Fatal Frame / Project Zero: Maiden Of Black Water: Video Review Game

Many loyal PC-boyars have certainly heard about a series of Japanese horror series Fatal Frame (Known at home as Project Zero), which once was almost on equal Silent Hill. But personally it could not try. That’s just now, on the occasion of Halloween and the 20th anniversary of the series, to PC for the first time I got at least some game of this franchise, namely the fifth FATAL FRAME: Maiden of Black Water. The original was released in 2015 exclusively to Wii U, so the current reissue was visited for the first time and all other key platforms.

Traditionally Koei Tecmo Especially “lucky” owners of the “Orthodox Platform”. Immediately after the release, complaints were sprinkled on the lack of mouse support, the reference of the speed to the framework and other problems – we wrote about it. And considering that some fans of the “deadly frame” call Maiden of Black Water is almost the worst in the series, the question arises: whether to play it at all?

Than this series is unique?

From the first game, published to PLAYSTATION 2 in December 2001, her game director and creator Makoto Sibata (Makoto Shibata) made a bet on two things. First, on the Japanese folklore about ghosts and evil spirits. He was also inspired by the old (again by Japanese) with horror meters and their own memories – several times Sibata Under the arms of colleagues told about how he saw ghosts.

Laughter laughter, and in the end series Fatal Frame became one of the most terrible in the history of horror. The authors are very believable (no matter how strange it sounded against ghosts) reproduced all this paranormal. Perfume here look and behave so that you start to believe in what is happening. Because when the character turns out to be in the coffin, it begins to scald into the lid, raises his head and suddenly sees the face of some kind of woman, then it looks not to a cheap consief, but on your right nightmare.

And what is so close and without a mask?

Secondly, with all these ghosts in the games of the series you can only fight with the camera. As an ammunition, different types of film are performing (some do not apply a little damage, but quickly charge, others – on the contrary), there are special blows and combo for which you need to turn the camera and catch the desired angle. And the most powerful one, the very deadly frame turns out if you click the gate before the attack itself is an analogue of ideal evasion / parry. And for the skills that the energy received for the expulsion of spirits is spent, different types of lenses are responsible – with their help to powerfully restore health, slow down the enemies and so on.

No, it is clearly not for family photo album.

And all this is pumped through again the glasses received for the expulsion of ghosts. For them, in the break between the missions, we buy consumables. Similar mechanics with the camera turned out to be the original, and again it is very convincing – it is easier to believe that spirits are afraid of photo posts and pictures (therefore, few people have seen), not a shotgun or fire. By the way, sometimes you can have time to sfat unexpected ghosts, without damageing damage them, are special scenes adding Suspense, and for such photos they give extra glasses.

Pumping Camera is implemented conveniently.

Why do you need to play?

All this is in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. The plot tells the stories of three characters who were closely intertwined. Scripts throw us from one character to another and back. Then we play for the girl in Kodzukatu (Yuri Kozukata), which after the death of parents began to see the dead and their past – once she wanted to commit suicide, and now helps another medium, Hisoka Kurosawa (Hisoka Kurosawa).

Yuri immediately falls out.

Then we act as a folklorist writer Ren Hozo (Ren Hojo), which is also well familiar with Hisoka. Then we are looking for my mother, playing for the 17-year-old Miu Hinasaki (Miu Hinasak9) – and her mother, by the way, is the heroine of the first and third parts. For help in search of Miu appealed again to Hisok Kurosava.

I would also add to such a girl for help. By the way, yes, here you can photo not only ghosts.

But not a 23-year-old beauty and the predictor of the future Hisoka, they all unites them, and the ghosts, the secrets and curses of Mount Hikia – once she was considered sacred, the water cult was practiced there, and believers before death came to swim in it to go to the world of other. Also there were tragedies, murders, rituals were held, and Mountain itself became a place of pilgrimage for suicides. Yuri, by the way, also wanted to drop off from the mountain, but she saved it … Well, you yourself guess who.

The authors competently hang and connect these lines, withstand the desired degree of intrigue, and therefore watching the story is not just interesting – this is what it is for what to play in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. Especially since all the endings (and their nine here) open for one passage will not work. It’s not just not so much in the plot (curses, rituals, sects – everything is more or less familiar here), but in how it is served and which atmosphere is accompanied by.

You also hungry?

This is a very Japanese horror who knows how to scare not only with screenshots and aggressive monsters (although it is here), but also by the waiting for fear and cracked scenes in the spirit of the original film “Call” and other Japanese horror. Here the dead woman in the photo can open his eyes and ask: “Do you want to die with me?”And when a girl with red eyes offers to play with her in dolls, then you just want to run from her corridors.

And we have options?

For the Japanese, there is no taboo in this sense, so there are a lot of dead children (more precisely, their ghosts) – especially scary, when you see dozens of hanged little bodies, and then their spirits surround you, play, awkwardly run around. Or when they come to life (or I thought so?) Puppet figures at the end of the corridor;When the characters pushed by whispering in the ear of ghosts, pull the knife to their throat ..

Ghosts of children are, of course, the blow below the belt.

Terrible visions stylized under the black and white diverboard;Entries from surveillance cameras on which, naturally, somewhere flashed the ghost;Hands of phantoms who suddenly grab you when you get to another found film or a first-aid kit;numerous diaries that will not be bored for frightening details;screams, screams, root and sounds, acting;Yes, even how deliberately slow heroes open each door, while instinctively pushing in the chair and you guess what is behind it, everything works for the atmosphere. And this atmosphere literally from the first frames heavy, oppressive. Therefore, I would not advise people with a weak psyche and a tendency to depression now, in the fall, play in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.

