it's most definitely a bloodcurdling experience. Bigger, longer, and scarier than the original, Butterfly not onl
Set almost two generations before the events of the first game, Fatal Frame II isn't a true sequel to Miku's Himuro Mansion exploits at all. But rather, it sets up the back-story revolving around the mystical "Camera Obscura" and its purpose in the 30 years before Miku grabbed it for her brother. Far more open and less confined than the location provided in the original adventure, Fatal Frame II moves out of a giant house and into an abandoned village deep in the Japanese forest. This change of setting definitely serves as the first clue towards establishing that Crimson Butterfly is not only much larger in scope, but also in range of evil.
The plot begins with pre-teen twin sisters Mio and Mayu enjoying the natural scenery in the proximity of a running stream. Shown through a combination of flashbacks and modern imagery, it's revealed that Mayu once received a devastating injury when the two were younger; an accident that left her leg permanently scarred and slightly limp. As the pair reminisces about that fateful day, Mayu becomes fascinated with a crimson butterfly fluttering about in the distance. Almost trance-like, she follows it deep into the woods before her sister Mio begins to follow her. As Mio runs past a bizarre tablet with a carving of double figures, the scenery suddenly shifts to nighttime landscape with Mio and Mayu standing alone in the peaks of the Forest Mountains. Overlooking an abandoned village with nowhere else to go, the pair must descend into the creepy township to figure out what has happened to them. And from there, things really start to get interesting.
To reveal anything else would be a disservice to the readers who partake in it; but it's pretty obvious by the game's roots that the duo will eventually run into spirits that they have to exorcize with an enchanted camera. Told through a series of dream sequences, flashbacks, and current events via the perspectives of multiple characters, Fatal Frame II weaves quite a complicated tale. Rife with horror, intrigue, and a ton of personal loss, the plotline is never over-embellished and creeped us out with a stunning consistency. Make no mistake about it; it's one of the scariest videogames that we've ever played.
Best of all, Fatal Frame II turns out to be far less predictable that what's expected, with a small set of interesting characters, realistic plot devices, and hidden sub-chapters that players can enjoy separate from the main adventure. Much like its predecessor, Crimson Butterfly also builds its suspense by terrifying you with what you don't see rather than what you do. In short, it's the complete antithesis of the Resident Evil series and regardless of which one of the multiple endings you uncover by journey's end, you can be assured that none of them are what you imagined.
GAMEPLAY:
Since Fatal Frame II takes such a drastic departure from the mechanics of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it plays out much differently than your typical survival horror title does. Though the control scheme is setup almost identically to those two (along with alternate schematics for more precise three-dimensional movement), your actions within the fixed-camera environment are far more passive-aggressive. You see, Crimson Butterfly isn't about beating down Frankenstein's Monster with clubs or blasting 52 holes into hordes of zombies; but instead, offers something far more simple: Take a phantasm's picture with your enchanted camera and steal its soul -- thereby exorcizing it from the village and saving your young behind for yet another encounter.
Since taking a picture is your character's true focus, the only buttons that Mio really needs at her disposal are the search key for finding new items (X) and the basic camera operation commands. Simply tap Circle to raise the viewfinder of your camera to locate a spirit that you want to snap and then press the X or R1 key to activate the shutter. Depending on the color of the reticule of your lens (shown in a first-person perspective) the quality and clarity of your shot will increase or decrease; thereby dealing more or less damage and eliminating the spirit you're fighting more or less efficiently.
To encourage players into having quick reflexes and good eyes, however, Tecmo has also included several bonuses for grabbing solid shots of your enemies. Assigned different point values depending on the location of your lens, each picture combines with another for an overall total that can be spent like money towards upgrading your camera's abilities. Earning a wider viewfinder range, increased spirit power ability, or heightened sensitivity are all possible upgrades and allow players to customize their camera exactly how they want. Additional features such as the slowdown lens, hit point scanner, and other such goodies can be earned via this method too; making Fatal Frame II more dependent on skill than any other survival horror game on the market.
