Fatal Frame

aka: Project Zero, Rei Zero
Moby ID: 5961
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Miku Hinasaki is a young girl with a strange sixth sense. Her brother, Mafuyu, and his mentor, Junsei Takamine, went to investigate a mansion that once was inhabited by a powerful landowner who had absolute control over the area. Unfortunately, they never returned from their investigation. Miku enters the mansion, armed with only an antique camera given to her by her deceased mother, to try to find her brother.

While inside the mansion, Miku will encounter ghosts and other spiritual apparitions. In order to overcome these spirits and survive, she must use the magical camera to capture the ghosts on film, thereby trapping them forever. Ghosts range from invisible fragments hidden in scenery, to memories of the past that appear only for a moment before vanishing, to full body apparitions that will attempt to attack and kill Miku.

In order to defeat an aggressive ghost the Camera Obscura's shot must first be "charged" by keeping the ghost centered while it is visible. If Miku snaps a shot while the ghost is attacking or is vulnerable then she will drain even more energy from it, resulting in more spirit points being earned. Points can then be spent to improve her camera's attributes or give it special abilities, like slowing a ghost or pushing it away. The Camera Obscura can also reveal clues and dispel illusions, which Miku will need to utilize to solve puzzles within the mansion.

Spellings

  • 零~zero~ - Japanese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

132 People · View all

Producer
Director
Chief Programmer
Character Design Director
  • ZIN
Stage Design Director
  • HRY-CHN
Interface Designer
Planners
Programmers
Character Modeling
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 26 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 4 reviews)

The Best!

The Good
It scared me half to death! Wonderful characters, plot, backgrounds, sounds, ghost, deaths, the surprises! Its never ending. Fatal Frame is the best game around and I fell in love with it. It has 3 different modes. 3 different outfits (very unique) AND YOU USE A CAMERA FOR GOD'S SAKE! Oh and you have two different endings! Figured that out after we beat it a second time with the new specialties you get.

The Bad
I loved everything! What do you mean 'Didn't like'? Oh wait, what I don't like is how the other person rated this game!

The Bottom Line
Horrifying Absolutely scary! Beautiful Plot and settings! Different Ghosts! Did I mention Scary? Its perfect. Some advice though, get the man in the house to play it for you. =D

PlayStation 2 · by Jen Despain (2) · 2004

Brilliant

The Good
I loved the graphics and tense atmosphere. The ghosts are what you would expected to see in real life (well to me they are). The music fits in well with the atmosphere as do the sounds. (creepy music and silence mixed - lovely). The storyline is superb and it gets the player's adrenaline pumping, especially when the vibration of the controller as a substitute for her heartbeat.

The strategic puzzles on some doors are a nice change from just having the doors open and something grabs you. Like classic "Resident Evil" style. The way you can go back and forth collecting things that weren't there before may bore some people, but I think it's part of the thrill. If you go back and find something new, you have more chance of meeting another ghost; which is an adrenaline rush.

I also like the way that it is based on a true story/folk-law (loosely) - there ARE sites out there with various information about the rituals etc. - you just have to look. Miku may only be a college girl but she knows her stuff.

The Bad
The few bad thing that I can think of is the camera angle at some points and the repetitiveness of the ghosts' whining. Constant cries of "Why"... (Even with the Editor; he cries out 'why' in a female voice) and the various tapes - the volume of them is so faint you have to turn the volume up to even hear them.

The Bottom Line
Supernatural ghostliness. Good for people who like adrenaline rushes.

PlayStation 2 · by ProjectShadow (3) · 2006

Big Let Down

The Good
Not too damn much.

The Bad
I had first heard about this game a few months ago, when I was looking for a PS2 game to buy. I do enjoy the survival-horror games, although most of the time, they don't live up to the hype.

Fatal Frame is no exception. What caught my attention about this particular game was that it is "based on a true story." I have an interested in the super natural, so this grabbed my attention right away, In fact, I have gone into suspected haunted areas before, just to look around and see if I could find anything. I don't want to get off topic here, so let me get back to the matter at hand.

I bought this game (after looking for it for quite a while) expecting to be scared and impressed at the same time. Man, was I disappointed. Though, I did startled a couple of times, it was a major let down in my book.

The story takes place in 1986 in Japan at a place called: Himurto Mansion. It starts out when a photographer goes to this mansion, to look for his friend and mentor: Jensei Takaminia. Mr. Takaminia is an author, who disappeared with his team of researchers, while researching ritualistic murders for his latest book. A curse and dies affect his entire team. While looking for Mr. Takaminia, the young photographer gets trapped inside the mansion and falls victim to the hoards of ghosts that lurk inside

After two weeks, the young photographers sister sets out to the mansion to try to find out what happened to her brother. She learns about the rituals of the murders and about what happened to the ghosts left wandering around.

Your weapon in this game is a camera, which was given to your brother by your mother, before she died. This camera has the power to expose things the normal eye can't see, and can capture ghosts. Reminds me of the camera I got from my mom two Christmases ago. Again, I don't want to go off topic here; so I'll shut up about the other stuff and get on with it.

