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- The game takes place in 2 haunting worlds – the nightmare and the real life — as the player moves deeper into the game, the line between the two worlds becomes blurred, creating fear and unease
- Use the camera obscura as both a weapon & a guide, by taking pictures of the ghostly inhabitants and creepy objects within the House of Sleep
- More terrifying ghosts – Hideous facial expressions and creepy eye movements combined with the ghost’s new ability to stare at the player
- Play as 3 different characters and strategize by using each of their different abilities
- Unexpected sounds and movements create a paranoid and terrifying gaming experience
Product Description
Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented is a haunting Japanese style horror game where nightmares become reality. A young woman named Rei is having twisted nightmares. These dark dreams take her to the “House of Sleep”, where she encounters hideously tortured souls who are being overtaken by a curse. Meanwhile, a deadly tattoo and deadllier secrets of life and death are waiting to destory her, unless she is quick enough to stop it. But Rei’s dreams is only the beginning of the
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Tecmo’s survival horror series Fatal Frame continues to outdo its competition (resident evil, Silent hill)in the spook factor with its mix of Japanese lore, the universal fright of ghosts and its bizarre sacrificial rituals. The latest entry in the series deals with Rei Kurosawa, a young photographer who has recently lost her fiance in a car wreck. While taking pictures of a rumored haunted house she snaps a photo in which her dead lover appears. This and incident sets in motion the events for Fatal Frame 3: The tormented.
For fans of the series very little has changed in terms of actual gameplay but there have been a few major changes in the game setup. The biggest difference that gameplay is split into two worlds, a dream world and the real world. The dream world is of course the nightmarish aged decaying world of “the house of sleep” while the real world is modern Japan where you investigate pieces of the dream world and learn info on what is happening in your dreams.
The second biggest change is the addition of two playable characters, Miku (from Fatal Frame 1) and Kei (uncle to the two girls in Fatal Frame 2). By using 2 characters connected two the first 2 installments, Fatal Frame 3 attempts to explain the events of the malice in all three games.
Tecmo once again succeeds in realising a brilliant, vivid world. The game’s use of sound and background noise truly ups the scare factor. While walking empty corridors you can hear voices echo in the background, perfectly beating bells will ring faster to make you think danger is imminent only to have nothing happen while in other silent spots ghosts appear and attack out of nowhere.
The graphics are up to TECMO’s amazing standards although some of the characters look a bit “blockier” compared to the beautiful rendering that was done on Fatal Frame 2. The controls are a bit clunky at times but these are minor problems in the game as they crop up very little.
Those who found Fatal Frame 2 to be a bit on the easy side will find more to challenge them. Players will have to alternate between characters to reach certain parts of the house. Film is limited so make each shot count (if you can), And NO more staying in finder mode during battle. This new batch of ghosts can actually weaken your shot the longer you wait for them.
There are more frightening spirits in this game too. The sinister sword/cleaver weilding priest can run superfast as well as cut you. The black figured/shadowy tormentors intimidate with their wispy movements and nondefined bodies. And of course it wouldnt be Fatal Frame without a even villaness, in this case a evil blue tatooed lady who silently walks the house of sleep corridors waiting for you. And on top of it all the death screams the spirits wail as they die really is unnerving.
The house of sleep is a twisted setting. Loaded with bizzare rooms, some truly disturbing, others scary in their strangely familiar look. As you explore you’ll see rooms that are plucked from the first two games. Fatal Frame 1’s large tatami Grand Hall and rope hallway reappear as do Fatal Frame 2’s Osaka house. And then there are rooms unqiue to Fatal Frame 3 like the “ruined hallway” which has blacken figure shapes burnt into the walls with Japanese shinto ropes hanging down-all bizarre.
Overall Fatal Frame 3 is a solid video game and a superb example of the survival horror genre of video games. Despite a rare clunky control and one or two bad camera angles, this game is a solid 5 star release. totally frightening and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Rating: 5 / 5
Well, well, well, what do we have here! Another “Fatal Frame” game to whet our masochistic appetites! I’ve played a lot of survival horror games in my day, but never once have any of those games moved me to turn the lights on when I go to bed each night. This is where “Fatal Frame”’s uniqueness is truly apparent. This is where the true horror is. Don’t get me wrong, “Resident Evil” and “Silent Hill” fans, zombies and monsters are good, also. I have played those games as well and I liked them. Corporeal beings with their rotting mouths and clouded eyes are definitely scary, but they’re still, well… of a material persuasion. Admit it; it’s a comfort to be able to blast a shotgun shell through their foreheads or drive a chain saw through them should you become cornered. You still have that psychological safety net beneath you.
