Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a game about overcoming one's past, the importance of oneself, what constitutes the self and identity; all inside a classic Zero story involving rituals and traditions.

While not one of the most accomplished remasters out there (especially for the price) it still brings new life to this lovely game, thankfully the days of meddling with the old fan patch and its questionable translation are now behind us.
The new models look amazing although its a shame the same amount of care wasn't put into all of them.
The new blueish colour hue surrounding its environments feels a lot more consistent with the theme of the moon and probably for the first time in my life playing games I've thoroughly enjoyed how they applied a granular filter of sorts so that it wouldn't lose its original vibe.

Words alone can't really describe how happy I am that this game is finally free from the curse that is the Wii.
Hopefully if this does well we get a new entry in the series, fingers crossed its more akin to 2 and 4 rather than the disaster that was 5.

Is this a game I'd recommend to anyone?
No, this is a game for Zero fans first and foremost and people that love good old 2000s J-horror and the inherent clunkiness that comes with most of them.

"A Wii Game Ported over to Modern Platforms" sure is how I'd describe this game.
To be honest, this game was lacking in so many ways that I wasn't expecting. Having a somewhat arcade-y horror game where you have a stiff, strict way to fight back enemies as you go around solving simple puzzles and going from point A to point B would seem fine. How this is plays out ends up feeling so distention as a block of points appears after you preform the same combat on Ghost #79 when you're hobbling over to use another key on another door to solve another puzzle and this all likely would have been more interesting if it was done with motion controls.
The story and horror is fine, it's Japanese Supernatural Horror. However, if you're coming in with the expectation that this will be on the same level as other games Goichi Suda has worked on, you'll be sorely disappointed.
I'm glad for Fatal Frame fans that this was localized and available on modern platforms, but this might actually turn me off from the larger series.

Finished Story
Platform: PlayStation 5
Release Date: March 9, 2023
Genre: Action Adventure » Survival
Finished in: 17 Hours

A little bit disappointment after waiting so long an official global release, on this FF entry brings inconsistency things, artwork related. I only played this remastered version & I don't know where art director want to lead. If they want to make it classic with cam recorder filter, please do it don't make it half baked. Or if they're approaching semi-realism, please do so. It's like 3D modellings are so good but that's all for character models only. I expect more on this remastered version

Fatal Frame - Mask of the Lunar Eclipse takes place a decade after five girls mysteriously disappeared at a festival on Rogetsu Isle, an island in southern Japan. While all of the girls were eventually rescued, their memories were lost, with only the faint remembrance of a single melody and a seemingly possessed masked woman dancing in the moonlight.

Now, ten years later, with still no memory of the events surrounding their disappearance, two of the five girls have died - discovered with covered faces and found in a tragic, crying pose. The remaining three girls now head off to the eerie island to solve the mystery of their friends' death, while also unlocking the mystery of the memories left behind.

✔ Love the costume design (traditional Yukata Japanese and the others)
✔ Full story end to end experience no cliff hanging
✔ Eerie soundtrack and main BGM ending are so good
❌ Inconsistency artwork
❌ Bad texture, lazy just put the original one in here
❌ Need to wait for finishing animation (i.e close or open the door)
❌ Every single time your DualSense will vibrate, run out your battery fast
Verdict: 6/10

My introduction to Fatal Frame Franchise,it was good,but i'd felt a bit dissapointed as well.
I've never had any issues with the texture nor lighting as i think the lighting fits the mood and setting they're going for,sure the texture is pretty much the same as the original but i can look past them,same thing with new models except for 1 or 2 scene where its less expressive.

Where i do have issue with is sadly the movement,and controls. the game task you with a lot of backtracking but it's done in a way that actually feels fresh,the problem i have is how slow the character walks and pick up the item,this issue is more apparent during Misaki/Ruka section,Kirishima feels he's a bit faster but they're all still share one big issue that is,Reach Out Mechanic. i absolutely hate this mechanic,not only it only slows time but it also used as cheap jumpscares which this game is not that scary to begin with,a lot of the scares in this game are done through this way and it's honestly really dissapointing because i think the ghost designs are neat and during their encounter they all have eerie sound design that just makes all the more scary if it wasn't for this cheap jumpscare.

