Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
There are very few games that allow you to use a camera as a tool. Too few in fact. And even less that let you use it as a weapon. Games that take a more creative approach to solving problems than just giving you a gun are always amazing and Fatal Frame is one of those games.
I was lucky enough to have a friend at school bring this in one day, back when we used to bring in consoles and hook them up to the instructor's slave monitors. I can't remember if it was Fatal Frame 1 or 2 that he brought in, but I may have never known about this game had he not introduced it to me. It's just one of those titles that is primarily available in Japan with the western market being somewhat of an afterthought.
Fatal Frame II is this perfectly Japanese horror game. Following cues from eastern horror films like The Grudge and Ringu, Fatal Frame doesn't throw monster after monster at you, but instead allows you to wander around an old abandoned village with only a camera in hand. It really is a special kind of scary. The kind that far preceded (and exceeded) Amnesia and Outlast, and is only akin to a very few other horror video games. In truth, only Fatal Frame is anything like Fatal Frame.
As I mentioned earlier, in Fatal Frame II your goal is to make your way through an old Japanese village. A village you stumbled upon with your sister, who in turn became separated from you while chasing a crimson butterfly. You soon discover a camera obscura, one that possesses special powers. Raising the camera to your eye switches from third to first person perspective, it then allows you to view the normally invisible spirits that haunt your surroundings. The only way to battle them is to photograph them at just the right time, usually right before they jump at your face.
Fatal Frame II pulls few punches when it comes to dropping broken-necked ghosts in front of you or otherwise providing enough context to leave each spirit with it's own story. The setting is unsettling and your own ability to fight back seems trivial and pathetic. It's horrifying the way a great horror game should be.
I love this series. Denise loves this series. I only wish it was more prominent outside of Japan because I would love to see more titles. I was seriously upset to find out that the Wii version, which would take perfect advantage of the Wii remote for camera controls, was only released in Japan. Now with the announcement of a new Fatal Frame for the Wii-U, I only hope they can fix that mistake.
There are very few games that allow you to use a camera as a tool. Too few in fact. And even less that let you use it as a weapon. Games that take a more creative approach to solving problems than just giving you a gun are always amazing and Fatal Frame is one of those games. I was lucky enough to have a friend at school bring this in one day, back when we used to bring in consoles and hook them up to the instructor's slave monitors. I can't remember if it was Fatal Frame 1 or 2 that he brought in, but I may have never known about this game had he not introduced it to me. It's just one of those titles that is primarily available in Japan with the western market being somewhat of an afterthought.
As I mentioned earlier, in Fatal Frame II your goal is to make your way through an old Japanese village. A village you stumbled upon with your sister, who in turn became separated from you while chasing a crimson butterfly. You soon discover a camera obscura, one that possesses special powers. Raising the camera to your eye switches from third to first person perspective, it then allows you to view the normally invisible spirits that haunt your surroundings. The only way to battle them is to photograph them at just the right time, usually right before they jump at your face. 
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