Embedded Files
Its no secret that when it comes to horror games, there are a number of game franchises or singles on the lips of many. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, F.E.A.R, Dead Space, Siren, and Eternal Darkness, 5 Nights at Freddy's, Slender, down to even more obscure (though I would argue what's more obscure than Eternal Darkness) like Calling or Kuon. There used to be a heyday of the horror game, but in recent years, we've given way to a sort of sub genre to that, the action-adventure game only tinged with the barest of flavors that used to make a survival horror.
But even the best seasoned survival horror fan can't forget about the Fatal Frame series, known in japan as 零~Zero~, and in other western countries as Project Zero. Unique, challenging, and often full of beauty that one forgets horror often has, the series--hereon out in this review referred to as Zero--has grown incredibly since its first game, way back in 2001, from its humble games on the PS2 to the always surprising WiiU and even a motion picture and 2 novels.
What keeps this series going throughout the years, as tastes change and so do the hardware to play on? Hopefully, with this little journey today--which is by no means completely comprehensive, though I will strive to the best of my ability to include the most salient points of importance--, we will discover new insights and new things to love in a series that has long been considered by many to be the scariest horror series in video games.
I will also be dividing this review of the history in 3 sections: First Testament, Second Testament and Apocrypha. This is not, I repeat NOT, to insist a religious tone to the piece, but mostly because I 1) find that there is a distinct change with the games beyond a certain point, and 2) its sounds cool to also include a heading called "apocrypha", which I will defend as being used in the definition as "secret" and "hidden" but not necessarily "non-canonocal". Keep in mind such sections are divided by my own discretion, and as such is subjective. Also, it rolls off the tongue better than "Season 1", "Season 2" and "OVA", which is the second closest division I could think of.
Note also: there are spoilers in this article, due to some endings as well as characters. Please be aware. If they are important enough for the uninitiated, I will give a highlighted section to read.
Research for this article owes a lot of itself to 2 major sources: the new Beyond The Camera's Lens wiki, and FFTranslations, the latter of which is an invaluable site that contains translations of various interviews and guidebooks to the series, and I would like to thank them for the efforts. Please check them out.
First Testament: Zero 1, 2, and 3
零~Zero~ (Fatal Frame)
We begin our journey with the first game, 零~Zero~. In a haunted mansion far in the Himuro mountains, Mafuyu Hinasaki searches for his mentor, the author Junsei Takamine. The mansion is purportedly haunted and cursed with a gruesome curse: that a victim's limbs and head are torn from their body. His only weapons are his determination, his family's antique camera, and his ability to "see things other people can't see".
And then…Mafuyu fails to come back.
His sister Miku comes to the mansion to search for her brother--her only family--and using her abilities to see spirits, and armed with the camera, seeks him as well as a way to break the curse and escape Himuro Mansion. Before it claims her too.
The most unique feature to the series is this camera, not called the Camera Obscura until the second installment, which seals ghosts away, exorcising them. Its this weapon, whose gameplay mechanics change the game from 3rd person perspective to first with a push of the button, that makes the Zero series unique. Created by the scientist Kunihiko Asou, this camera is what makes the series. But let's travel back in time a little, to when series creator Makoto Shibata came to Keisuke Kikuchi with this unique idea….
Shibata-san has worked on other games series, such as the Deception series, which one can think of as tower defense with traps and pretty girls. And long known for enjoying horror, its mostly because he himself has had experiences with the supernatural in his life. A lot of these experiences have been used as material for the Zero series, as well as his own dreams. In fact, both the first and second games were based on dreams of his, and like anyone with the skill and talent in an artistic industry, what does he do? Make games! Why not?
He approached Kikuchi-san with this idea for a game in which someone exorcises ghosts with a camera. Realistically, its such a strange system that of course, other things were considered: hamaya, or ofuda (yes, even a vacuum), but from the very start, it was, and had to be, a camera. This is the charm and the success of the series: the creators, having broken the mold in Deception, were determined to do it again, and relying on old or traditional formulas wasn't enough. If you need to find new ways of creating fear, you have to step outside the box. And horror isn't new. From the first horror movies during the advent of the motion picture camera, and even farther back to ghost stories and folklore, a lot of ground has been tread and retread through the years. Zero was the first step in a new direction.
