Pad to the Basics

 

Fatal Frame Maiden of Black Water marks a return to the numbered series for the Fatal Frame franchise after a long period of soul-searching. Since the last numbered Fatal Frame game (FF3), the series has gone exclusive to Nintendo systems, put out a Remake of it's most popular game and even did a joint collaboration with Grasshopper Manufacture.

FF Maiden of Black Water feels like a follow-up to FF3 because it uses a safe house hub that you frequently go back to. It also features returning character Miu from the very first Fatal Frame game. FF3 is widely considered to be the weakest game of the series so it's pretty gutsy that KT decided to follow up on that game's premise. While I don't remember much of FF3, I find Maiden of Black Maiden to be a worthy entry to the FF series.

One of the new elements introduced in this game is the Fatal Glance where you have a limited time to reach out to the defeated ghost to "touch" them. Doing so will reveal their past life and how they came to their demise in a flashback video sequence. This is a very good extension of the ghost photos that are hidden in the previous games. In the past when you successfuly capture a candid ghost photo of a random ghost, you usually get a description of that ghost and their backstory. I was a bit disappointed to learnt that not every ghost have a backstory even when you managed to Fatal Glance.

The gamepad is put to good use in this game and isn't a complete nightmare experience. You can use a combination of the analog stick and gyrosensor to expertly position the camera. Having the camera view on the gamepad helps you keep track of the character position in the game. One of the problems with Fatal Frame games is it's easy to lost track of the character position when you moved into camera view. Here it is less of an issue because you still have a view of the area on the TV when you go to camera view.

It's really a shame that Nintendo doomed this game to the digital market and many have refused to buy it as a result. The sales expectations were never enough to justify Nintendo's faith on a retail release so it's a chicken or egg situation when this game fails commercially. Fortunately Nintendo probably got quite a few of fans to pick up the system already before finally pouring cold water with a digital release.