Good
- graphics improved from fatal frame 1 and 2
- character animations after for both enemy and protagonist. Protagonist actually gets scared with more dramatic animations, which is felt by the player too
- reading thoughts from the protagonist in her notebook is nice. Gives her more personality, and makes me care more about her. It also summarizes events that just happened, allowing me to follow the story more easily. It also gave insight on every character the protagonist meets and knows
- cutscenes were done very well. Voice acting was great too.
- camera button mapped to triangle is a good change. It's closer to the run button, which is what's used most during a fight, meaning the transition between the two was more fluent than the old circle button mapping.
- transitioning from haunted mansion back to modern city adds diversity to the environment, changing up the tone and keeping things interesting
- having the house as a hub world makes the game world feel bigger. And more down to earth. More freedom as well.
- Healing items are more scarce, and enemies were tougher then fatal frame 2. Though the game did allow me to full heal by exiting dream, then returning. So that's like a safety net
- rei gets a full heal when she exits the dream, so it's a bit of gamble whether to use a heal or not if I felt she was gonna wake up soon
- given the amount of film available, doing zero shots is almost mandatory, which makes the game heavily reaction based. If you take all easy shots, you'll certainly run out of ammo
- the day time in the house gave me a nice break from the constant paranoia and fear
- the disappearance of Yoshino gave me a stark alert as to what outcome rei will face
- I like the continuity between the 3 fatal frames
- the dream haunting in horror media is scary because as humans sleep is inevitable. So despite being safe during waking hours, the return to the horror is imminent. That's what makes it scary. Famous movie portrayal is nightmare on elm street
- revisiting himoru mansion with Miku was cool
- removing the need to equip spirit orbs to upgrade a stat saves time.
- I'm glad they added subtitles to the audio tapes. In fatal frame 2 it was basically impossible to hear what they were saying on the radio
- combining zero shots is a fun mechanic
- doll looking back at me was creepy. a lot of other random objects in the background bull randomly move as well, which what's a very good addition to the fear
- flash is a good gameplay mechanic. Can get out of stick situations, and can do flash into attack combo
- control vibration done well. Made things more tense.
- enemy design was diverse and fun to fight. Minus the mad camera angles.
- glad they have English letters to denote the abilities in the menu instead of just Japanese characters
- there's a lot of interesting folklore stuff that can be found. It gives an incentive to take pictures of ghosts, since I can develop them and have Miku research them which unlocks the information.
- rei, Miku, and Kei each have their own techniques and abilities. Miku can charge shots. Kei can crouch which is pretty useless, since running away is more optimal then stealthing. Rei has flash
- as rei spent more time in the sleep Manor she'd experience more and more hauntings in real life.
- it's nice seeing hauntings in modern Life, since it hits home more. The shower ghost scene, and the attic ghost scene, and the ghost in mirror you can actually imagine that happening in your own household, which makes it scarier then a haunting inside an old run-down mansion.
- it's really interesting how in the past people would believe in folklore, mythical Legends, because of a lack of wide sharing of knowledge. A village isolated in a forest would never adopt the latest technology, hence they'd likely hold on to tradition, and even inhuman rituals.
- there is an old film filter later in the game that shows up if my candle lights ran out, which added an extra layer of fear when navigating in in combat
- the final boss black and white segment reminds me of nightmares where I'm trying to run away but can't get anywhere
- the ending was good. How yuu took the burden of carrying Rei's tattoo curse.
Bad
- don't understand why they still haven't added the ability to go to previous page when reading notes
- I wish they included voice acting for the conversations between Miku and rei as well. It's surprising that they didn't because there weren't that many dialogues between them. Which seems like the cost of a full voiceover wouldn't have been that much
- hairpin girl in kimono room has unlimited health during second encounter, wasting me a lot of film then dying to realize this fr a guide. If an enemy is invulnerable, the game should not allow the camera to target them
- there are quite a few new abilities. I wish there was a training mode to try them like in Bayonetta.
- the game needs to indicate which doors are sealed and which aren't, because I do not remember every single door I passed by whether it's sealed or not, meaning that's when I look at the map and plan my route, I may run into a seal door without even knowing it because on my map the door looks exactly like every other door. If I pass by a door that is sealed, that door should be marked read on the map. I feel like this is a basic quality of life design, and it frustrates me that's they don't do it here.
- for the third title in the series, I was actually expecting a bit more dialogue from the protagonist. Maybe more self inflections, and monologues. She does kind of have a mini diary, but that isn't nearly enough. And without voice acting it's hard to directly connect with rei
- some of the battle camera angles were so poorly made. Like the fights against 3 engraved men. The camera angle changed between three different ones that had completely backwards directional inputs, which totally messed up my movements the moment I entered the next transition. The space was really small already, against three enemies that had multiple swinging attacks. This area annoyed me mainly because it felt like I was fighting against the camera angles and awkward controls, rather than fighting the three ghosts.
- I feel the game could have benefited from Auto turn around button. The turn doesn't have to be fast in order to keep the game play balanced. It's just that sometimes a regular turn around can feel very awkward when there is a camera transition that just happened.
- the peephole controls are so backwards. In the menu, triangle is return and x is confirm. Looking through the peephole, x return and triangle is use camera
- there's just way too much backtracking. I'm literally just doing relays across the sleep Manor. I'm revisiting places like 20 or 30 times. I understand navigating the labyrinth is part of the game play, but it's coming to a point where it feels too repetitive. Constantly having to pull up the map to route and check my location also added to the repetitiveness. Even the the fear that the atmosphere is supposed to evoke has disappeared because I've just walked in the same places for so many times, I've become numb to it. I think a big issue is the lack of cutscenes, and the lack of a concrete antagonist. Even the so-called head of the manor who we're responsible for ordering the killings, they never appeared outside of the notes in the notebook. There's just a lack of character interaction with anything.
- I think a big reason why the camera transitions are how much bigger issue in fatal frame 3 is because the fights are more technical, and require more precise aiming. As a consequence sudden camera transitions that skew the direction controls is difficult to react to and re-adjust, which makes the player more prone to be hit. sometimes the camera just changes to a position where I completely lose track of the ghost, and all I can see is me. Sure, the light indicator does help but some ghosts have fast moves, or long-range moves that are fast and at times I just cannot react to them in time because of the sudden camera change
- some ghosts you literally have to take damage first to know that they are invulnerable.
- Miku's voice is noticeably more quiet than everyone else's. Plus she has no subtitles making her mostly inaudible.
- it's weird how the characters have no reaction to random scary events that occur. It makes the characters feel a bit unrealistic, or inhuman, because any normal human being would he freaked out by almost everything that happens in the game, but yet there's just such a lack of fear and motion expressed by the character.
- Kei can jump across a big gap between two buildings, but yet you can dodge roll, or sprint?? It's in consistent. They should included some other way he could get across. Jumping is unrealistic given the physical abilities he's demonstrated so far in the game.
- the black and white filter later in the game quickly stop becoming scary and became annoying, because I literally could not see anything.
- in the final boss fight, during the black and white scene, there we're invisible walls that you could run into as you are trying to run away from the boss. The problem is the boss runs at exactly the same Pace as you so you can not stop. And because there is no distinction of what's empty space in front of me and what's a wall, I could only pray that I didn't run into an invisible wall. Plus the boss is a one-hit-kill during that section.
- they should have allowed me to change film rolls without having to pull my camera out. There are times where I want to change before an actual fight. The dpad isn't even mapped to anything when walking around.