Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja present the best way to enjoy Fatal Frame.
More stories in the category Slider
- Steam adds four new free games and one of them is from a popular anime
- They will point you out on the street if you don’t get this game for free on Steam before March 16th
- Review of Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection — the return of the Monster Hunter RPG that many were waiting for
| Don't miss anything and follow us on Google News! |
Back in 2021, a slow but steady process of remastering a survival horror saga that went largely unnoticed compared to other sagas like Silent Hill or Resident Evil began. Despite this difference in popularity, Fatal Frame has always been a cult saga, and it’s no surprise that a few years ago, Koei Tecmo decided to try its luck on Steam with the fifth installment of the game, Maiden of Black Water, and two years later, in 2023, the remastered version of Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse from 2008, which was exclusive to Japan until then.
In just a few days, we’ll have the opportunity to enjoy the remastering of the second installment of the franchise on our Xbox, and I think this can be a unique chance for fans of the genre to get to know or reunite with a truly original and unsettling IP from its mechanics.
The story follows the steps of two twin sisters, Mio and Mayu Amakura, who, after getting lost in a forest, arrive at the Minakami village, a place where people who have strayed from their paths end up. The village is stuck in a moment in time when the town was the epicenter of an absurd massacre resulting from a failed sacrifice, precisely, of two twin sisters.
Mio must rescue her sister while investigating the events that occurred in that cursed place, and for that, she’ll need the Camera Obscura, a camera that allows her to see ghosts and phantasmagoric echoes from other times that still linger in the place.
Get ready for many scares, a gloomy experience, and a heavy atmosphere. Put your fear aside and join me in exploring the Minakami village in this new analysis; I don’t promise you won’t get scared…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JMMePj1Aw0
Technical Section
If you played the PlayStation 2 version or the remastered version on the Wii (yes, Fatal Frame 2 already had a remaster), the graphics may surprise you as much as they did me. The title is much more similar to Fatal Frame 5 (the previous remaster was similar to Fatal Frame 4) and completely moves away from the fixed camera it had back in the day to a free camera that allows aiming without restrictions in any direction.
In this remake, the detail in the scenarios, character design, and work put into the cinematics is truly impressive, and you can tell the effort the development team put into building something from scratch. Understand that this is not just an HD filter added to a game from the early 2000s, but a complete remake.
The soundtrack continues to be a true pleasure to listen to, and this new edition includes a song composed by Tsukiko Amano, who had already worked on the franchise, and that accompanies the images of the alternate ending that is part of this production.
The game is very well localized into Spanish in everything related to on-screen texts, although only in its Iberian variant. The voices can be enjoyed in English or Japanese; personally, I recommend the latter, although the work of the actors and actresses in both languages is really good.
Gameplay
The central piece of the game (and the entire saga, for that matter) is the Camera Obscura. This object not only serves to follow certain clues but is also the way to attack and defend against ghosts, as each camera shot will damage the entities in the place. The remake includes an option to track ghosts during combat, a feature that was already added in Fatal Frame 4 and 5 but not in the original sequel.
Playing as Mio, one of the twin sisters, the idea is to explore different areas of the village to learn, through newspaper clippings and other means, the story of what happened in that place that seems to have not a single meter that is not cursed.
Among the camera’s additions are the options to zoom and apply filters that allow different functions. The “ammunition,” so to speak, is the camera tapes that can be found in different points of the scenarios.
It’s worth highlighting within the game’s systems the appearance of the spiritual power meter that limits the damage that can be done to ghosts with the camera and the possibility they have to interact with the environment during combat.
This game update doesn’t just stop at the graphical redesign but goes much further by modifying, for the better, some details of the gameplay. At first glance, the first thing that can be appreciated is that the character’s speed is much higher than in the original title, which makes the gaming experience much more dynamic.
In some cases, it’s possible to avoid direct contact with the inhabitants of the afterlife using stealth, which translates to turning off the lantern that Mio has with her from the first act and crouching to slip between the ghosts in some sections of the game.
Taking Mayu’s hand now allows you to recharge your vital energy between ghost encounters, although it’s not always possible to use it since the twin sister is not always with Mio; it’s a good addition that makes it possible to save recovery items.
While the game focuses on exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat with ghosts, the remake also adds chase sequences that didn’t exist in the original title, at least not in this way. This happens when the protagonist faces entities that are far above her level. Before, it was possible to avoid them by changing rooms, and now it’s possible to hide in various places, which causes constant changes in rhythm in certain situations and reminds me of other great horror productions like Alien Isolation.
Another addition is the map that appears in the top-right corner of the HUD, which is an excellent and practical addition that avoids having to pause the game to understand the character’s location and plan the route to where you need to go. In terms of combat, the remake adds two movements that weren’t in the original, such as the possibility of dodging and crouching, which makes ghost encounters much more interesting and not as linear as in the original title.
Even players who know every corner of the game by heart from having played it many times will be surprised by all the changes this version has. The developers didn’t just copy exactly what had already been done; they decided to expand the production, so there are more buildings and rooms to explore, different items to collect, and even some interesting surprises to discover. In fact, the story is told in a slightly different way than in the original game, and an alternate ending is added that differs significantly from the one known from the first edition.
Duration
Fatal Frame 2 Remake is one of those long games that never feel heavy. We’re talking about around 15 hours to finish the story without help and about 3 more hours to reach the alternate ending and/or get all the collectibles.
Conclusion
It was a pleasure to return to the world of Fatal Frame 2, a game that has always remained as a good memory in a corner of my mind, and which surely occupies a privileged place in the library of memories of many people. This remake greatly improves the already excellent original proposal and adds a good amount of new features, so even those who got tired of finishing the original title will be amazed when they get behind the controls of the remake.
Personally, the game made me want to return to the saga to enjoy games that I missed back in the day, and I’m sure that if the franchise appealed to you, this game won’t disappoint you in the least. If you’re new to this IP, I welcome you; this is the best entry point and an incredible exponent of survival horror that continues to add great successes to its list.
Even if all this hasn’t convinced you, I invite you to try the game through a free demo that you can download right now and see for yourself what this game is all about.
We thank Koei Tecmo for the material provided to carry out this analysis.
Translator and video game localiser with a passion for retro titles and simulators. He has never let go of a controller since he was given an Atari 2600. He collaborates with different developers in the localisation of their titles into Spanish through Camelot Translations.
Related Post
