FUCK this god awful piece of shit. I hate everything about this game and how it essentially ruins what made the first game great. Story is nonsensical, new characters are terrible and the returning ones are ruined horribly, and the ending practically destroyed any chance of the series coming back in a positive way. Above all else though it made me hate the character Ayumi. I know Ayumi's a divisive character but I liked her in the first game and here comes this game to destroy anything I liked about her. Also fuck this game for ruining Yoshiki to he didn't deserve what he got here.

Way too many people trash this game but I don't think it's anywhere as bad as they let on. Sure it has some issues and questionable design descions but I enjoyed it for what it was and in the end I thought it was a fitting end. Definitly the weakest of the three but I thought the main cast had good conclusions for the most part. I think what I liked about CP1 and CP2 are still here and present you just might have to wade through some things to get there. The things i'm mainly refering to are ingame visuals, poor performance and questionable story directions. I remember being satisfied with it at the end though. Maybe in a year or two when I replay them all again I'll form a more nuanced review but as I remember it. It's fine.

Platinum # 42

Yeah...Blood Drive kinda sucks. There's no nicer way to say it, this game isn't good. When its a hassle to just walk in your game, you've done something wrong.

There are a ton of confusing elements in Blood Drive that I really don't understand the purpose of. I could probably make a whole essay on those, but I won't because the entire game is like this.

When it's not a hassle to control, it's actively trying to be a disappointment. They hype you up by saying you might be able to save past characters and begin to introduce fan-favorite characters from the spin-off titles, then they just throw away the plot point. You'll spend a tiny bit interacting with a character, and then they're replaced with another. Rinse and repeat.

The story starts to get even more ridiculous than even SSHBB and somehow turns into the entire world ending. Really makes you feel like they just didn't care at all with this one. You already kinda got that sense when they made two visual novels instead actual games before that but...now it's made pretty clear. From what I've heard, Corpse Party 2 (only loosely connected to the Heavenly Host Saga) is supposed to be wayyyy better than this one, and it uses the same gameplay style, but I haven't tried it yet. Also Corpse Party 2 was split into chapters and has been on hiatus for over 5 years so...we'll see.

I loved the first game in this franchise, but I was kinda disappointed with 'Book of Shadows', so I wasn't sure what to expect from this episode (which is, I believe, the end of the Heavenly Host Saga, but I might be wrong).

Well, I'm happy to say that overall I was satisfied with 'Blood Drive', even if, in my opinion, it's not nearly as good as the first part, but it's still much more fun than the second. This is definitely one of the better J-horrors I've played, with a great story, and, unfortunately, some flawed gameplay mechanics and clunky controls. Music and voice acting were both OK, and I loved the new characters (however, some old ones were extremely frustrating, at times making downright dumb decisions...). I wasn't a huge fan of the 3D chibi character design, but eventually I got used to it. Fortunately, the unsettling atmosphere was still spot on, like in previous installments, and I was glad that we got more exploration and less visual novel parts this time.

All in all, I can safely recommend this to fans of the series, but only if you played 'Corpse Party' and 'Book of Shadows', otherwise the story won't make much sense to you.

🚫 ONLY A SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW IS AVAILABLE. READ MISC SECTION ON WHY 🚫

Corpse Party: Blood Drive is a visual novel that gets two crucial points right: its plot and its high quality writing. Quite the saviors, as the gameplay experience ends up getting harmed by a lack of player guidance and the use of 3D models feels entirely out of place of the game's theme. Nevertheless, those looking for an engaging plot and a detailed, descriptive writing that will keep the player focused for long hours have a good option in the form of Corpse Party: Blood Drive for the Nintendo Switch.
👉opencritic SUMMARY

Corpse Party: Blood Drive can be summed up as an experience that both thrills and frustrates. If the gameplay often feels maladjusted, with a lack of guidance given to the player and the unexplainable use of 3D models being very difficult to justify, the plot and writing easily stand out as exquisite and very likely to grab the player's attention and concentration for long hours, two absolutely vital elements for a visual novel.
👉 metacritic SUMMARY

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◻️ ⚠️ Review originally written for FNintendo (defunct website) and published on November 5th, 2019. Full review is currently unavailable. Expect restored written piece translated into English.
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◻️ ✍️ in European Portuguese (Main body of text translated into English with A.I.)
◻️ 📜 Review Number 5

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Conclusion au premier Corpse Party et c'est assez décevant:

Des problèmes d'écriture, ajouts de personnages dont on a rien à foutre mais le jeu veut se focaliser sur eux alors que non, on s'en fout d'eux bordel. Le côté gore n'est pas aussi présent ou efficace qu'avant et l'histoire est assez confuse jusqu'au bout.

Pas un mauvais jeu, ça reste une conclusion "ok" pour la série mais pas sur d'y revenir dessus un jour.

Combines visual novel style storytelling with the moment-to-moment action of survival-horror to deliver a fascinating and twisted narrative. Despite not having played the previous titles (this is the third chapter in one of those rare horror game series that tells one continuous story), I had no trouble following anything that was going on and I had only done a modicum of research before hand. The plot does get a bit convoluted and occasionally gets distracted with anime fan service tropes, but I remained engaged throughout thanks to the strong character work and gruesome outcomes. I wasn't as enthralled with the actual gameplay however. Too often it falls prey to some of the genre's oldest and most irritating pitfalls.

Expect a lot of aimless wandering without so much as a map system to help you get your bearings. It is not uncommon to find yourself unaware of where you're supposed go next, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if getting lost and stumbling into the wrong rooms didn't attract the attention of lingering spirits. The biggest threats to your health aren't the scattered booby traps or broken floorboards, but rather the restless ghosts that are absolutely relentless in their pursuit of you. The only ways of escaping a phantom once they have you in their sights are to get far enough ahead of them and hide in a cabinet without being seen, or by dispelling them with a talisman should you happen to have one in your inventory. Both methods being easier said than done due to the limited amount of stamina you have while running and the fact that getting off track to actually find one of these talismans is likely going to be what causes the specters to spawn in the first place.

With save points being spaced so far apart from each other death can be a huge setback. Not so much because it forces you to replay lengthy sections of the game upon your untimely demise (although that is a factor), but more so due to the fact that it can cause you have to sit through large portions of dialog multiple times in a row because of how the story is told. You can speed up text by holding the right trigger, but the animations must still play out at their usual pace so cutscenes often take a while to get past even when rushing. There are also some other, more minor flaws such as loading screens when entering and exiting the pause menu.

All of this makes Blood Drive a frustrating chore to play at times without a guide, especially if you want to hunt down every collectible and ending. It's worth it for the plot though. Particularly if you've been following the series up to this point. It's a strange and very brutal tale that I had a hard time putting down once I got sucked in. It's chibi graphics prevent it from being scary in the traditional sense, but the way it uses language ensures that it's quite disturbing nonetheless. Making it an interesting option for your PS Vita provided you don't mind reading.

7/10

I'm not sure why I really like the Corpse Party series. I'm not really into visual novels, the gameplay that is there is incredibly underwhelming, and it's very suspicious in its horniness. But for whatever reason, I really enjoy the series as a whole.

Blood Drive though, is just a very unsatisfying end to the trilogy here. While I like a lot of the story bits thrown in there, I don't think it really sticks its landing more than like 50%. It feels unfinished? But I 100%'d it so I dunno...

The gameplay in this one is really just more frustrating than the walking simulator of the first and the straight visual novel of the second. And the loading times on Vita are pretty insane. I'd only really recommend it if you're just trying to get through the series, but it's got nothing really interesting going on otherwise. I'm just mostly here for the story.