[REVIEW] Fatal Frame

 

More people have heard of Fatal Frame 2 than any other entry in the Fatal Frame series, and it’s always struck me as a little bit strange that the first game in the series doesn’t get as much attention. Yes, the sequel certainly has improved graphics and, in my opinion, a fantastic and engaging story, but I’m the sort of person who will find part 2 of a series and, if I play it before I find part 1, and if I like it, I will track down the first part and play it too.

Perhaps I’m in a minority in that regard.

Regardless, if anyone has played any of the other games in the series, they would do well to step back in time and see where it all began.

A STORY OF LOVE AND SACRIFICE

 The game takes place in 1986, and you play as Miku, who has tracked her missing brother to a dilapidated Japanese mansion. Both Miku and her brother Mafuyu have inherited the family curse, the ability to see supernatural elements, such as ghosts, which the Himuro mansion is full of. As Miku explores than mansion and searches for her brother (who in turn went there looking for his mentor, who also disappeared), she finds signs that the ghosts in the mansion are at the root of the disappearances. The ghosts themselves are there because a sacred ritual to close the gates of hell failed, unleashing a malevolent force known as the Malice and corrupting the souls of everyone in the mansion.

Miku’s only defense against the spiritual forces at work is the Camera Obscura, a strange old-fashioned camera that damages ghosts that it takes pictures of. She must use the camera to exorcise the ghosts and bring her brother safely back to the world outside.

The idea of a ghost-repelling camera sounds hokey, and I know that’s turned a number of people away from playing the game. However, it’s executed and explained rather well, and in a way that fits very much into the setting of the game. Part of the camera contains a holy relic that is known to repel ghosts, and not only that but the camera itself has a connection to Miku’s family and it’s members’ ability to see ghosts. It isn’t just a cheap “unconventional weapon” gimmick for the protagonist to use, but is very fitting given the circumstances.

SAY CHEESE AND DIE (AGAIN)

 Battles against ghosts take place within the camera’s viewfinder, moving yourself around with one analogue stick and the camera with the other. Yes, it is cumbersome. The game’s controls are cumbersome in general, suffering from the problem that plagued so many survival horror games of that era: tank controls. The controls are not entirely intuitive most of the time, and this causes an otherwise good game to suffer. Battles aren’t something you can avoid, so you’re forced to confront controls that few people like in this genre combined with a slight stiffness to the movement.

Taking pictures of ghosts gives you points, and better pictures give you more points. These you use to upgrade your camera, or to unlock new abilities like automatically tracking ghosts when they move, or being able to blast them back after a particularly good shot. None of these upgrades are strictly necessary, but they naturally make the game that much easier, so it’s good incentive to try to take good pictures of the things that are trying to kill you. (Part of me can’t believe I just wrote that…)

A TRAGIC BACKSTORY

 Fatal Frame, both the first game and the series, is impressively emotional. The vast majority of the ghosts you fight are not the ghosts of violent murderers or angry abusers or any such thing. They’re people who died in a horrific accident and whose souls are twisted by the Malice, causing them to hurt you almost against their will. Most of them, when they cause damage, do no more than grab you by the shoulders and shake you, and for some of them it seems almost pleading rather than menacing. As the game progresses you find documents and diaries that shed light on the lives of the people who lived in the Himuro mansion, people whose ghosts you’re now battling against, making them feel far less like enemies and more like slaves to tragic circumstance. You can’t help but feel bad for them.

This is a trend that continues through the entire Fatal Frame series. The things you fight against are very human in their origins and actions, not mindless foes to be eliminated for the sake of convenience. It’s something that isn’t done very often in video games, especially survival horror games. Play enough games in that genre and you come to expect waves of similar enemies, stronger versions of them as bosses, and then a final boss that’s related to the overarching story. The enemies are rarely all tied to the game’s story in a personal way. Fatal Frame bucks that trend and attempts to make you really feel for the ghosts you encounter, even as you eliminate them.

Honestly, that level of detail is one of the things that endears the series to me. It speaks of degree of development above and beyond the norm, something that didn’t have to be implemented but that add so much richness now that it’s there. Everything and everyone in the game has a purpose. Everything is connected and has a reason to be there. You’re not just fighting hordes of ghosts just because you’re in a haunted house. You’re fighting the ghosts of the people who lived and died there and are now trapped because of the Malice. It feels all the more real, and all the more disturbing, for that detail.

NOT WITHOUT ITS FLAWS

For being the first entry in the series, it’s a very good game, but naturally, it’s not without its problems. I previously mentioned the tank controls, which can be a hindrance in fights. The game’s voice acting is… tolerable, but it’s often awkward, stilted, and comes across as though the voice actors were merely reading lines from paper with little context for the situation. You see this a lot with early voice acting in video games; it’s rarely held to the same standards that we hold it to today.

The worst of it, though, is the game’s utter lack of subtitles for dialogue. This is a twofold problem: 1) It prevents those with hearing impairments from understanding the vast majority of the game’s plot; and 2) The audio for some things (such as tape recordings) is so quiet that you need to crank up the volume to ridiculous levels just to be able to hear the terrible voice acting and find out what’s being said.

This oversight was corrected in future games, but it still remains a problem for this entry in the series, which might also contribute to it being a less popular game than, say, Fatal Frame 2.

For all that the game has its problems, I still maintain that it’s worth playing if you’re a fan of the survival horror genre. Those who have only played the second game can still do so and not miss much, but the first game provides a lot of context for future games in the series, especially Fatal Frame 3 and the most recent Fatal Frame 5. Not all of the games work well as standalones.

The atmosphere is fantastic, the storyline engaging even if it moves a bit slowly and involves a lot of backtracking at times, and overall Fatal Frame sets the stage for an absolutely phenomenal set of games to follow it. It remains my favourite survival horror series and has held that spot for years now, and I can’t see anything unseating it any time soon.

It’s a pretty short game, able to be beaten in around 10 hours the first time you play it, and there are bonuses for subsequent playthroughs and plenty of incentive to go back and relive the experience again if you so desire. Additional difficulties, unlockables, and a battle mode and rankings are available to those who beat the game a time or two and want an extra challenge. Though it is indeed an older game at this point, if you have the chance to play it and see how this franchise got its beginnings, I highly recommend sacrificing a bit of time to do so.

Otherwise the Malice might spill forth once more.