Part 4
In the 2F Inner Wing, there was a locked classroom, marked as "The Forbidden Room."
We got a Forbidden Key last time, so we're back to check out the inside.
Music: Horror
Classroom 2-3: THE FORBIDDEN ROOM
It doesn't really live up to the name.
What you can see is not the only truth... You must take a leap of faith...
Starting from the east of the sparkle, there's an invisible walkway.
We can walk all the way up to the edge of it, but we can't actually pick it up from here because???
Instead we have to walk up and around, and approach from above.
The [Blessed Shoes] only affects the party holding them. Please keep that in mind.
Now we've got shoes that allow us to cross the green ooze. There are five pairs, but our inventory is not shared between groups, so if Yoshiki and Ayumi manage to get out of that room they're trapped in, they still won't be able to cross the ooze unless we get a couple pairs to them somehow.
Music: Main Theme
For some reason after you pick up the shoes, it completely rearranges the walkway. It's annoying and dumb and RPG Maker as fuck.
We exit the room and head back to the staircase at the end of the hallway.
Worth noting: a spirit has appeared over here. We can talk to it anytime to restore our HP, I guess in case we wallowed around in the ooze for awhile.
Anyway, we head down the stairs and up the first floor hallway, back to the ooze by the other staircase.
We'll be together, until death do us part... Even though we said that... I wish they were here...
I guess this guy didn't originally come alone.
After reading the note, we continue across the ooze and into the nearby room. It's worth noting that we could have actually gone here without the shoes, since the ooze only deals 2 damage per tile, and we have 30 HP. But there's no reason to come over here before getting the shoes unless you're totally lost and don't know what to do.
Music: None
It's the infirmary!
Looking closely, it seems like the organs are painted red with real blood...
There's flavor text in the cabinets too, but they're just full of medical textbooks and medicine. Nothing interesting or creepy. We approach the beds and trigger a scene.
Are you okay? Satoshi, think we should take a rest?Yeah, let's take a break.
Good idea, let's take a break.Our party splits to separate beds, and the screen fades to black.
And then the screen fades back in and our party regroups.
Choosing to sleep in here refills our HP. Choosing not to sleep does nothing. You'd really think sleeping would be a horrible idea, but no. Nothing of consequence happens.
On our way out, we check this desk.
-- Take it? --
Yes
And now we have a small crystal in our inventory, which we're going to go immediately use.
Music: Main Theme
We exit the infirmary and head west down the hall.
The infirmary was a very important room in the remake. It's pretty inconsequential here, aside from containing a key item.
Now we're right by the room where Yoshiki and Ayumi are trapped, though with a pit between us and the door. There is something interesting over on this side, though.
Upon approaching the spirit, it screams in terror!
Wha, what!?!And it explodes.
Well anyway, that's taken care of. We exorcised a ghost, and now there's nothing left to do over here.
We head back down the hall, cross the ooze, and head upstairs.
And then...
Music: None
...What!?
The wall! IT OPENED!
REALLY!?
Yeah! C'mon, move it!Music: Main Theme 2
Ayumi and Yoshiki regroup, and we're placed back into control. Exorcising the evil spirit outside of the room is what opened the wall for Yoshiki and Ayumi.
Before we leave, we check the poster one last time and get this friendly message:
It doesn't matter if you leave. You're trapped in this school. GO CRAZY AND DIE!
On our way out, the skeleton disappears.
This room is actually recreated in the first chapter of the Corpse Party remake, but with different characters. Seiko and Naomi enter a "forbidden classroom" (a room with an enormous hole in it, reminiscent of the Blessed Shoes room), which contains a skeleton and the message "Don't look at the newspaper!" scratched into the floor with fingernails. The newspaper includes important story details, and then Seiko and Naomi get locked inside for a bit.
I like how they took the same concept (with a bonus reference to a different room that doesn't really show up in the PSP game) but reworked it for different characters. Yoshiki and Ayumi still have that same argument in the remake, they just have it in a different scenario.
We exit the room, and cross back over the rickety bridge.
Which then immediately falls into the abyss behind us.
...
...
...Let's go.
Who made you king?
Yoshiki doesn't even dignify that with a response.
We continue to explore the school, heading west down the hall.
Of course, we can't enter that room. There's a hole in the way.
- Don't run in the halls.
- Mind your Ps and Qs.
- Make sure your mind and uniform are in order.
- Don't run in the hElls.
- D o n t b I E e d
- feSeEt EnTeHcEk LhIaEnSds.
don't run in the hells
Finished reading the poster, we head for the stairs, and...
Sound Effect: Splash
Music: None
Yoshiki and Ayumi head over to investigate.
