You’ll notice that the game is very Japanese, using all Asian characters and taking place in an old-style Japanese mansion (the Himuro Mansion), which is a very far cry from the modern look and locales of games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.Īnd like those games, Fatal Frame tasks you with exploring this dank, dark and creepy mansion room by room. First off, it starts out using a black and white filter, which is a very neat effect, to show that you are playing as Mafuyu, and it’s taking place in the past.
Right off the bat, you’ll notice unique aspects of Fatal Frame. But in the early portions you will not quite understand what exactly is going on, of course. Suffice it to say that in the end words like “The Calamity”, “The Malace”, what the Camera Obscura was created for and The Blinding and Strangling Rituals, will have significant meaning. You’ll learn all about the brutal rituals that were performed there, why and how both Mafuyu, Takamine the journalist, and a number of others disappeared, as well as the history behind the mansion, the camera you use in the game, and much more. As you probably imagine, the storyline goes much deeper and only gets more complex and involved as you discover the dark secrets of the mansion and it’s ancient inhabitants. You start out playing as Mafuyu for a short time, but soon after you will take control of the sister, and play as her throughout the entire game. Of course, things only escalate from there. Since Mafuyu himself is an aspiring journalist, he thought he would solve the mystery himself, while also looking for the one he admired.Ī trailer for “Project Zero” (Fatal Frame US)
He came in search of a famous novelist Junsei Takamine, who disappeared himself while doing research. In the game you play as Miku Hinasaki, a young teenage/early 20-something Asian girl who is looking for her missing brother Mafuyu, who has disappeared inside the old creepy Himuro mansion (an old Japanese-style building). The game’s storyline (which is supposedly based on a true story, although it’s definitely been called into question and was probably just a marekting ploy) is very complex and involved, although unfortunately it doesn’t have much of the double-meaning symbolism that you find in Silent Hill, but I would say the storyline is at least as good as that of the Resident Evil series.
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It gives you the extremely creepy music of Silent Hill, along with that game’s slower pace, with the jump scares of the Resident Evil series and the psychological “Did I just hear/see something?” horror of Eternal Darkness, all rolled up in an extremely Japanese style, something like Ringu. It actually, IMO, is scarier than Silent Hill in many ways (it’s most closely related to that game). In fact, the game’s mood and atmosphere are extremely creepy. Take the survival horror mold popularized by Resident Evil, add in ghosts in the place of zombies, take away the weapons and replace them with a camera, and you basically would have Fatal Frame.Īlthough Fatal Frame is a mixture of survival horror conventions and styles, it manages to basically do everything right, and has just the right mix with enough unique attributes to make it feel fresh and new and not like a retread of previous survival horror territory. And this is the version that I’ll be reviewing, so keep that in mind (even though they are essentially the same). New features for the Xbox version included better graphics and effects, new endings, and more ghosts to fight. Rating: Teen for: Blood and Gore, Violence.įatal Frame (which went by the code-name Project Zero in Europe & Japan) was first released for the Playstation 2 by Tecmo and then later ported to the Xbox on Feb. Save: (can save at any time using “blue camera” save points) ? of blocks Genre: 3rd Person Survival Horror/Adventure Thanks to the fine folks at the NumbThumb rental service for giving me the chance to review this game. It’s a pretty safe bet that if you enjoy other survival horror games, particularly Silent Hill, you will most likely enjoy Fatal Frame, which has enough different that it feels unique.