Date Released: 27 November 2003
Date Played: 11 January 2022
Introduction:
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is the sequel to Tecmo's 2001 survival horror game, Fatal Frame. Although it is highly related to the first game in the series in both terms of atmosphere, gameplay, and lore, Fatal Frame II is its own separate story and requires no knowledge of the first title in order to fully enjoy. According to Wikipedia and several sources, many players were too frightened to finished the first game in the series so the Tecmo team toned down the difficulty on the sequel and even attempted to give it a more interesting story so that more players would have the courage to finish the game this time around. The game was a critical and commercial success and is considered by many to be the best game in the series and survival horror classic. Not only that, it's widely considered to be one of the scariest video games of all time.
Story:
Although it isn't a continuation of the first game in the series, Fatal Frame II follows the same basic storyline as the first game with a few variations. The game takes place in 1988 and you play as Mio who is visiting a favorite childhood town with her twin sister, Miyu, before it is destroyed by the construction of a dam. While exploring the woods of their youth, Miyo becomes entranced by a glowing butterfly and the two girls follow it to a mystical place called "All God's Village." As the two explore, they soon learn that the village was home to a terrible and grotesque event known as the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. In the past, the village was built over the hell gate and this sacrifice had to be performed once a decade in order to appease the evil spirits in the gate and save the town from destruction. Needless to say, something went wrong and the ritual failed. This left the village shrouded in darkness and obviously extremely haunted.
As you explore as Mio with Miyu in tow, you uncover journals that fill in the story and explain more about the ritual and its disturbing nature. In addition to that, you start having flashbacks of the previous events of the ritual that are extremely upsetting and horrifying. You quickly learn that the ritual requires a pair of twins to be sacrificed to appease the spirits. Being twins themselves, this doesn't bode well for the sisters. And, in an uncommon and surprisingly logical decision for a horror setting, Mio decides that they need to get out of the village right now. Unfortunately, Miyu is behaving strangely and seems possessed. As you can clearly see where this is going, Miyu wanders off and you have to rescue her.
At this point you're all alone as Mio and it's where the game really begins. You'll soon find yourself beset by a host of macabre and horrid spirits as you explore around the village and its houses trying to locate Miyu and uncover more of the history of the village and its previous inhabitants.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is exactly like it was in the first game and is the "gimmick" and hallmark of the Fatal Frame series. Instead of attacking spirits directly with a weapon, you instead find the Camera Obscura. It's an old timey camera that has the ability to exorcise spirits by photographing them. This, along with your flashlight and a handful of healing items, are really the only tools you have at your disposal for dealing with all of the spirits who are actively trying to kill you. Combat works by looking through the camera's viewfinder and photographing the spirit at the ideal time to deal damage. This ideal time is usually right as the spirit is directly in your face and about to attack so things can get tense quickly. Spending more time focusing on the spirit and letting them get closer will deal critical damage to the spirits and is essential to gameplay going so far to the point that certain spirits can only be harmed this way. These critical shots not only deal orders of magnitude of more damage, they also stun and send the spirits flying backwards and give you more time to line up your next shot. There is a glow bulb on the camera that gets brighter as you are aiming closer to a spirit and learning to master this is required of you because the spirits will hide, teleport, turn invisible, dodge, and perform any trick in the book to sneak in a hit on you. Doing well in combat will earn you more experience points and items to upgrade the strength of the Camera Obscura and its abilities. Additionally, there are different types of film that can be collected as you explore. These have different levels of effectiveness against the spirits in terms of damage dealt and reloading time. Some of the strongest films are very rare and you'll need to save them for the most dire situations. This also means you'll need to explore the environments of the game thoroughly to collect any film and healing items that may be hidden away and out of sight. This is a really great combat system that carries with it a great sense of risk versus reward and keeps the tension extremely high. Not only that, but looking through the camera's viewfinder puts the game into first person mode so the spirits really get right up into your face for maximum fear factor. You know what else happens when you view something in a first person view? You can't see what's behind you...
Outside of the combat, you'll be exploring the village in 3rd person view. It's the tried and true style of most survival horror games of the time with static camera shots from a series of cinematic and sometimes odd angles as your character moves through them. The tank controls of the early Resident Evil games are pleasantly absent from the Fatal Frame games, but there is still the inescapable issue of walking down a hallway, having the camera angle snap to the next location, which is in a different orientation, and having the direction you press with the analog stick get reversed and you end up running somewhere you didn't intend. It's a common occurrence in these sorts of games and should be expected if you know what you're getting in to. However, I will say that the juxtaposition of the camera angles in this game are more extreme and jarring than usual and it's very easy to get disoriented as the camera angles shift. I had a difficult time getting my bearings quite often and would constantly run in the wrong direction from where I was intending to go. This led to me constantly having to check my map to orient myself. Now, normally, I would say that doing this would interrupt the immersiveness of the experience and was a detriment to gameplay; but in the case of Fatal Frame II and it's extremely heavy and terrifying atmosphere... it was a welcome break and I didn't mind it as much.