The main thing that interest me in playing this game is obviously i'm interested with the series but SUDA51 involvement in the story,which couldn't get me more excited and i was pleasent to say i'd throughly enjoyed the story,as expected from Suda the game's story revolves around three main characters past and slowly covers what was actually happening in the island while also tackles some heavy themes such as mental illnes,self identity,and the good and bad of remembering past,sadly as much as i liked the story and the atmosphere,the characters In this game are pretty weak and its weird too in the beginning they all seemed to have an personality but at the end i couldn't name a single thing about them that's interesting other than their past.

So yeah,i really enjoyed this game maybe it didn't live up to my expectations(it's also my fault for expecting too high just because suda's involvement)but i'd have a good time and kept me interested to try out the other games in this franchise.

     ‘Madmen, too, are able to see and hear things that are imperceptible to ordinary people.’
     – Ranpo Edogawa, Oshie to Tabi-suru Otoko, 1929.

Played with BertKnot. The game and this review mention medical, psychological and incestuous abuse.

Terrified, dazed, empty, dilated, mournful; the eyes in Kindaichi shōnen no jikenbo (1992) have always been particularly powerful emotional vessels. In contrast to Meitantei Konan (1994), where the pupils are stylised and exaggerated, the delicate, restrained strokes in Kindaichi evoke a particular vulnerability. People are sensitive to exaggerated outbursts of passion, and the silences speak volumes when a panel is focused on demented eyes. The completely black pupils of the suspects and culprits offer little insight into their inner feelings. This veil remains impenetrable for the detective who, insofar as he can guess the modi operandi, never manages to fully circumscribe the tragedy of the murders. On the contrary, he crystallises and exacerbates it by bringing the truth to light in front of the audience.

     The common heritage of Japanese detective and horror genres

There have always been links between horror and detective fiction, but this is particularly true in Japanese literature: under the influence of Ranpo Edogawa, the definition of the detective story (tanteishōsetsu) expanded to include the heritage of the horror, fantasy or criminal genres. He further states: ‘the appetite for detection (tantei shumi) corresponds to the appetite found in detection novels; it can just as easily be called the appetite for the bizarre. [Appetite for detection] is the quest for the bizarre and the enjoyment of the strange' [1]. The proliferation of intricate stratagems in shin honkaku stories supports this view. The detective and the reader become voyeuristic witnesses to strange crimes. Despite the sordid cases he has solved, Kindaichi continues to visit remote islands where mysteries abound – at least until Kindaichi 37 sai shōnen no jikenbo (2018). In turn, the horror genre has itself been inspired by crime fiction, and this aspect is particularly evident in the Zero series. Not surprisingly, series co-creator Makoto Shibata mentions Seishi Yokomizo, whose success coincides with Shibata's youth, as a notable source of inspiration. [2] Yattsu haka-mura (1951) evokes particularly difficult circumstances and builds on the traumas of a society; its horrific aspect was exacerbated by Yoshitarō Nomura's 1977 film adaptation, to which Shibata refers. The fourth entry in the Zero series reinforces this link between horror and detection, in a triangular collaboration between Tecmo Koei, Grasshopper and Nintendo.

The player alternates between Ruka Minazuki, Misaki Asō, Madoka Tsukimori and Chōshiro Kirishima, all of whom explore the island of Rōgetsu to discover what happened ten years ago. As children, five girls were kidnapped during the Rōgetsu Kagura, a traditional local festival, before being rescued by Kirishima. Ruka, one of the victims, still has some vague memories of these events, but is unable to comprehend what happened during her abduction. Even more perplexing, ten years later, two of the victims have been killed, their faces distorted with horror. To uncover the truth, Misaki and Madoka decide to go to the island to investigate the psychiatric hospital they were admitted to in their youth, followed closely by Ruka and Chōshiro.

     Masks and faces: a medical horror

The Zero formula is immediately apparent in the title, with rather slow-paced characters exploring a given location and using the Camera Obscura – or, in the case of Chōshiro, the Spirit Stone Flashlight – to fend off attacks from the ghosts that haunt the area. However, the title relies much more on its underlying mystery and an atmosphere that deliberately plays with a heterogeneity between elements of Japanese folklore and more Western features. Haibara Hospital is a huge, sprawling complex with architecture reminiscent of Meiji-era buildings, complete with a shrine and a traditional cemetery. The remaster retains this approach, with an emphasis on old VHS-inspired colour grading. The traditional horror of Zero is here tinged with corporate themes and mixed with technological and medical modernity, none of which can explain the madness of Rōgetsu's inhabitants.

