[Lime]

Shit, I have to resort to play this during daytime. It is too distressing to play when it's dark and I'm constantly hoping I'm reaching the end-game, so that the terror will soon end. But the creepiness continues to go on and on :(

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.

[Spieler Eins]

Just finished chapter three and so far I have managed to avoid Ghosthands a grand total of twice.

Eh, it's really easy to avoid ghost hands. Just let go of the A button for a second a few times as you get closer to the item.

[Dascu]

Trust me, a big part of the appeal of the original game is that the game just gets progressively creepier and creepier. I've said it earlier, but one of the late locations is one of my favorite locations ever in a horror game. They utilize so many great ideas during it.

Which one is that? The last area is back in the Kurosawa house and then a cave. You've already been to the first, and the second is, still, just a cave. Or do you mean the chapter zero? I didn't play it on Hard to unlock that.

[Lucent]

Shit, I have to resort to play this during daytime. It is too distressing to play when it's dark and I'm constantly hoping I'm reaching the end-game, so that the terror will soon end. But the creepiness continues to go on and on :( I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.

Hmm...we'll see. The only part in Fatal Frame 4 that bothered me was the fight with the girl in the wheelchair being pushed by the other girl and that was mainly because I was facing two crazy ghost bosses at the same time. I haven't beaten Fatal Frame 4 as I got distracted by other things, but so far I just haven't really been scared since the first Resident Evil back when it first came out. I always wait til dark to play these games too.

Corpse Party is actually pretty freak'n creepy though despite the SNES graphics (which I don't mind, I love sprites). The sound through headphones makes it sound like they're right in your ear. I still play it at night. lol.

[Dantis]

So, I haven't read through this topic yet, but I'd just like to say how much I love this franchise. I finished DCB like two days after it came out, and I've been replaying FF4 in the last couple of days.

I love how each game feels so different. DCB was really tough to get to grips with because of the deliberately borked controls, but I guess it was the only way to keep the fear in. Also, best looking game on the Wii. It looks astounding considering the hardware that's running it.

[Parakeetman]

Do think Ill be picking this up just to collect. Knowing how these games are in general will be a limited run too. Even if its for the Wii console.

The PS2 version can fetch a decent price now that its got a premium on it.

[Bowler]

so how am I going to get this game in the us?

[Spieler Eins]

Just finished. 11 hours, worst rank :lol I wonder if Hard mode is worth it. Lots of unlockables for now, which is cool. I wonder if the different endings will come from difficulty alone or if they are determined by rank. And whether there are more changes before that.

so how am I going to get this game in the us?

NoA was listed under testing in the credits. No idea if this is just standard procedure though.

[Lime]

Finished it last night (I simply had to finish the final chapter despite it being dark). It was really good and obviously a classic in the survival horror genre.

Now, I am not that particularly well-versed in the Project Zero/Fatal Frame series, as I've only played half of PZ1 before and some early parts of PZ2. It should also be noted that I'm incredibly fond of mimetic games which strive to construct an audio-visual experience representing a coherent game-world, so keep this in mind when reading the following random thoughts I had about the game:

