moukies
7 reviews liked by moukies
The score-based photography-combat system is engaging without putting a damper on the atmosphere, tension, or resource management of a legitimately scary survival-horror. Probably the high point of the series.
Much like Fatal Frame 1, enjoyment of this game is completely dependent on how much you enjoy atmosphere compared to the other aspects of a videogame.
The story this time around is quite literally what "Fatal Frame 2" sounds like: it's Fatal Frame, but everything is a two instead of one lol. It's almost the same exact story, except that instead of one sacrifice, we have two. Instead of one main character, there's two. Instead of one manor, we have two main ones and a few smaller houses orbiting it. They really invested heavily in this theme of twinhood, and it is an interesting concept, though the rest of the story is a bit too derivative of the story of FF1.
The main motivator throughout the game is rescuing your sister, and seeing the progression of that plotline while being introduced to the past history of the village and how it affects both you and her is very engaging.
As I mentioned earlier, instead of taking place in one large RE1-styled mansion, this game takes place in a small village where you get to explore every building and some outdoors areas. To me, this felt like a trade-off that didn't fully realize it's potential: it abandoned the interconnectivity of the first game's map in favor of a more varied setting, but no area in the whole town packs the atmosphere that the first manor had, and all of them felt a little incomplete and a bit too small. It also meant that backtracking (something this game has aplenty, much akin to FF1) is all the more frustrating.
Environmental storytelling is good and very immersive, with you often times seeing ghosts and then reading about how they died and in which way. Journal entries and recordings are a good read/listen and act both as a break for the pacing and an enhancer for the immersion. Good stuff, I definitely recommend checking them all out while playing. On the other hand, it's been a few months since I completed this game and I don't remember any puzzle whatsoever, so I guess they were really unmemorable for some reason.
The combat is good. First-person movement is great for a PS2 game of that era, and it feels surprisingly fun and arcadey to mess around with your camera settings and different types of films. In FF1, you did more damage by holding the ghost inside of the reticle for longer, but this time around you do more damage the closer you get, regardless of how long you've been trailing the ghost for. Both systems have their merits and cons, but this one felt more fluid to me.
My main gripe with this game, which was also a problem I had with the first FF but it's even stronger this time around, is that this game simply isn't scary at all. It's not scary when you're running solo, and it's even less so when you're tagging along with your sister. Companions in horror games always make the game less scary because they eliminate the feeling of solitude, like Maria in SH2, Eileen in SH4 and Ashley in RE4, and in this game you play around half of it with her by your side.
The graphics are great, and I strongly recommend you to play this game with the undub patch that puts the original Japaneses voices in alongside fanmade subtitles. Not only are they much better all-around, but the very final scene has one spine-chilling performance in the Japanese version that got annihilated in the dub. One of the most intense vocal performances I've seen in any game, plus that ending song is fantastic.
Fatal Frame 2 is a short, non-scary experience with great atmosphere (though a bit of a step-down from FF1), great graphics and gameplay, unmemorable puzzles, tedious and downright irritating backtracking and a story that is engaging to follow but conceptually too close to the story of FF1. It's still not up-there with the quality of the classic RE and SH titles, but I'm excited to experience the other games in the series.
The story this time around is quite literally what "Fatal Frame 2" sounds like: it's Fatal Frame, but everything is a two instead of one lol. It's almost the same exact story, except that instead of one sacrifice, we have two. Instead of one main character, there's two. Instead of one manor, we have two main ones and a few smaller houses orbiting it. They really invested heavily in this theme of twinhood, and it is an interesting concept, though the rest of the story is a bit too derivative of the story of FF1.
The main motivator throughout the game is rescuing your sister, and seeing the progression of that plotline while being introduced to the past history of the village and how it affects both you and her is very engaging.
