Fatal Frame rewired my brain. I can't play games without an inverted x-axis anymore. If I play a game that doesn't allow inverted horizontal control, it throws me off and the adjustment period takes a while.

This is a game that I played with my best friend. We got on a discord call, I streamed my screen to her, while also streaming it on Twitch. Bonding over our shared love of film and physical media, experiencing the scares and storytelling together, I loved playing Fatal Frame this way.

Fatal Frame has a genuinely eerie setting, tense, nerve-wracking, unique game play (pulling off a fatal frame shot is very satisfying) and enjoyable puzzles with just the right amount of complexity. Highly recommended.

joguei esse com uma amiga super fã da saga!
Fatal frame consegue ser um ótimo jogo e um ótimo inicio de franquia. O terror está nos momentos certos e me assustei bastante durante minha gameplay.
A história é um pouco confusa, mas vai se ajustando com o decorrer da jogatina. É simples, mais "espiritual" do que lógico.
Mas, o verdadeiro foco do jogo é a ambientação q é simplesmente SENSACIONAL. A mansão é muito bem feita e cada cômodo dela dá uma sensação de estranheza, de que algo aconteceu e permaneceu parado no tempo e, você, como jogador, precisa descobrir o que houve pra resgatar seu irmão.
O combate é bem simples, coisa que os próximos jogos melhoram. Na minha experiência pessoal, foi extremamente desconfortável jogar isso no teclado (emulador PCSX2), mas, acredito que com um controle seria melhor.
É uma gema escondida de fato, recomendo!

Review #26 - 2020

A game that is terrifying at first, but very quickly begins to feel repetitive. I need to give this game a second opinion, though I've heard the 2nd and 3rd titles are where it's at. I'll say, my favorite thing about this game's concept is the ghost encounters, as you have to put yourself in a compromising position (i.e., you stand still and aim the camera) to exorcise the ghosts pursuing you. It can get your blood pumping coming face to face with the ghosts, especially with the more disturbing looking apparitions. If the later titles get this concept right, then I'm really looking forward to experiencing more of this series.

Un comienzo de saga bastante acertado, siendo la típica historia del pueblo abandonado para pasar a convertirse en todo una serie de rituales llevados a cabos en ella, que involucran todo tipo de personas en donde el juego hace un buen trabajo en añadirles nombre y trasfondo a cada uno de ellos. Un punto acertado igualmente el la jugabilidad, que puede ser algo básica pero consistente con lo que el juego presenta, con el uso de una cámara como arma principal, y variando sorpresivamente entre los rollos de película que cumplen la función de municiones como también mejoras que hacen el gameplay no tan repetitivo. El backtracking no se hace pesado ya que las mansión es muy pequeña en si tanto por fuera como por dentro, lo cual es genial.

Fatal Frame is a solid horror game, that exceeds in atmosphere. The soundtrack complements each level very well, and the game does a great job of inducing a feeling of anxiety and the dark tone definitely sets the mood. It will leave a first impression of you. Gameplay is certainly solid for the time, but is a bit tedious by today's standards. Jumpscares no longer have the same effect, and the combat system can become frustrating to deal with. However, the game's story, which is engaging on it's own, alongside the atmosphere and tone, overshadow this games faults for the most part. Definitely recommended.

Fatal Frame is a game that relies heavily on atmosphere and ambiance over jumpscares. The story and setting kept me intrigued, along with the camera's multipurpose use of a puzzle solving tool and a weapon for the ghosts I encounter. I didnt really care that much about the back and forth backtracking a lot of the puzzles had, but I feel that's kind of most of the older horror games' schick.

The combat with the camera felt pretty clunky. I found myself fighting with the controls, even after changing it to the more comfortable alternative where it mirrors some of the FPS controls when using the camera. The thumbstick sensitivity only has two speeds when looking in first person, but there's a separate fast speed button that ignores any analog sensitivity, zipping along the screen even at a light tap of the stick.

Not at all a demerit, but the game is also not forgiving with its ammo. The weakest ammo - although infinite in theory as you can recharge it at the save points - will have you fighting ghosts for a longer than necessary period. You need to keep in mind of using the weaker film when solving puzzles and the stronger film for fighting, as well as try to prioritize attacking when either fully charged and/or the moment an enemy is ready to strike you. This makes the combat pretty intense, and it provides super satisfying moments dealing high damage the moment a ghost tries to strike you.

