Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
Developer(s)	Tecmo
Publisher(s)	Tecmo (Japan & North America) Ubisoft (Europe: PlayStation 2) Microsoft Game Studios (Europe: Xbox)
Designer(s)	Keisuke Kikuchi
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release date(s)	PlayStation 2 JP November 27, 2003 NA December 10, 2003 EU April 30, 2004 Xbox (Director's Cut) NA November 1, 2004 JP November 11, 2004 EU February 4, 2005
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (17+) PEGI: 16+
Media/distribution	DVD

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, known in Japan as Zero: Akai Chō (零～紅い蝶～^?) and in Europe as Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly, is a survival horror video game developed by Tecmo. It is the second installment in the Fatal Frame series and is considered by some gaming magazines as one of the scariest video games ever created (see Reception). It was originally released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, and a "director's cut" version was released for the Xbox in 2004 with better graphics and some additional features. There has also been a confirmation that there is a 2011 remake set to release on the Wii in Japan, but no confirmation if it will ever release in the US or Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Gameplay

Fatal Frame II uses gameplay mechanics very similar to its predecessor, with some changes and updates. For most of the game, the player controls Mio Amakura, except for some short scenes where the player controls her younger twin sister, Mayu. Mayu's scenes are unlike the regular game, however: they are viewed with a gray filter as she moves from one place to the next, giving the player clues as to where to go. In normal gameplay, Mio's health is shown as a bar in the lower right corner, although only during combat and in Finder mode. If her or Mayu's health runs out, the game will end. Life can be replenished using different healing items scattered throughout the game. There is also a special item called Stone Mirror, which restores Mio's life to full once when it runs out, and then breaks; only one can be carried at any time. Mio also has a flashlight, which can be aimed in different directions, although the flashlight will not work in all areas. Mio's only weapon is the "Camera Obscura", an antique camera with the ability to take pictures of ghosts and exorcise them. As "ammunition" the camera uses films of different quality. Type-07 film, the weakest type of film, is unlimited, but the other types have to be collected throughout the game; the strongest ones being the rarest. The camera can be equipped with special functions and with special lenses, all of which grant some special ability useful in combat; these have to be found in-game, or are earned as a result of multiple playthroughs. Finally, the camera's Basic Functions and the special lenses can be upgraded using spirit orbs found in the game, and points earned from photographing ghosts. The points earned from each picture depend on the accuracy of the shot and, during combat, the timing and damage caused, as well as stacked shot bonuses (obtained by using lenses and taking special shots). The camera's features also include the filament, which is displayed in the lower right corner. The filament glows red when facing a hostile ghost, and serves as an indicator of both direction and distance; it will also glow blue when there is a non-hostile ghost nearby.

During the game, Mio must explore the entire village area and its central buildings, and needs to find various objects and solve puzzles in order to advance. Throughout the game, Mio will encounter different kinds of ghosts, some of which appear unexpectedly while some appear during cutscenes. In addition to hostile ghosts, there are numerous vanishing and hidden spirits Mio can photograph for points. The vanishing ghosts often talk, giving some information related to the story, or a hint on how to progress. One ghost is a special case: the ghost of the boy locked in the storehouse, Itsuki, will give clues as to what to do and help Mio. The game is divided into chapters, mostly related to certain areas which Mio visits as she chases after her sister. In the seventh chapter, Mio briefly loses both the flashlight and the Camera Obscura, and has to resort to dodging ghosts and running, with no means to fight back. The total number of chapters is nine, with a special tenth chapter available in Hard and Nightmare difficulty settings.

The game can be saved at red lanterns scattered throughout the village. There is no limit on how many times you can save; however, you cannot save if there is a hostile ghost nearby—in those cases, the lamp will go out and be unusable. Unlike in the first Fatal Frame, there is no way to restore film ammunition; should you run out and use up all the film found in the game, all you will have left is the weakest type.

The game has a new game plus feature, where you can start a new game while keeping your camera with all the special functions, lenses and upgrades from the previous game, as well as all your stored healing items and film. Over multiple playthroughs you can unlock various bonus content, including a mission mode, different outfits, gallery features and special lenses for the camera. In mission mode, the player is presented with a challenge, usually to defeat certain ghosts as quickly as possible or getting the highest points possible, either overall or with a single shot.

