I knew playing this game after playing FFV would have a negative impact, and it did to an extent, but I did end up enjoying this game, probably even a little more than I thought I would.

Clearly a prototype for FFV in almost every way (from the job system and combat/ to the story and characters) it was clear that they were starting to get on the right path but not quite there yet. Still there's plenty to enjoy here. Even though the job system can't compare with V, it's still fun and I'd take it over whatever the heck that was in II. They do attempt a story here, and while it's basic, it's an improvement over FF1. Cid is back, and is a goat as always.

The music might be the least memorable for me out of any FF game I've played yet so that's a bummer.

There are a couple of frustrating sections in the game (the splitting up enemies can eat my fucking ass), but overall it's a fun game, and I'm glad I played it.

I'm really excited to get into IV and VI next, as I hear these are the games. It'll be interesting to see how they hold up.

"Yeah, I've been in love. Yeah, I've been in love... I've been in love, I mean.. that's what... yeah."
- The Hulk


This is one of these 10/10s where like, speaking as a game entirely, dunno if I'd give it a 10 but objectivity is for posers. I loved this shit for all its quirks and all, kind of like the rough headed dumbo boy at the core of this game. Game's got heart like our boy on his love quest as he grows into a young man from helping out the people in his town to prove he's a suitable boy for the girl of his dreams.

Real shit tho I would've gotten turbo filtered if I didn't fuckin use a guide so, shouts out GameFAQS.

Being young's about a lot of things y'know? Love being one of em, finding your happiness in the world and maturing into a headstrong individual in spite of all the unhappiness around you.

Also, lots and lots of hardships, especially when you're livin' in poverty like our lil guy up front. Shows up to town and just cause he's poor everyone thinks he's up to no good when he's just tryna make it. Accurate as fuck to the real world, but our main boy is idealistic in a frankly cynical world, going up and beyond to show his people that they deserve help, making bonds along the way with peeps of all walks of life.

The fact that all the Underground Residents are outsiders who are only allowed to be out at certain times despite keeping the entire infrastructure of the city going really hits home. Which is why doing the kisses is real sweet, like you’re indulging in someone else’s interest and showing them that it’s chill and people can actually like ‘em.

Game's got some heavy hittin' emotional beats too, I ended up kissing everyone (which was a cute lil way of showing the boy's solidarity with the people of his town) and for a lot of the important NPCs, their plots had lots of pretty resonant moments, shouts out to Leo and Zombie Mika especially. Bonding with the Girl's parents was cute too, also shouts out the Funny Bone City/Batayan's arc.

Other than that though, this game got vibes and chill moments for days, paying attention to everyone's schedules and catching them at different moments, bondin' over shit while you do their individual questlines. Discovering all the other weirdos living underground in squalor, reminded me of moments when I was younger having to figure out shit to do with my friends all while realizing we might've only had like 8 bucks between us, some real class solidarity goin on. Also a whole lotta real ass moments occurred like me setting my alarm an hour late and missing the bus multiple times which was a minor frustration but it totally made the goofy kid simulator even more realistic.

Totally cute talking with the Girl as the game went on, stargazing with her all while playing coy about how you gotta prove yourself to not be some dumb punk and actually a good guy, makes that ending sweet as fuck, pure lovey dovey cuteness. Would def make me cry on the right day.

Loved this lil game, all about having nothing in your life but the love in your heart as you keep goin' til you can finally find happiness.

There's this inexplicable phenomenon in cinema where an undeniably horrible film will end up being loved by a devoted following in part because it's so terrible. It's what's responsible for the old saying "so bad, it's good," and might be the only medium of entertainment where such a thing is truly possible. The closest approximation we've had in gaming is Deadly Premonition, which managed to overcome its various faults and deficiencies to earn itself a strong reputation as a well-respected flawed masterpiece due to the strength of its charmingly quirky vision and writing. That's what was I hoping to get out of NightCry, but while seemingly all the right (wrong?) elements were in place they never came together to create something as endearing.

