The Fatal Frame games have established themselves as the byword for suspense-filled horror. There are no showers of blood or shotguns, no hideous demons with heads attached to their backsides, and definitely no muscle-bound heroes called Jack. Instead, you play as a fragile-looking Japanese schoolgirl and are only ever armed with a flashlight and a special camera that can exorcise the ghosts that haunt whatever spooky location it is that you find yourself in. The games are superb.
Tentatively subtitled Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, the fourth Fatal Frame outing arrives in Japan at the end of July and fresh details emerging from its native land suggest that it'll be every bit as brilliant yet bum-clenchingly terrifying as its predecessors. The game is set on the 'mysterious' Rougetsu Island, home to a haunted mansion (who'd have thought it) where five girls from the same family were kidnapped when they were small children. We presume they're sisters.
Hardcore Gamer: Nintendo has a problem – region-locking. A dirty word for niche gamers and importers alike, Nintendo’s consoles have been consistently lambasted for this draconian and arbitrary restriction. But despite continuous backlash, the Wii U has continued this dubious tradition – and this speaks volumes about Nintendo’s attitude toward localization.
How is region locking not a problem? I guess if you don t want to play any region locked games but I do- there are many I want to play and there are many others that want to play them-
Region locking is one of several restricting policies that is hurting Nintendo and its customers
sure overseas business make no money then on the localization if it never existed
why do you think Nintendo is doing more localization
Kotaku:
"The Fatal Frame series is one of the creepiest survival-horror game series out there and certainly my personal favorite of the genre. But as with all series, some games are better than others. So let's rank them, shall we?"
is Fatal Frame III worth playing?, I bought 2 in last year's sale of the dead and enjoyed it (first game ever that truly spooked me) was considering picking 3 in this week's sale but I have heard its not very good
Its very good. Scariest out of all of them, id say. Its a long game and theres some tediousness in it, but its still miles ahead of most games these days. I say go for it.
I definitely disagree with Kotaku ranking 4 over 3. 4 is damn near broken with an awful framerate and impossible to 100% complete. 3 is at least a technically capable game with great ps2 visuals and progressive scan support.
I didn't mind the technical issues in Fatal Frame 4. But I think Fatal Frame 3 has a better story, setting, and characters than Fatal Frame 4.
Not that Fatal Frame 4 was a bad game, but it's probably my least favorite of the series.
It was 2003 when I first managed to play Fatal Frame 2 in PS2. It's unlike anything I've ever played in that time. Silent Hill 3 doesn't even come close.
Up to this date, I still feel it's one of the best games out there in the horror genre.
I'd say FF: 2,3,1 (haven't played 4 or 5 due to Nintendo's selective hearing since fans have been begging for them to come westward. Same with the FF2 remake. They could easily win E3 next year by announcing a 2,4,5 bundle for wiiu.
NE:
"Blue bars represent Japanese sales debuts of the various Fatal Frame games. Combining the blue and red bars represents lifetime sales.
All things considered, Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden’s debut wasn’t too terrible. It sold more than the last two games for Wii – a console with a much higher install base. "
selling the best since the PS2 era. And people think Bayonetta sold badly in Japan.. Japanese devs and most of the publishers (apart from capcom and Square enix) dont blow money on huge marketing campaigns.
Its quite incredible that the series can progress with such weak sales...
I find it funny that the indie tribute to this series "Dreadout" is ten times more known and popular than its inspiration. What Nintendo needs to do is release this in the west and get the youtube personalities that make obscure horror games sell and have them advertise the game, by playing it.
I gotta admit, I was surprised at how low Fatal Frame's sales were. I knew it was a niche series, but I always assumed the sales were at least a bit higher than that.
Still, I hope FF5 makes it to the West...even if it's only a digital release. I think the game has potential to do well if it actually gets some decent marketing and some hype from game sites (which the other games didn't really get).
When and if it is still coming out!? What studio is headed up the production? We know Tecmo bankrolled them.