• I thought it was really good at creating an oppressive and foreboding atmosphere. The game affected me in many ways, in large part thanks to the constant terror you feel you're situated in.
• It was interesting that the game is relentless in its horror. While the Silent Hill games usually have a relaxing and cathartic oasis in between the terrorizing segments, PZ2 seemed to never stop attempting to induce some sort of dread or terror in me. (However, from a design perspective I do prefer having these cathartic moments in between the horror to give provide more emotional variety, like a rollercoaster of some sort).
• The animations were kind of lacking for a game in 2012. I know it has a small budget, but the floating character when rotating and the weird "Little Girl" arm movements while running could have been done much better by a competent animator.
• For a game striving to be immersive and audio-visually engaging, I think the developers are inserting way too many non-diegetic elements into the game. First of all, the intrusive and non-toggeable minimap is a huge design flaw, because it takes up so much of the screenspace, so it constantly reminds one that you are playing a game. Luckily for me, I played the game through Dolphin and removed the minimap thanks to Wiiztec's Gecko codes. Made the experience that much better and helped me to take in the environments.
• Another flawed design choice is the non-diegetic display of points when taking photos of ghosts - it doesn't make much sense in terms of the story and the sudden appearance of some random numbers on the screen makes me think I'm playing an Arcade game at the local mall rather than an atmospheric singleplayer game.
• I had some issues with the characters' design in relation to their age. It felt kind of jarring to control a girl who's supposed to be 15-years old, yet walks around in a low-cut top and what looks like a night dress (same goes for Mayu). I'm probably reading too much into it based on the fact that Tecmo is known for their under-age sexism, as well as the developers' comment on changing the design of the main characters to be more "visually appealing", but if they decided to make them look older and less child-like, then they should have changed their age as well.
• Another thing about the character art style in general is that the skin textures on Mio and Mayu (or Hitsuke for that matter) are much too simple and clean. This makes the main characters look like plastic dolls, rather than something/-one with human traits and flaws (Silent Hill's Heather and Eileen are good examples of what I'm talking about)
• I initially knew about the existence of different endings, so I played the game as if my behaviour were subtly evaluated by the game, akin to how Silent Hill 2 gives you different endings based on player behaviour. I thought that my treatment of Mayu (damage taken, interactions with her during important plot advancements, etc.) would affect how the game would end, so I strived to achieve what I thought was the conditions for getting the "best" ending. Yet after I achieved the the Crimson Butterfly ending, I went on the Internet to see what the conditions for the different endings were and it looks like it's basically the difficulty and ranking that determine which ending you get (If I'm misinformed about this, please correct me). Putting some arbitrary numbers and difficulty levels to determine which ending you get in a story-focused game is not a prudent decision if you are allowing the story to be "interactive" in the sense of multiple endings (imo).

The above are just some stuff I thought could make the game even better. That is to say, I really liked the game and it is definitely one of the premier horror games I've ever played in terms of terror level. Some adjustments to the design would make it top tier across all genres, but as it is it's a very good game with an excellent horror atmosphere. I'm also extremely happy that this game was released in 2012, even though it's a remake, as current generation gaming needs more quality horror games.

Now for a question regarding the plot (spoilers)

• In the final chapter, I had difficulty understanding the transition Mio suddenly goes through at the end of the Normal ending. I assumed that the sole reason for going after Mayu at the end was to save her and escape the Lost Village with her. Yet when Mio had battled through countless of enemies and overcome many obstacles, she ends up performing the ritual and chokes Mayu. This ending was to various extents counter-intuitive for me, as almost everything Mio did in the game was to protect her. Could anyone elaborate on how this sudden transition is consistent and logical within the context of the plot?

[Spieler Eins]

I very much enjoyed the game, however I was slightly disappointed and partially baffled after all these praise for its supposed high level of terror and being a pinnacle of horror etc. Compared to other survival horror games, there were two striking flaws. Firstly, though I do not know if this also done in the PS2, you shouldn't be bombarded with tutorial windows every third minute for the first goddamn hour. The good thing about these games usually is that you don't have to deal with this kind of annoyance, get thrown right into the game and have any explanations completely optional.
Second thing, which was also mostly apparent in the first ruined hour, but sadly never went completely away: Cutscenes are NOT scary. So many missed opportunities for scares, especially when it came to enemy introductions, which mostly lose tension when they are done by cutscene. In fact, the second appearance of the water ghost was far superior to the first, which was done by a pretty lame scene. Admittedly, some later ones in which encounter the ghost of Sae(?) and lose your camera were pretty tense, but could have been absolutely amazing as actual gameplay.

Regardless, the game was still intense quite often and I fell for at least 90% of the jump scares ingame :lol Best part easily was the doll house, especially with collecting story bits alongside. Soundtrack was very good, just as the voicework and for a Wii game it looked quite great imo, although the girl running looks kinda awkward at first. Pretty good mood overall, even though I think there were quite some missed opportunities.

Gameplaywise I had to love it, since it has the typical adventure gameplay I expect from true survival horror. The first enemy encounter felt quite terrible, but the battle system gets fun pretty quick, even more so with all these upgrades and whatnot. It's unnatural at first, but even though it doesn't take much time to get used to the battle controls, it's still baffling why they would throw motion in their in the first place, especially since half the thing is still controlled by stick. Why would you mix this up? Also, no pointer controls for the flashlight like Silent Hill Shattered Memories was... not game breaking or anything, but simply disappointing.
Apart from that, marking the doors which your newly acquired key opens was a blessing. The mini-map too. Not getting the complaint above, I never noticed the map and it came in handy when you needed it. Having to open a full map once a minute like in the old Silent Hill games, now THAT kills immersion.
Exploration usually was rewarded, which is cool, but I also got stuck a couple of times. Puzzles were the standard shit, one in particular is something that I am not the biggest fan of. I was pretty much just randomly guessing 2 minutes until it worked, for one of these rotating puzzles.