The Director's Cut edition for Xbox also has an FPS mode, where you can play through the entire game in first person. This does a lot in fixing the problems inherent with fixed camera locations; at the very worst, there are some small closets which are difficult to walk into, as when the camera switches locations the character will spin around and step right out of the closet you tried to enter. Unfortunately, the FPS mode also takes away some of the game's atmosphere. The Xbox version also has a new feature with gameplay effects: a shop where you can trade points from pictures for healing items and film.

Synopsis

See also: List of characters in the Fatal Frame series#Fatal Frame II

Twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura are visiting the spot where they used to play as children, which is due to be swallowed by a dam soon, when Mayu, who walks with a limp after a childhood accident, follows a mysterious crimson butterfly deep into the woods. Mio, concerned for her twin, follows, and the two girls are led to a village shrouded in fog. While it seems abandoned, the twins soon realize that the tortured souls of the dead roam, forever reliving the day of the failed ceremony that trapped them in this state.

Mayu soon falls under the village's spell and, beckoned by the crimson butterflies, she leads her sister deeper into the village. As Mio chases after her, she slowly learns of the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, the failure of which caused the disaster known as the Repentance, which shrouded the village in darkness. Under the village there is a system of tunnels, and at its deepest point there is a deep hole called the Hellish Abyss, where the souls of the dead collect. In order to keep this hole sealed, a pair of twins born in the village is required to perform a ritual approximately every decade, in which the elder twin strangles the younger^[1], after which the soul of the younger twin stays to guard the village as a crimson butterfly. The last pair of twins, Yae and Sae Kurosawa, tried to escape this fate, aided by Itsuki Tachibana, the Remaining twin of the previous, unsuccessful ritual. During their escape attempt, Sae was caught and brought back to the village, while Yae became lost in the forest. The villagers hanged Sae in a desperate attempt to satisfy the Hellish Abyss, but failed, resulting in the Repentance and the disappearance of the village.

Throughout the game, several ghosts refer to Mio as Yae and seem to expect her to perform the ritual with Mayu, with the exception of Itsuki, whose ghost tries to help her- believing the two to be the Kurosawa twins, he tries to aid their escape from the village again.

Near the end of the game, when Mio is finally reunited with her sister and planning their escape, she discovers a document left by a visiting folklorist concerning the twin order^[2]. In the village, the twin born second is considered the elder, as they let the weaker, "younger" twin be born first. This completely reverses Mio's intended fate: instead of being sacrificed herself, she is to strangle her twin sister, a fate which has driven many previous Remaining twins to madness and suicide.

Fatal Frame II has three potential endings, one of which directly leads to a Game Over. The Lingering Scent ending sees Mio escaping from the village without Mayu ^[3]. The Crimson Butterfly ending sees Mio and Mayu proceeding with the ritual, where Mayu is strangled to death and becomes a crimson butterfly ^[4]. The Hellish Abyss ending sees Mio rescuing Mayu from Sae, only to become permanently blinded from looking into the Hellish Abyss. A fourth ending, the Promise Ending, was added into the Xbox version, and sees Yae and Sae performing the ritual and freeing the villagers' spirits ^[5]. According to the events of Fatal Frame III: The Tormented, a direct sequel of the game, the Crimson Butterfly ending is the canonical ending.

The Ghosts

Almost all of the ghosts featured in the game are victims of a disaster known as "The Repentance". The Repentance occurs if the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual is not carried out correctly, which causes the Darkness to break forth from the Hellish Abyss and envelop the land. In-game there are two kinds of ghosts; there are neutral ghosts, which are indicated by the filament in the bottom right hand corner of the screen turning blue, and hostile ghosts, which turn the filament orange (or red). The neutral ghosts are usually featured throughout the game to help the player progress through the story. The hostile ghosts will attack the player, and can be exorcised due to the special properties of the Camera Obscura. Typically, throughout the game the ghosts can be heard mumbling to themselves, or giving warning to Mio to leave immediately. The ghosts usually mumble or speak about the ritual that apparently "cannot be seen." However there are moments in the game where even the ghosts themselves express fear such as the Man in the Dark who is scared of the Kusabi, or Chitose who admits during combat to be afraid to leave the closet. The only exception from these words are the children playing tag who call to each other and taunt Mio about being unable to follow them. Some of the blue filament, or friendly ghosts, help to explain the storyline and point to hidden objects or doors in one way or another. There are points in the game where Mio's way is blocked by a strange looking ghost that appears to have four faces, and the only way she can move them is by finding them in a place specified by them after taking a picture. After finding the other place they dissolve and the way is free once more. In-game, there are also ghosts who have nothing whatsoever to do with the storyline. There are four different pictures the player can take optionally, the pictures are the result of a contest held to get fans of the original games faces into the sequel as optional shots.