Older Japanese horror games have a habit of having bad English VA and this game is no exception. Though, I feel like it was the fault of the localiztion's voice direction that was the culprit and not the actors themselves as there were few instances where the VA didnt sound out of place. Mafuyu's VA unfortunately sounded completely disinterested in his role.

Despite its terrible English VA, the game sounds great. It has on-point horror ambiances and its reliance of the ghosts spatial sound design when fighting them makes it a great terrifying experience. Although there are cases where the ambiance stops abruptly when going into another room. I'm not sure if it was a stylistic choice or because of the game's limitations, but that sounded odd to me.

Near the end of the game, the difficulty spikes pretty harshly. Annoyingly, theres an enemy that screws with your controls, and there is an instance where the game isn't immediately clear of where a certain key item is, and you had to make a short time windowed decision to find it and put it in its right place or it's an instant game over far away from a save point.

Overall, I've enjoyed my time with the game, and I've heard the sequels are much better. I'm looking forward to playing Crimson Butterfly along with the rest of the series.

A good game with incredible atmosphere, cool character designs, great concept, and a story that's about as good as you'd expect.
The only aspect holding the game back from a higher score is the gameplay itself. It has potential, but there are too many factors that can make it a frustrating experience, espeicially when the difficulty spikes at the end of night 2 / beginning of night 3. It's easy to get stuck on the collision of the environment, the camera control in first person is clunky especially since the movement and camera sticks are flipped compared to standard fps rules, some ghosts feel impossible to deal with, and the issue that i and other run into the hardest, is the sudden lack of healing items after night 1. It's a shame some of these aspects can take you out of the atmosphere and leave you feeling frustrated instead of scared and really hindered my enjoyment of the game.
There are some mechanics i didn't realise were there until halfway into the game and after finishing it (such as the sprint button and being able to move in fps mode lol), so i realise a lot of the trouble i had with the game may not apply to everyone.
That being said i still really enjoyed the game overall, and is the first survival horror game i played.
If you're going to play this game on PCSX2 like i did, download the undub patch to and update the emulator to its latest version.

As far as PS2 era horror games go this one is pretty well above average. I love the vibe and I think the game starts off really strong. My experience was kinda broken because I played half the game with invisible enemies thinking it was supposed to be that way. As a result I was low on supplies and didn't get good until way later. When I subtract the frustration stemming from that I think the game is actually pretty well designed and I liked exploring the mansion. The puzzles are generally not that complex but I'll take straightforward stuff any day over wandering around aimlessly. The voice acting is terrible most of the time but I found it really funny. Story is pretty whatever.

As mentioned before my opinion on the combat was undercut by issues with my third world PS2. However, I do think some of the chapter 3 enemies are really annoying. When they shoot projectiles it feels straight up unfair.

the first game i actually finish in the "survival horror fixed camera" genre of games, it's a rather great starting point and attracting to complete the other games in the series.
some glitches are VERY annoying like the geometry when you get stuck in invisible stuff, and by the last one or two hours... i was waiting for the game to gather its stuff up and all.
The theming and the storyline are great, the Japenese Folklore Horror is very interesting and the camera system is well-thought of and quite unique.
Overall, a rather decent game with its flaws that i'd recommend for anyone wanting to get into the survival horror genre.
looking forward to play the rest of the series!

The Blueprint for the future of the franchise.


Fatal Frame isn’t without its flaws but where it does exceed; it does well. The camera placement is superb! The blueprint of the franchise going forward and I’m sure from the PS2 trilogy it will borrow some mechanics and/or will improve but I have yet to endure on the journey. From what I played it was very fun and the camera mechanic was very enjoyable yet Arcady which some people may have a gripe with. My old real gripe is the repetitive nature this game makes you go into this mansion and the story is a bit clunky. Voice acting is really cheesy and monotone but I forgive them for that. I made it barely without much health going into the final section of the game which speaks to its challenge and there is a bit of a challenge throughout the game if you don’t use your resources correctly, but lots of fun to be had. Can’t wait to see where it goes from here. If you love survival horror this is a game you want on your radar.

