Fatal Frame

Fatal Frame (known as Project Zero in Europe, Zero (零) in Japan.) is a survival horror video game series, so far consisting of two games. The first & second editions of the game were released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The third edition of the game is currently only scheduled for the PlayStation 2. The series deals with exorcism, dark Shinto rituals, and most of all, ghosts.

Created by Tecmo, Fatal Frame is one of the more highly received horror video games to date, largely due to the atmospheric music, dark and claustrophobic environments, and the variety of spirits encountered during the course of the game. The main focus of the game is to solve a mystery which is linked to old Japanese superstitions. The player's main enemies are ghosts; a few are friendly, but most are not. The only form of defense is a camera obscura, which allows the player to exorcise ghosts by taking a picture of them.

Fatal Frame (2000)

On a dark September night in 1986, a young college student named Miku has come to the Himuro Mansion to find her missing brother. Her brother Mafuyu went to the mansion to find his friend and mentor, a mystery novelist named Junsei Takamine, editor Kogi Oragata, and Tomoe Higarashi. Armed with only a flashlight, Miku enters Himuro Mansion, which has a long history of bloodshed, curses and horrific rituals. She later finds a mysterious camera that can capture/kill ghosts when she takes pictures of them.

A version of the game was released for Xbox as well. New features/ghosts were added to the game on this edition.

Alternative names: 零～zero～(Japan) & Project Zero (Europe)

Official US Website: http://www.fatalframe.com/

Official Japanese Website: http://www.tecmo.co.jp/zero/

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)

The second game in the series is actually a prequel, taking place years before the events in Himuro Mansion. Twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura are wandering around in an old forest when Mayu, who walks with a perpetual limp after a childhood accident, follows a mysterious crimson butterfly deeper into the woods. Mio, concerned for her twin, follows Mayu, and the two girls are led to a lost village. This village has a dark past of rituals where they take a set of twins and has one kill the other. As they investigate, they discover the camera obscura and are set upon by ghosts. Separated from her sister, Mio becomes determined to save Mayu and escape before they meet the same cursed fate as the village's former residents. As it turns out Mio and Mayu are reincarnations of two twins that met the terrible fate of the village's dark rituals.

Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003, a Director's Cut edition was later released for the Xbox in 2004.

The game also had a Japanese themesong called Chou (Butterfly) by the Japanese artist Amano Tsukiko. http://www.amanotsukiko.net

Alternative names: 零～紅い蝶～ (Japan) & Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly (Europe)

Official US Website: http://www.fatalframe2.com/

Official Japanese Website: http://www.tecmo.co.jp/zero2/

Official European Website: http://www.projectzero2.com/

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented (planned for release in 2005)

There isn't much information currently available about the third installment of the Fatal Frame Series. (It doesn't even officially have a name yet). Fatal Frame III follows Rei Kurosawa, a 23 year old freelance photographer. While on a freelance assignment taking pitures of a supposedly haunted mansion, the image of her deceased fiance appears in the photographs. What is also terrifying, is a strange tattoo is beginning to appear over Rei's body, and the ghosts that haunt her dreams also don the same tattoo.

Accompying Rei Kurosawa is Kei Amakura, a friend of her deceased fiance and nonfiction writer, as well as Miku Hinasaki, our heroine from Fatal Frame I, now Rei's assisstant.

Not much else is known so far about the next episode of the Fatal Frame franchise, apart for some sibylline declarations from series producer and creator Keisuke Kikuchi that it will be "completely different" and that some "might not even recognize it as a Fatal Frame game at first".

Alternative names: 零 ～刺青の聲～ - (Japan)

Official Japanese website: http://www.tecmo.co.jp/product/zero3/

Film

On October 1, 2003, DreamWorks SKG and Tecmo announced a movie adaptation of Fatal Frame has been fast-tracked. Details on the movie released at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show stated that it is a major priority for DreamWorks and that writer/producer John Rogers has signed onto the project as its producer and Steven Spielberg has a first-hand role with the project. The date the movie was first posted to come out was the summer of 2005, but that later changed to the summer of 2006.

External links

• Beyond the Camera's Lens (http://www.cameraslens.com/index.php) - A Fatal Frame Fansite that's devoted to unraveling the fact & fiction within the Fatal Frame games. It has up to date news on everything Fatal Frame.
• Shadow Obscure (http://fatalframe.crimson-kimono.net/) - great fatal frame fansite covering both Fatal Frame I & II.
• Interlaced - Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Review (http://www.interlaced.cc/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?11)ja:零 (ゲーム)