Fatal Frame was a series I've been meaning to get to for quite some time. I've got the Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Clock Tower games under my belt so it makes sense to tackle this series next, but this game is...rough to say the least.
I'll start with the positives, the thing that made me interested in this series was the combat. In Fatal Frame, you don't shoot enemies with guns of various power like in other horror games, instead, you take photos of ghosts using different kinds of film which vary in strength. The longer that you hover the capture circle over the ghost, the more damage you do and with enough damage the ghost is eventually exercised. Different ghosts also have different movement patterns so it's important to learn their patterns if you want to get rid of them effectively. It's a very interesting concept and can be nerve-wracking as you have to stare at the ghost as they slowly move towards you before snapping a photo but as the game went on, I found this system to be more frustrating than anything. The problem is that ghosts teleport more and more as the game goes on and deal a ton of damage (usually 3 hits is enough to kill you) and missing a shot at the last second and then getting punished just gets annoying. There's one boss in particular in the Fish Tank room near the end of the game that just made me want to put this series off altogether. The combat has potential, but I'd say it really needed some fine-tuning.
So I dreaded most enemy encounters due to how long and tedious they could be but I was also bored due to how the game is structured. The game has a prologue, 3 really long chapters and a short final chapter, it's not a very long game, it only took me around 7 hours to complete but it felt much longer. The Himuro Mansion isn't very big, so most chapters will have you revisiting the same rooms multiple times and visually, these rooms all look so samey. I didn't get lost because thankfully, the game's map feature is really good, but I was really bored and the uninteresting puzzles play a role in that since most of them just have you do rudimentary things like pushing blocks or inputting codes from a note and you do these same exact puzzles like 5 times each, it's mind-numbing.
It's really a shame that the game is such a slog to get through because I did like the eerie tone that the game had. It's reminiscent of the vibe that some of my favourite japanese horror films had like Cure, Pulse and Dark Water but any immersion I could've had was murdered by how dull I found the game to be.
The game's sound design is another area that I feel could've done with some polishing. As a whole, it's much more low-key than I expected, even when there is a ghost in the room, the sounds that the game makes to alert the player are very subtle. I guess the intention was how it potentially leads to scenarios where a player isn't aware of a ghosts presence until they're in super close proximity to them. That's freaky, but it gets thrown out the window when you realize the game has an indicator in the bottom right corner that indicates an enemy is in the room when it flashes orange. I wish the game didn't have this and only relied on sound to highlight a ghost being in the area but it doesn't so the end result is sound design that I feel is downplayed and not very effective in evoking a sense of dread (though there are some highlights).
I do quite like the story, I did enjoy reading the supplementary material to learn about the Blinding Ritual, Demon Tag and Strangling Ritual and the ending was really bittersweet which I did not see coming, but even though I enjoyed the plot, I can't say the same for the game as a whole. It's not awful, it's just underwhelming in most areas but I'm still interested in how future entries build on this one.
I'll start with the positives, the thing that made me interested in this series was the combat. In Fatal Frame, you don't shoot enemies with guns of various power like in other horror games, instead, you take photos of ghosts using different kinds of film which vary in strength. The longer that you hover the capture circle over the ghost, the more damage you do and with enough damage the ghost is eventually exercised. Different ghosts also have different movement patterns so it's important to learn their patterns if you want to get rid of them effectively. It's a very interesting concept and can be nerve-wracking as you have to stare at the ghost as they slowly move towards you before snapping a photo but as the game went on, I found this system to be more frustrating than anything. The problem is that ghosts teleport more and more as the game goes on and deal a ton of damage (usually 3 hits is enough to kill you) and missing a shot at the last second and then getting punished just gets annoying. There's one boss in particular in the Fish Tank room near the end of the game that just made me want to put this series off altogether. The combat has potential, but I'd say it really needed some fine-tuning.
So I dreaded most enemy encounters due to how long and tedious they could be but I was also bored due to how the game is structured. The game has a prologue, 3 really long chapters and a short final chapter, it's not a very long game, it only took me around 7 hours to complete but it felt much longer. The Himuro Mansion isn't very big, so most chapters will have you revisiting the same rooms multiple times and visually, these rooms all look so samey. I didn't get lost because thankfully, the game's map feature is really good, but I was really bored and the uninteresting puzzles play a role in that since most of them just have you do rudimentary things like pushing blocks or inputting codes from a note and you do these same exact puzzles like 5 times each, it's mind-numbing.
It's really a shame that the game is such a slog to get through because I did like the eerie tone that the game had. It's reminiscent of the vibe that some of my favourite japanese horror films had like Cure, Pulse and Dark Water but any immersion I could've had was murdered by how dull I found the game to be.
The game's sound design is another area that I feel could've done with some polishing. As a whole, it's much more low-key than I expected, even when there is a ghost in the room, the sounds that the game makes to alert the player are very subtle. I guess the intention was how it potentially leads to scenarios where a player isn't aware of a ghosts presence until they're in super close proximity to them. That's freaky, but it gets thrown out the window when you realize the game has an indicator in the bottom right corner that indicates an enemy is in the room when it flashes orange. I wish the game didn't have this and only relied on sound to highlight a ghost being in the area but it doesn't so the end result is sound design that I feel is downplayed and not very effective in evoking a sense of dread (though there are some highlights).
I do quite like the story, I did enjoy reading the supplementary material to learn about the Blinding Ritual, Demon Tag and Strangling Ritual and the ending was really bittersweet which I did not see coming, but even though I enjoyed the plot, I can't say the same for the game as a whole. It's not awful, it's just underwhelming in most areas but I'm still interested in how future entries build on this one.