• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Fatal Frame 2 Hits PSN Tuesday, Series Director Speaks

Takao

Banned
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/05/02/fatal-frame-2-hits-psn-tuesday-series-director-speaks/

The Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly project started relatively soon after the first project concluded. Since we received lots of feedback that players got too scared to complete the game, we shifted our attention to making the storyline more interesting, to encourage such players to overcome the scariness in wanting to see the end of the story.

The storyline is based on a dream I had after the initial project concluded. Thinking back about it, I recall it being a complete dream in many ways. The dream was scary, magical and traumatic, and it had a perfect plot — even with a title and a structured ending. Thus, it was simply a case of how to interpret the dream and recreate it as a game.

In a psychic horror scenario, it is normal for ghosts and spirits to not appear in the exact locations where they previously appeared. Even at any exact locations where spirits died, one can feel the presence every now and then. Also, the way a given spirit makes an appearance may be different on occasion.

Such never-ending loops of thoughts are the core characteristic of psychic horror.

One may notice a slight difference in what the true meaning of the story concludes when playing the game. The more times you play through it, the more different outcomes you’ll feel every time as a result. This is actually a reflection of what happened when I was trying to figure out the meanings behind the dream I had mentioned earlier on. This never-ending illusion is something which has been reflected in the game. I recommend it to anyone who has not encountered any spiritual occasions in real life, to try and get an idea of what they are missing.

Makoto Shibata also reminisced about the first game on the blog.
 
Nice! FF II is a fantastic game. It's just too bad it's not the director's cut, like the OG Xbox version - which allowed you to use a 1st person perspective - which I loved.

This is still a great game, though. Very creepy.
 
Wow, PS Classics have been great lately. I'd love to see some more PSone games, but otherwise there's been a ton of great stuff being put out these last few weeks.
 
Glad I held off of buying the first one. This is the best one in the series right?
 
I never played Fatal Frame 2, so I'll definitely be getting this one.

I own the disc of Fatal Frame, however. I just haven't had the time to sink into it. The few hours I put into it were terrifying though. If there's a survival horror series that I think is as scary as the Silent Hill series (1-3), it's Fatal Frame.

Hoping this will pave the way for a Fatal Frame on PS4 (although a Vita Fatal Frame could be creative and fun as well).
 
Nintendo doesn't really own the Fatal Frame franchise, but they probably have ownership of Fatal Frame 4 in particular as the game's publisher. Same for Spirit Camera.

Now, the series has always been niche (FF4 being the highest selling one), and Nintendo's publishing of the series did work out somewhat. Not exactly sure Tecmo would want to find another publisher or publish on their own to work on other consoles.
 
doesn't nintendo own the franchise now?

For some reason everyone on the internet believes this, even though there's no evidence that it's actually the case. They own part of the rights to Project Zero 4 and the 2 Remake, but that's in all likelihood because they've been the ones funding the titles and not because they've bougt co-ownership of the franchise. There's no evidence that Nintendo owns more than that.

They do own Spirit Camera, though, a 3DS spin-off of the Project Zero series.
 
Would love a HD collection of the three FF games.

Shame there was never a "director's cut" of FF2 on PS2 with the Xbox version additions like there was with Silent Hill 2, as the Xbox version was really the definitive version of the game, and would likely be the only thing that'd make me want to download a "classic" version of the game at this point.

Still... even the vanilla PS2 game is still a better option than that jankified Wii port from last year. Seriously, that new dub and that shit with the waggle hand when you're picking up items were terrible.
 
HALLELJAH!!!!!!

The original Fatal frame is still the scariest horror game ever created on consoles. The original Silent Hill and it's sequel were the next two on the list.

Below those 3 titles? Arguably, Fatal Frame 2.

I would cry tears of joy for a Fatal Frame HD collection ala Silent Hill.

But, FF2 on PSN is fine by me.

Chalk that up to the immediate purchase list.
 
For some reason everyone on the internet believes this, even though there's no evidence that it's actually the case. They own part of the rights to Project Zero 4 and the 2 Remake, but that's in all likelihood because they've been the ones funding the titles and not because they've bougt co-ownership of the franchise. There's no evidence that Nintendo owns more than that.

They do own Spirit Camera, though, a 3DS spin-off of the Project Zero series.

thanks for clarifying it! that's good news, at least it opens up the possibility of new FF games on whatever platforms they want.
 
Haha, typical Shibata to start talking about his dreams.

Everyone should buy this. It's aged wonderfully, and is absolutely amongst the greatest horror games ever made.
 
For some reason everyone on the internet believes this, even though there's no evidence that it's actually the case. They own part of the rights to Project Zero 4 and the 2 Remake, but that's in all likelihood because they've been the ones funding the titles and not because they've bougt co-ownership of the franchise. There's no evidence that Nintendo owns more than that.

They do own Spirit Camera, though, a 3DS spin-off of the Project Zero series.

dumbtheresachance.gif
.
 