The introduction of this game is in black & white and this is the only time you can play as Mayfuyu, I know that probably isn't spelled right, but what the hell...It's not a common name.

I thought this was a really neat effect. I sat playing, waiting to get the bejesus scared out of me. I thought the background music was a nice fit for the introduction. I was however, disappointed a short time later because the music really doesn't change. After a while, I just became annoyed at the sound of it and turned my stereo down. There are ghosts that pop-up in several different areas within this game. You earn points if you can take a picture of them, before they vanish. The better shot you can get in the capture circle, the more points you get. Some of the ghosts are pretty hard to catch (like the editor in the closet.)

I found this game to be overall annoying more then anything, I didn't really find it all that difficult, aside from taking some of the pictures.

A lot of the positions of the ghosts aren't randomized at all. You can play through the same part in the game, and that ghost will always be in that spot. There are some random ghosts. Like when you get attacked going to complete a task.

Even then, it's just some girl with a broken neck or some guy that looks like a zombie. Big deal! The battle system in this game was something else I didn't like.

Typically, the way you fight in this game is to get a ghost in the lens of the camera, take a picture, then run, You have to wait for the camera to power up though, and you only have a limited number of shots. What can be particularly annoying is trying to get zero-shots. Those are the ones worth the most points. Whenever a ghost grabs you: you're forced to hear them say the same thing over and over again. (Unless you turn the sound down.) Things like: "My eyes!" "It hurts." Come back my child,” A really big pain in the ass.

The graphics looked to me, more like a cartoon like Japanese anime. I'm not big on graphics anyway. I've been playing video games for over twenty years, and I've played and seen just about everything.

I'm sure anyone can already tell: in terms of video games, it takes quite a bit to leave a good impression on me. I liked the concept and story, but the game itself is boring. I played it in the dark and it didn't keep me awake at night, Total BS.

I found the controls pretty easy to use. You have to use the analog stick and the way the camera angles are set up in this game, it took me a few minutes to get used to.

The audio in this game isn't bad, but it could have been better. There are these tapes that are around the mansion that you listen to on a tape recorder. I had to turn my stereo volume up, because it was sometimes hard to hear. The quality of the tapes got me to wondering if theses are actual recordings or just actors. I still haven't found out for sure. I don't really give a rat’s ass anymore either.

I'm not convinced that this is based on a true story; I think it may have been a marketing ploy. I looked it up and couldn't find anything.

I heard that this was the scariest game ever. In one sentence: Fatal Frame is crap.

Get it if you want, but it was a waste of my 56 bucks.

The Bottom Line
A waste of money.

PlayStation 2 · by Robert C (6) · 2003

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Inspiration

The tagline of the North American release of Fatal Frame is "Based on a True Story." In an interview, the producer of Zero, Makoto Shibata, explains the story that inspired the game:

In an area outside Tokyo, there lies a mansion in which it’s said seven people were murdered in a grisly manner. On the same property, there lie three detached residences that surround the mansion, all of which are rumored to have ties to the mansion’s troubled past. It’s said there is an underground network of tunnels that lay beneath the premises, but nobody knows who made these tunnels or what purpose they served.

Many inexplicable phenomenon have been reported occurring on the property. Bloody hand prints have been found splattered all over the walls. Spirits have been spotted on the premises… even in broad daylight. A narrow stairway leads to an attic where a spirit-sealed talisman is rumored to be locked away. Men have sought this talisman, only to be found later with their bodies broken and rope marks around their wrists. There’s a crumbling old statue of a woman in a kimono, but its head is missing. If you take a photo of a certain window, a young girl can be seen in the developed picture.

These incidents have provoked fear in the people of Tokyo, and many believe that those who live near this area will become cursed. The deaths of those seven people are unexplained to this day."

Considering how this tagline does not appear on any other region's release, and how the only mention of the story appears online after Fatal Frame's release, this story was likely fabricated by TECMO's marketing division.

Lawsuit

The developer of Fatal Frame, Tecmo, was quickly sued by the movie company behind Ghostbusters, claiming that the idea of capturing ghosts in a camera infringed upon the concept of Ghostbusters. The case was later dropped.

Novel

There's a novelization of the game. It's told from the viewpoint of Mafuyu Hinasaki and it's storyline is a little bit different. Unfortunately, its only in Japanese. It is called Zero: The Novel, ISBN 4840220654, available on The Japanese Amazon website.

Version differences

The European and American versions of the game differ from the Japanese version. The main character, Miku's appearance and outfit have been changed to represent more Western people rather than Japanese.

Information also contributed by Daedolon, Donatello, j.jones and Lain Crowley

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by JPaterson.

PlayStation 3 added by Fred VT.

Additional contributors: Terrence Bosky, Unicorn Lynx, Exodia85, Dae, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 13, 2002. Last modified June 12, 2023.