Where “Fatal Frame” splinters away from the survival horror tradition is in its admittedly slow-paced terror, that sinks into your skin and chills your bones with its complex stories. Even when you defeat a ghost, you can’t be sure that they’re not going to come back for more (they don’t have physical bodies that you can trash once and be done with it, after all). This third–and presumably last–installment to the games is no different, though it may be a bit more complicated and hard to figure out than its predecessors. Regardless, let me assure you, it will not disappoint.
New features to the game include the “nightmare world” and the “real world”. You see, in the previous two games, the setting took place entirely in old, crumbling Japanese style mansions (or villages, as it were) where some supremely twisted ceremony took place and, uh… didn’t go quite as planned. In “Fatal Frame III: The Tormented”, a modern Japanese household is cruelly thrown into the melee. You will start out being relieved to be home each morning when you awaken from your nightmares, going from the dilapidated and drab haunted house of your dreams to your bright and pastel colored bedroom, but as the game wears on, the borders between the terror realm and your own begin to seep together. Suddenly, you start waking up and it’s still nighttime, and the house is still enveloped in shadows. And the rain outside of your window is harder and more insistent. And you’ll start to see curtains flutter mysteriously when you’re nowhere near them. Even the occasional pale body part will suddenly pop up from underneath your bed, or out of a closet, or hey, wherever else you can think of. Just when you think you’ve got a safe haven, your nightmares start to bleed into your everyday life, and there’s nothing you can do but go back to sleep night after night to enter the dreaded Manor of Sleep and stop the spread of your painful and menacing tattoo… The contemporary setting mixed with the setting of the old manor really brought the game’s core sentiment of sheer terror to a new level. It suddenly feels more applicable to the gamer than ever once you’re forced to view it in a modern context instead of just thinking in terms of old, creaky houses.
You start out playing as Rei Kurosawa, a tall and pretty professional photographer with a beauty mark beneath her right eye. Rei is kind of the “basic” fighter in the game, as her abilities are consistently good and simple enough for even a novice player to grasp right away. Her controls feel the most like a “Fatal Frame” game, whereas her associates’ controls work more like unique supplements to the typical point-and-shoot approach. Devastated and heartbroken over the loss of her beloved fiancee, Yuu, Rei is lured into the House of Sleep from seeing Yuu’s shade walking down a corridor in an old house where she was assigned to take pictures. Her longing for him leads her deeper and deeper into the manor night after night. As her grief consumes her, a cryptic tattoo begins spreading all across her body, signifying that an ancient curse is slowly taking hold of her. The central question of the game therefore becomes, “will she get out before the tattoo completely consumes her?”
WARNING: MINOR SPOILER FOR “FATAL FRAME” (THE FIRST ONE) AHEAD
As you probably already know, fan-favorite Miku Hinasaki has made a triumphant return in “The Tormented”, though oddly enough, the spiritual sixth sense she supposedly lost after the first game is mysteriously back in action here. Which is perfectly all right by me; she’ll be needing it. Her being so popular amongst fans of the series might have had something to do with the developers giving her the strongest sixth sense and exorcism powers of all, and thanks to her petite size, she can also wiggle her cute li’l self into spots that the other two main characters can’t reach (HINT: Be ready to jump out of your skin when she has to crawl around beneath the floorboards.) Always devoted and clever, she is also a big help to Rei whenever she has questions about the pictures she has brought back from the Manor of Sleep. How Miku gets her information is unknown, but I can safely say that if someone came to me and said, “hey, I had a dream where there were dolls skewered on bamboo poles in a snowy graveyard, can you get back to me on that?” I wouldn’t have any clue where to start looking for answers. But Miku is cool enough to figure these things out, usually by the next morning. That’s our girl!
The reason Miku has wandered into the Manor of Sleep is not only because she is helping Rei with her research on the mysterious old house, but because… hey, isn’t that Mafuyu wandering down that hallway?! (Remember him?)
