For years, great horror games have rarely been made; So if we are looking for a scary game, we have no other place to look for except for small, independent creations. However, the old horror games, especially those that were pre-made and released two generations ago, are still good and scary. Fatal Frame or Project Zero game series also fall into this category. The newest part of this series of games, which is also more or less old, has just been re-released in the form of a remastered version. It’s been a few years since the release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, but as a horror game it’s great in every way.
The reason why, unlike the rest of the Fatal Frame series, neither you nor I have been able to experience the final issue of the series, Maiden of Black Water, is available exclusively on the Nintendo Wii U console; So we can easily say that it’s not just you and us, but only a handful of people have been able to experience this game on a broken Nintendo console.
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Fortunately, like many other Wii U games, we are finally seeing the re-release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, and the remake of this game, while not undergoing major changes, is still fun and enjoyable; Especially since we can easily say that there is still nothing like it. The special and different experience that Fatal Frame game series offers is completely their own, and Maiden of Black Water is no exception to this trend. We are on the side of a very good horror game; Especially for those who are in favor of a special Japanese horror style.
As a horror game, Maiden of Black Water was not delivered as it should have been; The theme is mostly rooted in the game’s main platform. The game well maintains the basis of the Fatal Frame series and tries to expand it with its new mechanics and systems. Some of these developments have had good results in the Maiden of Black Water, and some have damaged the overall trend of the series; Clearly, decisions made to follow modern gaming trends have hurt the game, but not to the detriment of the overall experience. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water has everything we expect from an episode of this series, from the Japanese horror story to the best gameplay of the series.
A new version of an old story
Different parts of the Fatal Frame game series usually follow the same storyline. Always at the beginning of the work, a character is looking for something, gets lost or falls into the hands of evil spirits, and after him, another character tries to save him. This trend is also maintained in the Maiden of Black Water. The game has three characters; The first character is lost, the second follows him, and the third character follows the second character. All three characters have their own stages, and the story of the game, which is narrated episode by episode, moves between these three characters.
The story of the game is about a forest where people go to commit suicide; Where you have probably heard about it. Legend has it that the embarrassed Japanese go to this forest to commit suicide, and the reality is not far from these tales. Japan really has a forest where hundreds of people commit suicide every year. The Japanese believe that the ghosts of people who have committed suicide in this forest travel in this forest. Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl.
The story of the game is not unlike the previous episodes of the series and follows the same process, but this is not a reason for the story to be bad, and the story is as good as a classic Japanese horror film.
The game can be considered a sequel in terms of story for the previous episodes, because it is full of references to the events and characters of the previous episodes of Fatal Frame. Of course, you do not need to know these details and you can enjoy the story without prior knowledge. It can even be said that if you have not experienced the previous episodes, because you do not know the clichés and the usual events of the series, you will like the story more and you will experience the events for the first time. If you are familiar with the Japanese storytelling style, you can probably easily guess from the beginning how the story is going to end, but it does not have much effect on the enjoyment of the game, because the game’s story is beautifully defined and scenes, events and interludes They are great.
For all that, I believe the game is more about the little stories we hear during the stages than the main story; Stories that tell of different characters and ghosts, and in one or two posts that you will find, and include a few scary scenes. These are great and make the gaming world terribly scary. It does not take long for you to realize that if you find text at some point in the game and read about a particular ghost, you are going to see that ghost soon.You do not need to know the story of the previous episodes and you can enjoy the story without prior knowledge.
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As we said, this is a Japanese arithmetic game, and this usually means a lot of extra dialogue and scenes, the removal of which has no effect on the storyline, but they work well in a horror game. The slow flow and gradual progression of the story is a prerequisite for a horror game; It is necessary to give the audience some time before any horrible event and prepare him for it with stories, pictures and sounds. The flow of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is exactly that.
If you are a fan of the Japanese special genre of horror, do not doubt that you will enjoy the story of the game. However, playing Fatal Frame is an experience of different elements and the story is only one part. The core of the game is not the story and the characters, but the scary scene that lifts you up. Playing Fatal Frame means pulling out a camera and looking for ghosts, knowing that one of these ghosts will soon jump on your face.
