So let's get this out of the way. This is an AMAZING story, and the game should be experienced just for that.

Luckily, there's also a good game to go alongside that story. While easier than the first game, the new style of gameplay of waiting for the ghost's last moment of attack to do optimum damage creates a Risk-Reward dynamic that I love.

All God's Village is an incredible setting, complemented by great camera angles and atmosphere.

Definitely gonna be playing this one again in the future.

This game is actually very very very good if you just ignore the fact that it's pretty much not very fun at all, the backtracking is almost unbearable and the overall pacing feels like they dragged out a 4 hours game into 9 hours, but it still has an amazing athmosphere and a great technical side, it feel both rushed and overindulgent at times but when it shines it really shines, I don't really know why they changed so much stuff from the first game, that in my opinion worked much much better, but it's still very far from a bad game.

In all the ways that matter to me this is a step down from Fatal Frame 1, but despite that I still quite like this game. The new village environment is pretty good (even if I feel they could really have stood to make the house interiors feel different aesthetically), having ghosts haunting places specific to them instead of ranging throughout the game, and having separate mansions each with their own gimmicks and ghosts works, and by the end of the game each mansion stands out in your mind, even if you don't know them quite as well as you know the Himuro mansion by the end of 1. The setting also allows for gorgeous, creepy exterior locations which is one of my favorite parts of this game even if there aren't a lot of them.

One more substantial downside to me is that the camera feels a lot worse in this one, as do the ghosts. In 1 the camera feels much faster to use, and its arcade-y visuals and feel just simply feel better than the more subtle, slower camera here, despite this version of the Camera Obscura fitting the vibe of the series more. Ghosts in this game have less standout designs and are often spongier too, which is a real shame because they are so characterful in 1. That’s not to say they have no character here, but in comparison they just feel a lot weaker design-wise, and a lot of the fights last just past how long you’d want them to, making fighting feel more exhausting.

The story in this game works pretty well, tying the main characters into the story of the village well, and compelling side-stories in each of the mansions all tying back to the main plot before too long. The game lands the ending too.

I do feel it’s worth mentioning that the game maintains the great camera angles and well done atmospheric music that I liked in the first game. I said earlier that the houses look somewhat similar to each other in the end, but the layouts of the houses are still mostly distinct and there is still a lot of effort in detailing them, and in Mio and Mayu’s animations, that I really appreciate.

The voice acting in this game is better than the first game’s, but it’s not yet good really, so in the end it almost feels worse to me because I find 1’s bad VA so charming.


I feel like I come across as negative in this review, but it’s really only in direct comparison to 1 that I have issues. Overall this game is quite good, and retains plenty of what I liked about 1 and I’ve enjoyed myself each time I’ve revisited it. It’s well worth playing!

After beating Fatal Frame 1, I was hesitant on whether or not I even wanted to continue the series since while the game had plenty of fascinating ideas, it fumbled its execution and it resulted in a boring and frustrating game. But, I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did because this game is easily one of the best horror games I've ever played.

For starters, I like this story much more. The game aged quite well visually and the voice-acting is actually pretty solid so it's easier to get invested and Mio and Mayu are a step up from Miku and Mafuyu since there's actually something to their characters with Mayu having separation anxiety and Mio feeling responsible for the accident. The plot also does a good job of tying the dynamic between the sisters with the backstory of the ritual and it all culminates in an ending that is the perfect blend of sad, touching and bittersweet. Before I fought the final boss, I took some time reading every note, file and radio recording I collected because I liked it enough to where I wanted to make sure I had a good grasp on the plot. It also helps that the files you get in this game are more focused and compact whereas in the first game, I felt like the notes could get a little too long and would often focus on details that had next to nothing to do with the main plot.

The combat has seen a slight change and it works for the better. Instead of damage being based on how long you keep the cursor over the enemies, damage dealt is now dependent on how close you get to the ghosts and it's a really good change since it forces you to get within breathing distance of them in order to get good damage. Enemies also don't teleport nearly as much so the frustration of 1s combat is gone. I just wish the ghost designs in this game were better, compared to how uncanny and deformed 1s ghosts often looked, 2s look quite generic in comparison. This game is also, way too easy since dealing with ghosts is now easier due to them dealing less damage and moving slower and the game also drowns you in healing items. By the end I had about 35 of them in my inventory and it's a real shame because it eliminates any source of tension I could've had when it came to resource management. I would say that in terms of being scary, 2 is a stepdown from 1 but it was much more enjoyable and I'll take enjoyable over frustrating any day of the week.