As you continue to explore, you'll have to solve various puzzles, unlock doors, and find clues in order to continue your progress. These puzzles typically involve a door blocked by a spirit. You photograph it and it shows a location somewhere else that you have to find and photograph. Once you do that, the door will unlock and you can continue. This type of puzzle is unique to the series, and you'll encounter a fair number of them during your 10 or so hours for a first playthrough. The other types of puzzles are finding specific spirits that you have to destroy to get a key item (usually a literal key) to unlock another door blocking your way. These will oftentimes lead you to a puzzle where you have to make two statues face each other, or line up some spinning wheels to the correct positions, etc. These are still a fun and much needed staple of the genre and give you a reprieve from the tense gameplay. Sadly, there are a few times in the game where you're not given what I would consider to be enough information to really know how to proceed with advancing the story. For example, there's one section where you need to find a key with a bell on it. You encounter a spirit of a young girl in a white kimono shortly thereafter. As you see her, there is the audible clinking of a bell which leads you to believe that defeating her will give you the key. Unfortunately, after she's defeated, no such key is dropped. Apparently, what you're supposed to do is wander aimlessly around the giant house you're exploring while listening for a bell chime. Essentially, you're unknowingly playing a game of hide and seek with the girl's spirit. Ok.... fine. But, where it gets unreasonable is that you're supposed to do it FIVE TIMES. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. I would find the girl, defeat her, and nothing would happen. I had to look up a walkthrough to help me through this part. Needless to say, I'm not the only one who got stuck at this point.
In essence, it's the same sort of survival horror gameplay we all know and love. Other than the novel combat mechanic, there's little in the gameplay department to set it apart from the likes of Resident Evil or Silent Hill. And... that's a good thing.
Presentation:
Much like the Camera Obscura adds an interesting twist on the gameplay in the Fatal Frame series, the aesthetic choices also set it apart from its peers. Rather than have a typical haunted mansion or town set in the West, this series opts for a traditional Japanese setting with wood panel walls, tatami mats, and paper doors. This blends flawlessly with the Japanese horror setting of the game and makes the player feel like they are in even more strange and foreign environment. The oppressive greys and browns of the dilapidated wood walls and floors only serve to add more tension to the experience as the player has nothing familiar to cling to for comfort and the Japanese mysticism woven through story and décor only serves to increase this feeling of making the player feel out of their element and truly rounds out the whole experience. The graphics are quite good for a game of its time and while it does tiptoe around the uncanny valley in terms of character design, they at least appear crisp and well defined.
On top of the creepy visuals, you're also attacked by the game's magnificent sound design. There are a wide variety of moans, whispered threats, slamming objects, and spine-chilling laughs coming from the ghosts around you. It's all very unsettling and will make your skin crawl from time to time. In the segments where Miyu is following you, she'll often say odd and disturbing things that completely abate the tiny bit of solace you would normally get from not being alone. There isn't much comfort in not knowing if the person you're with might snap at any moment.
On top of all of this, there is a very creepy and ambient soundtrack that fits right along with all of the other terrifying aspects of the game. It can, at times, make your gameplay session a little too heavy and you'll be begging to find that next save point to take a break and recollect your nerves. These save points were a masterstroke of genius as when you activate them, they play an epic and sweeping song that has almost no element of being dark and sinister. It's honestly more gorgeous and uplifting than anything else, and can be exactly what the player needs to have their spirits lifted just enough to keep playing for a little longer. I have to hand it to the designers because this was such an incredibly good idea and I wish more games did something like this to motivate the player.
As for the character and enemy design, I feel like it's a bit of a mixed bag. The spirits are mostly all well designed and frightening with a good amount of thought put into them. But, there are often the occasional fights against the ghost of your average dead villager with a sickle that pads out the combat encounters and feels uninspired. Luckily, for every one of those, you're also given some fantastic and memorable encounters that will stick in your mind for a while. Some of these are fantastic and there are more than a few that really stand out. The Falling Woman encounter is one of the craziest, most disturbing, and unforgettable moments I've seen in a horror game and was my favorite part of Fatal Frame II. If you decide to play this game, be on the lookout for it.
