The best example of how Corpse Party gets to you on a psychological level

Massive spoilers regarding Morishige and Kizami. You’ve been warned.

I want to get right to the point, so let’s make this brief. When I started playing Corpse Party, I thought the ghosts would be the only thing I had to worry about. Guess what? Not true. I would gladly welcome the ghosts if it meant never crossing paths with Morishige and Kizami again.

I can’t recall which chapter it occurs in, but after Mayu is killed, you come across Morishige taking pictures of her dead body (or what’s left of it, anyway). I don’t know what concerned me more at that point…The fact that he thought it was appropriate to take pictures of a person whose body had been splattered all over a wall or the fact that he was so unconcerned about what was going on around him that he didn’t think twice about stopping to take a picture. Either way, I knew from that point on that I wanted to avoid him. He’s creepy and the game makes no attempt to hide it from you.

Eventually, you end up playing as Yuka, a junior high school student. (I always think she’s so much younger, which somehow makes it scarier to play as her.) And of course, you stumble across Morishige. He follows you around, so your first instinct is to run. Because any time something chases you in this game, you tend to end up getting killed when they catch you. I never said to myself, “Maybe I should stay with him and see what happens.” I just got the hell away from him. Fast.

While trying to escape from Morishige, you run across a new character, Kizami. He tells Yuka that he’s trying to find his little sister and he’ll help her find her older brother. All I could think was, “Thank God this guy is here because now Morishige won’t even try to chase Yuka again.” I was so relieved.

…Until I saw Kizami murder one of his “friends” in cold blood.

Before that point, I never once thought Kizami was a threat. I felt safer when Yuka was with him. As it turns out, he is the most terrifying enemy you come across in Corpse Party. From the things he calls out while he chases Yuka, to his maniacal laugh.

And apparently, if Morishige catches up to Yuka, he doesn’t even hurt her.

So the entire time I thought Morishige was the person I needed to avoid when really, it was Kizami. (Though I still think Morishige was a creep and I would love to know more backstory on him.)

I’m not really sure what it is about Kizami, but I just kept thinking, “This guy is as crazy as Kazuo Kiriyama.” It’s a bit different though, since Kizami was always evil (as you see in a flashback) and Kazuo just…Seemed to do things on a whim. For no real reason.