Our second newcomer, Kei Amakura, is also a fabulous addition to the series. Not only is he the first and last playable male of the “Fatal Frame” series, his techniques break away from the typical “Fatal Frame” dynamics just enough to add another dimension to the already-spooky gameplay. Some of my favorite moments were playing as Kei, because he’s not so great at using the camera–which is only the MOST important aspect of the “Fatal Frame” stories, aside from some kind of twisted ritual and a central phantom lady who is really pissed off about said ritual. As a result, he has the ability to duck and hide behind partitions or kimonos or other objects until the ghost that is antagonizing him eventually wanders off. This way he doesn’t have to attempt to use his limited spiritual powers through the camera if he can possibly avoid it. If the girls can be considered “spiritual” players, well, Kei is here to balance things out by providing the series with its first truly “physical” player (he still can’t step down one foot from a raised floor, though. Ah, well). Should you happen to be a fan of games like “Haunting Ground” or “Clocktower”, you will really enjoy playing as Kei. In my humble opinion, the most tense moments of the game are watching through the torn screens or wall cracks as some ghost patrols the area where they thought you were. It’s both exhilarating and terrifying all at once.
And he can MOVE STUFF! How novel! Like the other two, his appearance in the Manor of Sleep is due solely to a loved one recently falling into a life-threatening coma and… hey, isn’t that Mio running up the stairs over there?! (Remember her?)
If this game suffers from anything at all, though, it’s a hint of “more of the same” syndrome. There are times when you’re watching the grainy black and white cutscenes or reading about certain events or character relationships and can’t help but think to yourself, “yeah, that was a lot more intriguing the first two times I saw it.” Of course, if you’re playing this title and haven’t played the previous two, it will all be new–and 100% horrifying–to you. Then again, if this is your first go around, you’re also going to be left in the dark in a lot of situations where character back stories are explained, and where the rituals in the other two “Fatal Frame”s are referenced.
It won’t really matter, though. This game’s story is so involving that even the brief mentions to the other games in the series won’t ultimately affect how you view this one. I’d certainly advise that you play all three (of course, I’m also a hopeless fangirl!), but they needn’t be played in sequence to be enjoyed. It might have been nice to have seen other forbidden subjects explored by the creators, though, rather than the standard “gory ritual gone awry” thing. (Then again, how much more messed up can these things possibly get? In the first one, you had a lady getting drawn and quartered so that her severed torso could be put on display, in the second one, you had twins forced to murder each other… where do you go from there? Cannibalism, maybe? Incestuous cannibalism? Incestuous cannibalism that takes place inside of a Mexican sewer in the summertime? Come on, Japan, throw me a bone here. There’s got to be more taboos you can play with.)
But perhaps the best news of all is that the Project Zero team has found a happy medium between the wet-your-pants terror of the first “Fatal Frame” and the meticulous, involved story of the second. In the first game, the story took a background to the scare factor, and in the second game, the scare factor took a background to the story. Somehow, this third installment has managed to strike just the right pitch between both approaches. I still hold that “Fatal Frame” had the most scares, and that “Crimson Butterfly” had the best story, but “The Tormented” seems to be the strongest of the three in every regard. In addition, all throughout the series, there is a remarkable, startling minimum of plotholes.
So stellar work, Tecmo. You’ve just finished the greatest survival horror trilogy I’ve ever had the pleasure[?] of playing. I can’t tell you how relieved I am that it’s all over…
…but I’m gonna miss you, you big, spooky lug.
Rating: 5 / 5
“Fatal Frame III – The Tormented” is probably the last FF game we’ll see on PS2, and I’m more than happy to report that the series is ending – hopefully temporarily – with a great big bang.
You control Rei, a young woman whose guilt over the death of her fiancee Yuu in a car accident is having a huge negative effect on her life. At work one day with her assistant Miku, photographing an allegedly ‘haunted’ house, Rei sees Yuu and gives chase, only to end up in some kind of nightmarish world of vengeful spirits. Returning home, a blue tattoo invisible to all but her starts to spread across her body, to match the one she saw on a spirit in her waking dream.
And from there on in, “Fatal Frame III – The Tormented” becomes a symphony of gameplay and scares. This is Survival Horror in its purest form – a gripping storyline, incredibly strong atmosphere (far more so than the two excellent prequels) and a big dose of genuine fear all come together to make this the most rewarding game in the FF series to date.