I might have another walkthrough, since there's quite a good amount of unlockables and my enemy list isn't even half completed, so I'm expecting there's some surprises left? And of course, different endings. Although, alongside that certain puzzle, another thing I wouldn't look forward to, especially on harder difficulty, is the final boss. 1 Hit KO and a 10 minute prelude, now we all love that in our videogames, right? ... Apart from that, I was positively surprised by the game length. 11 hours on my first walkthough (Although I got the worst ranking because of that, lol)

It didn't quite meet my expectations, but I will for sure follow the series from now on. Though I wonder if they can handle HD development, if it's apparently low budget? I sure hope so. If it's WiiU, I hope they also come up with something good for the controller. Seems like a natural fit, but they also kinda didn't quite get the possibilities of the Wiimote, so who knows.

[nooferu]

I beat the game on Normal a few days ago and loved (almost) every second of it, mostly due to the excellent story and the mysterious atmosphere. My biggest complaints are the unskippable cutscenes. Someone told me it's possible to skip them in later playthroughs, however, it's still rather annoying, especially in the latter, more difficult half of the game and near the end. Project Zero 2 was my first experience with the series and I enjoyed it so much that I'm now looking into importing the fourth game. :)

[rjc571]

Good news, everybody! It looks like it's possible to undub the PAL version of the game by hacking into the iso (using WiiScrubber) and replacing a couple of folders ("adpcm" and "movie") with the corresponding folders from the Japanese version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4wKR1AvJNg

Of course, in order to do this legally you need to own a copy of the game from both regions.

[Hero of Legend]

Has anyone scanned the back cover of the English PAL box? Usually it says things like "Project Zero is a trademark of Nintendo".

This would answer it for sure, who owns the name.

[Jucksalbe]

Has anyone scanned the back cover of the English PAL box? Usually it says things like "Project Zero is a trademark of Nintendo".

It says "Project Zero is a trademark of Tecmo Koei Games co., ltd.".

[big_z]

i finished it last night myself. the game is very good, the atmosphere is excellent and it keeps getting better and creepier the further you get into the game. that said i dont think the game is as scary as people claim it is. battling enemies is more intense than scary and as mentioned earlier in this thread the in game cutscenes ruin a lot of potential ghost scares. even the ghosts that dont get a cutscene arent very scary mainly because they're slow and often appear far enough away that the imminent threat of death is never there. there's still some good scares to be had but to me the village and fiction is the most terrifying thing in the game.

a couple other complaints would be the voice acting of minor characters isnt so good and the camera is confusing as shit until you figure it out. would have been nice if they reduced the tutorials on minor stuff in the beginning and explained the camera better.

its a shame nintendo doesnt give this series any push considering they own it now. i can see it fitting wiiU really well so hopefully they get thier shit together for that game.


anyway how is project zero 4? is the fan translation any good and how is the story and atmosphere, as good as this one?

I had some issues with the characters' design in relation to their age. It felt kind of jarring to control a girl who's supposed to be 15-years old, yet walks around in a low-cut top and what looks like a night dress (same goes for Mayu). I'm probably reading too much into it based on the fact that Tecmo is known for their under-age sexism, as well as the developers' comment on changing the design of the main characters to be more "visually appealing", but if they decided to make them look older and less child-like, then they should have changed their age as well.

i didnt know they were 15 until i read your post. i thought they looked like they were in their 20's. the ps2 models look like kids in comparison so it would make sense in that version.

[Jucksalbe]

anyway how is project zero 4? is the fan translation any good and how is the story and atmosphere, as good as this one?

The translation is great (at least I don't remember any situation where I was bothered by it), the game is actually the best in the series.

[Lime]

Some of the screenshots I took when playing the game through Dolphin:

[Spieler Eins]

So apparently even going into harder difficulty, you will keep all your points, inventory, enemy list, etc. from the first round. I might try going for a new ending with this.

Haunted House mode on the other hand is just stupid :lol
I heard some mission mode was scraped for the sake of this? Bummer.

i didnt know they were 15 until i read your post. i thought they looked like they were in their 20's.

