Gameitall I just realized something, we’re only 7 days away from Halloween. Time to bust out some games that will scare the S**t out of you.
And Just for good Measure.
For Tonight’s Tale of Horror, I will introduce you to a sweet tale about two twin sisters, finding a mysterious camera and a ritual to keep the gates of hell sealed. in FATAL FRAME 2: THE CRIMSON BUTTERFLY.
Fatal Frame II starts out innocently enough, you play as Mio and her twin sister Mayu, playing in the woods at a spot that they used to play in as kids. That is until Mayu (who walks with a limp after a childhood accident that Mio blames herself for) runs deeper into the woods chasing a red butterfly.
Of course this is where the Innocence ends, as Mio and Mayu gets trapped in a place called the Lost Village, a village that was wiped from the map, for unexplained reasons. Soon Mio and Mayu finds out that the town is actually a ‘Ghost Town’ and a event called the Repentance shrouded the village in darkness. As Mayu falls deeper into the village’s spell, it’s up to Mio, armed with a camera that allows her steal the souls of the ghosts of the town.
The gameplay to Fatal Frame 2 is very simular to that of the older Resident Evil while you are exploring the Lost Village. Done though well placed cameras to scare you while you moving along the corridors, and rooms of the shrines. This is where it gets it’s cheep scares by avoiding the over the shoulder view in favor of ones that can show up stairs and around corners, showing slow moving ghost and objects in order for you to follow the path. Also like Resident Evil, you’ll spend allot of time looking for keys or trying to open doors that don’t budge (a staple of any Survival Horror game.)
What make it really stand out though is the combat. As I mentioned above, the only weapon Mio has to protect herself is the Camera Obscura. A old time camera that takes photos of creatures not on our plain of existence, like Ghosts. Combat is done though the view finder of the camera, and the game rewards you for last minute photos, centering, and face shots (like head shot but them staring into your soul.) The more like a perfect picture or action picture it is, the more damage you will do to the spirit.
It takes allot to steal a soul, and sometimes need to use multiple shots in order to capture a soul. For this the game allows you to upgrade your camera to bring out more speed and power, and gives you different type of film to change up the pace.
Graphically, the game is dark, and but for being a game that came out at the mid life of both the PS2 and Xbox, it still holds up quite well, I suspect because of that reason. Sound effects play a big role with creaking floorboards, the camera picking up a spirit, and other sound effects add to the environment. The Voice acting however, for the first 2 acts is pretty bad, it starts picking up near the end when it really matters however.
This game is as unique as it can get for the survival horror genre. Taking cues from Japanese ghost horror flicks like The Grudge and The Ring, with the huge difference of the game actually being scary thanks to the cheep scares and tense combat situations. It’s 4 different ending can leave you coming back for more.
Fatal Frame II: The Crimson Butterfly gets a 8/10
Pros: Tense Combat, Original, Great story, Scary
Cons: Bad Voice acting, Fast rising Difficulty curve.
