Here is the more in depth review as promised. I am now in chapter 3, and I have to say I am quite surprised. I had assumed that there was one protagonist as was the case from the first three Frame Fames. I was surprised to find four playable characters, even though one doesn't last very long. Sorry Modoka.The game starts out with Modoka and Misaki exploring the old sanatorium. They are two of the five girls who where kidnapped and found later in the sanatorium.Now, 10 years later, two of the girls, Marie and Tomoe are both dead, found in gruesome positions. Thus propel Modoka and Misaki to explore the sanatorium to try and find the cause, and to hopefully prevent a similar fate for themselves. The intro is fairly straight forward introducing the controls and camera, ending with the ghosts killing off the third girl. Sorry Modoka, I am so, so sorry. Anyway we are then introduced to Ruka, who was also one of the girls who were kidnapped. After going through her chapter, we are again brought to Misaki in the next chapter. Misaki has her own camera which she brought from home. (I guess there two cameras in this game?) Anyway, I spent most of this chapter hunting down dolls..
Yes, these adorably creepy things. They are scattered around the sanatorium, (as seen by my doll location page) On a whim I was going to take a picture of one. I was walking around trying to get the best picture when the reticule turned blue. Apparently you hunt these guys down to release the soul of a child inside. It doesn't affect the outcome of the game apparently, but it does unlock new costumes and lenses. (Beware Dave, I have a custom plushie of one of these being made. IT WILL find a way into your room one night!)
The second chapter abruptly ends with Misaki fighting for her life on the second floor. The third chapter begins with, who I am guessing is, Ruka's mother asking Choshiro (a cop) to go find her daughter on the island and gives him the Spirit Stone Flashlight. She warns him that the islanders have probably blossomed by now.(Still no idea what that means other than some neat graphic effects on the ghosts) When the player takes control, Choshiro is on the island in front of a building. Upon entering the building, he is attack by several ghost villagers. I saved and ended my session after that encounter. The use of the flashlight seems interesting, but I do not have enough experience with it to form an opinion at this point.
Okay, review...... I found some of the camera controls to be a little hard to get used to, and the classic controller is not supported. This makes the encounters with the ghosts a little more difficult than they should be. However, it adds to the scary atmosphere the game presents.
The game environment is definitely spooky, and worthy of a Fatal Frame game. I feel however, that the over use of darkness in certain places makes the difficulty of the game more difficult than expected. It should be noted however, that I am using projector in a room with two large bay windows. Additionally, this game released in 2008, was more than likely developed for LCD and/or CRT TV viewing.
The ghosts are absolutely phenomenal! The "blossomed" ghosts are even more so. I found the use of the ghosts and ghost "quick time events" really added to the story in comparison to earlier games. The AI seems to work beautifully and gives each ghost, what feels to be, a unique attack pattern. It had me scrambling more than once to survive an encounter.
I will briefly touch on the subject of music and audio cues. I have found, so far, in the game the use of music and cues has been well done. You have the classic camera shutter sound for those of us who have been playing the previous games and a fresh musical score to keep things interesting.
At this point I am going to give the game 4 out of 5 stars. Mainly due to the fact the controls are a little more difficult than they should be, there is no classic controller support, and the controls to aim and "fire" the camera seem backward to me. This does not detract from the ample lore, great environment, spectacular looking ghosts, and excellent use of music.
