Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, a grisly Japanese slasher game, is now on Steam and GOG

Corpse Party, "a grisly horror game set in a ghost-infested Japanese high school, with a branching story and lots of ways to end up dead," officially came to PC a couple years ago. The platform transition was a little confusing—not even publisher Xseed seemed entirely certain about what it would and would not include—but owners on Steam and GOG seem pretty happy with it. 

The follow-up, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, went live on both platforms today, and it too sounds like a bewildering affair. "An anthology series that serves as a Corpse Party sequel, prequel, midquel, and alternate universe tale all in one, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is a horror/adventure game developed by MAGES. (formerly 5pb. Games) and published under the supervision of the original series creators at Team GrisGris," the Steam listing says.   

"Corpse Party: Book of Shadows builds upon the events of the first game, exploring or re-exploring past incidents, characters, and points of view, and allowing the player to escape many of the deaths that occurred previously, thus steering them toward all-new (albeit not necessarily better) outcomes." 

Got all that? The game also promises to live up to (and quite possibly exceed) the blood-and-guts standard set by its predecessor: It features "excessive violence and gore depicted via full-screen art stills, textual descriptions, and Japanese-language voice-acting, specifically including the mutilation, torture, and murder of children," plus under-dressed and/or tied up "female anime-style characters," and "numerous examples of foul language," including "heavy swears." (You know the one I mean.) 

Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is available now, and on Halloween-appropriate sale for $13.49, on Steam and GOG

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.