As for the main character's design, I have to say I'm not really a fan. Mio and Miyu don't really feel or look that interesting to me and pale in comparison to the other heroines of the series. I was so nonplussed by their design and personality that I was finding it a little hard to sympathize with their plight during the game. I know the developers were going for the naïve, young, and innocent sort of character stylings for these two, but it makes them come across as hollow, incapable, and one dimensional. Miyu, with her constant creepy talk, repeatedly getting lost/kidnapped, ineptitude, and general pathetic demeanor made me want Mio to just abandon her and escape the village by herself. I feel like this was a pretty big mistake on the part of Tecmo and they could have really elevated the game by putting a little bit more into the characters.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts:
Fatal Frame II is definitely scary and deserves a lot of the praise it's given. However, it does have some glaring flaws and issues that need to be addressed. Firstly, it doesn't set itself apart from the first game enough to make it stand out to me. It's basically the exact same story as the first Fatal Frame as you're exploring around trying to save someone who is going to be sacrificed to keep the hell gate closed. This time you're in a village instead of a mansion, but you still spend most of your time inside large houses within the village. Even though they are different houses, everything has the exact same look to it with grey and brown wood everywhere and other than the layouts and a few special rooms, almost every location in Fatal Frame II looks and feels the same. It could have benefitted greatly from a little variety in terms of different environments. Also, I don't think the lore and story of the second game equal that of the first one. The details of the ritual and history of the hell mouth didn't feel as fleshed out this time around and the reason for Mio and Miyu's time in the village felt a little uninspired. Maybe if I liked the characters better and they were more interesting, I would have been more invested in the story. The ending of the game is meant to be impactful and shocking, but because of a lack of empathy for the characters, it didn't hit quite as hard as the developers might have wanted and I was ready for the game to be over by this point. There are 3 endings on the PS2 version of the game and I only saw the "canon" ending. There's an additional bad ending and a special ending for finishing the game on the hardest difficulty.
While the combat is more refined and far easier than the first game, fighting the spirits can still be a huge pain and hassle. Unlike zombies and monsters, ghosts can phase in an out, teleport around, walk though walls, turn invisible, and attack you from any direction. There are a fair number combat encounters in this game where you're in a narrow hallway and there are ghosts attacking you through the walls (sometimes from multiple angles). You know where they are because of the glow bulb indicator on the camera, but you can't actually see them because the stupid wall is in the way. Or you're trying to run past an enemy for a better vantage point, but another ghost grabs you from nowhere as you are trying to sneak by. It can be extremely frustrating when you get hit 7 or 8 times in a row and blow through all of your healing items just trying to get in one single shot on an enemy but you can't because the environment is preventing you from actually playing the game. I finally decided the best way to do the combat was to just stand still in the middle of the room and wait for the spirits to come to you while turning to face them.
Exploring around, which is usually my favorite part of any survival horror game, is somewhat diminished this time around because of the similarity of all the environments. Remember when I said I had a difficult time getting my bearings earlier? Everything is dark and wooden and just blends together in the most murky and boring way. I never got that sense of familiarity with this game as you do with some other survival horror games. Also, this game is dark. Not only in terms of setting and mood, but also in terms of the gamma. When I first turned it on, I couldn't see anything. I was struggling to make out the characters on the screen and spent 20 minutes or so wandering aimlessly around a room trying to figure out what was wrong. Looking online, I saw that many people had the same problem. Even though I play all my retro games on a Sony Trinitron CRT TV that has fantastic lighting on it, I was forced to turn up the gamma in the game to its maximum setting and turn up the brightness on my TV a fair amount. Even after doing this, I felt like the game wasn't bright enough. I know that darkness adds a lot of atmosphere and scariness, but you still need to be able to see what you're doing.
Finally, there's the few times where you're stuck in the the, "I don't know where to go or what to do," loop that plagues so many games. It doesn't ruin the experience, but I definitely had to consult a walkthrough a couple of times to avoid walking around the same bland and repetitive environments over and over trying to figure out how to advance the story. The developers could have increased the enjoyment of the game greatly by giving a bit more direction when it comes to completing these tasks.
Overall, I think that Fatal Frame II is a very good survival horror game and a bonified classic. Saying that it's, "one of the scariest games of all time," could be true for the time when it was released because it's till tense and very creepy almost 20 years later. The game looks very good for a PS2 game and I didn't encounter any bugs or graphical issues whatsoever and there were no technical issues (other than the gamma) that took me out of the experience. Sure, it has a few issues with recycling its ideas from the first game in the series, boring characters, and repetitive environments but still stands out as a worthwhile horror game overall. I feel like the first Fatal Frame edges it out just a bit in terms of originality, story, characters, and setting. But, the second game wins in terms of gameplay; so I guess it's a bit of a wash.
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is still worth your time if you like survival horror games. It holds up very well in this day and age and still brings plenty of fear inducing moments and decent gameplay to the table. If you haven't tried a game from the series, you're missing out.
Final Status: Beaten (10 hours)
Final Score: 8/10 (still great)
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