavoidably cornered by Dr. Amagasaki, he can be saved by Sayako blowing his head off.
- Sayako does this again in two of the endings. However, in Ending B, this still leads to tragedy.
- Bittersweet Ending: Regardless of what ending you get, Sayako's still trapped in the cursed school and will eventually be corrupted by its influence. Depending on the ending you get, Kaori either makes it through with Seita, but doesn't have any closure about losing Sayako, loses Seita as well, or simply laments her inability to end the cycle herself.
- The Can Kicked Him: Not only is this a series tradition, but this version of the school includes a set of bathrooms on each floor, just to rachet up the player's paranoia. The most of comes of it is a Jump Scare.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Kaori's story about what happened to her little sister.
- Catapult Nightmare: When Kaori dreams about finding Shiho in the cursed schoolhouse, only to find she's missing her face.
- Chained by Fashion: Due to how she's lashed out at the hospital staff, Kaori has been forced to wear manacles connected by a chain.
- Character Portraits: Though most lines are simply accompanied by the speaker's name, portraits sometimes appear during certain exchanges. The player gets their first chance to see this when given a chance to view everybody's bios before the main game begins.
- Contemplate Our Navels: During Ending A, Satoshi gets a monologue where they ruminate on the nature of protection.
- Continuity Nod: The game is filled with nods to what happens in the related routes of Corpse Party PC 98 and Zero.
- Crying Wolf: Dr. Amagasaki intends to exploit this. Kaori already has a bad reputation for berating the staff; therefore, he claims anything she accuses him of will just be dismissed as Malicious Slander.
- Death of a Child: The twelve-year old Seita can suffer just as horrible deaths as anyone else in the Bad Ends.
- Don't Look Back: No matter what, don't look back while you're in the corridor of light. As in If, this factors into a bad ending.
- Downer Ending: Ending B is the most depressing of the lot. Sayako's still trapped, Seita dies in the corridor of light, and Kaori's implied to meet the same fate Satoshi did, getting killed by another's grudge.
- Driven to Madness: Dr. Amagasaki goes utterly insane and believes he can escape by killing the others.
- Driven to Suicide: This turns out to be Kaori's original plan when Amagasaki cornered her. She was going to jump out the window, and was just telling the story to stall him.
- Establishing Character Moment: Dr. Amagasaki's true colors come out when, in the middle of talking down to Kaori, he looks down the front of her robe. Things go downhill from there.
- Face-Revealing Turn: Or rather, Lack of a Face-Revealing Turn.
- Final Boss: The postliminary demon. Like the PC-98 game and If, this is the only battle in the game.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since Corpse Party If came out before this, players familiar with that already know why Sayako is in the school, and what will happen to her.
- Go Among Mad People: Getting stuck in an asylum, with the truth about what happened to her sister repeatedly ignored or used as 'proof' that she's unwell, has hardened Kaori considerably.
- Guide Dang It!: Figuring out the timing during the Stealth-Based Mission is pure Trial-and-Error Gameplay. Even if you figure out that you're meant to listen to the sound cues, there's still no real indication as to when the game expects you to act other than trying at different times.
- Hate Sink: The actual Big Bad is nothing more than a mindless avatar of the school itself. Dr. Amagasaki, however, abuses his patients, attempts to sexually assault Kaori, and tries to kill everyone near the end of the game, making him much easier to hate.
- History Repeats: Ending B is full of this.
- Hope Bringer: Satoshi comes to regard Kaori as this.
- Improvised Weapon:
- Sayako uses the Iron Lever like this.
- During the climax, Kaori manufactures a bow in the Art Room before taking on the postliminary demon.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Played With. Like all others who have died there, Satoshi is affected by the school's corruptive influence that drives them to envy the living. However, they state that they "could never truly hate anyone," and have chosen to avoid a full Face–Heel Turn by refusing to get involved with any new victims drawn into the school.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The 'good' doctor loved to mock his patients and write them off as 'insane'. Inside Heavenly Host, he winds up going completely batshit himself.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Amagasaki.