It has its humble beginnings in a dream, and bares a little resemblance to a game called Otogiriso, a sound novel game with a very similar plot outline (a young man and woman are trapped in a haunted mansion). This game also has an accompanying movie St. John's Wort, but it should not be confused as being a movie version of the Zero series (that's to come much, much later).
The system of the camera is truly unique for a horror game. In humans, that fight-or-flight instinct shows up in situations where fear lies. But the system of the camera forces one into a balance of that instinct: hold your ground and wait as the scary things come to you, or run away. Wielding a camera forces the player to confront their terror head-on, face-to-see-through-face, and wait until just the last second before repelling and attacking. Its not an easy game for many to get into at first, especially since the viewpoint changes from 3rd to 1st quickly, as do your controls. And staying in place with your face glued to finder-mode isn't always the best idea, with ghosts that teleport as well as move erratically around sometimes the narrowest of hallways and cramped of spaces.
This is not your father's game of sniping the zombies from across the room.
With this in mind, confronting fears, you are further put into peril by your main character: Miku is not a Marine. She doesn't have a gun. She isn't trained in very much, and when it comes to fleeing, a Segway could outrun her best efforts. And that's where You Player comes in. Your job is to get through this hellish mansion, and hopefully reunite her with her brother. She needs to rely on your quick reflexes, as well as your ability to recognize attack patterns, and your delicate balancing act of confronting the spooks head on in Finder Mode, and retreating slightly for a better vantage point. She has the camera and the sixth sense. You have years of reflexes behind you.
You both better get nice and acquainted. And you better find her brother, and QUICK.
Miku's story is long. In fact, her past is closely interwined with some of the mystery behind the mansion, but it has a long journey that actually started in another village, and another game (the second, but that's coming). Her past must intersect with her present if she has any remote chance of having a future (again, another game, another time). And therein lies the core of what I feel is the Zero series: those personal tragedies that line up in someone's life, and the ability, nay the necessity, to solider on. Its no surprise that the canonical ending for the first game isn't the neat and tidy reunion between the Hinasaki siblings. But Miku is a survivor, because so many in her family line are not, be it through external--sometimes paranormal--forces, or by their own hand [highlight for spoiler] (her great-grandmother, her own mother, and one would argue, her own brother). Sadness is a common bedfellow with horror in Zero, and I would argue the tragedy is the part that brings people back over and over again. Those stories that aren't very simple, and are complex, webs of relationships between people; those ties that bind, ties that connect, ties that break, and most tragically, ties that hurt. Its the story and the uniqueness that makes Zero one of the best horror series in video gaming history.
This installment came out on the PS2, then the X-Box, the latter adding in a new Photograph Ending. Photograph Endings become a fixture of the series outside of 2 games, which adds to replay. Another worthy note is that Miku's design was changed significantly when she came over to the west. Her face was made a lil more mature, a lil more warm in skin color (she was very pale originally), her choker became gold instead of black and her uniform became a shirt and tee combo, with a solid skirt rather than her layered one. This more mature look was done for her to appeal to western characters, but outside of this one change for the first game, her original outfit was considered her canon one (showing up in the third game as an alternate outfit). In any case, its still considered an iconic outfit, in either version.
A quick aside: the western version of the game was touted as "based on a true story" something that was never claimed in the japanese versions. What is clear is that the story might be based on inspirations of other media, like movies, folklore (in fact the children's game of Demon Tag/Onigakku, and the song Kagome Kagome are based on real life songs and games), as well as Shibata-san's experiences, many of which are true stories of weird happenings during the development of the game (so weird and numerous that several staff members insisted they go to purification rituals).
Why are the games called 零~Zero~ (and in fact, lack numbers for the most part, using only subtitles)? The character used: 零 can be read as the number 0, as well as have the reading for the word "rei", which means spirit. A fitting title, especially when considering some of the franchise's stories, which often in the "official" endings, mean that everything is reduced to simply that: "zero". The logo itself was actually conceived as a design that came from the concept art of Miku's western upgrade (Miku was the only character of the series whose appearance was drastically changed when she left Japan, making her look more mature and older, rather than a pale, young girl).
We'll return to Miku a lot throughout the series, from the First Testament to the Second, but let's continue to the next game, where Miku's family line actually begins, in a lonely, secluded village called Minakami Village.
