Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)

This era of PS2 horror games is one I completely missed.

But wow, I have to dive into more PS2 horror.

The ambience here is fantastic. Creepy village, great spooky audio and visuals, and a gameplay mechanic forcing you to patiently face the horrors is all incredibly effective early in the game to get you tense.

As the game goes on, and you learn the village, enemy patterns, etc. and it can take some of the unexpectedness away, which is typical for horror games.

I was most surprised by how well the game spotlights where to go from segment to segment. There were a few times that I looked up answers because I didn't want to wander around, but for the most part, I figured out the flow and puzzles on my own!

The gameplay is interesting, but a bit janky, which was fine for a horror game. The movement and pacing are slower than in a modern game, but I think in some ways it enhanced the horror of the situation.

The story is passable, with some interesting mysteries at the core of the village. But overall felt predictable for a horror fan. However, the ending absolutely blew me away.

Overall, if you are a survival horror fan, you owe it to yourself to try Fatal Frame 2.

Fatal Frame II is a big improvement over the first game in many respects but still falls short in a lot of places that are significant to me. Throughout my review I intend to compare it pretty heavily to the first game. This is because at the end of the day they are very similar games (to a fault) and I feel comparing them helps highlight what this one does well and also how it falls into some of the very same pitfalls its predecessor did.

--

=Combat=

To begin with, the combat in this game has been significantly reworked from the first. It's actually different to the point that having just played the first game and being used to that one, I was so confused with the new system that I fumbled around until I gave up and looked up an explanation online. Where the first entry had you trying to hold your camera's reticle over the ghost you were fighting to charge up a powerful shot, this one shifts to having the "charge" of your shot increase based solely on how close you are to the ghost. This helps eliminate the frustration of having your target choose to teleport away or enter a wall, costing you your charge. Ghosts in general also feel less likely to go into walls, possibly as a side effect of how slowly they move in this game. Both of these go a long way to make combat a lot more enjoyable than it was previously, but have some unfortunate side effects.

The game is very easy on Normal difficulty. So easy in fact, that I ended the game with nearly all of my healing items sitting unused in my inventory and I never made use of any of the Stone Mirrors that revive you because I never died to anything but one-shot kill attacks, which ignore them, giving an instant Game Over. It's not often I complain about a game being too easy but here it makes encounters a bit tedious.

Ghosts move at a glacial pace and don't do enough damage to justify it. I was forced to get up close to the ghosts to maximize my damage but it didn't really matter because there was hardly a chance of them ever hitting me. The ghost designs also feel overall less inspired than those of the first game, which impressed with the variety of body horror it offered. Because of all this the combat lacks tension (not great for a horror game) and the only times it requires much effort are when the arena you're fighting in is small enough to force ghosts into walls so you can't track them easily, which feels more cheap and unintentional than anything else. Thankfully there weren't many encounters that suffered from this, but the few that did really took the wind out of the atmosphere the game was building.

--

=Atmosphere=

This game's got some spookiness in it! All God's Village is a neat location and boasts a well-crafted atmosphere thanks in no small part to the creepy ambient music/SFX present throughout. Wandering through the streets of the village and the halls of the houses within it is tense. The Kiryu House in particular is my favorite for this. You can feel the weight of the atrocities committed here pressing down on the entire place, suffocating it in a dense, black miasma. The setting doesn't feel as ominous as the Himuro mansion from the first game but still holds its fair share of scares and looks pretty good for a PS2 game too.

Many ghosts leave behind chunks of minerals that each contain a fragment of their remaining consciousness. Early on you can find a neat radio that these stones can be inserted into, giving voice to the fears and desires which consumed them in life and continue to do so in death. I think listening to these is arguably the scariest part of the game. The recordings sound warped and tortured-- as they should be. It's a bit of a shame though that by the end of the game they start to feel repetitive, like the writers ran out of ways to express "It's dark, I'm scared, don't leave me here." There's a lot of untapped potential with this idea though and I'd love to see it return in another game a bit more fleshed out.

--

=Plot=

Fatal Frame II doesn't really do much new with its plot. Remember how in the first game the Himuro family carried out a number of twisted bloody rituals on a regular basis for generations in order to stave off the opening of a gateway to Hell? Yep, same deal here, except instead of one family it's more like four major ones that make up the village and instead of a variety of rituals we have one that centers around the sacrifice of twins. When summarized like that it sounds like an overall downgrade but what this game does do differently is succeed at making the main characters feel immediately relevant to the events which ruined this village, thus tying them into the plot in a much more natural way than "Oh no, my brother went to the spooky house, I need to go save him," even if the plot can be boiled down to something pretty similar in essence.