Me too, typical Tecmo though :-| Apparently, in the Japanese version you can also unlock bikini costumes and whatnot.

[Sadist]

Finished it as well. Easy, Rank D after 7 hours and 46 minutes. (Yes, I'm a pussy. So I went for easy)

And I enjoyed it a lot! Best horror game I've played in years. I agree with some of you that ghost introductions through cutscenes takes away the scaryness of those ghosts, but fights are still intense that way. That's the word I'd use to describe PZ II, intense. The creepy atmosphere is amazing and pretty contant. The touch interactions are pretty smart too, with the creepy soundbite behind it. Controls aren't optimal, on the other hand it reminded me of REmake, so I gladly played along. The ending confused me a bit as well. You could choose the option to run away without Mayu, but you'll get a gameover screen. Okay, I get that both sisters are needed to complete the ritual but why go through all that trouble to save her if she wants to die so badly?

About the other endings:

Apparantly the original version had about three endings + another one in the Xbox release. I've allready seen two of them in the Wii version:

- The Long Road Home (Leave without Mayu, game over)
- The Crimson Butterfly (Mio and Mayu perform the ritual, strangles Mayu, butterfly stuff)

There should be another ending... and oh the shop is cool! New stuff to buy and cool costumes.

You can buy a Mario and Luigi costume :P

[Spieler Eins]

Finished it again, on hard and with a better rank. Still had quite some intense moments, new bits of story and overall a better understanding of the events.

Sadly, still got the same ending. (And slightly pissed about that, as I'm done with this game for now, or rather really not in the mood for a third run. Also I only unlocked yet again an absolute minimum in the shop and the ghost list just went up to 55%) Checked myself some facts and apparently it is completey wrong that any of these factors influence the ending. I really wish all this was clearer.
There are apparently some events you have to trigger in chapter 8 to unlock an additional final boss and the way you defeat both of them matter.
Also, there seems to be a couple of sidequests. I think I've triggered one but didn't quite finish it in my first walkthrough. (Some investigators ghost appearing at several twin stones and leaving notes behind)

[Nemesis_]

Can anyone help me?

I just loaded up the game after an extended break and I have totally forgotten what I'm meant to be doing! The last thing I remember was talking to (Chapter 2) a guy who called me Yae or something, who told me to look for TWO KEYS under STONES..

I follow butterflies to ONE KEY but I can't find the second anywhere - anyone got any ideas?

[clay_ghost]

it's. There a guide for this game?

[Nemesis_]

What? I was wondering if I could use Project Zero 2 guides but they are all weirdly written and I am pretty sure the content has changed anyway.

[Spieler Eins]

The other butterflies/stone you will find if you leave the village the opposite direction of the first time iirc.

[Dascu]

What? I was wondering if I could use Project Zero 2 guides but they are all weirdly written and I am pretty sure the content has changed anyway.

You should be able to use guides for the PS2/Xbox original actually. As for your question in particular, the stones you need are around the paths outside the village, I think. You definitely don't need to enter any houses for them.

[Zornica]

I wonder... did ghosts actually follow you in other rooms in the ps2 original too?
I am sure in zero 4 they didn't.

Finally had a few free hours to play and made some progress. I'm now in chapter 5 or 6?
I have to say, I am really impressed by this game, and glad that there are still horror games released that go beyond "when it moves shoot it".
Also this is the 4th NoE published game in a row I bought, and I am surprised that the voice acting is generally well done once again. The game is heavy on japanese terms and names and I am glad they even pronounce them correctly. Can't even imagine how much I'd have hated an american localisation on this.

[dokish]

This game has the same annoying issue that Fatal Frame 4.

A slightly point up and you look up. How am I suppose to comfortably play this? The Sensor bar is on top of my TV and I play with the wiimote on my leg. The thing is not even up, but the camera is so sensitive that changes things.

[Zornica]

the game uses the motion sensor, NOT the pointer.
you are supposed to make subtle movements with the remote.

It's a strange choice and by far not ideal, but I had no problems with zero4, and for that matter no problems with zero2 either so far.

[Locke_211]

Played the first half hour and remembered how much I loved the ps2 version! This is a lovely remake. The advertising for this is dreadful and if I'd not read this thread, I would have ignored it for thinking it was a straight port.

Does anyone think if this does well, Nintendo might finally publish the fourth game everywhere?