But the area where 2 absolutely shines for me is in its layout. This time, you're exploring an entire village rather than a single mansion and for the most part, every chapter has you exploring a new area and these chapters are just right in terms of length. Not only are puzzles in these areas less repetitive and slightly more interesting here, but I even liked the subplots in them, especially the one about the possessed doll. Backtracking is still present though not to the same extent as in the last game and it's much clearer on where to go. In general, I think this game is paced wonderfully, I couldn't stop playing it.

Sure, it may be too easy and not as scary, but Fatal Frame 2 is still everything I wanted it to be. It erases most of the flaws of the first game while building on what it already did well and it results in a game that's easily up there as one of the best sequels I've experienced.

This review will mostly be a comparison to the first game.

While I think this game goes a step forward, clearly having a better budget, allowing for more polish, more + better animated cutscenes, and even having its own insert song, in terms of design and thoughtfulness, it kind of falls flat. To explain what i mean by this, i'm going to have to do the generic reviewer thing of breaking down the game into its parts like this:

Gameplay
The gameplay is somehow a pretty big downgrade from the 1st game. I say 'somehow' because the previous game had good ideas and a good starting point that a sequel could improve upon and to give it credit, it does do that, but it also goes too deep in the roots and changes some of the most rewarding parts of the game. For example, the puzzles become a way smaller part of the game. Instead of encouraging you to become acquainted with the lore or being challenging enough to make you stop and think, the sequel takes a more zelda dungeon approach for most of the game. Find a door with a lock on it, find the key, open the door. When it does throw a traditional puzzle at you, for me, except 2 puzzles, i solved them on accident.

The combat has also become too complicated but also too simple, but above all else, SLOW. Which is funny since the mechanic they got rid of was a mechanic in which you waited to do more damage. They managed to do this by making it so you can only shoot the ghosts seemingly whenever they want you to shoot them, having a cooldown on your attack, generally, you do very little damage in this game, and the ghosts take forever to do anything. The ghosts are almost comical in this game, taking forever to do anything, it looks like they have to remind themselves that they should be attacking you instead of just staring at you or slowly walking up to you. This can be pretty frustrating since you can only do real damage from a zero shot or fatal frame which are basically counter attacks and is nowhere near as satisfying as waiting for your meter to fill up while pulling a well-timed counter in tandom with eachother.

Camera upgrades have taken a weird turn, switching from an item management and a general upgrade system to having two separate currencies to upgrade both your camera and your specials. I imagine the initial idea was to upgrade the camera with points like before and upgrade your specials with spirit orbs but later changed because it was too easy to exploit? It seems like they had a lot of balancing issues during development because it feels like that could be the only explanation for such a strange choice and why i finished the game with over 40 healing items and very little film. It felt like the game was finished before they had finished balancing the difficulty.

Map
The map is about as bloated as this review is getting. I understand why going from one mansion to 3 of them is a tempting idea for a sequel but the quantity should come after quality. None of the individual rooms really stood out compared to some of the locations in the 1st game. You really got to know the himuro mansion like it was its own character and getting used to all the rooms and how they connected really made you felt like you were mastering the game. In this game i felt like i was infinitely exploring new rooms instead of feeling like each new set of rooms is a new stage to flesh out and come back to later, although i can see the appeal in the former if that's more your cup of tea. However this leads to another issue of 'wait. where tf am i?' which isn't helped by the feeling of 'wait. how tf do i get to that room again?' due to how strange the map design can be at times.

Each mansion is built like a maze with many misleading doors and having to go up or down floors to get to a room on the same floor you're already on. Because of this, you'll be spending a big chunk of your playtime bringing up the map menu to figure out where you are and where you're going. You wont believe how envious i felt when i found out the Wii remaster had a much needed mini-map.

Atmosphere
This is kind of a mixed bag and is a very subjective topic. I'm sure your experience will be different. But I found the camera this time around entirely serves the atmosphere, slightly hindering the gameplay somewhat, but some of the shots are just beautiful. The horror aspect is somewhat toned down. being able to go outside anytime and feel an aspect of freedom was a lot less scary than the 1st game where you navigate and try to make sense of this mansion and its claustrophobic corridors and areas that truly felt lived in, with most of the game washed in a deep blue. The 2nd game tries to replicate these feelings but it felt more like i was breaking and entering never used houses at night and the general brown shading just did not look good to me.