In fact, the game's plot revolves around Moonlight Syndrome, an affliction that only affects those who spend time on the island: in a benign stage, the disease makes the patient more melancholic and daydreamy, before destabilising their rationality and memories, leading to violent outbursts. In the last stage, they blossom and their faces and eyes become distorted to anyone suffering from the Syndrome. It is immediately clear to the player that Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is inspired by Higurashi no naku koro ni (2002-2006), with many overlapping elements, both aesthetically and thematically. In the tradition of Goichi Suda's 'Kill the Past' titles, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse explores questions of identity and memory, under the haunting gaze of the moon. The madness that moonlight often embodies in Suda51's titles blends with Zero's own themes, which have always emphasised the debilitating weight of tradition and ritual on Japanese women.

In a historically patriarchal society, the place of women in horror stories is significant. As vengeful spirits, they regain a semblance of agency once they have left the world of the living, but have not yet fully reached the realm of the dead. Japanese art has long used these female figures, who are prominent in noh theatre, particularly in stories of avenging spirits (onryō mono) such as Kinuta (c. 14th-15th century). These plays convey codified rules of ethics through recurring elements such as masks that capture particular emotions. These masks are omnipresent in Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, where they conceal the identities of the characters and act as an unsettling veil behind which distorted faces can hide. Even when the various ghosts are not wearing masks, their frozen expressions of horror act as a mask for the protagonist, who is unable to understand their emotions and the reasons for their presence on this deserted island.

     Anarchic repetition as a device in horror and detective fiction

It is only through the notes found throughout the hospital and left by the ghosts that the protagonists and the player can understand what is happening. Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is the first official translation for the game, a welcome release after the inconsistent quality of the fantranslation, but it struggles to convey the desperate madness of the diaries. The interplay of lowercase and uppercase fails to mimic the lacunar horror of the Japanese characters, but this is offset by the odd nature of the notes and their repetition. The events that have taken place on the island of Rōgetsu are not inherently complex, but the way in which information is presented to the player tends to make them nebulous. It is sometimes difficult to place events in time, as the protagonists do not seem to be reliable narrators, suffering from recurrent and disjointed flashbacks. Gérard Peloux has analysed the serial reading of Ranpo Edogawa's works as an 'actualisation of the monstrous'. By this, he means that the repeated appearance of characters in different short stories leads to an automatic reading that compels the reader 'to follow the text in its various excesses, even if this means leaving aside elements of introspection and narrative verisimilitude'. [3]

In Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, the repeated battles against the same ghosts and the diaries, which highlight the same events but from a slightly different point of view, help to normalise the dramatic and horrific tension of the game. The player's awareness is tempered, and they become less sensitive to actions that are purely medical abuses. Just as the hospital staff generally remained impassive in the face of the atrocities committed – before breaking down –, the player is caught up in a voyeurism typical of the detective. The various protagonists have gone to the island in the first place as witnesses; apart from the keys they borrow to open the various sections of the hospital, they hardly touch the furniture and pass no judgement on the events that have befallen the Rōgetsu Isle.

     Atmosphere and social discourse: successes and shortcomings

This is both the strength and the weakness of the title. The player is effectively drawn into a story that mixes medical experiments and ancestral curses; the game manages to evoke a strangeness carried by the faux-silence of the abandoned Haibara Hospital; some unexplained appearances really work, such as the wheelchair, to name but one. On the other hand, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse struggles to develop a coherent social discourse. Of course, as in all Zero games, women are at the centre of manipulations devised by men, but the title fails to emphasise the medical and corporatist horror of the Haibara, nor does it find the right tone when it alludes to incestuous themes. If the game's aesthetic hints at modern inspirations in Japanese crime fiction, especially with the rise of works with social themes (shakai), the discourse of Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is generally lacking. This reserve may be justified by an insistence on the quest for identity and family, but it makes the reference to Ryukishi07's works somewhat awkward, since social themes are at the heart of his writing process.

