Local Fuss

Most of any recent Nintendo game localization has had some controvesy one way or another. The big recent fuss is Fire Emblem Fates that came out last month. Now Fire Emblem is this big Nintendo RPG franchise that suddenly found an audience because it has dating sim elements. The game has this petting feature where you can use the touch screen to pet your potential partner when you are alone. Yes it's as creepy as it sounds and Nintendo decided to removed it somewhat for the English version.

Now removing it is one thing but someone from the localisation team had the nerve to say content change is all part of the localization process. I couldn't disagree more with that statement.

While I don't expect everything in the original Japanese version to be translated word-for word, I do expect the content to remain the same. Unfortunately in most cases, content change usually means content removed. Paying for a game that is late to be localized is not ideal but paying for a game that is localized late with content removed is a double-whammy. Thankfully only Yakuza 3 comes to mind when speaking of such.

Unfortunatelty this is the price to pay for playing foreign-made games.

Fatal Frame V removed the risque bonus costumes for the English version as expected but Nintendo/Tecmo made up for it by replacing them with new costumes. It's a fair trade as Nintendo could have simply remove the costume without any new addition like what happened for Crimson Butterfly Remake.

Camera Obscurity

When Nintendo got the rights to Fatal Frame series, some would say they doomed the horror series to obscurity. I think the series is always going to be a niche series compared with the mainstream success of Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Sure Nintendo didn't help the cause by refusing to localized some of the newer games on their system. But under the big N care, the series innovated in ways that simply wasn't possible if it remained on Sony consoles. It's kind of a two steps forward two steps back kind of evolution.

The two games on the Wii system used motion controls  to allow your Wiimote to mimic the flashlight. It didn't place the flashlight in your hands quite like Shattered Memories but that was never the key component of the game anyway. The camera obscura will always be the main feature of the game and the motion controls made it easier to capture the perfect shot.

Tecmo took it up a notch on the Nintendo 3DS by transforming the handheld into the camera obscura, thanks to the gyro sensor function. As funny as it was to wave the 3DS around like a camera, it wasn't very practical to alternate between the light and the dark as you needed to use the AR function to scan pages from the booklet.

Now the latest Fatal Frame on the Wii U is finally getting localised and I'm eager to play it. Eager enough that I simply don't care if there isn't a retail release. I love the Gamepad concept and frankly there isn't enough games on the system that properly utilized the Pad. Fatal Frame took the obvious concept of using the Gamepad as the camera but without the AR function of the 3DS game. Plus it has HD graphics and officially undub for the very first time.

It's going to be a great Halloween this year.

Fear The Camera

As hard as it is to make a good horror game, it's probably even harder to make a decent one on a handheld system. Many of this generation more established handheld horror games consist of taking what works on the console and shrinking it down to fit on a handheld system  like Silent Hill Origins. While it's not necessarily a wrong approach, it doesn't set the game apart from the console games with the exception of poorer graphics.

Spirit Camera, the 3DS game from the Fatal Frame series is the exception to the rule: it's a game that honor the series legacy but can only be played on the 3DS. Basically it puts the camera obscura onto the palm of your hands by transforming the handheld to the infamous camera. It isn't very scary (then again most of these games tend not to be) but it sure feels fun swinging the handheld around trying to locate the supernatural. It also deploys Nintendo AR scanning feature where you can basically scan a printed image with the camera and create some sort of a 3D image on screen. 

Finally captured Maya with my own hands

Some fans might have been disappointed that this wasn't a traditional Frame Frame game but it hard to fault the makers for trying to ultilized every unique feature of the 3DS handheld. Hopefully the newly announced Fatal Frame set for the Wii U will be something truly special for the series and the platform, seeing the lack of such horror games on the system.

The Big Picture

I liked how i started with Fatal Frame III, I just didn't like how I finished it this past weekend. True enough I grew desperate to get the game out of the way once I knew it was indirectly holding back some other games i was wishing to play. So i ultimately resorted to FAQ to finish the last two chapters of the game having grown fed up of wandering around aimlessly in the game not sure of what to do.

Surprisingly the core story of Fatal Frame III still make a lot of sense despite me playing off and on for goodness know how long since I started. The tie-in to previous installments of Fatal Frame games are a nice touch for longtime fans but what i liked best is the series uncanny abilities to tell a deeper and bigger picture by providing backstory to every ghost that appear to haunt you in the game. If you are not bother to get involved with the game they may seem like random ghost but usually every ghost has a past life and how they come back to haunt you is revealed if you are resourceful enough to snap the quick shot. Speaking of which, now that I'm done with Fatal Frame III i can finally think about going back to 4 on the Wii.