[Locke_211]

I love the story-telling. Having played the PS2 one and so knowing the exact nature of the ritual and everything, you can really appreciate how the early notes and documents tease everything out and skirt around the details.

Also I sort of like the remote controls. You can completely move the camera with the remote, but left and right movement needs tilting left and right (or counter-clockwise and clockwise). This requires more precision and so it's less simple than simply pointing at the ghosts. You have to be much more subtle and keep your hand much steadier, which adds to the tension.

And I love hunting around the environment for ghosts. There's also a lot you can find by re-exploring areas. Like, if you go back through the house at the start of Chapter 2, rather than leaving right away, there's a lot of items and a good document that weren't in those same rooms in Chapter 1.

[Locke_211]

I found a flawless way of avoiding the ghost hands. Listen carefully for the Wii disc drive as you're holding A. If you hear it start to whir, immediatly let go of A!

[Zornica]

wow... (chapter 7 spoiler)
that subplot about the little girl who died in a cupboard was somewhat touching.
made me feel bad for killing her...(again)

[Lime]

So, could anyone explain to me my earlier question about the plot? Or is it simply bad writing?

In the final chapter, I had difficulty understanding the transition Mio suddenly goes through at the end of the Normal ending. I assumed that the sole reason for going after Mayu at the end was to save her and escape the Lost Village with her. Yet when Mio had battled through countless of enemies and overcome many obstacles, she ends up performing the ritual and chokes Mayu. This ending was to various extents counter-intuitive for me, as almost everything Mio did in the game was to protect her. Could anyone elaborate on how this sudden transition is consistent and logical within the context of the plot?

[Aostia]

I'm still at chapter 6! How many chapters there are in the game?

[Dantis]

wow... (chapter 7 spoiler) that subplot about the little girl who died in a cupboard was somewhat touching. made me feel bad for killing her...(again)

A lot of the plot lines in the series have that same kind of sadness. Pretty much every character in the third game has an incredibly tragic story. It's one of the things that makes the games so good in my opinion. All these small stories that intertwine to create this big tragedy.

[Locke_211]

I'm still at chapter 6! How many chapters there are in the game?

There are basically 9 chapters and a final boss . The endgame is slightly different from a first play of the original game.

The final fights are stupidly hard!

[big_z]

So, could anyone explain to me my earlier question about the plot? Or is it simply bad writing? In the final chapter, I had difficulty understanding the transition Mio suddenly goes through at the end of the Normal ending. I assumed that the sole reason for going after Mayu at the end was to save her and escape the Lost Village with her. Yet when Mio had battled through countless of enemies and overcome many obstacles, she ends up performing the ritual and chokes Mayu. This ending was to various extents counter-intuitive for me, as almost everything Mio did in the game was to protect her. Could anyone elaborate on how this sudden transition is consistent and logical within the context of the plot?

I figured she had a moment where she lost control of herself much like her sister. The further you get in the game the worse your sister gets and you start seeing altered reality which implies you're losing grip slowly as well.

[Dantis]

I figured she had a moment where she lost control of herself much like her sister. The further you get in the game the worse your sister gets and you start seeing altered reality which implies you're losing grip slowly as well.

This is what I assumed too.

[Spieler Eins]

The final fights are stupidly hard!

No idea how I could have killed the fake final boss on hard if I didn't have a couple of yellow shots left. He regains full health withing 10 seconds or so.

[Locke_211]

Also, there are multiple endings, related to some things you can do in chapter 8 and how you kill the final two bosses . So some ending details that you find contradictory are only particular to that one ending.

Finally killed the last boss and started again on Hard. I'm addicted to this game. 2 hours and 10 minutes got me to very near the end of Chapter 5, which is a much better time than the first run!

EDIT: and to my immense joy, you can skip cutscenes by pressing 1 the second time through.

[_Keiichi_]

Does an endings FAQ exist? I already got the canon ending in the PS2 version so i was going to for the Xbox Ending/New Ending, but gamefaqs isn't helping as usual.

The final fights are stupidly hard!

I'm playing on Dolphin and i'm only at the beginning, but i'm so glad i can use save states, so i can skip all the bullshit before the Kusabi Boss Fight. I still have nightmares from the PS2 version for all the times i had to re-do the pre-fight sequences.

[_Keiichi_]

Finished with the Frozen Butterfly ending. Man, what a drowner.

Can't say how it does compared to the original because i don't remember much, but it still is definitely a good game.