Just when you thought you were safe and sound, you are thrown into the living hell that Heavenly Host once again.
Corpse Party: Book of Shadows will confuse you a bit. Unlike is predecessor, the chapters don't necessarily flow from one to the next in the same fashion that they did. Instead you will jump from a story that seems like a prologue to the first game and then into what could have happened if you made a rational decision or an irrational one. In the end, Book of Shadows still fucks with you.
There are seven chapters, along with a bonus one if you meet certain criteria, and they vary in the amount of exploration and searching that can be done. The gameplay has changed from being the RPG-like exploration to being something along the lines of Shivers. That is to say you are given a still shot of a room and you use the little nub like thing (I guess you can call it an analog stick) on the PSP to move the cursor around to explore the room. When the cross hair turns blue it means that there is something that can be examined. They also added a map that you use to move from one place to the other. You pull it up with the left trigger and then use the little nub like thing to move the cursor over to where you want to move the person and then hit X. While you can easily explore one square at a time you can just as easily jump from one side of the school to the other without too much walking. Unlike Shivers where you have to click a shit ton to get from one side of the museum to the next. This is a life saver (if there was such a thing in the game) and quite simply makes the game easier. Though by doing so, you can miss out on corpses or key items. Unless you have a guide that tells you these things, you are pretty much stuck exploring most of the school one square at a time. The other thing that they added to the game is a "Darkening Meter." Every time you examine a corpse or something that causes the character distress, the meter goes up. This only affects the outcome of some of the chapters. Get the meter to a hundred percent and it is game over. Except for the one chapter that forces you to get the meter to a hundred percent. In the other chapters it either doesn't move at all or you can only get it up to a certain point. The game also lets you know how high the meter is without you having to constantly check on it. As the meter rises the screen gets covered with blood.
The gameplay has changed and so must the graphics. The rooms that you explore are pretty good. Though you will probably get tired of seeing the same hallway over and over again, if you aren't using a guide. They kept the same character portraits from the last game and added more of them. Other than that the game does give off a creepier feel to it than it did before.
The soundtrack has had a major overhaul, which is a good thing. No longer are you stuck with a handful of songs that repeat themselves in a loop. Instead you have a variety that comes and goes when the mood needs it. Don't get me wrong, I thought the soundtrack for the last game was good and all, but there is a major difference that having more music can do for you.
Here is one of my favorite things about the games; the voice acting. Once again the voice actors of Japan hit it out of the park and straight to the moon. Not only was the voice acting great, but the effects that they used on the voices were great as well. I swear sometimes it was like they were right next to my ear speaking to me. It was the creepiest and best thing ever. Aside from being insanely great, they added the effect of going from one speaker to the next. I don't really know how to describe it. It is honestly best heard than anything.
There are fun little extras that they added to the game. Things like the Cursed Phonograph, (which I am listening to right now) which allows you to listen to any music that has been unlocked, the EVP Machine, which allows you to listen to any of the dialogue that is spoken in the game, and the Soulful Testimonies, which is pretty much a cast commentary clips. Again you have to get the true endings for to get either the commentary clips or to get the EVP Machine. I forgot to mention that you can look at the CGs that you unlocked throughout the game now. Something I wish the other game had.
Once again Team Grisgris did a marvelous job at providing a game that that is both interesting and still challenging. Though I have to admit that Book of Shadows is a lot easier than the original. If it weren't for the guide I got for the original I don't think I would have made it very far. Even then the game was still a bit frustrating. I would much rather play through Book of Shadows over Corpse Party any day. I'm looking forward to the next installment of Corpse Party. Hell! Anything from Team Grisgris is bound to be entertaining.