GRAPHICS: 5/5
Simply amazing. The cut-scenes are far more detailed and plentiful than before, with the Manga characters taking on a more believable depth of realism. The enemies are more detailed and more defined now than ever and, in terms of design, are quite terrifying – the Woman Brushing and Shrine Carpenter ghosts are two of the scariest Survival Horror enemies ever! The backdrops are gorgeous – richly detailed and very convoluted so as to lend more of a sense of Nightmare to the dream worlds that Rei has to traverse. The cinematic aspect of the game is perhaps the most important one – the closest comparison I can make is like a playable, immersive version of the original ‘Dark Water’ movie. Camera angles, though still fixed, give such a sense of the epic to the visuals that it really is, in places, more of an interactive movie than a videogame.
SOUND: 5/5
Better voice acting than before (thankfully! Fatal Frame is not known for the quality of its voiceovers but here, they’re pretty good) and some excellent spirit sounds provide ample punctuation in an overall game score that’s probably got Akira Yamaoka and his buddies over at ‘Silent Hill’ quite jealous. The ringing feedback and white noise sounds contrast with overlong moments of silence to produce a tension quite unlike most other Survival Horrors – the only other thing I remember being this good is the point in Silent Hill 2 where you meet Maria in the underground prison. Overall, “Fatal Frame III – The Tormented” sounds every bit as good as it looks, and that’s no small feat.
GAMEPLAY: 4/5
I’m a big fan of Resident Evil 4, but to me, it’s just not survival horror. I felt the same things playing that as I did with the Metal Gear: Solid series on PS2. Here, it’s a whole different ball game, as the slow pace of the characters and the repetitive nature of the dream-wake-dream-wake environment force you to notice far more about the game world than in other titles. For atmosphere, this is a good thing, though some players may be put off by expecting the fluidity and responsiveness of Resi 4 and suchlike. Puzzles are good – tough and cryptic enough to keep you guessing, but not so hard as to make you need a walkthrough guide. The overall difficulty is about the same as Fatal Frame II, so it’s not the longest game in the world – but it is one of the most enjoyable.
OVERALL: 5/5
You’ll come back to this again and again. As usual, new play modes and costumes can be unlocked with multiple plays through the game, but trust me: for the atmosphere alone, you’ll enjoy more than one trip through the beautiful, terrifying world of “Fatal Frame III – The Tormented”. It’s big, it’s immersive, it’s compelling and it’s completely brilliant. Minor control quibbles pale in the face of such an effective piece of software that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do: it scares the hell out of you. Totally recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
The third of the well-received “Fatal Frame” series carries on all the same gameplay as it’s predecessors, but as the idea has proved to be such a good one, there’s nothing wrong with that. Playing as a young female reporter called Rei – the most grown-up main character seen so far in the series – the player is once again armed with a ghost-busting camera and sent to explore a huge dilapidated Japanese mansion. And once again you will encounter vengeful phantoms that need to be dispatched via split-second timing of getting the best possible shots with the mysterious camera. This aspect is as fun as ever, as the best shots always come with the cost of putting yourself at most risk in order to take them (i.e. letting the ghost come as near as possible to attacking you). Also back are the many fleeting apparitions that you need to be lightning quick with your shutter-finger to snap on film. But it’s all worth the effort, as these shots, along with your best “attack” photos score highly on a points system that lets you power up the capabilities of the camera, turning it into a more powerful ghost-buster for the later, harder phantoms…especially when it’s sometimes not just one against one.
I had reservations as the game got underway, when I realised that all the spooky Japanese mansions were starting to get a bit repetitive, with the same old rotting cupboards and dusty kimonos at every corner, but the game has addressed this with a new slant on the gameplay, in that all the ghost hunting levels forms part of a recurring nightmare being experienced by main character. When she’s not dreaming, she’s awake and inhabiting her not-at-all spooky apartment. This splitting of playing time between dream trips to the forbidding mansion, and popping into the neat and tidy kitchen or stroking the cat, reminded me heavily of “Silent Hill 4″, which used the same dual locations, and must have been an inspiration for this game. Cleverly, the game has Rei being up and about in her own apartment between both day and night times, and after the horrors of the dream adventures, even this neat and modern location begins to make you fell uneasy when walking around it at night. There are also two more playable characters in the game which adds variety, as they can go into areas that Rei cannot access. They also have certain unique skills, but much weaker ghost-busting cameras than Rei, so these stages can be tough. And once again those evil ghosts are no slouches, and getting the “fatal frame” shots can be pretty dicey, especially as these ghouls don’t play fair and can vanish and teleport all over the place while you are swinging your camera around trying to keep them in view….you’ll learn to hate those little girls with stakes and mallets!
