CLASSIC GAMING
Fatal Frame/Project Zero
Developer:  Tecmo
Publisher:  Tecmo
Genre:  Survival Horror
Year:  2002
System:  Playstation 2, Xbox

Horror can only be as frightening as the media it is presented in.  Books have no boundaries except your own imagination.  TV and Movies allow the unimaginative to experience a hopefully accurate idea of someone's horror, and videogames allow you to interact with the horror.
Horror games are underrated by those outside of the gaming community when the very interactivity of games gives it the most frightening presence if done well, and of course the game must rely partly on how much you fear whatever the main source of its horror is.
Those panicky about zombies lose their shit in Raccoon City.  I with my fear of ghosts lose shit completely in Himuro Mansion.

Story - Himuro Mansion, an old ruined Japanese place once the site of many horrific Shintoist rituals as well as various mysterious deaths, has become the unwilling destination for Miku, who is searching for her brother Mafuyu, who is searching for his mentor Takamine turning into a string of doomed cast members quicker than Friday the 13th with half the acting talent.
Miku finds within the mansion a powerful old box camera called the Camera Obscura, which her brother borrowed from their mom to defend himself against any unfriendly spirits, but since he's left it lying around, it's now Miku's only weapon to uncover the truths of the dreaded Himuro residence in a twisting timeless tale of rituals, the loss of love and creepy creepy ghosts, especially one named Kirie, the very source of all that has gone to hell within this forsaken cursed mansion.


Graphics - Tecmo are famous as the makers of the breastacular Dead or Alive series but thankfully instead of the obvious route of ghost boobies to give you an ethereal melonslap at every corner, those graphics were put into other better uses like actually good faces for 2002 graphics and wood that actually looks like wood instead of a badly painted brown plastic fence that's meant to look like wood.
Like its rival Silent Hill 2, Fatal Frame's graphics are given the utmost care into still looking good for the very sake of atmosphere to suck you deeper in.  Even the ghosts while classically spectral grey are a frightening sight to behold (unless you absolutely ain't afraid of no ghosts and even then I highly doubt that).  And if the makers of this game can make big-bra-beat-em-ups look awesome, why not flat-chested horror?  But seriously the graphics have aged as well as Silent Hill 2 has, right down to the scratchy film effect the game sometimes does whenever a ghost is nearby just for the extra panic.

Gameplay - The game relies entirely on the Camera Obscura as an exorcism tool with the ghosts.  Whenever a ghost is nearby, you just point at them and take a picture right?  Well mostly yes, it's really that simple.  But where the fun lies is damaging them.  There are basically three things you'll be photographing.
Trapped spirits which are basically just images hidden away like secrets to collect, wandering spirits who are really just plot markers to show you the way, and vengeful spirits who want to hurt you.  The vengeful ones take up the main meat of the gameplay as in order to deal real damage to the ghosts you have to wait for a Zero Shot, which is when a ghost is just about to attack you and the blue circular lock-on lens of the camera turns orange.  Now this is not necessary except for a few very tough ghosts near the end of the game, but it does deal way more damage and pushes the ghosts away from you.


The camera's "ammo" is film of course, with four different kinds.  The more rarer the film the more powerful.  However that does not necessarily mean you should conserve your ammo for the game has very nicely allowed recharge points to reobtain 30 clips of the weakest film type should you only run out of the weakest film (so if you wanna keep flashing the camera at the ghosts like the paparazzi, do it with the weak film).
The film can be restored at certain save points which are little shrines with a blue light that are usually BUT NOT ALWAYS safe places that ghosts won't be in the area of.  The save points also have an album option to save any particular ghoulish snapshots you want to keep.