- Multiple Endings: There are three:
- Ending A: Sayako hangs onto Shiho's ribbon. Later on, during the final escape, the anatomical model catches up with Kaori and Seita. Before it can do anything, though, Sayako reappears and drives it off. She escorts them to the exit and bids them farewell, warning them not to look back. To help ensure his safety, she ties Shiho's ribbon around Seita's eyes, and Kaori leads him through by the hand. The two make it back, but Kaori still laments her inability to end the Vicious Cycle.
- Ending B: Sayako gives Kaori her sister's ribbon. The anatomical model nearly catches them, but Sayako intervenes, gets them to the exit and warns them not to look back. Unfortunately, hearing her voice behind them still causes Seita to turn around... Once again, Kaori's the Sole Survivor. But a letter implies she won't stay that way for long.
- Ending C: Kaori and Seita manage to evade the anatomical model and successfully escape Heavenly Host. However, the two of them are left without any closure about Sayako's fate.
- Never Split the Party: Kaori runs afoul of this early on, after Dr. Amagasaki's cruel dismissal of her 'wild claims' makes her run off in frustration. Though she quickly realizes her mistake, the school won't let her double back so easily...
- Neutral No Longer: Satoshi starts out refusing to get involved and try helping anyone trapped in the school. They change their mind after saving Kaori from the grinder.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Kaori tells the story she knows draws others to the cursed school in order to escape Dr. Amagasaki and drag him along. Unfortunately, Seita wanders in at just the wrong time...
- Later on, it's revealed Kaori was actually going to jump out the window to her death, and Shiho pulled her to the school to try and save her, rendering her responsible for the breaking.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: While having Sayako give Kaori her sister's ribbon may seem like a good idea, doing so is one of the requirements for Ending B, which is the biggest downer of the lot.
- Off with His Head!:
- Poor Seita suffers this if the anatomical model catches him.
- This is also Amagasaki's fate via Your Head Asplode.
- Plot Parallel: In-Universe, Kaori compares the way Dr. Amagasaki's cornered her with his unwanted advances to the incident that led to the school being cursed in the first place.
- Pointless Band-Aid: Seita's character artwork shows one on his cheek.
- Sanity Slippage: Dr. Amagasaki suffers this after the anatomical model nearly kills him.
- Scully Syndrome: Dr. Amagasaki has this so bad that he laughingly dismisses Kaori's stories even after he's been dragged into Heavenly Host.
- Sequel Hook: As it's a Prequel to Corpse Party if..., the best ending includes a fair amount of set-up for its events, with Kaori wishing for somebody else to put an end to the tragedy.
- Shrinking Violet: Seita, though 'Kaori-sis' has gotten him to open up to her.
- Slasher Smile: Dr. Amagasaki gets one after going nutzoid.
- Sole Survivor: Poor Kaori ends up being the only one to escape the school again in Ending B.
- Start of Darkness: The climax reveals this to be poor Sayako's. Made more explicit in Ending A, which shows the moment she starts giving in to the corruption.
- The Stinger: One appears after Ending A, showing Yoshiki starting his new job as a teacher at Kisaragi.
- Survivor Guilt: Kaori suffers from this due to her percieved failure to protect her little sister.
- Taking You with Me: When it's clear that Dr. Amagasaki is set on assaulting her, Kaori decides "screw it" and tells him the scary story that will transport them both to the cursed school. Subverted later; while it appeared at the time that was her plan, she actually intended to jump out the window and was just distracting him with the story.
- Tragic Keepsake: After they meet, Shiho gives Sayako her ribbon.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change:
- Press X to Not Die: The duel with the Gogatsu Ningyo takes the form of a 'match the input' minigame.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Avoiding the insane doctor in the storage room.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Dr. Mitsuhito Amagasaki: Respected psychiatrist admired by his coworkers for his strong work ethic. Pity they don't know part of the reason he enjoys his job so much is how he can torment his patients freely...
- Weakened by the Light: One Puzzle Boss switches off the lights in a room before attacking. In order to escape, Kaori has to find and turn on three desk lamps.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In-Universe, this happens in Ending C: the survivors feel a lack of closure because they don't know what happened to poor, unfortunate Sayako.
- You Can See Me?: This is how Shiho gets introduced to Sayako.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Kaori says this word-for-word when explaining what's going on to those who've just been stranded in Heavenly Host.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Sayako pulls this against the Gogatsu Ningyo.
