Happy 18th anniversary to Fatal Frame III: The Tormented. The timing of this review was purely coincidental!
Iconic as Crimson Butterfly is, this one, for me, takes the cake. I found the SH4-esque home setting to have the most unnerving scares (the feet!); the story does a good job of intertwining characters from previous games into a new and engaging story predominantly about the three G’s: Guilt, Grief and… Ghosts. The characters and environments radiate more depth and detail than before - the ghost faces are terrifying up close. The utterly timeless gameplay mechanic of the camera obscura remains unchanged, but if it ain’t broke…
A couple of gripes keep this from the full 5 stars. The level design can sometimes appear samey - I enjoyed getting familiar with the layout and navigating the various hidden passageways but sometimes it’s hard remembering which brown, washed out room is which, making for a lot of frustrating back and forth. The enemy boss fights overlap a delicate line between satisfyingly challenging and just plain annoying - those fucking flying Priestess Girls UGH.
But even at its most testing, the strange atmosphere and PS2 charm kept me coming back. And even now upon completing the game I find the urge to revisit the Mansion of Sleep and uncover numerous secrets I will have missed. I myself have become tormented.
Iconic as Crimson Butterfly is, this one, for me, takes the cake. I found the SH4-esque home setting to have the most unnerving scares (the feet!); the story does a good job of intertwining characters from previous games into a new and engaging story predominantly about the three G’s: Guilt, Grief and… Ghosts. The characters and environments radiate more depth and detail than before - the ghost faces are terrifying up close. The utterly timeless gameplay mechanic of the camera obscura remains unchanged, but if it ain’t broke…
A couple of gripes keep this from the full 5 stars. The level design can sometimes appear samey - I enjoyed getting familiar with the layout and navigating the various hidden passageways but sometimes it’s hard remembering which brown, washed out room is which, making for a lot of frustrating back and forth. The enemy boss fights overlap a delicate line between satisfyingly challenging and just plain annoying - those fucking flying Priestess Girls UGH.
But even at its most testing, the strange atmosphere and PS2 charm kept me coming back. And even now upon completing the game I find the urge to revisit the Mansion of Sleep and uncover numerous secrets I will have missed. I myself have become tormented.