We still make it take pictures.

Where are the most beautiful Japanese?

Solid side, so you will not see, perhaps, the most beautiful Asian in the industry (Okay, Tifa and Iris from the Final Fantasy VII remake, too, in this list). Maiden of Black Water In this sense, again, a very Japanese game – horror here is played by mouth, eyes and legs of sexy girls who are always dressing as if not on the damn mountain and go to death, but on viewing to the modeling agency.

They also love to keep each other for hands and talk about close connections and data sometime promises. Some can even sleep next to one bed – nothing like that, everything is innocently, but what is it in Japanese, with the subtext, with an excitement admixture of bundes and erotica. And that’s fine.

Interestingly, one of the heroines is accidentally named yuri or not?

Naturally, girls can be put in sexy costumes of varying degrees of frankness, for which the original was subjected to censorship in Europe at one time, – in the reissue added many of the characters of the past games of the series, as well as the arts from there. In the antique store, Hyjoki has a mirror where you can try on new things. True, one day, I noticable the reflection in this mirror, I almost had seated – no, it was yuri, but the voltage is that you are afraid of everything. And this also talks a lot about what is Horror before us.

Among the new costumes there are clothes Ray, the heroine of the Atelier Ryza series.

The fifth of the fifth also added a completely new and absolutely beautiful mechanics of wetting characters – here it almost does not constantly go raining and much twisted around the water. There is a separate index of wetting degree, and when it reaches the limit, the character will start getting more damage. You need to remove this condition using consumables. Well, what can be more beautifully wetting a beautiful girl?

And in the reissue included the photo model.

How interesting to play?

Gameplay itself B Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water settled in the traditions of the series. I did not play in past issues, but critics in 2015 expressed a variety of opinions. Someone assured that this part absorbed the best thing in the lineup, and became more cooler. Others called the fifth release the weakest. Someone was glad that there are no particularly complex puzzles in it, – others, on the contrary, did not like it.

In the game a lot of dolls and dolls.

So it is better to get to know yourself. I liked the gameplay. Exploring locations – the most, as they say, are large in the series, – we collect consumables and diaries, take pictures of ghosts, watch the degree of flue, pump the camera (Rena it has the opportunity to do several frames in a row – a sort of combo), we look through terrible visions. The latter, by the way, is a unique ability of Yuri, who can touch the defeated ghost to see the scene of his death – although sometimes it would be better not to see that they are so uncomfortable!

We also solve riddles again with the help of the camera – for example, if you do not know how to open the door, you need to sfotkat the lock, and on the film you will see a place where the key is. Yes, in the past games of the puzzle series, according to fans, it was more difficult, but I didn’t bother me at all – but there are no artificial puzzles, everything is tied to history.

From retribution do not leave.

What can incomprehe?

Of course, at first it is necessary to get used to control the camera during battles with spirits, and the battles themselves seem too easy (there is also evasion) and at the same time – just because of the management – inconvenient and slow. But when you get used to, and ghosts in the second half begin to deliver trouble, then all questions are removed. If the call is still not enough, you can start the game again after the first passage, when the high level of complexity opens.

Perfumes love to attack unexpectedly, surround us and constantly change the position.

It is often necessary to accompany and protect other characters, and then look for them if they are behind. Also old-fashioned, cumbersome mechanics, but within the framework of such a horror it looks appropriate and adds voltages.

The original was accused of making sure to return to the same locations often. And in fact it really is so. But, first of all, it is logically due to the scene itself. Secondly, the locations here in principle a lot – there is even a common map of the mountain, where it is clearly visible.

There are a lot of sad girls here.

And finally, every time you see new scenes, vision and details, we see new consumables and notes that shed light on events. And considering that not everything in the script is explained by the cat scenes, look for such diaries is really important. That is, with the overall linearity of the passage (the ending is determined only closer to the final), there is an element of an interesting study of the card.

Impressions can spoil the quality of the port. The point is not in the absence of gameplay innovations – just like to evaluate the cult horror in the original form. Business in technical implementation. It is good that the authors added modern graphic effects – it can be seen, for example, water. And the characters model, as I said, above all praise. But now and then the blurred textures are thrown into the eyes – and the lack of extended graphics settings only aggravates the situation.

Do not know what to be afraid more – texture or monster.

And the animation and axes when the characters are moved, which constantly strive to crash into something, causes Association with Oldskom in the worst sense of the word.

Some nostalgia for fans.

As for the support of the mouse, I played the gamepad and did not experience any problems in this sense. In addition, some of the problems have already corrected patches. But in any case, for the initial quality of the port on the PC, the authors receive a maximum of the top three – I also had departures.

After the first passage, it will be possible to play in some episodes for Ayane (Ayane) from Dead O Alive.

Well, Fatal Frame itself: Maiden of Black Water as the game deserves a minimum of four plus. I don’t know if this is the worst of the series or not, but all the fans of the genre unambiguously play this remaster (only better connect the gamepad. I didn’t have so uncomfortable and terribly this year.

Pros: One of the most terrible and atmospheric horror in the history of the genre;interesting story;Characters with their skeletons in the closet;Unique mechanics of photo shoots – battles with ghosts;Very beautiful girls who can get wet – and it is played in the gameplay;Gorgeous work with the atmosphere;flawlessly built sound;Pleasant bonuses in Reutster like new costumes, photores and artbook.

Minuses: often come back to the same locations;There are questions about management even on Gamepad;Weak port quality on PC.