 Review By: Siou Choy |
Developer: | Tecmo |
| Publisher: | Tecmo | |
| Genre: | Survival Horror | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Memory Unit, In-game Dolby Digital | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Never take anything at face value. You can’t judge a book by lookin’ at the cover, to quote an old Yardbirds song. Don’t believe the hype, to quote a more recent Public Enemy ditty. OK, so what’s the deal, you ask? Outside of starting off this review with a cliché fest, I have my reasons: in other words, I’ve just described, in 3 easy lines, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. In a nutshell, to quote Austin Powers.
By now, most people interested in the survival horror genre have probably heard about and/or played themselves a copy of Tecmo’s original Fatal Frame, a very well done, rather creepy little Japanese ghost story about several successive characters and the unfortunate results of their investigations into a haunted house. With nice graphics, eerie sound effects and minimal yet effective soundtrack, and rustic Japanese setting, Fatal Frame ultimately came off as an even scarier, less grisly Silent Hill (and incidentally, had I submitted a review for it, it would have rated a 9.0).
Crimson Butterfly would have seemed, at first examination, to be more of the same. Almost as nice graphically (though excessively visible line work in several close-ups indicates somewhat of a lack of adequate rendering), with a plot that promises to delve further into the history of that house – in fact, expanding the setting outward to encompass an entire haunted village that appears “to whomever gets lost in these woods” (to quote some introductory dialogue), with the same basic look, feel, soundtrack, and effects…
So what the hell went wrong?
Despite the promise of an entire haunted village to explore, much of the action is confined to one successive house after another (at chapter 6 out of 8, this limits you to the run of exactly three houses) – and as you inevitably find yourself locked in to each house you enter, all of which seem to share rooms and elements with that one original house from Fatal Frame, that makes it feel like one big house, for the entire game. OK, not so bad, considering the first game managed to keep things interesting using a similar enclosed setting. But speaking strictly for myself, I cannot honestly recall having to retrace my steps so many times, over and over, before managing to trigger the next event (or worse, a half-assed “clue” leading to a putative next event, which you’ll wind up wandering around said house for over 30 minutes of game time trying to find your way to in the first place!).
Even beyond how Crimson Butterfly manages to make what should have been a drastically expanded arena of gameplay into the same ol’ restricted area of movement, there are some serious missteps in relation to its predecessor in terms of gameplay. For one thing, the camera does not operate in the same way as last time. Veterans of the earlier Fatal Frame will recall how the camera would “charge up”, one “spirit stone” after the next, before you knew you could get a good shot in. Ghosts could be shot at any point, regardless of what they were doing or where they were on the screen (so long as they were in, and remained inside, the frame of the camera sights). Finally, most ghosts only took a few good shots to go down. Shots of non-offensive ghosts (i.e., “hidden” ghosts, and those that either held doors locked or provided “magically transforming” photo clues) were fairly easy and obvious – the blue meter would light up, indicating a ghostly presence, you’d aim in the direction the light was strongest, and take your (inevitably successful) shot.
Now, forget all of that, and let’s talk about Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.
Insofar as any “hidden” ghosts, clues, or door-fastening spirits (of which you will encounter almost nil), camera operation is practically counter-intuitive – while your blue meter will still spring alight, it appears to do so almost at random – seldom if ever is there actually a ghost nearby, as scanning around the room either visually or through the camera will inevitably reveal…absolutely nothing! Shots taken are generally blank, unsuccessful, or worthless, and there appears to be little if any reason for your meter to have lit up in the first place – there are a grand total of three (count ‘em, three) photo clues and one (that’s right, exactly one) locked door opened by taking a shot of the ghost holding it fast as of chapter 6 out of 8. But that’s not the worst part. That lies in the use of the camera for fighting off hostile spirits.
Posted: 2006-03-22 13:19:15 PST