I'm a horror game fan, through and through. And I gotta say: it takes a lot to frighten me. Sure, Exorcist gave me a run for my money, true I got freaked out by the dogs jumping through the windows in Resident Evil, it's true that Silent Hill 2 made me uncomfortable when I beat it. But nothing, and I mean absolutely no movie or game, has ever given me the shakes quite like Fatal Frame does.
I can't really say that I've noticed a ton of differences between Fatal Frame games, I've played 1 & 2 on Xbox and 3 on PS2, and now 4 on Wii. It looks no different than the Xbox versions of yore, but it definitely looks better (although not a whole lot better) than the PS2 version of 3 that we got. The version that I have is a "patched" version that was modded to have English subtitles in it, the audio and some messages in the game are still in the original Japanese, but overall, the patch was wonderful. I was led to understand that this "mod" was done in conjunction with the Project Zero team, so I felt apt in my use of this mod. The story of this game was fairly formulaic for a Fatal Frame game, but a better one for the genre of Survival Horror on the whole. I honestly don't recall the names of ANYBODY in this game, due mostly to the Japanese names, but the story is about a group of girls abducted by a serial killer. Nothing surprising ever happened in the game, but the atmosphere and ghosts freaked me the hell out while I was playing.
Another odd occurrence that they brought back (that I didn't really enjoy the first time Tecmo implemented it) is the idea of multiple playable characters. But they did implement a control scheme/camera set-up more closely related to Resident Evil 4 & 5 than previous entries on the genre. I thought that was a nice way to tighten up the overall feel of the game, while the multiple characters was a move in the wrong direction. My problem with the multiple character approach (same goes for most other games) is that I feel a terrible disconnect from the game when I'm suddenly Madoka, when just a few minutes ago I as Ruka, or whatever the fuck their names are. I'm also always put off by characters in many Japanese games. I was uncomfortable with how attractive they made near prepubescent girls look in the previous titles, but this one was a bit more acceptable. The characters showed age a bit better. Except for the man! This guy looks like he's 20, but he's supposed to be a seasoned detective. I was unaware that you could be a seasoned detective before your liver goes out! But, yeah, wow. That Japanese are weird.
The new "Wii" controls are fairly intuitive. It's a hard system to describe, but it seems that they solved the drifting camera issues that I suffer from in other games. The motion/IR controller sticked to the up/down axis when not using the Camera Obscura and it turns into a straight up FPS style control when you are in control of the Camera Obscura. But the controls were extremely well worked out and very well set-up.
This game scared the hell out of me. The Fatal Frame games have always scared the hell out of me. And this one kind of ruined my night. I sat down with a bottle of wine (Bolla 2009 Pinot Grigio) and played the last few hours of the game tonight. I had to take a couple of breaks through the night to calm down, and unfortunately I was out of cigarettes and couldn't smoke, and was too scared to go to the corner store to get some. I mean these are scary, scary games. Anyone looking for a good, scary gaming experience should look into this series.
There's really not a whole lot more to say about this game. It's on par with previous titles in the series, it's probably the best true "Survival Horror" game released for the current generation of consoles. I wouldn't say it's a better game than Resident Evil 4 or 5, but it's definitely better than Obscure 2: The Aftermath, Silent Hill: The Homecoming, Alone in the Dark and most likely Deadly Premonition. Definitely worth a play for any horror enthusiast.
Note: This game was released solely in Japan. Unfortunately Nintendo felt that we should not be allowed to play this game on their system over here. I'm'a supporter of Homebrew software, as well as unlocked systems (regarding regions, as well as disc type), but I understand why the companies do what they do. In order to get this game to work on my system, it took me about four hours of tinkering and softmodding. I'm a little afraid that Goldeneye won't work on my system when it's released due to this modding, so, I should warn you to be aware of this. Also, you have to use all sorts of weird software mods and patches to get the game into English, and then you'll still have to burn it onto a disc, even if you own the original Japanese version. So, it's a headache to get to play, but it's well worth it!
Overall: 7/10
Pros: A new Fatal Frame game, great controls, scary as fucking hell, awesome audio
Cons: A pain in the ass to get it to play on US systems, graphics that don't impress compared to current standards, only released in Japan, scary as fucking hell
Play if you like: sleeping with the lights on, survival horror games, Japanese horror movies, tinkering with your system's "nand" or whatever the hell it's called
Edit: it turns out that I got my patch for the game from the wrong source: http://www.fatalframe4.net/ gives you an instant patch with no modding or burning. That wouldn've have saved me a lot of trouble, and made me alot happier to spend the $70 on the game. As if stands, the way I did it frustrated the hell out of me and I redact some of my complaints regarding the game.
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