The sections with mayu following you around also didn't help the atmosphere. She would often just stand there when ghosts were around, getting in the way when you were exploring rooms, and her voice lines could get kind of annoying. This accompanied with how pathetic some of the ghosts could be, made me forget i was playing a horror game.

Story
Yeah, the story kind of breaks if you don't like mayu. I did not like mayu because i was never given a reason to like her, and in fact only given reasons to dislike her. Without getting into spoilers, she feels like she was written to be annoying. In comparison to my sexyboy hard working goat mafuyu she is NOTHING!!!!!!! miku and mafuyu have goals that make them likable characters. mio and mayu are just kind of there. the whole game is really just a yae and ryozo backstory and i'm here for that ig. The timeline discrepancies are annoying :)

Conclusion
It could have been a lot better and strips away a lot of what made the first game good, but its not a bad game, especially good for a gateway to the series (probably. I haven't played 3-5). Very cinematic and easy to digest so long as you dont mind having a good wander for keys.

Much like Fatal Frame 1, enjoyment of this game is completely dependent on how much you enjoy atmosphere compared to the other aspects of a videogame.

The story this time around is quite literally what "Fatal Frame 2" sounds like: it's Fatal Frame, but everything is a two instead of one lol. It's almost the same exact story, except that instead of one sacrifice, we have two. Instead of one main character, there's two. Instead of one manor, we have two main ones and a few smaller houses orbiting it. They really invested heavily in this theme of twinhood, and it is an interesting concept, though the rest of the story is a bit too derivative of the story of FF1.

The main motivator throughout the game is rescuing your sister, and seeing the progression of that plotline while being introduced to the past history of the village and how it affects both you and her is very engaging.

As I mentioned earlier, instead of taking place in one large RE1-styled mansion, this game takes place in a small village where you get to explore every building and some outdoors areas. To me, this felt like a trade-off that didn't fully realize it's potential: it abandoned the interconnectivity of the first game's map in favor of a more varied setting, but no area in the whole town packs the atmosphere that the first manor had, and all of them felt a little incomplete and a bit too small. It also meant that backtracking (something this game has aplenty, much akin to FF1) is all the more frustrating.

Environmental storytelling is good and very immersive, with you often times seeing ghosts and then reading about how they died and in which way. Journal entries and recordings are a good read/listen and act both as a break for the pacing and an enhancer for the immersion. Good stuff, I definitely recommend checking them all out while playing. On the other hand, it's been a few months since I completed this game and I don't remember any puzzle whatsoever, so I guess they were really unmemorable for some reason.

The combat is good. First-person movement is great for a PS2 game of that era, and it feels surprisingly fun and arcadey to mess around with your camera settings and different types of films. In FF1, you did more damage by holding the ghost inside of the reticle for longer, but this time around you do more damage the closer you get, regardless of how long you've been trailing the ghost for. Both systems have their merits and cons, but this one felt more fluid to me.

My main gripe with this game, which was also a problem I had with the first FF but it's even stronger this time around, is that this game simply isn't scary at all. It's not scary when you're running solo, and it's even less so when you're tagging along with your sister. Companions in horror games always make the game less scary because they eliminate the feeling of solitude, like Maria in SH2, Eileen in SH4 and Ashley in RE4, and in this game you play around half of it with her by your side.

The graphics are great, and I strongly recommend you to play this game with the undub patch that puts the original Japaneses voices in alongside fanmade subtitles. Not only are they much better all-around, but the very final scene has one spine-chilling performance in the Japanese version that got annihilated in the dub. One of the most intense vocal performances I've seen in any game, plus that ending song is fantastic.

Fatal Frame 2 is a short, non-scary experience with great atmosphere (though a bit of a step-down from FF1), great graphics and gameplay, unmemorable puzzles, tedious and downright irritating backtracking and a story that is engaging to follow but conceptually too close to the story of FF1. It's still not up-there with the quality of the classic RE and SH titles, but I'm excited to experience the other games in the series.