Our twin main characters, Mio and Mayu, manage to get lost in the woods and end up in All God's Village during their wanderings. You primarily play as Mio, who notices very quickly that an odd change has overcome her sister. Before long Mayu is unusually fatigued, murmuring cryptic nonsense to herself, and decides to wander off alone, to Mio's dismay. This is kind of creepy and neat the first time, but then it happens again and again, and by the end of the game I was feeling a bit fatigued myself from chasing after my sister. I would have much preferred if this were something that happened a single time, maybe around the middle to late portion of the game. It would have felt more impactful that way.

Mio and Mayu also share an invisible bond forged from a promise they supposedly made to one another a while ago that they would stay together forever. Throughout the game, Mayu (between bouts of wandering off by herself) reiterates to Mio, "You promised you'd never leave me!" This line gets repeated probably close to 50 times in various fashions and by various people throughout the game's 10 hours. It's exhausting. There's thematic relevance there, but it doesn't need to be beaten into my skull the way it is.

Lofty promises between children seem to be part of a odd trope I've noticed pops up a lot in Japanese games from the late 90s and early 00s. It features significantly in Final Fantasy VII between Cloud and Tifa as well and feels just as vacuous there. I just can't bring myself to put much stock into a promise made by children who aren't even middle school age yet. Like I get that it can mean the world when you are that age, but it just feels hard to take seriously now as an adult. And when that childhood promise is a major emotional crux of the narrative of a game, like it is here? Ehhhhh, it's just lost on me. I can't feel bad for Mayu when she comes off as so absurdly shortsighted and selfish. And unfortunately this also drags down the impact of the very same promise made with far greater urgency between the twins Sae and Yae who lived in All God's Village and comprise another major strand in the game's narrative.

--

I appreciate the much needed rework of the combat in Fatal Frame II after pushing through the frustrating encounters of the first game. And I very much fuck with the plot and characters on a conceptual level. But the experience is dragged down by how often the game reiterates the same plot points over and over to the point of exhaustion. The game is also shockingly easy for being survival horror, which in turn serves to water down the otherwise excellent atmosphere with ghost combat sequences that feel more like speed bumps than terrifying experiences with the supernatural.

This game is worth checking out if you're a horror fan and can get your hands on a copy, but I struggle to mark it as essential because of the issues I have with its narrative.

The art direction is timeless, upscaled on the PCSX2 emulator the game looks great. The score is pretty unremarkable, I think. I don't remember any songs. The story is fairly predictable, and by the end the game drags on in all departments: the story is mostly something you've figured out already; the gameplay begins to get boring and tedious; and Mayu keeps fucking leaving you so you have to find her (gets kind of frustrating).

The ending was beautiful, though, and I think the last two chapters being a little bit of a slog doesn't detract from the rest of the 7, very solid chapters. The combat system is good, albeit clunky and, eventually very tired by the end of the game. Camera upgrades are a cool idea, but I did not feel compelled to use them until the final boss. Same story with the different types of film. Disappearing ghosts were a pain in the ass, though luckily they weren't mandatory and only served to give you points, which you got by the thousands just playing the game normally. The gem system (with the radio) intrigued me a lot at the beginning, but as the game went on and on it just kept being the same "I'm scared, it's dark, blah blah" that the couple first were... So I eventually just tuned them out. The environments are dark and drab (it's a horror game) but it makes distinguishing places kind of difficult if you're not good at that type of stuff. I didn't have a huge problem figuring out where to go next, but I have also played a lot of survival horror.

On the topic of this being a horror game, I started out shaking in my fucking boots, but by the time I was in chapter 5~ I'd seen it all, fought it all, dealt with all of it. I don't particularly blame the game, but they do make you go through the same places a lot of the times and familiarity tends to be a big enemy to horror. I still felt plenty of unease though, and the first few encounters with ghosts were terrifying.

I'd recommend the game. Maybe pace yourself out better than me. I finished the game in around 10 hours and felt a little burned out.

This game is great, but I'm feeling it lose steam as I close in on the end of Chapter 8. Ghosts aren't that challenging, the story is pretty clear by now so I don't feel a mystery or anything, and the scare factor is basically zero. Still very enjoyable, though, just bland.

Some tedium is also settling in. Mio moves incredibly slow (which was a nice atmospheric decision at the beginning, not so much now that they make me move around the entire village), vanishing ghosts are a FUCKING pain, and most gems you can listen to on the radio are variations of people suffering and whimpering (except for Mayu's)

I've played this game many times before, back when I was way younger. It was one of my mom's favorite games and I used to help her with puzzles and fights. This was my first time finishing it solo.