Fear of stepping
Like most horror games and previous episodes of this series, a large part of the gameplay of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is spent exploring the environment. To find the way and the item you are looking for, you are exploring a forest or a ruined mansion. The game gives you a map so you can easily find your location and where you need to go, but progressing in the environment is not that easy.
Most of the doors you encounter are locked and access to the place you need to go to is usually not possible without a few trips and finding the items you want. In the Fatal Frame game series, you only have one weapon, and that is a camera. As you navigate the environment, you sometimes have to look at a certain point with the camera and see an item that is not normally seen.
Like all horror games, navigating the game environment and finding various items and reading posts is a big part of the gameplay. Taking a step in the Maiden of Black Water is not everyone’s job and the game has a really scary environment.
Sometimes you take pictures from a point of view and in the picture you take, you see an item that does not really exist. Or you will be shown a place to go to find the item. So far, these systems existed in previous episodes. In the Maiden of Black Water, the angle of these images is also important. Items can only be viewed from a specific angle in the camera. The game also sometimes asks you to take exactly the picture it showed you; That is, find the location of the photo and take a similar photo from the same angle as the photo. As a result of these shots, you will find the key or item you need to progress or the door that was closed will open.
After the original Fatal Frame trilogy, the game’s still camera was replaced by a free camera used in the Maiden of Black Water. Compared to the main parts of the series, this makes it a bit easier to search the environment to find items and even ghosts, and reduces the scary level of the game, because in fact, unlike the main games, there is no blind spot and just rotate the analog to Look behind you or anywhere. In the old games of the series, the camera was perfectly still, and since you could not see the whole environment, you might be attacked by ghosts from unexpected places, or you could leave hidden items and pass through them.
Even picking up items has become a gameplay, and by chance, a ghost may come out and grab your hand. You are not comfortable when removing the item!
One of the downsides of the Maiden of Black Water is here; Not only is navigation easier in the game, but the game itself, with its large number of symbols, clearly marks the location of everything. If an item is around you, an arrow will pop up around the screen to tell you which side the item is on. If a ghost comes to you, another sign on the environment will show you its location.
Aside from that, the game even has a key to show the way, which is completely against the process of a horror game. Do not know which way to go? Press a key to show the game exactly where you need to go, step by step. Unfortunately, it is not possible to turn off these tips. In the previous games of the series, traveling around and looking for an item was a big part of the game, but in Maiden of Black Water you need to know everything you need to know, what to do or where to go or what You have to find something, it is clearly presented to you on the screen and during the gameplay. I said at the beginning that Maiden of Black Water tried to look like a modern game, and that was one of the wrong decisions.
Thanks to a combination of different elements such as good lighting and sound, the game atmosphere is great.
The gaming experience has been greatly simplified because of these systems, and this has also made it scary. You no longer have to worry about losing your resources, because all items are marked with a symbol from a distance, and the way is always indicated by a line. The map is virtually unused in the Maiden of Black Water because of one or two systems.
Although the game environment is much less crowded than the previous episodes, wandering ghosts are more powerful in the game than before; Ghosts that the same way to deal with the same camera.
Fight the ghosts
In the series of Fatal Frame games, we face ghosts and usually we are not going to run away from them. Our weapon for fighting ghosts is also a camera. An old camera that uses film and negatives. Our ammunition are different movies, each with its own power. In this series of games, when you pull your camera out, the game becomes first person and you look at the ghosts from inside the camera. By taking pictures of ghosts, they weaken and eventually disappear.
In Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, the ghost-fighting system is so advanced that we dare say we are on the side of an action game. Every time you take pictures of ghosts, parts of them are detached and suspended around them. You should try to include more of these parts in the photo and the soul itself to get the most impact. The game itself counts the number of sections in your box. You can rotate your frame so that the spirit and the parts that you have separated from it are completely in your frame. If you put five pieces of the soul and himself in the frame and take a picture, you will hit him the hardest and throw him back.
Fighting ghosts is still as scary as the first time, even after playing other games in the Familiarity series.
The original version of the game was made for the Wii U console and used its motion controller to simulate a camera. This motion controller has also been rebuilt on the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, and you can move the PlayStation controller in the form of a camera so that the spirit is completely in your frame. The gaming experience in this way is a more interesting experience compared to the usual use of analogues. Of course, it is possible to use analog and motion sensors at the same time, and in fact, it is better to use both to close your frame on the soul faster and take a picture of it.