É impressionante o quão a geração Ps2 foi o apice do genero Survival Horror, a evolução desse jogo pro seu antecessor é gigante em tudo
O maior problema do 1 pra mim era o combate e como a gameplay parecia ser ter tudo muito lento mas não é q nesse o jogo virou um DMC da vida mas tudo é mais fluido, a historia corre melhor assim como o combate q é quase o mesmo mas adicionaram varias coisas q deixa mais fluido como a gameplay
As vezes eu venho aqui tenta escrever uma analise bonito mas certos jogos como esse eu prefiro só escrever o q eu to sentindo e deixando todo o aspecto técnico ou algo do tipo, mas só pra concluir JOGAÇO.

I've played this game many times before, back when I was way younger. It was one of my mom's favorite games and I used to help her with puzzles and fights. This was my first time finishing it solo.

Fatal Frame 2 is an amazing game and a nice improvement over its predecessor. From how it looks to how it plays, this should definitely be your first game in the franchise. The setting of the lost village is quite disturbing and the incredible sound design, weird voice acting and haunting (or sometimes beautiful!) soundtrack helps to create a sinister atmosphere from start to finish. It is undeniably unique in what it sets out to do.

The game is way less frustrating than its predecessor as well. They polished the combat a bit more, made movement a bit less stiff and gave you more room for improvisation, with a tiny bit of customization mixed in. Replayability is very much encouraged, as well. A step into the right direction, without a doubt.

One thing that I didn't like at all, however, was how Zero Shots/Fatal Frames work here. It made more sense in the first one. Now you have to get too close to the ghosts and the windows for the shots are quicker than they should be. Also, I'm glad that the game is more puzzle-light and less punishing than before, but did it need to be that easy?

And while the village and some VERY creepy places left quite an impact on me, I also feel like the mansion worked a bit better. Don't get me wrong, this game can get quite scary, but the first one did better, I guess. I blame that, especially, on the bad map design.

In fact, this may be the one true bad aspect of the game. Again, the scenarios are great and the game is hauntingly pretty, but when you're inside the houses, it all looks the same! It's easy to get lost, hard to know what to do, sometimes. And item placement is a bit iffy. Some crucial items to understand the story or tweak your camera can only be found by randomly interacting with everything, everywhere, with little indication.

And then there's the story... I'm not gonna lie, but the ending always brings me to tears. Both PS2 endings do, in fact. The story is a bit tricky to piece together at first, but when you're close to the end, it flows amazingly well. You understand what's going on and the writing makes everything seem dire, urgent and bloody. Mio and Mayu were also great simple protagonists. Their bond, Sae and Yae's ordeal and the village's wicked fate brings the story to a perfect conclusion.

I did not play the other Fatal Frames, but after this ending, it could all stop here and it would be perfect. Fatal Frame 2 is a fantastic overlooked survival horror game, with a unique approach to the genre's cliches and a lovely story.

I do hope they rerelease it, someday.

What a wild, spooky, and rather tragic ride this has been.

Fatal Frame II sees you as Mio, along with your sister Mayu, as you get lost in the woods one day and end up in a forgotten ghost town known as All God's Village. Somehow cut off from the rest of the world, the twins explore the town and uncover its secrets in a bid to try to escape, all while the ghostly remnants of the lost village's citizens pressure their woes and curses upon the innocent teens. Worse, there's a force deep inside the haunted town that is trying to resurrect a horrible ritual that had failed long ago, and it calls for Mayu's life.

The story is an expertly woven, yet simple, tale of sisterhood, guilt, and determination, as Mio (the lead protagonist) tries desperately to keep Mayu (her twin sister) safe through their journey, where her success and failures are in equal measure, slowly ramping up the stakes as the spirits of the town become more hostile as the game goes on. The individual houses explored in the game are handled quite well too, and each have their own story to tell that's connected to the "Twin Maiden" ritual in some way. Further, each house has their own specific ghosts, which give the houses in question individual stories and personalities beyond visual set dressing or whatever is found in notes and log entries. What's really good about the story is how the ending is handled, leading back into the themes presented and gives the player a choice on how to proceed. My only gripe story-wise has to be how the camera managed to make its way to the village, assuming it's the same camera from the first game.

The English localization this time is done far better in this game than in the previous one, though it can still feel a little stilted from time to time. Thankfully this isn't apparent from the main heroines of the game, both of whom give excellent performances as frightened, confused, concerned teenage girls lost in a nearly hopeless situation.