Nevertheless, the title is carried by some clever and particularly effective scenes that contribute to a very interesting atmosphere. Sakuya's convulsions or the interplay of shots and reverse shots work very well, as do the long corridors that alternate between architectural styles. It is difficult not to read the characters' long wanderings as a journey into purgatory or the jigoku. The back and forth reinforces the Buddhist aspects of the plot and the cyclical nature of the curse that afflicts the Rōgetsu Isle. As such, it would not be far-fetched to consider Mask of the Lunar Eclipse as a modernisation of Teinosuke Kinugasa's Kurutta Ichipeiji (1926). The film is also set in a psychiatric hospital, and the interweaving of hallucination and reality is reflected in the game's storytelling structure, not to mention its obsession with masks. Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is thus part of a long tradition of Japanese horror, and attempts to innovate with the possibilities of the interactive medium.

The game is not without its faults, however. In addition to the underdeveloped themes, the gameplay suffers from imprecision, with some shots being deemed inaccurate even when the subject is clearly in focus. With the ghosts' hitboxes being slightly below their heads, it is common to miss a shot while trying to maximise points by taking it as late as possible. In the later chapters, some encounters can feel too repetitive, especially as they no longer help to advance the game's narrative. The absence of random encounters may explain the choice to multiply ghost appearances in the last third of the game, but this only serves to slow down the progression in a rather superfluous way. The remaster adds costumes, following a rather obnoxious fanservice trend that goes against the message of the series. These are optional, naturally, but they highlight the failure of the video game industry in terms of representation.

It seems to me, however, that the decision to slightly embellish the graphical aspect with a better engine, while retaining some of the original textures, really works. This creates a worrying contrast between the game's graphical style and the somewhat austere cutscenes. Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a very pleasant opportunity to experience a new Fatal Frame in the West. The title never reaches the horror heights of the first trilogy, but it proves to be an atypical curiosity that tries to move the series towards other narrative horizons. Some sections would have benefited from further development, but the spirit of Zero still inhabits the title – for the better.

__________
[1] Edogawa Ranpo Zenshū, vol. 4, Kōbunsha, Tokyo, 2005, p. 146.
[2] ‘Interview with Makoto Shibata and Keiichiro Toyama’, 3rd October 2016, consulted on 28th March 2023.
[3] Gérald Peloux, L’acte de lecture dans l’œuvre de Ranpo Edogawa (1884-1965) : une réflexion sur la littérature d’avant-guerre au Japon, PhD thesis, Université Paris Diderot, 2012, p. 218.

Fatal Frame 4 is like a breath of fresh air after playing Fatal Frame 5, it feels more survival horror, but still has a hint of what 5 is going to be.

Story is your standard Fatal Frame, folk ritual gone wrong, and now a place (this time an island) is haunted by ghosts. This time the story is focused on amnesia on all 3 protagonists, and their goal is mainly trying to recover their memory, and maybe get rid of whatever problem the island has.

Combat is divided into 2 systems, Camera Obscura and Spirit Flashlight.

The camera works mostly the same as the previous entry, but this time you have an infinite type-07 film (the weakest one), this is huge, because technically you can spend an infinite amount of time trying to kill a ghost without even needing to worry that your ammo will run out. You don’t even need to try to get an effective shot every time to conserve ammo like in the previous game, sure getting an effective shot made the encounter faster but if you don’t want to risk getting hit for Fatal Frame Shot, then just shooting with max charge is a viable strategy too. This problem persists even in the Nightmare difficulty.

The flashlight is even more broken, there’s no need for ammo, you can shoot your most powerful shot infinitely. Although you do need to recharge if you are shooting continuously, which is easily overcome by just putting the flashlight down for a few seconds (not even a second on max upgrade) and then putting it up again.

There are also collectibles in the form of ghosts and dolls, the dolls I don’t really see a point of honestly. But the ghost is still fun to collect, even if most of them are literally just in front of you. The annoying one is the blossomed one, some enemies (wraiths) can blossom when their health gets low enough, this blossoming form is counted as a different entry in the collectible list. But it happens at random, if you kill the wraith before it can blossom, then all you can do is reload the previous save file. This is most annoying to get with the Spirit Flashlight, because the flashlight has a really high damage, and with max upgrade, it can potentially 2-hit kill most ghosts even on Nightmare. If the ghost doesn't blossom on the first hit, then all you can do is reset.