Burning Twice as Bright

Patience is not something most gamers would like to practise, myself being guilty of that many times as well. This one time when i decided to skip finishing Fatal Frame III on playstation2 and moved straight to Fatal Frame IV on the Wii did work out better than I thought and prove that patience is not always a virtue. By doing so, i avoided burning myself out and managed to finish part IV after playing the game consistently for about two to three weeks. Just as I started, I was struggling to juggle my playing time between Fatal Frame IV, Yakuza 3 and also Monster Hunter Tri which i recently got. Something had to give with Yakuza 3 seeing less and less playing time than rest, i decided to give that game a break and just concentrate on the two games on the Nintendo Wii. Truthfully I felt a little burnt out having to play Yakuza 3 after racing to finish Yakuza 2 a few months back and the slow pace at the beginning of that game certainly didn't help as well.

Now that I have finished Fatal Frame IV, Yakuza 3 didn't feel like such a drag as before and of course, Fatal Frame III still needs finishing touches before I can even think of playing part IV again. I guess games are always best played when you are not rushing to finish them for whatever reasons it may be.

When Grasshoppers and Ninjas Collide

You really have to tip your hat off to the translation team behind the Fatal Frame 4 english patch, they are clearly well-versed enough to enjoy the game in its original form but decided to produce a patch for everyone to have a chance to experience this great game. My japanese import of Fatal Frame 4 arrived promptly yesterday and since the only other game i'm busy with happens to be a bit of a slow-burner, i decided to play Fatal Frame 4.

Part of the eagerness was for the game itself and part of it was curiosity of how it all works with the patch installed onto the system. Thankfully after a quick restart, everything began to run smoothly as you hoped in fact, the translation work is so seamlessly you probably think it was an official localization of the game rather than fan-made. I have read that pretty much everything was already in placed and all that was required was a good understanding of the Japanese language and then it was just a matter of replacing the hiragana and kanjis with the ABCs. The fonts of the English text doesn't look awkwardly out of place or 'burnt-on' save perhaps for some of the menu but i have yet to load the game in its original form so i don't know for sure if the above statement is true. A huge thanks to the guys who made this possible, it's the stuff that fans always talk and dream of but rather ever happens. You guys have certainly prove it is possible, this game feels like such a quality product that i can't possible cram all my impressions into this one post.

Fatal Fantasy

I have gone and done it again; despite all the savings and great deals i was able to find this past week it didn't take long for me to blown it all away with a costly deal on an import game. The japanese import of Fatal Frame IV has re-surfaced at the worst possible time when i'm at my most vulnerable state during my recent Wii craze and demand for the import is still high with the english patch reportedly working. I was considering between ordering it now or wait till my friend who's going to Japan later this year and ask him to track down a copy for me, hopefully at a lower price.

The fact that i'm still struggling to finish Fatal Frame III certainly doesn't bode well with the decision to commit now via Play-asia. This is quickly turning into another repeat of Yakuza as i move immediately from one installment to another and one generation of console to another. Hopefully these will ultimately all end well as i do have a penchant of fantasizing about playing games rather than actually playing them.

Faulty Experience

It's hard to imagine Eternal Darkness before the birth of survival horror. Though not created in the mold as Resident Evil or Fatal Frame, it's clear that Eternal Darkness was made with the vision of addressing many of the genre's trappings and pitfalls. Sick of controlling characters which moves like tank? The heroes and heroines of Eternal Darkness moves and attacks fluidly thanks to a clever use of the control stick and shoulder button to either run or walk.Tired of fixed camera angle and getting blind hits as a result of that? Eternal Darkness has none of those as the game uses a smart camera that tracks and pans around locations to give the game a cinematic feel ala the God of War series. The bad voice acting that the genre is infamous for is also not present here as the game has a dark and serious tone unlike the B-movie horror atmosphere of Resident Evil. Playing this game made me realise just how these flaws that critics often take aim against the survival horror genre have made the genre unique in a way and by taking it away like what the creators did with Eternal Darkness the game loses some of its charm. It's not to say that the game is bad, far from it, it's almost feels like a love letter to anyone who ever love (or hated for that matter) survival horror games.

5 hours into the game and i'm huge impressed with it.. almost enough to make me forget it's a rotten rental copy.