When reviewing Outlast, I mentioned how constant checkpoints and unlimited supplies can prevent a feeling of vulnerability that I think is important to horror games. Oddly enough, this is another survival horror game focused around using a camera, and it has the exact same design flaw. In this case, it’s how the save points scattered around the haunted mansion can be used as many times as you like and provide you with an unlimited supply of film for your ghost-exorcizing camera. While moving from room to room should be a tense experience where you’re unsure when ghosts will strike, having a HUD element to tell you when one is nearby so you can ready your infinite ammo weapon eliminates that possibility. The design of the ghosts themselves is spectacular, but this visual aspect is the only place where horror actually manifests itself. Fighting them is also a shallow and repetitive process, pointing at them until your indicator changes color and snapping the picture. The story isn't enough to rescue it either, sitting comfortably among the bog standard plots of the horror genre. There are enough good ideas here to where the potential of the sequels intrigues me, but I can say that this entry doesn’t live up to the series’ reputation.

this game was....rough to say the least,that's not to say the game is bad though and it's understandable as this is the first game in the series but there's many things that didn't aged well or simply annoying,but also there's many things this game does right and still aged well.
The controls takes time to get used to(especially after playing Fatal Frame 4),but once it clicks it was manageable,the enviromental designs is still good while it can be frustating that the entire game takes place around just this mansion but i think it creates this tense and danger atmosphere that speaking of which this game excels at,thanks to the composition of fixed camera angles.
That being said this game unfortunately didn't manage to scare me once,even when the ghost movements are surreal it still doesn't scare me,and the story and dialogue definitely didn't aged very well especially the dialogue because of the cheesy voice acting and goofy character models.
Overall i'd enjoyed this game while the flaws are more noticeable after playing the fourth entry but it's still solid.

I like the concept of each night, there's different set of victims that the story focuses. However, I found the main story to be fairly weak and it's not helped by the fact that the game's ending was just plain stupid.

The entire game takes place inside a single mansion, told within three separate nights. Now, this is a great setting especially for the game's genre. Supernatural adversaries and haunted mansions are simply the perfect mix. However, the game stumble with this in execution. Since the mansion is not as big as the one seen in Resident Evil, almost every single nook and cranny of the setting could be explored in its first chapter, and leaves little to no new rooms to discover for the remaining chapters to following. This means that there's pretty much no progression felt in the game, and it's a shame considering how much a potential the Himuro mansion have.

The game provides a variety of creepy ghosts to take picture of, however, this variety could barely even be felt due to the game's baffling decision of forcing you to fight off the same ghost models right after finishing it off in literally the room before where you are. Sometimes you'll even face off the same ghost three times in a row!

The game never provides a sense of progression due to its absurd amount of repetition of areas and enemies. And the puzzles in the game doesn't help either, with many of them not providing any kind of rewards after completion and instead just puts you back into the beginning with you trying to solve another puzzle because the first puzzle had nothing to provide.

Healing items are also quite rare to come by which kind of feel absurd considering how high the damage output of almost every single ghosts. Not to mention, many encounters take place within a small room with no breathing room, making it so damage is pretty much inevitable.

This game probably contains some of the, if not, the most jankiest controls ever implemented in a video game. Controlling your character is so stiff and rigid that you can actually feel the character stop with each step. It's also incredibly easy for the character to stick to the walls, making the already awful movements, pretty excruciating.

I find it to be difficult to progress through the game in some instances without depending on online walkthroughs. The hints for some of the puzzle solutions, especially with the photograph hints, are so vague that the game could pretty much do away with them and it wouldn't impact the game substantially at all.

The game desperately needs more time in the oven. Just every time about the game feels so under polished that it makes playing through the game such a slog. And this is a shame because the game is actually scary too bad the gameplay hampers everything.

I can't be the only one to think that the whole concept behind Fatal Frame ("Project Zero" in Europe...which is just a nonsense garbage name to give to a series like this) is beyond genious, right??

You catch photos of ghosts for killing them.

And the series is named like that (NOT PROJECT ZERO GRRR) because of that.

Gotta return at this soon enough. It does show a little its age for the camera and for the controls not as immediately intuitive but they're still fitting and how I expect from a horror of the times.