If you followed any of the big YouTube giants back when everyone was capitalizing on the humongous horror game trend popularized by PewDiePie, Markiplier, Cryaotic and others, then you’ve no doubt run into the giant Corpse Party. Corpse Party was originally released way back in 1996 after being created by Makoto Kedōin and developed by Team GrisGris. It was a small project made with help from RPG Maker and was self-published by the team. The game was pretty successful in Japan and is considered a heavily influential title in the horror genre. I argue that it really popped off for us in the Western market around 2011 when a slew of ported remakes and English versions made the game accessible on the Playstation Portable, PlayStation Vita, the Nintendo 3DS, the PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One. These ports released at the perfect fucking time, as they were ripe for the golden age of gaming playthroughs on YouTube. Everyone was dipping their hands into the Corpse Party cookie jar. 

Now it looks like the devs are hoping to light a fire for the franchise one more time with the recent announcement of Corpse Party II: Darkness Distortion set for release sometime in 2024. The target platforms haven’t been specified yet, but the makers have and it could be promising. Original creator Makoto Kedōin has returned to craft the game’s scenario and Team GrisGris are back in the saddle on development. This will be the first “true sequel” to the game according to Makoto himself, and fans are hoping the involvement of the OGs will lead to something of quality. While this is the first true sequel since 1996, make no mistake, several spin-off games were put out. None of which reached anywhere near the heights and impact of the initial entry for the series. Looking through the comments on a couple of articles detailing this announcement, fans seem pretty fed up with the array of low-effort spin-offs and side games that have been released over the years. This may be Corpse Party’s last chance for redemption to try and capture some of the original magic that made the debut so special. It’s time to “butter up some poopers” or die trying, as the saying goes.

Praying for a timely October 2024 release.

Usually when a popular game gets a sequel announcement you can expect an influx of lewd content thrown into production, but I’m not sure if that’ll be the case this time. Horror already has a way of turning off the horny button for a lot of people, and it’s not like the character designs were ever really a main focal point for the franchise. Perhaps as we see the new artwork and reveals closer to 2024, artists will find some aspects worth lewding. Did you ever play the original Corpse Party? Did you watch anyone play it during the horror trend days of YouTube? Are you interested in this sequel? Run from the ghosts, don’t run with scissors, and escape the school in the comments below!