Fatal Frame 2 is an amazing game and a nice improvement over its predecessor. From how it looks to how it plays, this should definitely be your first game in the franchise. The setting of the lost village is quite disturbing and the incredible sound design, weird voice acting and haunting (or sometimes beautiful!) soundtrack helps to create a sinister atmosphere from start to finish. It is undeniably unique in what it sets out to do.

The game is way less frustrating than its predecessor as well. They polished the combat a bit more, made movement a bit less stiff and gave you more room for improvisation, with a tiny bit of customization mixed in. Replayability is very much encouraged, as well. A step into the right direction, without a doubt.

One thing that I didn't like at all, however, was how Zero Shots/Fatal Frames work here. It made more sense in the first one. Now you have to get too close to the ghosts and the windows for the shots are quicker than they should be. Also, I'm glad that the game is more puzzle-light and less punishing than before, but did it need to be that easy?

And while the village and some VERY creepy places left quite an impact on me, I also feel like the mansion worked a bit better. Don't get me wrong, this game can get quite scary, but the first one did better, I guess. I blame that, especially, on the bad map design.

In fact, this may be the one true bad aspect of the game. Again, the scenarios are great and the game is hauntingly pretty, but when you're inside the houses, it all looks the same! It's easy to get lost, hard to know what to do, sometimes. And item placement is a bit iffy. Some crucial items to understand the story or tweak your camera can only be found by randomly interacting with everything, everywhere, with little indication.

And then there's the story... I'm not gonna lie, but the ending always brings me to tears. Both PS2 endings do, in fact. The story is a bit tricky to piece together at first, but when you're close to the end, it flows amazingly well. You understand what's going on and the writing makes everything seem dire, urgent and bloody. Mio and Mayu were also great simple protagonists. Their bond, Sae and Yae's ordeal and the village's wicked fate brings the story to a perfect conclusion.

I did not play the other Fatal Frames, but after this ending, it could all stop here and it would be perfect. Fatal Frame 2 is a fantastic overlooked survival horror game, with a unique approach to the genre's cliches and a lovely story.

I do hope they rerelease it, someday.

While many horror games ask you to either avoid their enemies entirely or confront them with traditional weaponry, the unique Fatal Frame series has you banishing spirits in first-person through the viewfinder of a magical camera. The only opportunity to do maximum damage is usually when you're most vulnerable, right at the final moment of an enemy's attack. Dealing with these unsettling enemies in such a head-on manner feels much more tense and visceral than other horror games I've played, sending a real chill down your spine at times when you get hit.

From a mysterious village to the traditional Japanese houses within it, the game's dark atmosphere always feels tense yet somehow alluring. This is enhanced by things like use of black-and-white and weird camera distortions, as well as some great fixed camera angles. The game flows smoothly as a satisfying adventure title, and the way it doubles back on these areas throughout the game and establishes a story meaning behind everywhere you go is great.

That story has layers to it that connect in a pretty satisfying way, as it slowly unveils information about an elaborate sacrifice ritual that's been going on repeatedly in this village, and how your character and her twin sister are connected to that. Through gameplay and dialogue, the game does a great job making you want to protect the two characters and help them keep their promise to stay together forever, which gives everything emotional weight. As for the ritual stuff itself, it went a lot deeper than I expected, and I actually liked reading "codex entry" style things for once in a game.

To give a few very small criticisms: (1) It's usually not a problem, but occasionally the game can be a bit too obtuse as far as what to do (or not to do) to progress. At times it kinda feels like it's trying to tell you what to do, but just not doing a great job at it. (2) The use of fixed camera angles is accompanied not by traditional tank controls, but by completely free movement, which can be an awkward pairing when the angle suddenly changes. (3) A very small handful of encounters in this game are just so... annoying... that I'm pretty sure there's no way anyone actually likes them. Probably could cut a few and not miss a thing.

So this to me obviously was a real winner of a game. In particular, I think the way it ended was just great, with a tense final boss, perfect slow buildup, some stunning imagery, and an excellent closing credits song. It was a very immersive experience, especially for an 18-year-old game, and one that I can easily recommend to anyone who's enjoyed a survival horror title for anything beyond the action. I honestly think it's just as good as horror contemporaries like RE4/REmake, in its own way. By most accounts, I've started with the peak of the series, but I'll look forward to trying at least 1 or 2 more of these at some point.