E3 2003: Fatal Frame 2 Hands-On

Shown in video form at Tecmo's booth, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly looks to spook the pants off of gamers when released this Fall/Holiday Season.

Very little was revealed about Fatal Frame 2 since Tecmo wants the remaining details of the game to be a mystery for now, but they insure us that the story behind Fatal Frame 2 will be more frightening than the original.

The trailer shown was quite creepy indeed and would definitely give Silent Hill 3 a run for the title of spookfest of the year, and probably win from what I've seen of both games so far. Some of the footage shown along with the dark and scary musical theme were at times disturbing, which is definitely a good thing and should make for some potentially memorable and sleepless experiences.

The terrifying story of Fatal Frame 2 revolves around two sisters, Mio and her twin sister, Mayu, who embark on a journey to uncover the mystery surrounding the mysterious Crimson Butterfly.

Assuming the role of Mio Amakura, a young girl gifted with a strong sixth sense, players accompany her and her twin sister in their terrifying journey back to a town where they spent many of their childhood years growing up in.

One day while wandering around, Mayu notices a crimson butterfly glowing faintly in the sky. Mayu, who feels mysteriously drawn to it, chases the butterfly into the dark forest like a dummy. Mio, the smarter of the two, but not by much, unwillingly follows her foolish sister into the deepest depths of the forest. The Crimson butterfly leads them to a deserted village where, soon, their journey will become one that nightmares are made of.

Despite Tecmo remaining tight lipped about the game's storyline, from watching the video demo I think one possible explanation about the mystery surrounding the village is that in the past, a bizarre ritual was performed there involving two very young twin sisters taking part in some weird ceremony ending with one sister killing the other. Afterwards, the curse of that event has haunted the small village since then. And every year on the day of the ceremony, the villagers mysteriously vanish. Now with Mio and her twin sister having set foot in the abandoned village, history is preparing to repeat itself. Mayu becomes possessed by the curse, putting Mio's life is in grave danger from her very own sister. This is all just guess work on my part so I hope readers don't go quoting me yet as its only just a theory thus far.

The overall atmosphere of this game seems a bit unnerving. The music was beautifully spooky and the real time visuals and camera angles set the terrifying atmosphere quite well in this frightening tale.

One memorable scene in the video was of a woman falling from the ceiling and crawling around like a spider with one leg stretched way out in front of her and the other stretched behind her with her head tilted back and her face staring up at the ceiling as she crawled towards Mio.

The trailer was done so well, I feel it would've made for an excellent horror movie. Available Fall 2003, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly should rattle your nerves and keep you up all night. Stay tuned for more.

Joseph Jackson
Staff Writer, Kikizo Games