零~Zero~Akai Chou (Fatal Frame: Crimson Butterfly)
Mio and Mayu Amakura used to live and play in the Minakami area, until a tragic accident crippled Mayu with a limp--an accident Mio blames herself with. Now, with news a damn being built will flood their childhood home, the girls sneak away to commemorate it one last time before its lost beneath the waves. In addition to the Lost Village that was wiped from the map in a hellish massacre, its said people who come to it are spirited away, never to return.
Its here, in this forest of dappled sunlight, that Mayu is charmed away by a glowing crimson butterfly, and Mio sets off in pursuit.
And that's when their normal life ends suddenly, in the darkness of endless night, on the edge of the Lost Village, Minakami.
Akai Chou, translated as Crimson Butterfly, is considered to be the series darling, earning not only an X-Box release (its predecessor did too), but a Wii remake many years later. Its also the first of the series to have fully animated, multiple endings (rather than extra "photograph" endings or slight changes to the "canonical" endings). Boasting a total of up to 6 endings (counting a single game over ending as well as the remake's 2 new endings), the Akai Chou story is one of the most complex and heart-wrenching stories of the series.
Its starts with the theme of twins, and the image of something only whole when 2 halves are together. Twins appear a lot in the game, since the village's ritual depends on the frequency of the twins to work. Whereas in the first game, the Strangling Ritual was essential for maintaining the seal of Hell in the depths of the Himuro mansion, the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual is held to ensure good harvest in the area, as well as maintaining the seal of the Hellish Abyss beneath the village. Twins have a special relationship, both in real life, and in the game. Twins share that special connection that's deeper than other family, parents, even lovers. And its that connection that not only made the ritual successes, its also what caused them to fail when they did (2 in particular, the Tachibana ceremony in which Itsuki Tachibana participated in immediately before the Kurosawa's ceremony with Yae and Sae).
There's a lot of subtle things going on in Akai Chou, from Sae's possession of Mayu (occurring perhaps the moment she entered the village), to Yae's possession of Mio as she enters the village too (something much clearer in the Promise Ending on the X-Box as well as the newer scenes in the remake). From Itsuki's warnings, to the fate of people who have wandered into the village before the Amakura twins, like the first spirit you encounter, Miyako. There are so many threads to collect and sort and untangle, which bears down on your ability to pay attention as well as understanding both girls intimately by the time you take your first steps into the final hallways of the Abyss.
Many people have trouble understanding Mayu, and its tough to put yourself into her shoes and her limp, with her seemingly capricious wandering as well as her desire to possess her sister. You have to go all the way back to the girl's past, to that childhood accident where Mayu fell. Though the remake gives you closer insight into her mindset, in the guidebooks, Shibata-san lays it all out in a very meticulous description of the endings. Mayu is a twin, and though twins are born together, they will someday "live and die separately", as all people; that feeling that the one person you're the closest with will someday leave you is a painful feeling. Anyone can sympathize with losing someone close to you. Multiply that by a hundred fold, and you can understand Mayu's fears. That her wold made whole with Mio in her life could just as easily one day be ripped apart. Compound that with her realization of this terrible fact as a child, with her sister physically moving away from her in their game of tag, Mayu's fears culminated into a feeling of despair that made her fall from the cliff.
It wasn't spite that she fell. It was desperation, like suicide. " '...I survived.' That is what Mayu thought when she regained consciousness." (this is the explanation from the Shinku no Chou guidebook). This is key for understanding her feelings, and its essential for understanding Sae. Because her feelings and Mayu's are exactly the same, despite the fact they lived very different lives. And when Mayu fell, she realized now Mio will be by her side forever. And while this thought made her happy, it only made her feelings stronger, to the point that her decisions in Minakami VIllage matched up exactly with Sae's. [highlight for spoiler] And its those feelings, fear of losing Mio, wanting to monopolize Mio, and ultimately, wanting Mio to kill her; these are all feelings Mayu couldn't say to Mio, and wasn't until they were forced to confront them that Mio started to understand. And in the "Crimson Butterfly Ending" (the official canonical ending), its the final wish of Mayu's that's granted. Through her sacrifice, not only can light be brought back to the never-ending night of Minakami Village, but that Mayu will forever be with Mio, on her neck as the matching Remaining's bruise, and in that ethereal other place where her spirit resides.
