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.
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.