Fatal Frame

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Revision as of 19:18, 11 December 2006

Techmo survival horror game, also known as Project Zero Japan and Europe. Zero (零, "Rei", this is a pun; "rei" can also mean "ghost"). The first two Fatal Frame games can be found on the consoles Playstation 2 and XBox, however, the third is exclusively for Playstation 2. The premise of all three games can be summed up in exploring haunted envoriments and unraveling mysteries involving human sacrifice, in dark Shinoto and Buddhist sects, and naturally, exorcism. Fatal Frame heavily relies on Japanese superstions and lore, which can be lost on Western players at times.

It emphazies on the atmosphere surrounding the characters, to dilapitated houses, dark and unnerving mansions, and generally claustrophobic enviroments. One could say this is the strongest point of Fatal Frame, next to the controller's special ability to mimick a heartbeat. The difference is with Fatal Frame and regular games are the enemies, which are violent and vengeful spirits, that can add to the enviorment, considering there is such a wide variety of spirits within the game. And the only way to combat the spirits and solve clues, is Fatal Frame's unique gameplay that involves combat with a camera. It is scarier than it sounds. Only by using the camera, the player can exorcise spirits and take their energy as means of upgrading the camera against more powerful spirits as the game progresses.

Fatal Frame comes in the following three games.

Fatal Frame (Project Zero), 2001

The story follows Miku Hinasaki, a girl who has recieved no word of her missing brother for a week, who was last seen in the haunted Himuro Mansion. Being the good sister she is, Miku Hinasaki follows her brother and his team of folklorists within the manor. Miku's physic abilities picks up on a malicious force -- in her visions, the malice comes in the form of a massive amount of hands, seen pulling her brother's boss into darkness. What Miku comes across is an old Hinasaki family heirloom, a camera that her great-great grandmother Yae Munakata had. This is the only way she can combat the spirits, as well as using her six sense, since it is apparent that Miku is also trapped in the mansion, stuck to unravel the sacrifice of the Rope Shrine Maiden. This game's XBox version has better graphics, smoother gameplay, and a few extras that it's Playstation 2 counterpart doesn't.

Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly (Project Zero: 零～紅い蝶～), 2003

This second installment of the game, and what some Fatal Frame fans consider the best of the three. The game follows two twins, Mio and Mayu Amakura, and a few minor characters from the previous games, Ryozo and Yae Munakata. While the twins are visiting a childhood hangout that is about to be buried by the soon-to-be damned, Mayu (the older twin), follows a crimson butterfly into the woods, having her twin sister Mio follow her. What happens next is that the twins are caught in some sort of time lapse(?), stumbling across the legendary lost village (All God's Village), that is said to pull those who are lost and wandering in the forest, forever stuck in the loop of time of one horrific night. Neither of the twins can escape.

The gameplay in this game is a bit of an upgrade -- instead of one character, you have two characters at times. Mio is the dominant of the twins, since her twin sister Mayu has a perpetual limp, causing her to be slow and a easy target for spirits. Twins play a crucial role in this storyline, as both twins learn of the horrible Crimson Sacrifice, where the 'older twin' kills the 'younger twin'. In qoutations, this means according to an old Japanese belief, the younger twin is said to let the older twin to be born first. So meaning, the older twin is actually the younger twin.

Throughout the game, the Amakura twins are mistakened as the Kurosawa twins, Yae and Sae, who attempted to escape the ritual. This attempted escape is also what cause the demise of the village, as it's documented the spirit of Sae Kurosawa had gone insane without her twin sister there to sacrifice her, luring in the lost travellers and scarring them with her laughter. It's learned that Sae's twin sister, is in fact Yae Munakata, who had fled during the escape process, leaving Sae behind to be sacrificed alone. The game's focus is around twin bonds and Sae's tragic turn of events.

Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented (Project Zero: 零～刺青の聲～), 2005

The more recent of the installments, Fatal Frame 3 centers around the first character of the Fatal Frame game, Miku Hinasaki, Kei Amakura -- uncle to the Amakura twins, and a new character, Rei Kurosawa, no realtion to Sae Kurosawa.