It's a good game but I thought it was the least scary in the series. I really didn't care for the changes they made to the camera either.

The Xbox Director's Cut version has a huge amount of content though.
 
I hope 3 will be put up as well then at some point. It's the only one I am missing.

It's also my favourite in a lot of ways. It cuts out almost all of the cutscenes and has all the scares in-game, which makes it drastically more scary in my opinion.
 
It's a good game but I thought it was the least scary in the series. I really didn't care for the changes they made to the camera either.

The Xbox Director's Cut version has a huge amount of content though.

I remember reading before 2 came, that they went out of their way to make the 2nd one less scary initially, because they did internal data and realized that only a few people beat the first game because it was way too scary.
 
They can't since Nintendo owns a chunk of the franchise now. Or at least future entries.

They don't. There's absolutely NO evidence to this.

Edit: Thanks to wrowa for clarifying this already. Kind of annoying when this is said in every Fatal Frame thread over and over again for months now already.
 
I remember reading before 2 came, that they went out of their way to make the 2nd one less scary initially, because they did internal data and realized that only a few people beat the first game because it was way too scary.

I can understand that, but the fear factor of the first one makes it one of the scariest, if not THE scariest game ever made. The only time I felt even remotely uneasy in FF2 was in the Kiryu house.

The Wii remake of 2 definitely improve the scares and atmosphere. I think it must have been the improved lighting.

Also, people playing this for the first time should try and finish Nightmare mode for the true final boss.
 
I feel this game overall is less scary than the first game (not to say it isn't scary, but if you completed or played the first game I think you may tend to agree with me). Part of the reason for this is improvements to the combat system, and the fact the ghosts are more fair (the first game had some unbalanced fights, which had a double-edged sword effect to make the game harder but also to make it scarier as ghosts could suddenly teleport a lot more often or had cheaper attacks).

That said, it has a wonderful little story to go with it, and I like it more than the first game. It has more fascinating locations and spirits, though it's not as scary I think it is a lot creepier and memorable, and the middle section of the game (the area you get trapped in with the two houses linked by the underground passage) is one of my favorite sections of any horror game ever.

I might have to pick this and the first game up as I owned both of them on Xbox and not PS2. It is a shame it isn't the Director's Cut version of the game on Xbox though, as that added a new mode, added the ability to play the whole game in FPS-mode, added quite a few new costumes and accessories, a new difficulty and ending, and a new side-quest, along with some graphical improvements.
 
It's less scary (but still scary) because the ghosts don't appear at random unlike Fatal Frame 1. FF1 is scary as hell because some ghosts appear at any time.
 
So, I have never played this game and i'm thinking about getting it soon. Which one is better part one or two? And does it follow with the same story?
 
It's less scary (but still scary) because the ghosts don't appear at random unlike Fatal Frame 1. FF1 is scary as hell because some ghosts appear at any time.
Is the story interesting enough? Horror is the only genre outside of graphic adventures/VN where story's almost always a number 1 priority universally.
 
Is the story interesting enough? Horror is the only genre outside of graphic adventures/VN where story's almost always a number 1 priority universally.

I found it fine to be honest. It's basically a ghost vengeance kind of story.
 
So, I have never played this game and i'm thinking about getting it soon. Which one is better part one or two? And does it follow with the same story?

This is partially open to interpretation. Both the games have very little to do with each other, outside of a slight connection between a couple of characters that are mentioned in Fatal Frame 1 and Fatal Frame 2. They actually become a lot more connected with the third game (which tells an original story as well as a story after the events of the first and second game), but stand-alone the first and second games don't have much to do with each other. You could play one and not ruin the experience for the other.

I like the second game more, partially as I feel the second game has more interesting locations, more interesting story, and has more interesting 'moments'. The second game has a lot more 'events' that occur (in gameplay) than the first game. The first game has the advantage of randomized ghosts, but the second game has some really cool scripted moments of ghost appearances.

Is the story interesting enough? Horror is the only genre outside of graphic adventures/VN where story's almost always a number 1 priority universally.

Don't expect any huge plot twists as it's the type of story where you can tell what is going to happen part of the way through, but it is executed quite nicely and has a mixture of wonderfully creepy moments and having most of the story executed through gameplay. I also found the various stories and attention to details in the environment to these stories to be fascinating... In most horror games the notes you find either hint at puzzles, enemies, or are just there to add backstory, while here they often tell part of a bigger story of something that happened here in the past, and what I found fascinating was that you could see signs of the stories in the environment if you pieced together exactly where they took place, usually subtle details you may overlook. Though sometimes looking into it isn't the best idea...

If you like a sort of straight-forward but creepy story with a lot of subtle details and shorter horror stories in with the larger-scale one, then yes, I thought it was interesting to see the experience through to the end.
 
there needs to be a Fatal Frame on the Vita...
Horror on-the-go... hope it does something with the front camera... capture your surroundings to make commuting never the same again
 
Top Bottom