Another part of the game is the somewhat offsetting point system whereby you gain points for not only taking pictures of wandering spirits and trapped spirits, but also good battle shots with the vengeful spirits such as Zero Shots and such.  While you may think this is some pointless arbitrary high score system, it DOES have a use in that the points can be used to upgrade your camera, giving it new abilities to make things easier in Himuro Mansion, such as more speed with the camera, more range or powers that can freeze ghosts, reveal them anywhere they are in the area and so forth.
But the point system may be ignored by some for the fact that the use of the camera adds a clever little bit to the fear you may experience.  See, you look through a camera and you only see the front through that camera.  What if another ghost is behind you, or a wall that'll trap you before the advancing malevolent banshee?  The claustrophobia will set in everytime you use the camera when you're practically blind to anything that's not in front of you and it doesn't help that the mansion has mostly cluttered dilapidated rooms and hallways only the width of Miku herself.
You might argue that games like F.E.A.R and Doom can be given that same argument as well but at least in those games you were a hardened soldier, not the little college girl of Fatal Frame.

Now onto how the ghosts affect you, dear junior exorcists.  You have a health bar like anyone else only that after a while various attacks will do varying amounts of damage, right up to when later in the game ghosts can even do FATAL attacks on you.  However there are ways to prevent this.  You can heal yourself partly with herbal medicine or fully with sacred water, as well as having a phoenix down, or rather a stone mirror which allows your health to be fully recovered if you lose all of it, but you can only carry ONE stone mirror at a time.  So yeah you better watch yourself in this place.
Oh and ghosts can also do some nasty stuff like paralyse you or blind you temporarily, as well as each one having different tactics and signature Zero Shot moments, and there's the fact that just because you beat a ghost, doesn't mean it's gone forever, and the only way to know this is after the battle.
If it turns into a small blue spectral ball that bursts, you'll fight it again.  If it becomes a small blue wispy flame, you have soundly defeated that particular spirit and it shall never bother you again, and even leaves you a tidbit of info.  Oh and try not to wander around in one place for too long because there are random ghosts that just love to ambush you and piss your film away.
But you will be rewarded with adding that ghost into the Ghost List which records every spirit you've fully captured with your camera.


Music/Sound - Most of the music is pure atmosphere, nothing more than very creepy howling winds and the odd shimmering sound.  But it serves its minimal purpose well in creating an atmosphere of a cursed abandoned place filled with the screams and tears of many victims.  There is little other music needed here.  Silent Hill's music was meant to reflect madness, abstract confusion and the surreal.  Fatal Frame's music reflects on abandonment, unrelinquished sorrow and the ethereal.
The only real problem of this game is the terribly dubbed voice actors which thankfully got cleared up a LOT in this game's sequel but nevertheless the flat voice acting can be a pain but is thankfully not heard often and the voice acting you do hear often, the ghosts, are sufficiently scary enough to make up for it.  Isn't it a shame when the undead can out-act you?

While everyone may not be as afraid of ghosts as myself, the Fatal Frame series deserves some mention as an underrated series of J-horror games, and while everyone may not like Ring or The Grudge for good reasons, Fatal Frame at least allows you to become part of the horror.
Because it curses you after you play it enough.  I think it's after 8 hours, the game just...gets into your head and you start seeing things people aren't meant to see...things of another plane of existence shifting in and out of reality getting closer and closer....I just know that I'm going to die today so I have to warn you for the love of Raptor Jesus-wa....no...no...no Kirie no!  NO YOU FUCKING JAPANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!

Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 2
Gameplay - 3
Presentation - 4



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Wow, fun review. Massive lulz were had. Makes me wish I had something that could play playstation games.

Holy fucking balls.



That shit looks awesome.

And yeah, we have PS3s all over th eplace here. Too bad it costs as much as rent does for me. I still have a goddamn speeding ticket to pay off, too =[

Can Europ Wiis play American discs, or are they regioned?

I thought Techmo ruined all their franchises with thier sequels?

I remember playing Techmo's deception...and thinking how fucking awesome it was.  Then they went and released teh second and third ones..completely changing around the gameplay and ruining it.