The most frightening game you'll ever play. A must for survival horror game fans.
The game starts in black and white as implying the events you see happened in the past which is really good. In Prologue Chapter, you control a young man named Mafuyu in the search of his mentor novelist that went to Himuro Mansion for a research about the Mansion and its dark past. Prologue is like a tutorial and very good to learn to controls and the story. Its long enough to put a fear in your hearts, so the game starts here actually. With the prologue chapter's end, you'll see Miku's --Mafuyu's sister-- appearance in front of Himura Mansion. Miku is after her brother Mafuyu who has been lost for two weeks, since the day he came to Himuro mansion. So the chapter 1 starts at the same place you started with Mafuyu in the prologue chapter.
Fatal Frame is not an action game unlike other survival horror games and that is the reason Fatal Frame is scary and the best horror game just because it is real horror game. Except Resident Evil 1, I didnt find RE games as horror and after Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill series became more action based too. Since Silent Hill 2 I was looking for a game like that but I found better, Fatal Frame. Fatal Frame's aim is scaring the player, giving a tense atmosphere and making the player sit on spikes all the time. An innocent, fragile girl as the main character but this time our heroine can fight enemies. In Fatal Frame you wont fight zombies nor weird creatures to survive, there wont be freaks screaming ALICE!!, you'll deal with ghosts which are popular spooky things and yet not used in any succesful horror game except Undying ( Until 2002 ). Since our enemies are ghosts we'll need something speacial to deal with them. In old times, in some undeveloped places taking a picture of someone is thought as capturing his/her soul so they avoided it. Fatal Frame is built on the same idea but it doesnt seem an undeveloped civilaztion thought this time. Mafuyu and Miku have an antique camera given by their mother and this camera has a special power which is to be able to capture ghosts. So you will deal ghosts by taking their pictures. Also there are hidden spirits around that waits for you to take their pictures. When you go near to them, you start to hear some noise and your ghost detector becomes blue which is at right corner of the screen. When this turns yellow-orange color it means you are dealing with a hostile ghost or someone's past event which gives clues and disappears in 2-3 seconds. You can take a picture anytime you want, you can even make an album with your pictures.
The game has nice and smooth controls for a survival horror game. Its easy to wander around but some design issues limits your movement in a funny way. For example, you try to run close to a lamp but you see your character runs on the same spot because actually you are stuck in front of that lamb's defined area, its like invisible wall. It didnt become a big problem for me but in case you are running from a ghost it may be. The game has no fight command or anything instead with circle button you enter camera mode which will allow you to take pictures. In this mode, you control camera with left analog and you can walk with right analog which is very helpful while trying to take a ghost's picture and walk bacward. Triangle button is for quick 180 degree turn. X button is for taking pictures and L1 button is for bonus functions. You can obtain bonus functions with your points that are gained by photos you shot or you can upgrade your camera's power, speed and capture circle. These main functions has maximum four level and there are 5 bonus functions which are See,Paralyze,Pressure, Slow and Search. See makes ghosts totally visible for 10 seconds, Paralyze stops ghosts' movement for 3 seconds, Pressure pushes away ghosts, Slow makes ghosts slower for 10 seconds and Search traces ghosts automatically. These functions need one spirit stone per usage. You'll come across spirit stones in the game in anywhere. Also after you beat the game once you can unlock Special Functions.
When you enter camera mode you'll see some characters at the bottom of the screen, you can think those characters as power gauge, when you hold a ghost in your capture circle those characters will be lit and when you lit all of them you'll do max powered shot, so that means better points for the picture you take. Also if you take a picture with full power and at the moment a ghost attacks, you'll do zero shot which will give better points and more damage to ghost. When a ghost starts to attack you'll notice those characters turn red but it wont stay long since it means attack time, they will attack in 1-2 seconds. Also if you manage to take a close shot, it will return as another extra points.
In the game, you'll obtain different kind of items, like films, herbal medicines, spirit stones or stone mirror. You can carry one stone mirror at a time and its used automatically after your health bar reaches zero. There are different kind of films for your camera that differs in power. Type-14 film which is the least powerful can be charged from a save point when you have less than 30 shots. So its like unlimited ammo but you need to reload in a save point. I didnt have any problem with that, I never had a film problem even I mostly used Type-14 film.
The game's graphics are nothing so amazing but they are so clean and fits the game. Ghosts are sometimes funny when you think later but all of them are scary while playing. The game has no music while playing which is great, because the game is all about fear. Instead of music there is sound that provides Fatal Frame's greatest point, the scary atmosphere. With there is no music around while wandering you enter the game's mood easily which is both great and terrible. Great because its really scary feeling, terrible because its REALLY scary. Each room has different sound or different tone to make you stay tense and ghost sounds are succesfully done. Those "My eyes! My eyes!" screaming still sends shivers down my spine when I think of it.
When you beat the game you can unlock different costume and the battle mode. When you load the game clear data, you'll see the new options. In the battle mode you fight ghosts and when you complete all levels in the battle mode you unlock Nightmare difficulty. Also when you start the game from game clear data, you'll have everything same as you finished the game.
Fatal Frame is the best horror game series. The reason for that is simple, it definitely scares you. Its a game that reaches its aim. Unlike other Survival Horror games Fatal Frame is real Horror game. Everyone can survive with lots of weapons but surviving with nothing is the real deal. Though this time Tecmo gives us something like weapon but now they put something better than ever, a scary atmosphere from start to finish. If you want to survive through zombies, creatures by killing them Fatal Frame doesnt offer that. But if you want to be scared, Fatal Frame is the best choice for you.