Fighting mechanics and shooting ghosts Although the game has a completely action process and allows you to deal with ghosts and enemies, but the game is still scary. Although spirits more or less follow a pattern of movement, you do not see any surprising events on their part. They move in the environment, they come behind you, they disappear in front of you and they appear somewhere else, and sometimes even unexpectedly and quickly, while you are holding the camera and looking at the soul from a first-person perspective. They jump on your face. You basically know how to fight ghosts, but dealing with ghosts is still scary.The mechanics of fighting and shooting ghosts give the game a completely action-packed look, but the game is still scary.
The better you play, the better pictures of ghosts, the game will give you points in return. These points are also given to you to find hidden items and spirits. The points you get are used to get various items and upgrades. You can upgrade your camera with new features. You can increase the speed of video placement or video change, increase the power of the camera, or increase the distance that the camera can affect ghosts. Cameras also have different interchangeable lenses that give you special powers; Powers like taking multiple shots in quick succession with one key or hitting a powerful shot. To use special powers, you must first destroy a certain number of souls to fill a special line, then you can use special powers.
The camera, which is the only weapon for combat, has various capabilities; Capabilities that are each upgradeable.
The creators have tried to relate the story to the gameplay, and the “water” element, which is an important part of the story, also affects the gameplay. Water affects your encounters with spirits. If you walk in the water or in the rain for a long time, which happens a lot in this game, you get wet, and how wet you are is directly related to the danger that ghosts have for you. The more you get wet, the more ghosts will come to you and attack you with more force. After getting wet, you can either wait a while away from the rain and water to dry, or use an item to dry yourself.
From time to time, ghosts move unpredictably, turn their backs on you, enter one wall and push you out of another wall, or even attack you from above without you being able to see.
In general, the fights in the game are much easier than before; So that they are extremely easy on ordinary degrees of difficulty. Maybe it’s because I’m experienced the old games in the PlayStation 2 series and I’m more used to the high level of difficulty, but in Maiden of Black Water you don’t even have to worry about running out of movies, because you always have a weak but infinite movie. . The game, even in previous episodes, has no place to save and automatically saves everything; It is also plentiful and every few minutes. You are basically not worried about being killed or losing anything. At the beginning, it is not possible to choose a higher difficulty level than usual, and to unlock the difficulty level, you must first finish the game once. Of course, this was the procedure for all the games in the series, but the previous games were not so simple on a regular basis.
Ghost fights in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water are very well designed and really fun, but better than the mechanics and combat system, it is the ghosts themselves that attract you.
Evil spirits
The game is full of wandering ghosts that appear everywhere and attack you. The presence of these wandering spirits is also very scary and takes different forms. They may suddenly appear above your head, they may pop out of a window, they may appear in the middle of a rope, and in other different and creative ways. Most of the time, the appearance of ghosts is accompanied by your jumping.
However, many times the ghosts that appear in front of you have their own story background and appear only once. Many of the ghosts you encounter have their own design and story. For example, in the ghost houses you see two girls in school uniforms coming towards you. A little later, you find a piece of paper that tells the whole story of “two schoolgirls who went missing” and how they died in abandoned houses.
Flashbacks and videos made to tell the story of ghosts are some of the scariest and most violent parts of the game.
These are common Japanese horror stories, legends and tales, and if you are familiar with them, or have seen old Japanese horror movies such as Quaydan and The Ring and Resentment, you know exactly what style you are on. Reading the stories of these ghosts is fascinating at all times and makes the game world deeper and more believable. The appearance of the spirits is also done according to the way they were killed or died, and you see certain wounds on their bodies or say certain sentences according to the way they died.
When you defeat these ghosts, you can quickly go to them and touch their souls before they disappear. By doing this, you will see a part of their memories before death; It is also in the form of a scary video. Of course, these videos are of low quality and do not look like the game’s graphics at all, but considering the large number of these videos that have been made and recorded, they are still admirable. The stories, big and small, told to the ghosts in the game are an important part of Japanese popular culture, and at the same time they are well-placed in the game. It is thanks to these stories that the world of Maiden of Black Water and a hundred other parts of the series come to life.
