Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Written by Chris Reiter on June 30, 2003

First Impressions: A picture's worth a thousand kills...and you've got 24 frames of them.

Terror is of mind, body, and spirit. But it's also made up of other things. Last year when Tecmo introduced their ghost busting horror release, Fatal Frame, they wanted to venture into a realm no other game in the genre did before it. Unlike in games such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill, Fatal Frame is without the excessive gore so many other titles in the genre produce, yet still was able to package plenty of scares for the mindset of any gamer who knows how shriek not from mutated creatures, but from what their imagination can perceive as reality. This fall, Tecmo's wiping their drawing palette clean and construing together a whole new element of fear based off of the success of last year's endeavor, called Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly.

Sisters. Twins. One is older, the other younger. Both Mio and Mayu Amakura are gifted children. They're gifted because they have the ability to see what other people don't: a sixth sense you can call it. They see dead people. Since childhood, these two sisters have spent much of their time together within the boundaries of one particular town of old. Returning to this setting sometime later in life, it just so happens that when Mayu, the older of the two, spots a crimson colored butterfly hovering in the air nearby a dense forest, and the winged insect leads her inside its depths. Mio now having no choice but to follow her other half, she creeps after Mayu -- and together they uncover the remains of an abandoned village. Their inquisitive young minds will now direct them through it...but remember that old saying, that curiosity killed the cat.

Two is the keyword for Tecmo's next Fatal Frame. Two sisters who resemble one another and share a skill are about to awaken a fear that's been bottled up inside of them. Besides the fact that Fatal Frame 2 will once again sport a gameplay system where you're to wander around different sections of a village solving puzzles and battling harmful apparitions with the flash of a special camera, what will make Crimson Butterfly an even more intriguing adventure than its former title is that Mio and Mayu are to be joined with one another in multiple gameplay scenarios as the story develops.

As much as these sisters are twins though, they've still got their own unique qualities. For example, Mayu carries an injury on her leg. She's embodied this disability ever since a childhood accident happened to her involving Mio's handiwork. Mio has felt responsible for sister ever since then, and tends to take care of her, as she will in the game. But as these sisters also share a bond of power to sight ghostly forms, it is Mayu who bears the stronger sense. Acting as sort of a crutch for Mayu's weakened state, Mio will be the character you'll control in the game. And with these slight differences in their character types, it's still unknown how Tecmo will express how you'll be able to utilize one or another's abilities during the gameplay -- but it should be an interesting turnout nonetheless.

The rest of the gameplay elements should stay pretty familiar with those who've experienced Fatal Frame already. Except for the fact that you'll be lurking around a haunted metropolis instead of a mansion, there'll still be plenty of item hunting and puzzle solving involved with the game. But as for defeating this sequel's ghostly encounters, you can expect a few tweaks here or there. Similar to the first game, Mio will hang onto a camera. Not just any camera though -- like a gun to a zombie's head, this device's flash will set any poltergeist's spirit free. With it, the object of the game will be to head into a first person view looking through the eye of the birdie. As a ghost approaches the lens reticle, a snapshot will destroy its life stream. This time however, Fatal Frame 2 intends to add more than just a single ghost at a time: multiple spirits will take part in the action. Upgrades to the camera along the way will appear as well -- though, Tecmo's still keeping a tight lip around what exactly is to come in that department.

Tecmo's first attempt in mastering the visual intensity of a dilapidated mansion shrouded in haunt was especially one of the game's strongest points. For the company's second coming, the game's layout should construct on a comparable basis. Unlike before, Fatal Frame 2 is progressively larger in scale as Mio and Mayu will be placed in an eerie village as opposed to the one mansion. Here the twins will be able to roam around into more outside locales than before: from pathways to a murky graveyard. There'll be plenty of houses and the like also, but not as large as the mansion's interior was. Almost as though they were a hallucinogenic mirage, those varying spirit types will return -- this time in larger numbers looking better and more chilling with their awesome transparency effects.