Sound Effect: Ghost
...And while they're distracted looking at the window, a girl in red appears in the stairway.
The girl in red walks down the hall, and enters the room behind us, filling the hole in the process.
...Music: Main Theme
Of course, as soon as we're regranted control, we head into the newly opened room. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
Oh, it's the Science Lab! This was mentioned on a poster earlier. I think it said something like "For a good time, visit the Science Lab"
We set about the usual business of digging around for flavor text and items.
This chart... It has vividly drawn entrails, that look like they're dripping, scrawled on it.
You must be careful when dissecting. First, expose the subject to copious amounts of salt water until the subject swells. Then perform the incision. If you wish to continue the operation another time, apply more salt to the incision. If the subject becomes noisy or screams, jam cloths into their mouth.
It's a human anatomical model... It feels like its eyes are following us...
There's nothing terribly interesting in the cabinets, just science textbooks. We head to the south end of the room.
Music: None
As we round this corner, Ayumi stops us.
The anatomical model literally jumps across the room in one single frame. It doesn't walk over there from its initial position; it teleports.
Music: Crisis
KYAAAH!!
RUN!! If it catches you, you're dead!
The game gives us a friendly little explanation and then throws control back into our hands.
The anatomical model is STUPID FAST. It ran down and rounded that corner in the time it took for us to take a couple steps to the left.
It's of the utmost importance that you realize there's a run function in this game at this point, or you will never escape the model. Holding the space bar makes you move faster, and the default walking speed just doesn't cut it.
We run down and around the lower-left table and grab a loose floorboard.
The anatomical model's pathing AI is very bad, and it just runs back and forth against the desk while we're over here. This room was designed around RPG Maker's bad "follow" AI, though. If the model was smarter, it would close in on you before you could get the board.
After grabbing the board, we run across the room and use it on this narrow hole to build a bridge. And then we turn and RUN because the model is right on the other side.
And now that we've built a path for the model to follow, it can chase us down here and we can loop around...
...And escape the Science Lab!
This was a puzzle designed entirely around bad RPG Maker pathfinding and I actually find that kind of charming. I think it's clever that rather than using the board to build a path for yourself, you're using it to build a path for the thing chasing you so you can loop around it.
Music: Horror
The hell was that?! Why do I have to go through this crap?!
Don't yell at me! Not like it's MY fault!
Just shaddap!
UWAAAH!Music: Crisis
You're immediately put back into control at this point and have to flee from the model again. I'm going to make a leap and say that 100% of players got caught here their first time because it comes out of NOWHERE and needs you to react immediately.
It's kind of a dick move, but it's pretty effective as a scare tactic, I have to admit.
The anatomical model is actually a lot slower outside of the science lab, and is very easily evaded, as long as you know it's going to start chasing you from two squares away. We run up the stairs.
The model chases us into the stairway too, though!
And as we try to continue to run, the stairs collapse!!!
At this point we have to just barely skirt past the model in a one-square space. It's easily doable, but it honestly is a little frighting to rub right up against an enemy that will kill you if you touch it.
We slip by and run back down the stairs.
And we run to the south.
Music: Main Theme
At this point, the model finally stops chasing us. You can tell because the music returned to normal.
And if we check the science lab, it's back in there, just hanging out.
The anatomical model chase sequence is present in the remake as well, but it's a lot easier there, and the model doesn't follow you out of the lab.
We could go back to the south, but instead we exit the lab and head up the stairs again.
And the stairs are repaired, for some reason.
I'm not honestly sure if you have to run into the stairwell to avoid the model. It might be intended to be a "dead end" where you're supposed to die, but if you're fast enough you can slip by without getting caught.
Upon going up the stairs, we reach the 2F North Wing.
If you die here, the pain of your death will continue for eternity.
No matter how it hurts.
No matter how you bear it.
No matter how much you cry out.
There is no escape from that pain.
Just like in the remake, there is a rule that if you die in this school, you'll feel the pain of your death for the rest of eternity. This is a pretty important plot element, which you're informed of in a story-required cutscene in the remake, but here it's just flavor text on the wall you can easily walk right past.
Without cooperation, escape is impossible.
The first of these bookcases is flavor text that doubles as a hint (as we've seen, we had to use Satoshi's party to free Yoshiki and Ayumi from their prison). The second is actually a bit of gameplay advice. There are ten letters hidden throughout the school, which offer crucial hints, as well as plot details.
-- Take it? --
Yes
Acquired [Long Board]
The long board is an important item, which allows us to span a gap even larger than one square!
We step around and enter the classroom.
Music: None