Higher quality without change
Let’s talk a bit about the quality of the Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water remake. Simply put, not much work has been done on this reconstruction. We are on the same side with the original version of the game, which runs with higher image resolution and higher frame rate. Do not expect any other change. Of course, it’s been six or seven years since the game was released, but it’s still graphically beautiful. Making big changes to it, for example using a new lighting system or something like that, generally disrupts the stage designs and everything in the game; So it was better not to play by hand, because surely any change could have a negative impact on other parts.
We have seen several reconstructions in which a small change has completely ruined the scenes that should be completely dark or light, and misrepresented the colors and lights. Either everything has to change, or it is better to try to present the same original version in the best way.
The remastered version is technically unchanged, but runs at a higher resolution and higher frame rate. The excellent visual quality of the game indicates the excellent quality of the original version, which was the basis of this remake.
The reconstruction of the Maiden of Black Water is beautiful in every way. The game has very high quality character models and visually puts a good image in front of the audience in all scenes, both in the gameplay and in the middle. The textures have room for improvement, but with their current quality they do not hurt the graphic quality of the game. The intermediate direction of the game is very good, and obviously the flashbacks, which are made in the form of old cassette videos, are just as great as the previous episodes.
What’s new in the remastered version is summed up in a number of new costumes for the three characters, a new control system and a shooting mode. The new game control system offers a better gaming experience than the original mode, which is very complex and strange for today’s gamers. If you have not played the old parts and you are not used to the set control system, we suggest that you remove the control system from the “classic” mode and set it to the “action” mode.
The new photography part of this remake, we mean the “photo mode” that is found in most new games, has many features and capabilities. You can place characters and ghosts in different game environments in any way you want and take pictures of them. From a list, select the characters and ghosts you want, a gesture and a facial expression for them, and take photos of them by selecting the filters and frames you want. The new shooting mode of this reconstruction is very good from the water.
The shooting mode of the game is amazing. You choose each of the characters and ghosts and put them on the stage with the different poses as you want, and then take your photo.
Apart from this, after finishing the game, you will encounter a very special and cool mode that we will not reveal, but it is a stage with the presence of “Ayaneh” in the “Ninja Gaiden” series of games . I do not know if this step existed in the original version of the game or was added in this remastered version, but in any case it is very cool and completely different from the original game.
Horror stories
I say that Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is not as scary as the previous episodes of the series. Maybe because you do not feel very dangerous in the game. Stepping into previous games was a difficult and scary task. Those games had limited saves and very little ammunition for the camera, and there was no guidance or help anywhere in the game. Maybe it’s because I always played the old parts after midnight and in my youth, but I have to say that this time I was not as scared as I used to be.
The game clearly has a more action process than the previous episodes and pushes you towards the fights at all times. Unlike the old games in the series, Maiden of Black Water encourages you to go to the ghosts, face them and try to score points. While in the old games you preferred half the time to escape to stay and fight, because any ghost could lead to your death, you did not have many resources and the last save you made was half an hour ago.
It takes courage to enter this abandoned house in the middle of the forest. You’ve probably guessed that this doll is not going to let you go.
Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person. The mechanics are so good that you want to find the soul and score points. Of course, this should not be the goal of a horror game, at least not in the first experience of a game. Previous games in the series encouraged you to try them a second and third time, and now try to score points. For the second and third time, the game got harder and you upgraded your camera and had a lot of items. But for the first time everything was scary and you were helpless step by step.
Unlike two generations ago, when horror games were the mainstay of the gaming industry and gaming companies spent a lot of money to make them, today there is no news of expensive and expensive games in this genre. In such an era, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is easily placed in the scary pits that are added to Steam daily, with a higher difference than all other independent games.
Simply put, the game is special in every way and there is nothing like it. You can be sure that you enjoy your experience while playing and that from time to time you shake with fear; Even if you have to struggle for the first few hours with its weird control system and learn it.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is an amazing experience for fans of the Japanese horror genre, and I promise you that nothing like it will ever be made again.
Game Name: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water / Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water
Producer: Koei Tecmo
Producer: Koei Tecmo
Genre: Scary Adventure
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC