The fact I actually touch this games is shocking enough.
This story is about two twin sisters, Mio and Mayu. You will be controlling mostly Mio for combat and Mayu for a short while to advance certain part of the game. I have no idea why they went to that village in the first place but somehow the rituals that the village was doing involves twins too. So you have a possessed Mayu going missing here and there trying to lure Mio to finish up the badly gone wrong ritual of the past.
Story
I would say its OKAY. The ending came as a shocker to me though because I wasn't paying attention to the entire letter reading when I first watch it in youtube. But the fact that it has a Hard Mode ending and a special exclusive one for the other console, came as a relief. It's not that hard to understand as most of the diaries and letters you find along the way actually explains each previous occupant's past straightforwardly.
Gameplay
You have a flashlight (that does not need batteries AMAZING, as it never goes out) and a Camera Obscura of course. It is customizable by finding Spirit Orbs and gaining points from capturing pictures of fleeting ghosts or defeating certain ones. In my case I didn't find enough of the orbs to power up the other function like "Stun", "Slow" etc, because I was just compelled to finish off the ghost ASAP and continue the story. So I just power up the "Blast" and "Zero" shots which does more damage to ghosts.
Switching between third person and the viewfinder is the key to victory!
Sometimes the camera will blink red as it shows the opportune moment to capture a combo shot to the core of the ghost and also the best shot too. It takes sometime to get use to that feature as sometimes the blinking last only for a short while and you have to wait for the next chance all over again.
Different types of films give you different range of damages. The higher the count the more powerful it is. But Type Zero films are special films, although I have yet to know/remember what it does right now.
Puzzles
The puzzles are pretty easy to figure out with a little time. I kinda got stuck at the last one because my brain wasn't working straight. It doesn't take long to figure out where your next destination/mission is as you progress because the game actually leaves certain clues for you like following the butterfly, or following that fleeing ghost girl and such. Letters and diaries leaves clues too and sometimes capturing pictures of glowing things shows pictures of the past which will be your next destination. Sometimes defeated bosses gives you pretty stones which has the voices of the ghost talking about his regrets or fear and such.
Music
Tsukiko Amano is like the mother of Fatal Frame song. Well to me in a sense. Because she sang for Fatal Frame I-III, and the lyrics greatly mirrors the story of each game. Her song is pretty emo, especially the last one Fatal Frame III, "I'll tear out this voice box for you" or something like that. Ouch, emo. Well it goes well with the whole DOOMSDAY and sad atmosphere of Fatal Frame though. Fatal Frame always end sadly. The only ending of Fatal Frame that actually brought tears to my eyes is Fatal Frame III.
When ghosts appear, sound effects comes in, it's kind of like a pointer for you to be alert. When nothings going on, there will be no background music which adds up the scariness with its silence. But that does not mean you can cheat and just mute the sound, oh no, you need it for one part where you have to hear the bells of a fleeing Crimson Kimono girl and find her hiding place. Yes so no cheating out!
Graphics
Maybe it's my TV setting, but for some reason I found my screen being darker than compared to the ones I saw in youtube. There are times where I couldn't freaking see a thing even through my viewfinder to find the ghosts to capture. It's very annoying. I know certain ghost actually makes the whole screen black and capture you from behind, but the ones I fought weren't suppose to do that, and it is still that dark…. Sometimes I can't even find my way around because it's just too dark. But surrounding wise, it's really good as it greatly puts detail of a abandoned house of a mansion like broken windows, creaking floorboards, and bloodstains (yes you hear me bloodstains). Compared to the last predecessor, you can wander outside the houses as you will be going through a lot of different families mansion as it deals with the entire village itself.
Ghosts are really well designed. Each ghost will reflect the nature of its death and certain ghosts like fallen woman who fell down from the stairs and broke her entire joints will be crawling on her all fours and going for your leg. And the frozen man who always look frozen and the broken neck woman is BACK! From Fatal Frame I !
All in all,
I watched the gameplay for all 4 Fatal Frames. But finishing it is quite a feat for me as my previous DVDs just have to stuck on me. Most of my friends think I am nuts playing it alone at 12 am everyday (I can only have the big TV for myself when my whole family is asleep), but hey it's a short game with 10 hours gameplay only. You can actually finish it in one seating and there's also EASY mode for those who just want to know about the story.
Pick it up if you're the horror genre fans or just for a bit of scaring with your pals sleeping over your house. :D