fatal frame: What a fantastic name for a survival horror game in which you confront cursed spirits using an ancient camera that, like in more traditional ghost stories, is capable of not only recording the appearance of ectoplasm on film, but in this case also to absorb their energy, dealing damage with each shot until they disperse. It is absurd that in Europe it has been changed to "Project Zero" due - it is said - to a banal translation error.
There is no doubt that the sources of inspiration of Makoto Shibata, who created this series in 2001 for PlayStation 2, are terribly fascinating: haunted houses, even islands invaded by dark presences as in the fourth chapter of 2008 or cursed mountains, those that Seen in the most recent Black Water Maiden. Fatal Frame is eagerly and cunningly inspired by the legends of Japanese folklore and today, like a restless spirit, it wishes to return.
A path that involves the reactivation of the best episodes released so far to rekindle enthusiasm, a reactivation that in the case of 4 Fatal Frame It was essential given its great popularity. However, how much does nostalgia and concreteness weigh in the creation of this remastering? Is the nightmare still the same or has it lost its ability to instill fear after all this time?
Dark room and flashlight pointing at your face from below, we tell you how it went in the Project Zero Review: The Lunar Eclipse Mask.
History: a nightmare of the past
La history Mask of the Lunar Eclipse revolves around five girls who share a traumatic experience: when they were still children, they were kidnapped by a man and taken to a cave on the island of Rogetsu to participate in a mysterious ritual. On that occasion a police officer saved them, but a few years later the drama resurfaces and two of them are found dead, apparently from suicide.
The survivors of the group, Madoka Tsukimori and Misaki Aso, feel the need to clarify what happened and therefore decide go to the island again, which after the spread of an inexplicable epidemic ended up deserted and in ruins. The spirits that inhabit this place, however, were waiting for their return and, despite the support of the legendary Dark Chamber, they manage to trap them in a limbo between life and death.
Therefore, it is up to the last one left, Ruka Minazuki, to take a ferry to Rogetsu, strictly at night, and return to the abandoned hotel where it all started and where her friends were trapped. At the same time, however, the policeman who had saved the girls is also on the island, equipped with an electric flashlight with the same powers as the Camera Obscura.
It is therefore a choral and multifaceted plot that the game tells, which among the many references to Japanese ghost stories inserts a story with disturbing features, which little by little is revealed through the documents and testimonies left by the people who came into contact with the dark evil that inhabits the houses of Rogetsu and did not survive to tell the story.
The game's direction, signed by the aforementioned Makoto Shibata, uses all the typical resources of this type of production, making ghosts appear behind the protagonists, in the reflection of a mirror or in the slow creaking of a door opening. As we wrote in the review of Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, the sequences are less impressive than those of the most recent Maiden of Black Water, but the atmosphere is not lacking.
This is a fundamental aspect for a traditional survival horror like this, which the remastering effectively relaunches, building Terrifying situations and a great feeling of tension. also thanks to a sound design that still works wonderfully today. It is a shame, however, that no progress has been made in the area of localization in our language, given that the game's dialogues are in Japanese and the subtitles are in English.
The gameplay of Project Zero: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
If the story, the characters (although stereotyped and dressed in an unlikely way), the direction and the atmosphere have withstood the weight of the years very well, in terms of game Unfortunately, the experience offered by Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is quite dated and rigid, with a movement system that makes tanks look like agile dancers in comparison, and which has not been modified from the original except for the introduction of an alternative design. optional. .
Exploring the abandoned buildings that form the backdrop of the countryside is therefore practical. slow and cumbersome, something that has to be patiently gotten used to but that plays a specific role during confrontations with ghosts, which occur by activating a first-person view and which often take place in narrow spaces, full of obstacles that we will not stop tripping over. . in the desperate attempt to gain some distance and thus have time to activate the Camera Obscura.
Here, if on Wii this mechanism could count on the novelty of motion detection controls, which added a minimum of freshness to a system that already seemed old at the time, on PC, PlayStation and Xbox this feature is obviously not available. present and must make do with the analog sticks as in a kind of very slow shooter where each reload takes several seconds. The Nintendo Switch version, which we did not have the pleasure of testing, instead includes an option to activate the gyroscope and thus offer gameplay closer to the original vision.
Structurally there is little to say, in the sense that the progression is the most traditional thing there is in the context of a survival horror, with closed doors that must be opened after finding a key, an event that in most cases gives life to a close encounter and therefore a fight that we can complete also taking advantage of the possible camera upgrades, as well as rollers with higher energy. Be careful when saving, because there are no checkpoints.
Technical realization: horror texture.
We have often talked about the difference between remakes and remasterings and how in the second case the developers limit themselves to adapt resolution and frame rate to current standards, possibly also acting on the effects, but leaving the original technical system of the game intact in terms of geometries, animations and, very often, textures.
In fact, the latter are suitable for the atmospheres of Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, since they are literally terrifying, pixelated like few others, and on PC it is not possible to improve them in any way, also due to the very few settings present. Let everything become 4K and 60fps with the best presets in the test settings we took it for granted, but it doesn't improve the image one bit really old-fashioned graphics.
Let's be clear: expecting more from this re-release would not have been correct, precisely because it is a simple remaster designed to refocus attention on the Fatal Frame series in view of a possible new chapter, but then try to sell it for €49,99 It doesn't seem like the best strategy in the world to us; Also because on Steam they cost 10 euros more to purchase the remake of Resident Evil 4, and we are talking about two titles with slightly different production values.
PC system requirements
Test setup
- Processor: Intel Core i5 13500
- Video card: NVIDIA RTX 3070
- Memory: 32GB RAM
- Operating system: Windows 11
Minimum requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5 4460
- Schematic video: NVIDIA GTX 660, AMD R7 370
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Storage: 25 GB of space required
- Operating system: Windows 10, Windows 11, 64 bits
Recommended requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i7 4770
- Scheda video: NVIDIA GTX 960, AMD RX 570
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Storage: 25 GB of space required
- Operating system: Windows 10, Windows 11, 64 bits
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 49,99 € Holygamerz.com 6.5 Readers (8) 8.0 your voteProject Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse still manages to fascinate on an artistic and narrative level, thanks to a disturbing and disturbing plot that effectively draws on images of Japanese legends and folklore to take us to a cursed island where, several years before, it occurred. an absurd tragedy. The story works and envelops thanks to its setting, but in terms of mechanics, structure and technical implementation it feels the full weight of these fifteen years and even something more.
PRO
- Great atmosphere, fascinating images.
- Captivating and disturbing story.
- In some situations it still works fine.
AGAINST
- Extremely dated in terms of gameplay, structure and graphics.
- Really cumbersome controls
- Price out of the world of the living.