To compound that feeling of hopeless dread, the atmosphere of the game is absolutely top notch. Dark, dilapidated, but with splashes of color to give more of an ominous vibe and to give stark contrast to the normally washed out setting. The sound design and background music can be quite adequately spooky, selling the haunted house design these games thrive on, though I'd have to say that abject silence tended to be a little creepier by comparison, with creeks of wood and flutter of cloth being the only thing heard. If there is one thing that I really liked, however, was some of the actual set design, which gave some excellent horror environments with striking and memorable visuals, even more so than the original game did.

Gameplay is actually quite good, once you get the hang of it. Learning the ghosts' patterns, teasing out Zero Shot and Fatal Frame opportunities, as well as learning to combo camera shots is a thrill, with only a few ghosts being more annoying/aggravating than interesting and fun to fight. Exploration is handled very well too, with a large portion dedicated to having the player explore new buildings upon chapter completion, keeping things relatively fresh, with the only sort of backtracking happening near the end when a bunch of key items are necessary to locate to start up endgame, and even then said backtracking is rather light with little repetition involved.

As pricey as it was to get a hold of this game (even though it was a reprint), I have to say that I'm wholly glad I took the plunge into this series (at least on the PS2), and had the honor to play what is essentially one of greats in survival horror. Sure, while I rate it as high as I have, I don't think it's just as good as something like Silent Hill 2. After all, the story is much simpler, the ghosts aren't AS scary as nigh faceless monsters, and the puzzles aren't exactly complex or difficult to solve. That said, while under such a shadow, Fatal Frame 2 manages to bring constant flashes of brilliance, and is indeed a masterpiece in its own right. Enough that I went out of my way to replay the game on hard mode to attain the "Golden Ending", making the story a little less tragic for the poor twins.

I just kinda wish I wasn't so desensitized to fictional horror, so I could be much more effected by the scare factor of the game.

the game that started everything for me about this series, wayyyy back.

it is tedious as hell... and i think that owns, lmfao. its part of the charm, imo.

what a damn story. and that ending song !!! so iconic. you gotta try it at least once, i think. at least once.

Wasn't certain what to expect when I started this, but I enjoyed the previous one that it was just natural to assume it'd be good and they bring us a story of twins and not a temple this time, but am entire village and shrine.

You start off searching for your sister who has gone missing and the village is one that made a point of sacrificing twins, due to the belief in their spiritual link that transcends the mortal realm, but much like the first and even next game, something went wrong that has caused the spirits to become restless. The camera obscura finds it's way into your hands to once again battle the spirits.

Stream + Gameplay

Fails to really appreciate what made the camera mechanic in the first game compelling, the way it forced you to be almost anchored in place while staring down a steadily approaching enemy that represents some kind of plausible threat. Crimson Butterfly's enemies have attack patterns that reward getting close while making it feel safe, large health bars and long periods of passive invulnerability that drags fights out and deplete their tension, and a rate of damage to the player that can't compete with the game's abundance of healing items. It's a game which is frequently frustrating, particularly during its multi-target fights in which focusing on one opponent often means giving another free reign, but has no sense of danger.

Individual ghosts have less identity this time around (barring my queen, the woman who fell down the stairwell), and All Gods' Village has a general fog of repetitiousness over its art assets. There's a strong atmosphere, but hardly one as pronounced and steadily mounting as that of the first game.

Incredibly fun narrative, though, one which works the best and trashiest aspects of yuri love tragedy into the J-horror mold. A real testament to how much one can get away with by avoiding direct explanation, it might usurp the FFXIII sequels as the medium's most potently weird sistergame. I'm still in awe of the imagery used in the normal ending.

Fantasmas japoneses dão medo pra krl. Fatal Frame é uma das minhas franquias de terror favoritas, os cenários são incriveis causando ainda mais aflição enquanto avança a história.

>> Prós
• HISTÓRIA : 2 garotas serelepes decidem dar um passeio em uma vila japonesa abandonada, o que poderia dar errado?
• JOGABILIDADE.
• CENÁRIOS : Uma vila japonesa abandonada é o melhor lugar pra se colocar em um jogo de terror.
• TEMÁTICA DE HORROR.

>> Contras
• Nenhum.

>> Perso Favorito = Kurosawa Sae.