As I mentioned earlier, instead of taking place in one large RE1-styled mansion, this game takes place in a small village where you get to explore every building and some outdoors areas. To me, this felt like a trade-off that didn't fully realize it's potential: it abandoned the interconnectivity of the first game's map in favor of a more varied setting, but no area in the whole town packs the atmosphere that the first manor had, and all of them felt a little incomplete and a bit too small. It also meant that backtracking (something this game has aplenty, much akin to FF1) is all the more frustrating.
Environmental storytelling is good and very immersive, with you often times seeing ghosts and then reading about how they died and in which way. Journal entries and recordings are a good read/listen and act both as a break for the pacing and an enhancer for the immersion. Good stuff, I definitely recommend checking them all out while playing. On the other hand, it's been a few months since I completed this game and I don't remember any puzzle whatsoever, so I guess they were really unmemorable for some reason.
The combat is good. First-person movement is great for a PS2 game of that era, and it feels surprisingly fun and arcadey to mess around with your camera settings and different types of films. In FF1, you did more damage by holding the ghost inside of the reticle for longer, but this time around you do more damage the closer you get, regardless of how long you've been trailing the ghost for. Both systems have their merits and cons, but this one felt more fluid to me.
My main gripe with this game, which was also a problem I had with the first FF but it's even stronger this time around, is that this game simply isn't scary at all. It's not scary when you're running solo, and it's even less so when you're tagging along with your sister. Companions in horror games always make the game less scary because they eliminate the feeling of solitude, like Maria in SH2, Eileen in SH4 and Ashley in RE4, and in this game you play around half of it with her by your side.
The graphics are great, and I strongly recommend you to play this game with the undub patch that puts the original Japaneses voices in alongside fanmade subtitles. Not only are they much better all-around, but the very final scene has one spine-chilling performance in the Japanese version that got annihilated in the dub. One of the most intense vocal performances I've seen in any game, plus that ending song is fantastic.
Fatal Frame 2 is a short, non-scary experience with great atmosphere (though a bit of a step-down from FF1), great graphics and gameplay, unmemorable puzzles, tedious and downright irritating backtracking and a story that is engaging to follow but conceptually too close to the story of FF1. It's still not up-there with the quality of the classic RE and SH titles, but I'm excited to experience the other games in the series.
Bayonetta 2
2014
"Bayo 2 exists just for Bayo 1 to be better than it already is."
The combat relying on its witch time mechanic this time around to perform combos or damage/stagger at all even on medium weighted enemies sucks a lot of ass, the enemies are extremely horrendous in terms of gameplay design where they just dodge everything, have horrendous telegraphing cues on the animations, it just does not mesh well. This really upsets me considering how much Kamiya and Platinum valued these points of their games, and just become completely betrayed.
As flawed as the combat is compared to the first I do like it still (albeit less when I replayed it), I like seeing some of Bayo's subtle character development throughout I think it's pretty cute from the first, and I do adore the additions of Younger Balder and Loki, think they're great I love their interactions and the way they all bounce off one another is so dope.
The visuals are a step up too, but the first game is much better still all around.
The story isn't as compelling in it's second half and kinda is bleh with loptor at the end was underwhelming to me, I like that the first was more mysterious but ramped up at the end once Bayo started figuring out who she was is WAY more interesting compared to here, I think she was a much more complex character in 1 then here. Jeanne had a much more interesting role in my honest opinion in 1, this time around here they kinda wasted her not showing her interact with the other cast members besides Bayo. Some pretty wasted potential there but hey whatever. I enjoyed seeing that after the 1st game she seems more relaxed after knowing who she is and having Jeanne back as her homie and being able to get close to her again since the end of their teen years is nice. I like their relationship alot in the games, I think it's well developed and honestly? Real asf. You can tell Cereza, Luka and the gang have made her warm up to others more instead of distancing herself off from new people in her life.
I do love this game to a degree. But as I sit on it I notice the holes more throughout, wish Kamiya had more involvement here instead of being a supervisor.