Overall, still a fun game, not really scary but does have a few scary jumpscare moments, the final boss isn’t as threatening as Reika or Sae even though she chased you in some parts of the game too. Combat is fun but I still don’t like the infinite ammo thing. Ultimately, it’s a lot better than 5, but still not as good as the previous trilogy (though I do miss the wet system from 5).

Now, I want a port/remake of the original trilogy.

God, getting Suda51 to co-write a game about spooky ghosts on some isolated Japanese island was such a good move. The entire thing and everything that happens being connected to music in the end and one of the late game twists feels so much like him.

Having to readjust myself to the slower pace of a Fatal Frame game after around 8 years (missed Maiden's re-release I'll get to it someday) was kind of annoying at the start, but after an hour of play I got used to it. Aside from some weird movement controls that feel like original RE4, but stiffer I was taking out ghosts so hard and quick they'll be talking about busting feeling good. Very similar to the recent Metroid Prime Remastered, the gyro aim is so good for a game of this type and I hope whenever 6 happens they keep going all in on it.

It's cool as fuck to finally be able to play this and that it is actually good 15 years later. So much so that all the game really got was an HD facelift with some better character models. You can still see those Wii era jank textures in the environment, but fuck it man I'll take it. Although I won't lie that makes me wish I would have just got this on the Switch. Oh well, I'll most likely order a physical version from PlayAsia just so I can have it in some way.

Let's hope for a future where HD releases of the original PS2 trilogy exist soon. Maybe even the Wii remake of 2 gets a re-release (and actual US release) in a similar vein to this, and lets really hold out hope for a Fatal Frame 6 in the even nearer future.

This is my introduction to the Fatal Frame series, something I've always wanted to dive into, but never managed to find the time. Now that we're starting to get these games remastered for modern consoles, and since this one came out this year, I figured this was as good a place to start as any.

As a fan of Japanese paranormal horror, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse scratched that itch in pretty much every way. The atmosphere was constantly thick with tension and uneasiness, and the ghosts themselves were always creepy, and their encounters were always intense, especially in tight combat areas.

I can't say the game was exactly scary, though some parts were. The whole experience felt more atmospheric than anything. A lot of that had to do with pretty frequent backtracking, which got old considering how slow your characters moved. Also, frequently clunky gameplay, especially during combat encounters, got more frustrating than anything. Overall, it still felt like a Wii game from 15 years ago.

I really enjoyed the story as well as the characters the story followed. A lot of the story was told through notes you found from time to time, and it wasn't always clear, but it did start to come together towards the end. It was also surprisingly emotional at times.

Overall, my first venture into the Fatal Frame series was a flawed, but still an enjoyable experience.

Overall I had a great time with this game once again, and its close enough to the original that it'd be totally fine to play this in place of the original, since getting a Wii and the fan patch hooked up would be a lot of effort for some people.

There are of course some slight issues with this remaster (as with all remasters) but for what it's worth I didn't super notice this stuff when playing, and I think everything that made the original good was retained.

The new lighting looks pretty good but does somewhat take away the impact of certain rooms which had unique lighting in the original (which they still have, it just is less of a dramatic difference from the regular hallways now).

The new character models look Fine but on seeing a comparison they are less expressive and are way less animated than the Wii version, which is definitely a shame.

And lastly using the right stick for the flashlight is just more awkward than using the motion controls from the original.

Those issues aside though, the new translation is pretty good and the game still looks and plays great, so I'm happy. If they ever make a Fatal Frame 6 I hope it's closer to this game's style than to 5's.

There is a good game there somewhere, but it's buried under a pile of bad decisions and subpar execution.

Fatal Frame 4 is deathly scared of making the player uncomfortable or challenged - the exploration is almost entirely linear, the game constantly takes control away from the player to show the next scare or direction of the main objective, thus greatly hampering tension and otherwise great atmosphere. Combat is incredibly easy and repetitive, which destroys any sense of menace a horror game needs. Controls is also very uncomfortable, and it seems to be a fault of this remade version.