There was a similar system used in the previous installment of the series as well, but the method here is far more intuitive and balanced. In fact, the game as a whole is more balanced and shakes one of the major problems that its predecessor had -- which was being too easy. Appropriately littered with puzzles that range from time-based races to classic riddle-oriented word teasers, there's a good deal of brain twisting going on between hauntings. Luckily the puzzles aren't of outlandish at all and seem totally logical within the framework of a ghostly village (or should we say, as logical as you could get in such a situation). Finding a newspaper clipping in chapter one may seem like some kind of minute collecting bonus, but when a conundrum shows up in one of the latter chapters the intelligence behind the game's riddles becomes far clearer. It's quite the rare situation for the genre.
GRAPHICS:
Fatal Frame II has made an abundance of positive changes that's sure to please its fans. And for those of you that thought the inaugural installment made excellent use of light and shadow, just wait until you see this one. The dancing shadows, flickering transparencies, and clever use of flashlight beams can only be described as awesome.
The reason that the lighting techniques for Crimson Butterfly work so well is because of its combination of real-time backgrounds and interesting camera angles. This approach isn't necessarily new for the franchise, mind you, but its implementation is much better realized this time. Not only are there an increased number of objects for source lights and flashlights to bounce off of, there are also an added number of layers to the depth of each stage. Making every environment's sea of shadows and occasional reflections that much creepier. And while there is still a good portion of areas where the camera locations can prove a bit troublesome (particularly when Mayu is standing behind to block your range of vision), its direction and placement is still a lot cleaner that it used to be.
Speaking of direction and cleanliness, the cut scenes themselves are filthy works of art. Obviously inspired by the many videotape scenes in the theatrical version of The Ring, the hauntingly poignant black and white clips are both terrifying and, in some cases, beautiful. Used a lot more often than we originally expected these small cinematics are appropriately vague and spooky while still leaving you with plenty of substance to figure everything out. The first time your character gets one of her psychic visions in the Osaka House near the beginning of the game, you'll swear you're that you're living a horror film -- which is probably the best compliment we can offer.
SOUND:
In a display of interesting decision making, Tecmo has decided not to include any audio support for current generation technology (which includes Dolby Pro Logic, DPL2, DTS, and others) and has opted instead to include its own aural encoding. Known as ARNIS Audio Technology, Tecmo's sound software is meant to recreate the 5.1 digital experience without requiring the speaker equipment to pull it off. It's the same technology used for the first Fatal Frame and ends up working pretty well on televisions not hooked up to receivers. For systems that are jacked into the proper machinery, though, it sounds even better and can easily compare to other encoding methods.
But that just goes to prove how diligent Tecmo was with putting an emphasis on Fatal Frame's presentation. The soundtrack especially, is of the highest creepy quality and is used in an ambient way to throw in a little extra shock during the surprise moments. One of the techniques the developers used particularly well is that they encourage the player to grow accustomed to associating certain musical cues with specific ghost sightings -- almost preparing you for things to come. But in a nice bit of bait and switch, the team will later begin using false audio signals only to reveal that there's nothing in the room with you at all; and then scare the hell out of you a few seconds later when something materializes out of nowhere. Only then will the familiar hearth-thumping soundtrack pick up again; when you're deep in the heart of battle. It's an extremely effective lesson in storytelling. Most other audio tidbits are just as noteworthy, or at least in terms of the voice acting and ambient noise. From random female laughter to the shuffling of leaves and the creaking of old doors, the acoustics of the environment are just as frightening as the visuals. Of course, there are a couple of areas that could have used some extra attentions (as your footsteps don't seem to make any sound at all; even when climbing rickety stairs), but it's quickly forgotten once the strength of the actors providing the vocals come through. Even the wimpy male character sounds convincing -- something we're not used to in the realm of survival horror.
LASTING APEAL:
Multiple endings, alternate outfits, and a user-controlled experience system should give you reason to play through it more than once. Plus, it's almost 50% longer the original. Score!
FINAL COMMENTS:
Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is definitely not for everyone. It's a serious mind job with plenty of disturbing imagery, hideously scary moments, and game mechanics that will probably put action fans off the moment they take their first photograph. But for those of us who can't get enough of the survival horror genre and are looking for something new, then this is the perfect cap to a year that's given us some solid moments already thanks to Clock Tower 3 and Silent Hill.
In earnest, Crimson Butterfly takes all the interesting ideas expressed in the original game and realizes them as they were supposed to be. Granted it has a couple of rough edges that keep it from reaching the same pinnacle that Silent Hill has achieved, but at the end of the day you're not going to find a more frightening bit of storytelling than Fatal Frame II for quite some time. One of the best if not the best horror games ever!