Development

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	(Xbox) 84.52%[6] (PS2) 82.41%[7]
Metacritic	(Xbox) 84/100[8] (PS2) 81/100[9]
Review scores
Publication	Score

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly has received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox version 84.52% and 84/100,^[6][8] and the PS2 version 82.41% and 81/100^[7][9].

The title was ranked second in Gametrailers' "Top Ten Scariest Games" in 2006,^[10] and third in X-Play's "Top Ten Scariest Games of All Time".^[11] Game Informer ranked it number one on a similar list.^[12] Ars Technica published an article about the game in its Masterpieces series^[13] claiming Fatal Frame 2 is the scariest video game ever made.

Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003, a director's cut edition was released for the Xbox in 2004. The director's cut added in several updates to the gameplay, such as a first-person play mode, a survival mode, a new ending, enhanced graphics, and a greater number of alternate costumes to unlock.

Recently a Wii version was announced, with a release date currently scheduled for 2011.

References

1. ^ Folklorist 10 (in game file): Twin Shrine Maidens are sacrificed in the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. Boys are sometimes used as well. In this case, they are called Altar Twins. The people of this region believe that twins were once a single being, which was split into two at birth. The ceremony is based on the belief that when the two bodies reunited as one, the Shrine Maiden will gain the power of a deity. The text says "the older sister must ** the younger and throw her into the *". The ** part must refer to the most horrible part of the ritual, probably some kind of "sacrifice". Tecmo. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.
2. ^ Folklorist 12 (in game file): Twins play an important part in the ritual. In recent years, the government issued a decree that the first twin to come out is the eldest. Each region used to have its own rules until that decree was made. When I asked the Ceremony Master about the village's rules, he grinned and said that tradition is tradition. This village still practices the old way. The twin that is born second is considered the elder. Tecmo. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.
3. ^ Mio: I'm sorry... I can't keep our promise... Tecmo. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. (Tecmo). PlayStation 2. (2003-11-27)
4. ^ Mayu: We can't be together forever... but, with this... we can become one. Kill me... Tecmo. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. (Tecmo). PlayStation 2. (2003-11-27)
5. ^ Yae: Together forever... We can finally become one. I promise... Tecmo. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. (Tecmo). Xbox. (2004-11-04)
6. ^ ^{a b} "Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (Xbox) reviews at". GameRankings. 2011-06-13. http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox/920717-fatal-frame-ii-crimson-butterfly-directors-cut/index.html. Retrieved 2011-06-13. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (PlayStation 2) reviews at". GameRankings. 2011-06-13. http://www.gamerankings.com/ps2/915022-fatal-frame-ii-crimson-butterfly/index.html. Retrieved 2011-06-13. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (Xbox) reviews at". Metacritic. 2011-06-13. http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox/fatal-frame-ii-crimson-butterfly-directors-cut. Retrieved 2011-06-13. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (PlayStation 2) reviews at". Metacritic. 2011-06-13. http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/fatal-frame-ii-crimson-butterfly. Retrieved 2011-06-13. 
10. ^ "'GameTrailers' Top Ten Scariest Games". http://www.gametrailers.com/player/14536.html. 
11. ^ "'X-Play' Top 10 Scariest Games". http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/658946/XPlay_Top_10_Scariest_Games.html. 
12. ^ “the top 10 scariest moments in gaming,” Game Informer 174 (October 2007): 36.
13. ^ "Halloween Masterpiece: Fatal Frame 2 is the scariest game ever made". http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/10/halloween-masterpiece-fatal-frame-2-is-the-scariest-game-ever-made.ars. 

External links

• Official website for Japan release version (PS2) (Japanese)
• Official website for Japan release version (Xbox) (Japanese)