The Game Plan 10.19.07: Halloween Horror Spotlight, Part 3
Posted by James McGee on 10.19.2007
This week I spotlight my favorite survival-horror series, Fatal Frame
I've done a lot of stupid things in my life—I'm sure we all have. While it would be hard for me to pinpoint the absolute dumbest thing I've ever been guilty of, I think near the top of the list would have to be playing Fatal Frame in the dark, all by myself. When I started this series on horror games, I said I like being scared, but sometimes it's best to know your limits. Hey, I'm secure enough in my manhood to admit it: Tecmo's Fatal Frame series gives me the creeps like nobody's business. But, masochist that I am, they're my favorite games. They combine the disturbing scares of Silent Hill with a coherent, detailed story that puts Resident Evilto shame (there's no camp here; just straight up spooky). Combine that with the most innovative ghost-busting system imaginable, and you have the best survival-horror franchise of all time. I'm James McGee, and here's The Game Plan.
The bulk of your time in Fatal Frame is spent exploring typically haunted buildings, looking for keys and clues to advance the story. In other words, it's pretty standard survival-horror fare, for the most part. The way Fatal Frame distinguishes itself from other games is through its combat. If you're unfamiliar with the series, you might want to sit down for this one. The protagonists of the FF series don't rely on shotguns, rocket launchers, axes, pipes, slingshots or even spitballs. The weapon of choice for discerning exorcist is the Camera Obscura. Yes…you battle ghosts with a camera. Now, as silly as this may sound initially, the novelty of snap-shooting your foes to death (well, second death, I guess) is more than a stupid gimmick, and is a great example of the attention to detail that makes Fatal Frame so great. Think about it: we're talking about ghosts here. They're translucent, they walk through walls…how much sense would it make to bash one over the head with a crowbar, or unload a few rounds in their chest? Since Ghostbuster-style proton packs evidently haven't been approved for public use in Japan yet, a mystic camera makes the next logical choice. The Camera Obscure has a fully explained back-story that is actually integral to the plot of the first game (I won't go into specific details, since I try to keep this column as spoiler-free as possible). The writers go to great pains to explain why a camera would have the ability to exorcise evil spirits, and it ends up making a crazy kind of sense in the world of mysticism and ancient rituals the games are steeped in.
The story and mythology of the games in general is very well realized, providing a big chunk of the creepiness players will encounter. The games draw from Japanese folklore and superstitions to paint a brutal picture of ancient, sacrificial rituals. Now, I don't know how much is based in fact and how much is completely fabricated, but the important thing is that the writers have created a very vivid, fully realized world. Rather than simply thrusting characters into horrific situations, Fatal Frame connects each of its protagonists to the story at hand. In the first game, Miku goes in search of her missing brother, who had himself gone looking for a research partner in the haunted Himuro Mansion. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly sees twins Mio and Mayu drawn into a village where an ancient ritual involving sacrificial twins has left the area cursed. Fatal Frame IIIis aptly sub-titled The Tormented, as it features characters with ties to the first two games, all dealing with the guilt of how those events affected their loved ones. Even the ghosts players face aren't simply nameless enemies. They all have personalities and back-stories of their own—some told through documents found scattered about, others simply inferred through their names, actions, and appearances. The characteristic sadness I mentioned last week again pervades this decidedly Japanese ghost story, as the terrible history that unfolds reveals an even deeper air of tragedy. In addition to being shocking and horrific, there's a melancholy beauty to the tale woven in Fatal Frame.
Even though the ghosts you encounter may have heartbreaking pasts, you may still be hard-pressed to sympathize with them, because these buggers are scary! The main antagonists of each game (and many of the lesser ghosts) take the form of Yūrei—those creepy little girls with hair in their face made popular in films like The Ring and The Grudge. Why are girls dressed in white with long hair so scary? Who knows? Maybe it's because unkempt hair is inherently unnerving, but whatever the reason, the baddies in Fatal Frame will have your skin crawling even more than the inhuman monsters from Silent Hill. Maybe it's because they clearly were human at one point, but the manner of their deaths have left the spirits mangled and deformed. One has her neck turned around and lolling limply down her back. Another victim (having fallen down a stairwell) is but a tangled, misshapen, crawling mass of limbs. A third has gaping holes where her eyes should be, leftover from a blinding ritual. While it's bad enough staring through your camera lens at a hostile spirit as it creeps closer (in another chilling touch, FF encourages you to wait until the last, heart-stopping moment to snap a picture, inflicting maximum damage), there are several ghosts that don't attack you, but are no less frightening. Fatal Frame is peppered with ghosts seen just outside your field of vision, unexpectedly crawling over your reflection in a mirror, or bursting from beneath a set of stairs, only to fade away. Players can earn extra points by photographing these non-violent spirits, but I suspect their true purpose is just to give you another jolt of the willies. These instants combine the best "boo!" tactics of Resident Evil with the more psychologically disturbing methods of Silent Hill to create, hands-down, the scariest moments I've ever experience while playing a video game.
You really have to look no further than Fatal Frame's central gameplay mechanic to see how brilliant this series is. Any game that can take a premise as ridiculous as fighting ghosts with a camera and weave a story that not only makes sense, but is genuinely engaging and moving has got some serious talent behind it. Oh, and just in case I haven't mentioned it, these games are scary, too—scary enough to make a grown man admit he can't play them alone in the dark (no survival-horror pun intended). Fatal Frame may not have the name-brand appeal of Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but for my money, no other game can hold a flickering candle to Tecmo's masterpieces.
For the last two columns in this series, I'll be focusing on a few individual games that, while they may not have the power of a franchise behind them, should not be ignored by any fan of survival-horror. Until then, let's keep all that "leave the lights on" stuff between us, okay?
