Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

"Make sure you have spare pants; this game will scare the fluids out of you!"

You know, some people like me enjoy being scared. God knows that is the reason for the invasion of the white hair on my head. You may argue that I'm unintelligent for enjoying that, but believe me; you'll be missing out on a lot. How can you be missing out on a lot by not getting scared? Well, trust me, I think it's in the human nature to get excited at the first mention of anything out of the ordinary, and when you feed that excitement, you'll experience a feeling like never before: no, not a heart attack, but more along the lines of that feeling you get when your mother finds out about those naughty magazines under your bed, or when your dad catches you and your mom's recently-baked pie (ha-ha, do I love ''American Pie'' or what?). If you're the type of person that is afraid to look under your bed or to raise your head from under the blanket, then entering the survival-horror arena has never been handier for facing your fears. And if you want to experience the best of what this genre has on offer, then you can't go wrong by putting down the cash in exchange for a copy of Tecmo's wonderful gem, ''Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly'', the second game in a series of disturbing universes.

I hear you say, ''Ha! Resident Evil felt like watching an episode of Pokemon to me, so I'm sure this game won't stand a chance in making me wet my new pair of Tom & Jerry boxers!'' Well, guess what? Make sure the washing machine doesn't get rusty; it's back in business, ha-ha. What's this ''Fatal Frame II'' then? And why would it spoil my, gasp, Tom & Jerry boxers (there, I said it, ha-ha)? Well, listen to the story.

Twin sisters, Mio and Mayu, are wandering in a forest-like area where they used to spend time back in their childhood days, when suddenly Mayu disappears. Mio catches a glimpse of Mayu, which injured her leg back in her juvenile days, sauntering past the trees and other Mother-Nature paraphernalia. After Mio catches up with Mio, they find themselves in an eerie murky place. Could this be the much-talked-about Lost Village where lots of people are rumored to have met their doom? Utilizing the controller to help the twin sisters find their way into an archaic house, you'll have a first taste of the fear this game will root into your heart: Mayu, while face towards the house, holds Mio's hand that's supposedly behind her (the names could be the other way around, so please don't sue me for this). With Mio's hand grasping Mayu's, you see Mio passing in front of you. Shock and horror ensue! Whose hand was that? Considering you're still alive and kicking and got enough guts to go on with the game, you'll be able to control Mio inside the house (or shall I say haunted house? Ha-ha).

With you aiding Mio and Mayu on where they should be heading, you'll be exploring dark rooms littered with all sorts of things that add to the frightening mood, and spending time on telling yourself that you're going to be alright and that it's just a game. The locations throughout the game are really amazing and completely portray the feeling of you actually being there. The textures are some of the best you'll see on the PlayStation2: all throughout the game I kept checking if I'm playing on my PS2 console and not Xbox; the graphics quality is really topnotch. Well done Tecmo. What amazes you even more are the light effects; wait till you get the flashlight and use it to make whatever lies in darkness visible for your brain to store for the night.

Now, I've yakked on and on about all sorts of different stuff, but never really told you about what malice you’re up against. What you're up against isn't really obvious: it's not your run-of-the-mill zombie or your Casper ghost; it's something much scarier than that. Tortured spirits is the closest thing you can describe them with, as they're spirits of people that have obviously suffered painful sore kismets. And they look incredibly real too. There was more than one time where my mouth was wide open and my hand was touching the screen to see whether the apparition was real or not. And the spirits aren't all the same white form with a new voice or look; they each have their own character and story. You won't find yourself exorcizing ghosts with no past in this game!

Speaking of which, the Obscura, which is your ticket to getting rid of these foul spirits. That’s right. It’s not a gun, and nor is it a sword: it’s a camera with the ability to banish these foul spirits you encounter, with just a press of a button (or continuous pressing of it, er). When you encounter a ghost, what you have to do is enter first-person mode by pressing O (default settings) and then taking pictures of the specters. Be careful not to fall in the mistake I plunged into though; due to the beauty of the surroundings, I found myself neglecting snapping pictures of a ghost in favor of a lovely-looking vase, ha-ha. Er, yea, I just might be kidding, but that’s just to address the game’s wonderful graphics. Your camera isn’t a cheap one either; it’s got all sorts of different abilities and functions. With so many buttons on the camera, you’ll be puzzled at how you’re going to kill the next ghost. The camera upgrading all takes place in a section of its own, and you’ll find yourself hanging around there a lot, as if you want to be out of this spooky village, you’re going to have to have (I like the sound of that) a bazooka-quality camera.

If you ask me how much I think the audio effects contribute to the fear factor, I’d tell you that they’re what made me reach for the light switches most of the time. The audial upshots are even scarier than what a lot of horror flicks have on offer; the acoustic sector of Tecmo has been doing its job in that way were you feel you’re just going to give it your best. The game tunes go hand in hand with the chromatic overture. And what’s great is that in this game the voice acting doesn’t sound cheesy; it’s just perfect, perfect in a scary kind of way. The sound effects are nigh on perfect, so when you walk over wood you know that you’re walking over it. A lot of the jump-out-of-your-seat moments came from a sudden change in the audial mood: the mood would be serene and bam, all of a sudden you find yourself clinging on the ceiling; man these audio moments made me lose a few pounds of flesh.

How long does this revulsion keep going on? Well, its length is perfect for a survival-horror game, with around 8 to 10 hours first time through and at least another ten hours of replay value for the extras and getting to know the story better. You'll find yourself going through the game time and time again just to see if you can stand your ground when the ghost that made you jump off your seat comes to do it all over again. That's not to mention that you can save pictures you've taken on to your memory card, so you could be competing against your friends for scariest picture ever. The extra stuff you get isn’t that rewarding, but they give you a good excuse for roaming the beautiful eerie village once again.

All this of course is from a satisfied customer point of view, as I haven't come across any real lapses during the game. One fault I could make out though is the fact that you spend too much time in the menu screen. You often find yourself browsing your items, reading what's in your files, tuning your camera, etc., and that's really not that bad, but just ruins the mood from staying at an all-time hair rising. Beside that, you could argue that you saw some of the events coming, like you knew a ghost was going to be waiting for you in a certain place and such. After this you'll be running out of faults to nag about if you're a survival-horror fan.

Again, I'd like to comment on how slickly the story advances, managing to get on your sane side every once in a while. It never really gets boring, and if they told me there are going to be ten extra hours just like the ones I've experienced then I'm all up for the challenge. When you get notebooks and other such readable content on your quest, you'll find yourself voraciously gobbling up each and every word you're reading, and sometimes memorizing them so you could tell your friends what the hell happened in that place.

At the end of it all, I just want to say that if you're in search of a survival-horror game that will offer you the best of what the genre has to offer, and if you're willing to accept the fact that there are no machine guns to nail your enemies with but just a camera, then let me tell you that you're in the right place: ''Fatal Frame II'' is the perfect game for you, and at the time of writing this review, you can find it for cheap at a lots of stores, so please be generous and give your money to Tecmo so that they feel motivated for doing a third in the series.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04