The only clear strength is good environmental storytelling and visual style. Game's atmosphere is very thick and moody thanks to that. Story has some interesting bits. You get to trace the steps of various characters though now dilapidated environment and slowly unravel their secrets and get to know backstories of many ghosts you encounter. It is somewhat compelling, but overall the story is rather banal and lacks any mystery or emotions at it's core.

I have mixed feelings about this one... The atmosphere is spot-on, there are quite a few very scary moments, and the plot is quite interesting, too, especially if you’re like me, and love creepy Japanese legends and folklore.

That said, this is a huge step back compared to the other Fatal Frame / Project Zero game I played two years ago, Maiden of Black Water – and yes, I’m well aware of the fact that originally, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was released years before that one, but still… The clunky controls are unforgivable: taking quick photos with a controller is almost impossible, and forget about turning or just simply moving quickly during battles. I mean, the protagonists run slower than the walking speed of most characters in other games, which makes “chase” sequences more comical than frightening. Picking up objects can also be a challenge sometimes, as you need to stand precisely in the right spot and angle to do so.

Everything else was fine, I guess. The sounds and voices are spine-chilling, there are lots of collectibles, different difficulty settings and extra missions, and the characters are OK, too (pity that the girls still look like emotionless porcelain dolls…). I would have loved more locations, though, as all the back and forths in the same rooms / corridors can become a bit monotonous after a while, even with new ghosts popping up here and there.

All in all, if you liked Maiden of Black Water, you probably won’t be disappointed, but it might have been a good idea not to release this one so close to Resident Evil 4… Just sayin’.

What happens to us when we die? I'm not talking about our souls, or any afterlife, but to the memory of us on this world. The imprint we made while we were here. Does it stick around, haunting corridors and the minds of those we were close to? Or does it dissipate, leaving no trace we were ever here? Fatal Frame 4 concerns itself prominently with this specific question about death, and its hyperfocus on such a specific unsettling subject matter is what gives the game itself enough impact to last long after you finish playing.

Written and partially directed by Suda51, Fatal Frame 4 dares to dream of what would happen if dementia were contagious, and if it spread simply by looking at an afflicted person. The answer is as devastating as you can imagine, complete annihilation. What a wonderful topic for a horror game, and unlike many of the game franchises in its wheelhouse Fatal Frame is the one where every design decision is focused purely on horror. Want to open a door? You're treated to an almost OG Resident Evil level door opening animation, every single time, occasionally accompanied by a spooky cut to a fixed angle. Want to pick up an item? That'll be a 5-10 second long interaction, with a small chance of a surprise jump scare every time. Want to run fast away from a threat? Fatal Frame laughs in your face, the sprint button in these games being a facade implemented purely to frustrate and annoy you. These games want to scare you, they want to scare the SHIT out of you, and nothing else matters. While not the scariest or most surprising Fatal Frame game, Fatal Frame 4 still managed to scare me quite frequently because of those aforementioned design decisions and some truly excellent atmosphere and level design.

Fatal Frame 4 is set primarily in a large hospital which is divided into two sections. You explore them both individually with different characters before both sections connect near the end of the game. This large level is so well designed, with several pathways leading to whatever objective you're headed for. The game will always guide you down one specific path, but the adventurous player that chooses another route will almost always be delighted to find completely unique encounters and scares down whatever route they choose. I let my guard down while exploring early on, and almost hada heart attack when a room I'd already explored a mile away from my objective suddenly exploded with activity, locking me into a fight with three enemies simultaneously - a lot to handle with only one measly magic camera. It felt great to know that the developers considered other ways players would choose to explore the game world, and once this happened I never felt I could let my guard down for even a moment. Horror perfection. The sound design deserves a special mention, too. So many rooms have a unique and awful flavor all their own thanks to the subtle soundtrack and all sorts of horrible creaks and gasps of air. You never feel safe because the oppressive soundscape never lets up.

Combat in Fatal Frame 4 is perhaps the easiest of any game in the franchise, thanks to both its dedicated lock on button and surprising lack of difficult spirits. Towards the end of the game there are definitely a few recurring threats that present a real challenge, but for the most part the enemies in this entry are of the 'slowly walk forward, and then lunge towards you' variety. Even at its most braindead, combat in Fatal Frame is still fun thanks to its multiple special moves and unique feel, but I often felt more scared outside of combat than within it, which is maybe not ideal for a game about fighting scary ghosts. The endgame also loves throwing some real film sponges your way, which I thought made the game's final levels drag on a bit longer than they should have.