At first glance this looks like an old-school PS2 era horror throwback what with its fixed camera angles and awkward controls (O is select and X is back for some inexplicable reason), but in reality it's more of a point-and-click adventure title. Which makes sense when you consider that it's coming from Hifumi Kono with the intention of serving as a spiritual successor to his legendary Clock Tower series. In a similar manner to the games it is taking direct inspiration from, there are a lot of unique ideas in regards to how players can influence the narrative and its outcomes. Unfortunately, the apparent lack of technical proficiency from the team at Nude Maker prevents any of them from ever taking off, and I'm not just talking about how the graphics are ugly as sin or the whole thing is riddled with bizarre, frustrating bugs and glitches either. There are some genuine issues with their actual implementation that don't allow them to live up to their interesting potential.

Case in point, you do ANYTHING to deviate from the path of key actions that lead to the true conclusion and the story will come to an abrupt, anticlimactic end out of nowhere. You'll be left baffled on top of unfulfilled when this happens since the expectations placed on you in this regard are sometimes painfully undefined. Entire crucial processes can be missed completely because you didn't somehow magically intuit that you, say, needed to loot a cash register near the start of the game for quarters to use at a very specific vending machine in order to collect the wedding ring off the severed hand that comes out in place of a soda (yeah, a lot of weird stuff happens...) so that it can be given to a character hidden away in the back of a previously visited room several chapters later. The flowchart style screen you'll visit to pick up where you left off or revisit an earlier section that chronicles your progress offers vague hints on what the main tasks necessary to stay on the right track are, but no insight on what must be done to actually accomplish them. How anyone was supposed to figure any of this out without resorting to a walkthrough I have no idea, and I'm fully convinced that most of the people you'll see with a more positive outlook on NightCry only have such an opinion because they used one to bypass experiencing the inherently irritating aspects of its design.

Flaws don't only put a damper on the developer's loftier, more ambitious mechanics however, but the moment-to-moment gameplay as well. There's a ridiculously awful element of trial and error to things. Hope you enjoy instantly dying upon entering a room because you didn't know you were supposed to turn on your phone's flashlight or make a post on the in-game social media app (an action that's required of you maybe only twice, if that) beforehand. The chase sequences that comprise the majority of the action sequences outside of the occasional QTE are exciting in theory as you have no traditional means of defending yourself, forcing you find a hiding spot or tool to temporarily fend off your pursuer, but do little to instill an air of tension once you realize the killer's appearances are entirely scripted after the first level. By far the most tedious problem though is that you often have to interact with people or objects multiple times in a row to progress. I get that's not unheard of for this genre, but I bet the majority of them didn't force you to sit through a loading screen following every click.

Going back to the analogy I began this review with, when it comes to cult classic disasterpiece movies you'd be hard pressed to find one of more renown than Tommy Wiseau's The Room, which lives on in a sort of ironically celebrated infamy that still drives rowdy crowds to midnight screenings for a bit of energetic mockery during the viewing. NightCry may just be the video game equivalent. Like the aforementioned cinematic travesty, it's too bad to legitimately recommend, but if you were to pick it up regardless you'd certainly uncover plenty to laugh at. The plot is so full of holes and missing information that it makes an almost comical lack of sense, and you can be killed in a number of absurdly hilarious ways (death by flying babydoll, anyone?). The save system, sadly the best feature, even makes it relatively easy to witness every goofy, jank, or downright broken inch of this mess for the platinum trophy. The hours it will take from your life however, are likely better spent elsewhere.

4/10

TL;DR
I have quite a few issues with the clunky movement and a few of the gimmicks introduced; but for the most part it's quite a solid horror experience still. I would still easily consider this the "worst" game in the Fatal Frame series. However, seeing how it's mostly detached from the rest of the games' stories, this is actually a decent starting point. If this is your first Fatal Frame game, then things only go up from here.

Details:
Fatal Frame 5 is mostly pretty ok. There were quite a few really well-done, really unnerving sections. My first time visiting the Shrine of Dolls and Womb Cavern were incredibly spooky. Also the Unfathomable Forest is always suitably dark, oppressive, and unpredictable; it's a great setting. The sound design is pretty good, and it really elevates this game.

Unfortunately, the characters were all....REALLY uninteresting. I really had no personal or emotional investment in any of the characters except for Miu since her mom is Miku, the character from the first game. However, I did really enjoy the backstory of what happened on the mountain and the rituals that the villagers practiced, setting all this in motion. Piecing together the horrible things that happened has always been one of my favorite aspects of these games.