Because of the fun to be had with the camera and the game in general, I’m prepared to once again forgive the same drawbacks that are still present as before – really clunky directional controls and the lamest “run” function ever witnessed – Rei runs like a little old lady hobbling after a bus. Despite starting off as a fairly easy game, the game keeps the reputation of the series up by occasionally throwing some really tough ghost battles at you, roundabout the halfway mark and onwards, so save often! Even so, the ghosts STILL don’t live up to the creepy horrors of the first game (too many of the ghosts are smiling little girls, which doesn’t scare me very much), but I think that this third installment actually has the most grown up theme; it’s take on the rituals concerning death and the afterlife is handled very seriously and quite sensitively. It also has the most impressive ending movie of the series so far – effective and quite moving. Bottom line – while not really being very different to parts one and two, this is a worthy third installment to the series, and a treat for fans.
Rating: 4 / 5
I have a confession to make, I’ve never played the first two games on any system, not the PS2 nor the X-Box. Simply put, I was mildly interested in doing so, but I didn’t feel like paying the 40 – 50 bucks for the games, and I was skeptical about how scary the games truly could be. I mean, after playing through Resident Evil and Silent Hill among many other horror games, I thought nothing could scare me anymore.
That all changed thanks to [...], I saw AMVs set to Fatal Frames 1, 2 and 3 scenes, and was blown away, in particular one that was set to Cold’s “Rain Song” was poewrful and moving. I knew then and there that I had to get at least one of the Fatal Frame games, I didn’t care which one it was.
Sure enough, as soon as I got to my local EB, right in front of me was the box with the title Fatal Frame III, I had asked if they had any of the other two out of curiousity, unfortunately they did not. But I was happy to be able to pick up Fatal Frame III regardless. As soon as I got home, I popped it in, and the rest was history.
I was immediately pulled into the opening scene where the main character, a certain Rei Kurosawa (of no relation to Yae and Sae of Fatal Frame II fame) was checking the damage of the accident that she had just caused, and found her fiancee’s lifeless body within the car. Then about ten days later Rei and her assistant, Miku Hinasaki (yes folks, that one from the first Fatal Frame) were photographing a mansion that was rumoured to be haunted. Rei had a daydream, and this was a great way to start you off in getting to know the physics of this game, and how it works. It was all in black and white though, and yes, that DID hamper things a little bit. But all in all, I could tell I was going to be in for one helluva good time.
Once that part was over, it was time to move on to the real meat and potatoes, the main game itself. I started off in Rei’s home initially, and kinda diddled around a little to get the feel. Then as soon as I entered the Manor of Sleep, it was all done. I was screaming every 10 or so minutes while I was in that nightmareish realm, especially when I saw a ghost appear.
Though I’ve long since gotten used to the mechanics of this game, it STILL has moments where it scares the daylights out of me and cause me to swear my lungs off. I can honestly say this is the scariest, as well as the best, survival horror game I’ve ever played. The graphics are gorgeous, even rivaling Resident Evil on the Cube in terms of overall detail. And the battling is top notch, it really puts a new spin on “In Your Face” to put it simple. You have to let the enemies come to you in order to do any damage. The only complaint is the running, which is no more than a gentle jog. I am overweight, and even I could run faster than that!
But that’s just one small thing on an otherwise awesome game. The best part of it all is not the graphics, gameplay, or even the story, nope, I would have to say it’s the atmosphere. It pulls you right in, and at times is so scary that you want to turn your PS2 off, but you can’t because you’re dying to find out what is going to happen next. To me, that is the sign of a true horror game. One that is twisted, scary, and most importantly, engrossing. I’ve never played a game where I simultaneously wanted to shut my system off, but at the same time, find out what the hell was going to happen next.
To sum things up, it’s wonderful, and a must-play for any and all true survival horror fans. It’s believable compared to most others too, and the further you go along, the more and more gruesome it gets until it’s chilling climax. Trust me, no words can describe it, get out there and play this game now!
Rating: 5 / 5