 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: |   |
Remember how you could shoot the ghosts at any point they were in your sights? Forget it. This time you don’t get a charge until (and literally, not ‘till the very second) they attack you. So you have about 2 seconds to get your shot in…and that’s if it’s one of the extremely rare spirits who actually stays in frame during said attack – most duck down low, or even to the side, when attacking. Even the shots you get tend to be of the top of their heads (most ghosts in Crimson Butterfly seem to have a predilection for diving at you or charging like a bull, rather than swiping or grabbing at you). Secondly, we have the issue of the “special lenses”, which are supposed to be activated via the Y button, and once properly decked out with spirit orbs and equipped, apparently either slow, stun, “blast” back with extra force, or show where the offending ghosts are hiding at. Maybe it’s just me, but despite taking all the abovementioned steps…this never worked. Not once. Finally, we have the issue of charging the camera for that perfect shot, which no longer charges up in an obvious and semi-logical fashion, one spirit orb after the next, but rather remains in the normal viewing mode until the offending party either waves its arms at you or is within a second or two of its attack on you. And lest there be any confusion here, when I refer to the ghosts’ attacks on you, I don’t mean they’re moving in your direction, I mean if you don’t snap a successful shot, they have you right then and there, and you get to waste yet another medicinal drink recharging your health (there is one ugly ghost that kills you on touch who pops up fairly early on in the proceedings, then disappears, probably to return at the end of the game for a final boss fight of some sort). This was particularly annoying…well, every damn time, but especially with those kids in the shrine room (hang in there, I’m getting to it).
While all this nonsense with the camera would seem to make Crimson Butterfly a far more difficult game than its predecessor, this is not in fact the case. Medicine, film, and even spirit stones are in far more plentiful supply than was the case in the original, making things distinctly unchallenging in that respect. In fact, I rarely had to make use of the medicinal drinks, much less the higher-powered spirit waters or “resurrecting” spirit stones. Even in terms of film, I almost exclusively stuck to the type-14 (the lowest exorcismal power) for fights, and only moved up to the next power of film once or twice to speed things along a bit (you pick up at least 3 powers higher than that in the course of gameplay). In fact, the game was so easy and short, you literally find yourself looking forward to the annoying fights, just out of boredom. The developers similarly seem to have depended on your aimless wandering for nearly nonexistent (at best, fairly oblique) clues to stretch the game out to an acceptable running length.
Likewise, despite having a great overall setting and some nearly identical trappings to the far superior original, somehow (and I admit, I’m not sure exactly why), Crimson Butterfly manages to be rather unscary. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s so identical in look and ostensible feel to the original, but somehow, the latter entry just doesn’t carry the creepiness, chills, or eerie atmosphere nearly half as well. Additionally, there really isn’t much of a shock value to the ghosts, who seemed so gruesomely frightening in the first game – something about their character design, or perhaps the way they carry themselves, makes them more annoying, even irritating than frightening this time around. I found myself angry and yelling at the screen with a disturbing frequency, but experienced few, perhaps no chills whatsoever. Not much of a recommendation for a haunted house game. The worst offenders were some extremely annoying ghost children who gang up on you, over and over again, in the shrine room of one of the houses (yes, they keep regenerating if you stay in the room – I fought and killed them no less than 3 times in succession before discovering that I was supposed to be looking for the “family shrine” in a different house entirely!!).
In sum, the one thing you’ll come away from the Crimson Butterfly experience with is an overwhelming sense of time wasted wandering back and forth through the same house (or pair of houses) trying to figure out where the hell the next clue is, and where they want you to go next. That, and a lot of irritation from the lousy camera and how annoying it makes your encounters with the many, ultimately easy to beat ghosts you’ll encounter. And given how good the original Fatal Frame managed to be, not to mention how excellent the last survival horror game I played was (the wonderful high school horror Obscure), Crimson Butterfly comes off as a poor man’s runner up, if that. Extremely disappointing. I look in utter trepidation at news of the upcoming sequel…
Bottom Line:
Forget it. Stick with the original Fatal Frame, or Silent Hill 1&2, or the original Parasite Eve, or hell, go out and buy yourself a copy of Obscure, it’s a great survival horror game! Just whatever you do, don’t sink any of your hard earned money into this piece of crap. The Tecmo development team doesn’t deserve it. The final word? ….zzzzzzzzzzz….
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 6.5 |
Posted: 2006-03-22 13:19:15 PST