Mio's feelings too, are very subtle. She never knew the pain her sister felt as they lived with that accident between them, and never got to convey the feelings she too felt for her sister; that special connection, and the identical fear of losing her. Why else would Mio chase after her sister, why else would she try over and over to reclaim her despite the vicious and terrible threads of fate that bind them? If the real heart of 零~Zero~ is the tragedy that no matter how hard you fight for another person, that person will give up their life, then the true tragedy of Akai Chou is killing the one you're pursuing with your own hands. Miku's tragedy was never being able to tell her brother that she loved him so much for the kindness he bestowed to others, culminating in the kindness he gives to Kirie at the end. Mio's, the tragedy of splitting apart that which is one, the tearing off of a wing of a butterfly, and the pain of never conveying those same feelings to her sister in the end.
And Miku's story comes from the tragedy of that final night of Sae's massacre; Yae too misunderstood her sister's true feelings, and instead of trying to heed them, she ended up focusing only on her own side of her love, and ultimately lost Sae. And Yae, when she tried to come back for Sae (whom jumped for nearly the same reasons Mayu had, that Yae would leave her), was too late, and was left weeping at the only thing left of her village after the failure of their ceremony. Where a young man named Munakata came back…ultimately marrying her, and having a child…and then moving into Himuro Mansion. Miku's long family line intersects with Mio and Mayu not once, but twice...but that's the story of the 3rd game….
零~Zero~Shisei no Koe (Fatal Frame: The Tormented)
Rei Kurosawa (no relation so far to the Kurosawa line of Minakami) lost her fiancee Yuu Asou in a car accident where she was at the wheel. She moves from day to day in a numb haze, assisted by her fiancee's friend's younger sister, Miku, until she takes on a photography assignment to a supposedly haunted manor, and by chance falls into a daydream where she pursues her fiancee's figure through an expansive house. In her sleep, she is beckoned by his spirit as well as others deeper, and deeper into the manor, and upon waking, suffers from a growing tattoo of a snake and holly. Is the manor a sign? Or is it a curse? And if it is, can she and her companions escape it, or will they succumb to the pain of the tattoo?
Miku appears again, this time, 2 years after the Himuro mansion affair along side Rei, and is joined later by Kei Amakura, uncle to the twins Mio and Mayu. In this 3rd installment, the story now seeks to join its previous sisters into one long story of loss, pain, and the strength to soldier on. We start the game with loss, rather than ending with it; Rei loses Yuu in an accident for which she was responsible, like Mio, but unlike Miku and Mio, her pain is what begins her trial rather than brings it to a close. In a sense, instead of beginning with something and returning to "zero" we begin with "zero", and ultimately, perhaps we end again, at "zero".
In development, it was stated that they considered bringing Mio back into the story, but as Shibata-san explained, when it was proposed that all 3 would be living in the same house (Miku, Mio, and Rei), it was contested with "What on earth kind of house is that!?". Also, with Mio's story concluded quite beautifully in her own game, it would cause the story to be bloated beyond streamlining, and so Kei appears on her behalf. What makes Kei interesting is the fact he is the first truly playable male character in the series (setting the stage for Choushiro Kirishima from the 4th installment and eventually Ren Hojo of the most recent), if one discounts the brief tutorial you get as Mafuyu in the first game.
The change in the flow of the game changes in this game. In the first, each portion of the story is divided up with distinct chapters (4, though it was initially planned for more, which explains the unusually long second chapter) with a chapter title screen. In the second, each chapter moved seamlessly with only a subtitle innocuously placed near the bottom of the screen. The third takes a little from both, with each chapter divided often by chapters that are titled seamlessly, but preceded by short cutscenes of your character in the manor, intercut with brief flashes of plot point related scenes. On first playing, you won't know which character you'll be playing as until you get to these chapter headers, and see your character outside the manor.
The game also divides itself into 2 worlds: the world of the living and waking, which primarily takes place in Rei's home, and the world of the Manor of Sleep, where the primary action takes place. As the theme is the fear of invasion, you'll find these 2 worlds are not always as separate as one thinks, with ghostly phenomenon appearing in the comfort of Rei's home as well as in the manor. This of course leads to the most infamous of scenes from the game, in which Rei is attacked by a ghost while she showers. Even in your own home, you are never alone (though it makes for lovely rendering, not matched until you get to the fifth game with its water elements).
