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.

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 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.

I remember trying to play this game back when I was a kid and just not being able to get with the program. Well, now I was finally able to beat it.

Fatal Frame is a unique horror franchise. There are similar ideas in gaming out there, but nothing quite like it. And the 1st entry, although rough around the edges, kickstarts all of it.

The atmosphere is top notch from beginning to end. The game's photography, sound design, use of silence, mood and soundtrack all act in synchronicity in order to create this unholy and ominous environment. And to back all of this up, you get a very small, but creepy cast of characters moving and sounding as chilling as possible to move the plot forward. It's quite amazing, really.

The story is also very simple. It's good, keeps you interested and gets you going through the house. It's just not up to par with future games.But the ending surprised me! It was unexpectedly bittersweet. And since I played the 2nd one and a bit of the 3rd, it's just nice to see how it all ties up.

Using the camera feels VERY clunky, but you get used to it. Especially with the ghost capturing system forcing you to stay on your toes to catch secrets and wandering aparitions around the mansion. All that weird, ghastly clunkyness combined with a frightening (and a little repetitive, I admit) soundtrack just makes it work.

One other thing, and that's what I loved the most about the game: the mansion! It's such an impressive well-done scary setting. The level design was so beautifully crafted that reminded me of RE1's mansion, Dead Space's Ishimura or Batman's Arkham Asylum. Simply brilliant

But despite this game's well-done aspects, this game is riddled with flaws. I'm not gonna list everything here because it's not hard to find them. Just play the game and you'll know it. But some things are unbearable! Movement is VERY slow, using the camera feels awkward, puzzles are boring, voice acting is bad (the english one, at least), you constantly clip through stuff when running and sometimes it's just hard to see things due to how dark it can get.

The WORST thing, hands down, has to be the combat. Anything that deals with the game's difficulty, in general, to be honest. Ghosts are faster than you, they blend with the environment, you die in 2/3 hits and resources, especially healing items, are extremely scarce.

It's completely unbalanced I just don't understand how they missed the mark with something so essential. The blinding woman from chapter 2 and the entire chapter 3 are a mess! Everytime I thought about battling a ghost, no matter how interesting it was, I just DREADED the idea.

Fatal Frame 1 is a VERY good game. The beginning of a series that I absolutely love, but it's impossible to hide how burdensome it can be at times. If you love survival horror games, I'm sure you love it. If you're just in for a good time in the series, start with the 2nd one.

This game joins both survival horror and on-rail shooter principles and makes its combat fair and engaging without renouncing to the tension and vulnerability that often comes with horror games.

The game surprisingly turns more arcadey the more you play it. The staged jumpscares that scared you the first time turn into fun 'bonus score' to keep an eye on subsequent runs, the anxiety inducing enemy movement patterns that inevitably culminated in the spectre jumping towards you turn into a fun acuracy challenge with a fun risk-reward mechanic.

Unlike most horror games where the horror sentiment either remains constant (like in tank control survivals) or accidentally disappears due to its loss of shock value, Fatal Frame fully embraces this loss and decides to make it a fun game for second-timers.

Unique and well used camera mechanic for both exploration and combat. Great atmosphere and sound. Hidden ghosts and ones that quickly appear and disappear to collect shots of, show past events and add to atmosphere. Good variety of enemy ghosts some with unique strengths. Head movement of character can help you find hidden items that are out of the camera's view. Mostly poor voice acting. Atmospheric but a lot of backtracking, though they do make some changes over time. The special camera functions you can unlock are pretty useless except for the paralyze one.

I am truly shocked right now, because i never thought i would dislike this game. I always wanted to experience Fatal Frame games since i was a kid, because i absolutely cherished horror games. But this was unexpected. The games plot is mediocre at best, the gameplay is fucking AWWWFUL, voice acting is hilarious, atmosphere is kinda good, difficulty is atrociously hard etc. First problem is the balancing, this game is fucking unbalanced. Ghosts appear from nowhere and they quickly i mean QUICKLY drain your health. Escaping them is also a pain in the ass because controls suck. Sometimes enemies can easily lock you because of the games stupid design. Levels are extremely cramped, meaning you have nowhere to run. Oh btw this game doesn't tell you where to go, i found myself wandering around like a fucking wino. Most of the time i had to use walkthroughs. Sometimes when you take a picture your destination shows up on a polaroid, but the problem is that i don't remember where were those places?! Oh and puzzles suck too, they are so tidious and hard to figure out since this game doesn't help you in anyway. Even right now writing this review i'm utterly frustrated. I tried to love this game, but i can't. If you want to experience it then i can recommend this game to you, but if you are new to survival horror your best bet should be to avoid this game. 1/5

A game I really wanted to get into for so long, however, it was difficult because for me it was under a different name here in the UK, known as Project Zero.

You investigate the disappearance of your character's brother who was following a horror writer who came to this forgotten temple for inspiration for his next horror book, not expecting that the ghosts might actually be real after an ceremony goes wrong and many spirits are released and others are amplified.

The only weapon that can protect you is the Camera Obscura which is magically attuned to fight these ghosts.

Had a little issue getting this working on my emulator, but I assume PCSX2 works much better these days.

Stream PT1: https://youtu.be/bcvYRjiS5e8

Nearly a flawless survival horror, aside from some annoying puzzles and inconsistent, brutal difficulty spikes (namely near the end of Night 2). The atmosphere here is one of the best I've ever experienced; Himuro Mansion is imbued with such a palpable sense of dread in every creak and crevice of the map, and the use of the found footage aesthetic during the flashback FMV's are geniunely unsettling. I also think the combat is pretty fun for the most part; maybe a little bit repetitive by the end and a bit clunky but I think the core loop here is a lot of fun!

In short, it's a near perfect horror game that never outstays it's welcome - very excited to play the rest of this franchise.

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.