The gameplay was pretty serviceable. If you've played a Fatal Frame game, you basically know what to expect at this point, aside from the few new things. The general combat and encounters felt pretty good to play and were often tense. Just make sure if you're using a controller, to turn up that camera sensitivity (in-game AND Camera Obscura) a fair bit.

Unfortunately, the movement controls feel incredibly clunky, way clunkier than I remember the other games' movement feeling. There's a few short instances where the Maiden of Black Water will chase you, and if you touch her then it's an immediate game over and you have to restart the chase sequence. The first time it wasn't bad because she was almost always behind you. However, the second time this happens, she teleports AHEAD of you, and with the very clunky movement controls, you will find yourself running into her instead of deftly sidestepping like you feel like you should've. However, despite the clunky movement controls, doing a dodge always feels quite reliable, I assume it gives you a good handful of i-frames or something because this game runs at like 25-30 FPS on Switch.

Furthermore, opening doors is so fucking slow and drawn out. This is done for the sake of suspense, but they only ever actually capitalize on it ONCE and it's not until way late into the game. There's also the item pick-up gimmick where a disembodied ghost-hand can grab you, but it got old after the third or fourth time. Every time after that, it was just a nuisance.

Also if you accidentally find yourself backed into a corner by 3+ ghosts, get ready to get stun-locked for a good 30 seconds or so. This happened to me only twice, but god was it frustrating. One time I kept getting chain-grabbed. I'd get grabbed, do a counter-shot, and IMMEDIATELY get grabbed by another ghost that was on-top of me.

I will say though that the Spirit Photography of "bonus" ghosts was a huge highlight for me, like in the other games. Sometimes NOT having something to fight is scarier; seeing something watching you, passing you by, or even leading you some place is better horror than another ghost ambush. They really help build the creepy atmosphere wherever you are and are a constant reminder that no matter how alone you seem to be, you're actually not alone, and that's way scarier in this case. The "Fatal Glance" mechanic was also neat too. Getting a few vague tidbits of lore via a grainy VHS cutscene from touching a defeated enemy is really good & spooky.

Another complaint: this game's camera upgrade system REEKS compared to the first three games. Everything costs so many more points to upgrade, and you have TWO cameras to upgrade this time around on top of that. I know this is mostly to encourage replaying the missions on Nightmare difficulty, but honestly I do not want to fuck with that, and it kinda hurts the overall feeling of progress in terms of camera strength.

Last thing: the Ayane DLC missions were kinda boring. It's a damned good thing there's only four of her missions and that they're as short as they are. Her magic flashlight gimmick and the """stealth""" would not have lasted beyond another mission or two because of how half-baked and boring it feels. KT forcing Fatal Frame to share a universe with Nioh/Ninja Gaiden/DOA seems kind of unnecessary. Ayane's hot though I guess, so there's that?

Edit According to the Fatal Frame wiki, in a Siliconera interview, this DLC with Ayane was added at Nintendo's behest. So for some reason, Nintendo really wanted DOA representation in Fatal Frame?

A very good game, but it's not the best fatal frame game. The game was a lot more linear, didn't have ANY mini puzzles, and the survival part of the survival horror isn't really important.

But, the game isn't bad. It has very likable characters, an interesting plot, beatuiful graphics, and some of the best combat fatal frame has seen yet.

As this is Fatal Frame 5, it is much suggested not to start with this game, and to at least play fatal frame 1 first, as there are a large amount of references to that as well as returning characters.

Overall I'll give it a 4/5 because I really liked it, but I am somewhat sad to know that the gameplay of getting lost until you eventually find the door the key is for is gone.

I hope that someday, koei tecmo will release a 6th entry, even if it's in this style. This franchise is so awesome.

When I think of Skyward Sword, my first thought isn't the surprisingly good story, solid dungeons, cool new crafting system, fun new gadgets, or the great visuals and soundtrack. No, when I think of Skyward Sword, I think of how much the motion controls fucking sucked, how boring it eventually was to fly around the huge empty sky world, and how stressful those awful stealth sections were.

Everything I listed that I love with the game I fully stand behind - it's got some truly fantastic stuff that no other Zelda before it had, but the game is brought down pretty heavily by the motion controls and empty open world. Seriously how do you make flying around on a big bird boring.

If you haven't played this and you want to know what it's like, go watch the Mega64 Skyward Sword video. This is the only Zelda game I can confidently say that I had a bad time playing. (Still 100%'d it though)