Hope 3 expands more than what this one couldn't with Kamiya coming in as Executive Director this time around.
https://youtu.be/6jIQkohrSvQ
Yuzu goat
I love Bayonetta
Best waifu
7/10
The combat relying on its witch time mechanic this time around to perform combos or damage/stagger at all even on medium weighted enemies sucks a lot of ass, the enemies are extremely horrendous in terms of gameplay design where they just dodge everything, have horrendous telegraphing cues on the animations, it just does not mesh well. This really upsets me considering how much Kamiya and Platinum valued these points of their games, and just become completely betrayed.
As flawed as the combat is compared to the first I do like it still (albeit less when I replayed it), I like seeing some of Bayo's subtle character development throughout I think it's pretty cute from the first, and I do adore the additions of Younger Balder and Loki, think they're great I love their interactions and the way they all bounce off one another is so dope.
The visuals are a step up too, but the first game is much better still all around.
The story isn't as compelling in it's second half and kinda is bleh with loptor at the end was underwhelming to me, I like that the first was more mysterious but ramped up at the end once Bayo started figuring out who she was is WAY more interesting compared to here, I think she was a much more complex character in 1 then here. Jeanne had a much more interesting role in my honest opinion in 1, this time around here they kinda wasted her not showing her interact with the other cast members besides Bayo. Some pretty wasted potential there but hey whatever. I enjoyed seeing that after the 1st game she seems more relaxed after knowing who she is and having Jeanne back as her homie and being able to get close to her again since the end of their teen years is nice. I like their relationship alot in the games, I think it's well developed and honestly? Real asf. You can tell Cereza, Luka and the gang have made her warm up to others more instead of distancing herself off from new people in her life.
I do love this game to a degree. But as I sit on it I notice the holes more throughout, wish Kamiya had more involvement here instead of being a supervisor.
Hope 3 expands more than what this one couldn't with Kamiya coming in as Executive Director this time around.
https://youtu.be/6jIQkohrSvQ
Yuzu goat
I love Bayonetta
Best waifu
7/10
Smash just isn't for me, I acknowledge the impact that it's had on the fighting game industry. I know that "everyone's here" but I could care less about most of the franchises in here.
Bring back mortal kombat chess god damn it
Devil May Cry
2001
Will always stand and say this game has the most cleverly designed Campaign in the series, given how interactable the environments or levels are. Their so much more complex than just 'verses'. Take the chase sequence from Phantom or Shadow in the hallways, the atmosphere links itself to the environment and gives you interesting interactions. Do you want to be rewarded, and kill the enemy there, or run away and not risk it? Or simple things, like ricocheting attacks from the dragon statue's beam. Alot of these gimmicks give this game an interesting legacy that is very much missing from the others.
I feel it has the perfect balance with its enemy/combat design by giving you freedom on how to play, but pushing you with the complex enemy behaviors too. The game's combat is more simplified compared to other later entries, yes, but each attack feels like it has more meaning, and weight to them. Take Roundtrip for example, in all the other entries you wouldn't really use it because its more for flashiness, here due to the more weight each and every attack has due to a more limited moveset, it feels more necessary. Alastor/Vortex itself as a technique gives you tons of mobility be it by air, or the ground and the guns have really interesting knockback quirks that it's enough to stand on its own. Other games in the series really aren't the same as it and I really appreciate it for that.
I feel it has the perfect balance with its enemy/combat design by giving you freedom on how to play, but pushing you with the complex enemy behaviors too. The game's combat is more simplified compared to other later entries, yes, but each attack feels like it has more meaning, and weight to them. Take Roundtrip for example, in all the other entries you wouldn't really use it because its more for flashiness, here due to the more weight each and every attack has due to a more limited moveset, it feels more necessary. Alastor/Vortex itself as a technique gives you tons of mobility be it by air, or the ground and the guns have really interesting knockback quirks that it's enough to stand on its own. Other games in the series really aren't the same as it and I really appreciate it for that.
Extra chapter made Bayonetta 3 shitty ending less shitty