Beginning with a bang with the announcement of Fire Emblem: Engage, and ending on an even bigger bang with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the latest Nintendo Direct is easily one of the best in recent memory - something that Fatal Frame fans would surely agree with. While the showcase was certainly better paced than the recent Disney and Marvel Games Showcase, there was still over 40 straight minutes of announcements. As such, some reveals might have slipped through the cracks, such as Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, which is set to make its Western debut next year.
The fourth installment of the Fatal Frame franchise, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse has been a Japan-exclusive for well over a decade, but now, it's headed to the Western market on the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox in 2023. Before fans jump right into the series' fourth installment next year, they may want to know a little background on the series so far.
The Fatal Frame Franchise Explained
Debuting in 2001 in Japan, and 2002 for Europe and North America on the PS2, Fatal Frame, also known as Zero or Project Zero in other regions, is a third-person survival horror game in a similar vein to the original Resident Evil games and Silent Hill. Players control Miku Hinasaki as she tentatively journeys through an abandoned, haunted mansion.
The general gameplay of Fatal Frame sees the player shuffle around the mansion using a fixed camera perspective, looting whatever health items, puzzle pieces, and cassette recordings they can find. Players will need to use a flashlight at all times as the environment is often pitch-black. Between the environmental puzzles, players will have to fend off hostile ghosts. Fatal Frame's defining feature is its Camera Obscura item, which acts as the player's only tool against the spirits. To defeat a spirit, players need to zoom in on the camera - which switches the camera angle to a first-person perspective - and snap shots of the ghost to damage it. There's a pretty interesting risk-reward system in play as well, as the closer a ghost is to the Camera Obscura's lens and the longer they're held in frame, the more damage it takes.
Two years later, in 2003, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly released, again for the PS2 and for the original Xbox. Fatal Frame 2 uses essentially the same game mechanics as its predecessor, with the Camera Obscura once again being used for ghost battles. However, Fatal Frame 2 puts more of an emphasis on detective work, with the Camera Obscura being used to find hidden clues in the environment and detect friendly ghosts that can move the plot along. The story is completely disconnected from the first game, this time centering on Mio Amakura and her sister as they explore an abandoned village.
Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented released in 2005, changing protagonists once again. This entry focuses on Rei Kurosawa, a freelance photographer tasked with exploring yet another abandoned mansion. The key selling point of this entry is that players can explore both the real-world mansion and a dream-state mansion, which includes some references to past games in the series.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is the fourth mainline entry in the series, and the one that Western audiences will be able to play for the first time early next year. Originally developed for the Wii, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse introduced motion controls into the standard Fatal Frame Camera Obscura gameplay, but that'll likely be taken out for the upcoming remaster. This entry sees Ruka Minazuki return to a mysterious island where she was once held captive.
Two Fatal Frame spin-off titles released in 2012, with the first being Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for 3DS, a game that used the console's camera and AR technology to produce an even spookier Camera Obscura battle sequence. Though the premise is great, the execution wasn't so wonderful, with outlets condemning the game for a lack of content. The second spin-off, Project Zero 2: Wii Edition, is a remake of the second game in the franchise, this time with motion controls, and an updated over-the-shoulder camera perspective.
The most recent game in Fatal Frame series is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, which released in 2014 exclusively for the Wii U. While most of the gameplay comes straight from its predecessors, the Wii U Gamepad and its built-in camera are used similarly to the 3DS in the Cursed Memoir spin-off, acting as the Camera Obscura itself. Unfortunately, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water didn't quite live up to the franchise's earlier entries, with a one-dimensional cast and a lack of complex themes.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse launches in early 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X|S.