Also new in this game is a tweaking of the camera system, largely tightened in the previous game, but expanded upon in this installment. Akai Chou so far was the only game where charging the meter for more damage was entirely proximity related (i.e. the closer you were to doom, the more power you would get), while other games on the series relied on you centering your subject in the aperture of the screen until it filled up for max damage. This camera mechanic made for more "watching and waiting", timing yourself and keeping yourself moving to be in the best vantage point until the last second, rather than directly approaching your enemy to damage it more. Both systems worked well, especially for the fear factor, but 3 went back to charge, rather than proximity, and is an easy ground between 2 and 1.
Each character gets the same camera, but their inherent abilities make the use of it limited depending on the character. Miku, whose sixth sense returned, has the strongest, and therefore not only has a large charge meter, but can charge it twice, 2 rings, for lots of damage. However, she is unable to use different lenses for extra boosts or debuffs like slow or stop. In addition, her constitution is weak, and takes damage more. On the other side of the spectrum, Kei's is strong, but his camera ability is weak. His charge meter isn't very big (only 2 points of charge), and can only chip away at enemies, consuming a lot of film, though he's able to augment that with lenses. Rei is a balance, with a moderately large charge meter and average health, as well as access to the special lenses for extra damage. They all represent different player types that the creators had in mind, from the rapid shot chip away types (the ones that usually have problems keeping film reserves), to the type who take their time and wait patiently, sometimes incurring damage. Each has their own way of making it through the game (while Kei's special ability doesn't help combat, it helps him hide from dangerous spirits, and his strength allows you to open up more efficient paths through the huge maze of the manor).
All of these new changes made the 3rd game a sort of mediated middle ground between 1's challenging camera system, and 2's rich storyline. In fact, the story for the third game is a sort of homecoming and tying of the 3 series together into a final, cohesive single storyline (and thus constituted my division of 1-3 for first Testament and 4, 5, and Spirit Camera as the second). Rei's story of her love lost coincides with Mio's and with Miku's. But its strongest message comes from how you deal with this loss. Do you stay in the past, and lose yourself to it, or do you move on, with the danger that one day, that love one's memory will fade (memory and existence is a theme that is explored more fully in the next installment)? In real life, that is a terrible, equally tough choice. in the world of Zero, you may not have one, and that perhaps maybe both choices mean the same.
Here, I want to use Miku as our shining red thread throughout the series as a whole, in addition to her role through the first testament. In the first game, she loses her beloved brother. In the 3rd, she chases his spirit, as well as her own past, in the cold Manor of Sleep. Near the final chapters, Rei comforts Miku in their time of need. Miku laments the fact that as time goes on, her memory of her only family, her brother, are fading. Indeed, "Time fades even Legend", and though such a line is from a completely different game (Legacy of Kain) the meaning remains the same. And when one forgets, what happens to that part of that person, as well as the person being forgotten? [highlight for spoiler] When Rei and Yuu have their moment on the shores of the Abyss, he takes her pain and tattoos, and urges her to continue living. Its his last gift to a woman who has gone literally to hell to find him. And its that message, to continue living, that is at the core of the game. Shibata-san's dream, found here, states this: that if you die, all of your memories, as well as the memories of people already dead, will die too. While the 4th game also employs this notion, its most clearly found here.
One MUST carry on and live, because when you die, that's the day everyone you remember and knew and is now gone, will die too. These are opposing notions that appear in the image song, "Koe", performed by Tsukiko Amano (whom also wrote and performed "Chou", the second game's song, and will have gone on to do songs for most of the core series). Amano-san, knowing from a friend, the pain of remembering someone who has died, suggests that forgetting is essential to remain living in the present, to move on with your life. Shibata-san's feelings are more in line with Yuu's and the overall theme: that living with the pain is the only way to keep lost loves alive, even in your heart. But such notions are what makes the song and the game heart-wrenching and memorable.
And so, Miku and Rei (and subtlety, Mio), all choose to live on with the pain, in a hidden tattoo that isn't only visible to those part of a curse; a tattoo that exists in the heart and the soul, the etched remains of people they have loved and lost, until their dying day. And while its possible for them to be reunited upon death, its not the choice they should take now. For living in the present, for a future, is what makes life worth living. They must live the life their loved ones could not, with all the pain it might hold. This notion of living for the future is still present in the games, even after this first trilogy passes, especially in Miku, whom appears after a stint away, in the 5th game's installment. But this story is for the next part, the Second Testament of Zero, and also is present in the Apocrypha that will follow.
Until then, keep that light burning.
--Dio (10/13/14)
Research conducted with the Zero wiki, and FFTranslations. Images also from the Zero wiki.
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