With an interesting plot, excellent direction, and endless dread, Fatal Frame 4 does everything you could hope for. While its combat can be a bit too easy and the game runs out of gas towards the end, it's still a terrifying and completely unique experience from the most underappreciated horror IP in gaming. If you like horror games and don't need constant action to keep your attention, Fatal Frame 4 is a must play.

After many years being stuck on the Wii and in JP only as well, FFIV finally makes it way to the west for modern consoles. For a remaster, it's somewhat disappointing since there doesn't appear much that was improved or updated.

Controls now can be played without motion sensors, but it still feels clunky at times. This is evident when trying to uncover hidden items with the flashlight or during combat. The graphics looked decent at times, but upon closer look of walls and furniture, the textures are noticeably bad and of low quality. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but there is a constant film grain effect. I guess it sort of fits the atmosphere and the game, but I'd really like an option at least to have a smoother and cleaner look.

I briefly mentioned the combat already and it wasn't too bad overall, but the controls detract from the experience. Not to mention that many combat areas are in small corridors or small rooms making it very difficult to maneuver around. Anything with more than one ghost at a time can be a pretty frustrating experience. Fortunately, the enemies aren't that aggressive and most don't have unusual attack animations compared to FFV.

The story is the usual ritual gone bad Fatal Frame story, but the mystery execution was interesting as is the general premise. You slowly uncover clues for the bigger picture as you progress.

The characters are mostly one-note which I guess is also similar to many Fatal Frame games. No character development or interesting reveal except for one plot twist. Most of the game is spent looking for missing memories for the main characers.

Probably the best aspect of this game is the horror elements. The game is very on point with the creepy setting, oppressive atmosphere and unsettling vibes. The sound direction is also pretty solid too particularly with a few rooms where you hear eerie whispers. I thought all of these elements were lacking from FFV.

Overall, a very good survival horror experience. A bit easy at times on Normal especially being able to to purchase additional consumable items with points you get. It's a good entry for FF newcomers since progressing isn't as confusing as the earlier entries, the combat and survival elements are more lenient and it's the first game in the timeline without much connections with the others.

Despite being the weakest entry in the Fatal Frame series, this game still holds up as a solid experience, thanks to the strength of its tried-and-true formula. However, I believe there could have been more effort put into translating the character controls and prompts to better suit the controller scheme. It felt somewhat cumbersome compared to the norm of the game genre and other Fatal Frame titles. Additionally, the abundance of characters negatively impacts the game's pacing, although the new "camera" with one of the characters adds a refreshing twist. It's unfortunate that you challenge the final boss battle with the least satisfying character in terms of gameplay, but the piano element of the battle helps redeem it to some extent.

Another great entry for the FF series featuring an excellent atmosphere, intriguing story, eerie setting, etc with some of the clunkiest controls on earth unfortunately and because of this battle mode can be quite frustrating. The game really has so much going for it but has its mechanical flaws and because of this the game feels like a chore to get through at times. For some reason I actually enjoyed ‘Maiden of Black Water’ a little more than this. Still worth a play though if you’re a fan of the FF series…..

Beating the game knowing that this is basically Suda giving a present to his wife. Man I wish I have a relationship this good.

Fatal Frame was always about the clashing of tradition with the contemporary world and love. Grasshoper pick this and do the same thing they do with their Kill The Past games but this time they question one thing: the past is what make someone? If in the Silver Case they talk about how past drags someone life and the grow because of that is important, in Fatal Frame 4 we see people without a past, without a person inside then trying to recapture this. And they do this really well.

This is the game with the less amount of ghosts but this creates a sense of familiarly that is great and even helps the atmosphere with bonus of the peacing of the story since this is more a detective horror story than a psychological horror.

My only true problem with the game is more because of the version I played. This is a game clearly made with the entire Wii in mind, the way the levels play, the way you interact with anything and even the controls. So putting the game to work in a normal controller is pretty hard and is not so well done and as result you lost a big part of the fear they wanted do give. I disliked the new main color of the game but is just the same idea (making the game looking like the color that moon and the night in general reflects) so is more nitpick for my side. In general, Fatal Frame just have great games and 4 is no exception.