Fatal Frame (franchise)

Fatal Frame, or the Japanese and European title, Project Zero, is a Japanese survival horror game with, as of 2008, four installments. Developed by Tecmo (Dead or Alive), it has become one of the most well received survival horror games.

The specific plot differs depending on the installment, but the core objective is to survive your way through some sort of haunted location, and fight ghosts with only your camera. The Camera Obscura is the main weapon of the game, and is able to take pictures of things normal humans cannot see. The ways the main character comes to possess the camera differs as well. Some, like Miku Hanasaki, previously owned the camera, and others, like Mio Amakura, find the camera.

Fatal Frame: Based on a True Story
The first installment of Fatal Frame was released in 2001. It was for the PlayStation 2, like the majority of the Fatal Frame games. It was based on a true story, although loosely. There was a Himuro Mansion in Japan, and gruesome rituals were performed there, but there are no recorded ghosts.

Plot
In this installment, you play as Miku Hanasaki for the majority of the game. Miku has entered Himuro Mansion looking for her brother, Mafuyu Hanasaki, who had gone missing in the mansion two weeks ago. She does not find her brother, but she does find her mother's old camera that Mafuyu had brought with him. Realizing she is now trapped in this mansion, Miku continues to search for her brother and a way out of the mansion. In the end, Miku finds Mafuyu, but he decides to stay with the main antagonist, Kirie, to ease her suffering. He later dies when the mansion collapses.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
The second installment of the Fatal Frame series was released in 2003. Like the first Fatal Frame, it was released for the PlayStation 2.

Plot
Twin sisters, Mio and Mayu Amakura, are visiting a favorite play spot from their childhood when Mayu follows a mysterious crimson butterfly deeper into the forest. Mio follows after her, and the girls are led to a lost village. Once they enter the village, they enter the first old house, and find the Camera Obscura. Mio must uncover the mystery of the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, while trying to save her sister, who is becoming increasingly posessed by the evil spirit of Sae Kurosawa, and save the village from the horror of that fateful night in which the village was lost forever.

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented
The third installment in the Fatal Frame series was released in 2005, for the PlayStation 2 only.

Plot
This game follows Rei Kurosawa, a 23-year-old free-lance photographer. In a dream, she sees her dead fiance walk into an old mansion surrounded by heavy, eternal snowfall. She follows her fiance into the mansion where her dream becomes a nightmare, when she finds herself in a mansion haunted by gruesome and violent spirits.

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented, is the first Fatal Frame game to have more than one possible story, and more than one main playable character. After completing the main story as Rei Kurosawa, you are able to play through the mansion again, but with different features and battle styles, as either Miku Hanasaki or Kei Amakura.

It is also the first Fatal Frame to have features that take place outside of the haunted location. When Rei is awake, she can have her assistant, Miku Hanasaki, do research on photographs for her to learn more about the spirits in the mansion. There are also a number of other features available when Rel is awake to help you uncover the secrets of the Manor of Sleep.

Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
The fourth Fatal Frame installment was develoed for the Wii, and published by Nintendo. Little is known about this title, for it was only released in Japan and there is no plan for a western release, despite fan rumors. However, there is an unofficial English translation patch.

Trivia

 * Fatal Frame was ported to the Xbox and is playable on the 360. The Xbox remake includes smoother graphics, extra costumes, and a new difficulty, Fatal Mode, which is unlocked after the first comletion of the game.


 * While the original Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly was released in 2003, a Director's Cut editions was released for the Xbox in 2004. The director's cut added several new features to gameplay including a first-person mode, a survival mode, a new ending, enhanced graphics, and even more alternate costumes.