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Fatal Frame

Fatal Frame, known as Project Zero in Europe and Australia as in Japan, is a survival horror video game series, so far consisting of four games and a spin-off. The first and second games in the series were released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the third game is only available for the PlayStation 2, and the fourth game has been released exclusively for the Wii. The series deals with ghosts, exorcism, and dark Shinto rituals.

Created by Tecmo, Fatal Frame is one of the most well received survival horror games to date. The main object of the game is to solve a mystery which is linked to Japanese folklore. 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 and seal their spirit in the film.

Main Series

Fatal Frame (2001)

Chief producer of Fatal Frame, Makoto Shibata, described the inspiration for the game’s haunted house, "In an area outside Tokyo, there lies a mansion in which it’s said seven people were murdered in a grisly manner. On the same property, there lie three detached residences that surround the mansion, all of which are rumored to have ties to the mansion’s troubled past. It’s said there is an underground network of tunnels that lay beneath the premises, but nobody knows who made these tunnels or what purpose they served. Many inexplicable phenomenon have been reported occurring on the property. Bloody hand prints have been found splattered all over the walls. Spirits have been spotted on the premises… even in broad daylight. A narrow stairway leads to an attic where a spirit-sealed talisman is rumored to be locked away. Men have sought this talisman, only to be found later with their bodies broken and rope marks around their wrists. There’s a crumbling old statue of a woman in a kimono, and then it has no head. If you take a photo of a certain window, a young girl can be seen in the developed picture. These incidents have provoked fear in the people of Tokyo, and many believe that those who live near this area will become cursed. The deaths of those seven people are unexplained to this day."

After having received no news for over a week, Miku Hinasaki goes into the Himuro Mansion to look for her missing brother, Mafuyu Hinasaki. She finds no trace of her brother, save for her mother's old camera. Realizing that she is now trapped within the mansion, Miku continues searching for her brother and a way out. The game was later ported to the Xbox. The Xbox version included smoother graphics, more ghosts and an exclusive "Fatal Mode" that can be unlocked by completing the main game.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003)

Twin sisters Mio Amakura and Mayu Amakura are visiting a childhood play spot when Mayu follows a mysterious crimson butterfly deep into the woods. Concerned for her twin, Mio follows Mayu and the two girls are led to a lost village. When they reach the lost village they enter a house to find the camera obscura. Mio and Mayu have to uncover the mystery behind the Forbidden Crimson Ritual and why the village is cursed. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2003, a Director's Cut edition was later released for the Xbox in 2004. The director's cut added several updates to the gameplay, such as a first-person play mode, a survival mode, a new ending, enhanced graphics, and a greater number of alternate costumes to unlock.

Fatal Frame III: The Tormented (2005)

Released only for the Playstation 2, the game follows Rei Kurosawa, a 23 year old freelance photographer. While on a freelance assignment taking pictures of a supposedly haunted mansion the image of her deceased fiancé appears in the photographs. Afterwards, Rei begins having strange recurring dreams of an old Japanese manor during a heavy snowfall and observes her fiancé entering the house. She follows his figure into the house, where the dream becomes a nightmare.

Fatal Frame IV: The Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (2008)

The fourth installment of the Fatal Frame series was developed for the Wii in co-production with Grasshopper Manufacture. Tentatively titled Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and published by Nintendo.

10 years prior to the events of the game, five young girls were captured and held hostage by a criminal in a mysterious house on Rougetsu Island. They were eventually rescued by Choushiro Kirishima, a detective pursuing the criminal. Several years after the incident, two of the girls (Marie Shinomiya and Tomoe Nanamura) died mysteriously. The three remaining girls, Misaki Asou, Ruka Minazuki, and Madoka Tsukimori, now 17 years old, return to the island to recover their lost memories and find out more of what happened that day. Choushiro follows the girls at the request of Ruka's mother, Sayaka Minazuki.

Real: Another Edition (2004)

Real: Another Edition is a cellular based spin-off of Fatal Frame that was released only in Japan in October, 2004. The game made use of a cellphone camera as the camera obscura and required the players to find ghosts and fight them. The game has more than 70 spirits that can be collected, including some from the first two games in the series.

Story background and history

Throughout the series, references are made to Kunihiko Aso, a fictitious Japanese "Occultist" that lived during the late nineteenth century. Using western technology, he developed inventions that would allow him and others to make contact with spirits in the "other world."

His inventions include the camera obscura, the primary weapon used to defend against ghosts throughout the series, the spirit stone radio, introduced in Fatal Frame II as a means to listen to the thoughts and memories of spirits that had been stored in special crystals, and a projector capable of displaying ghostly images captured on film that motion picture cameras could not see.

According to Fatal Frame III, Aso's various inventions were eventually scattered about Japan and are now heavily sought after by collectors. The camera obscura used by Miku in the first game had once belonged to her mother, and Mio finds a different camera obscura while exploring the lost village.

Film

A film was announced to be made by John Rogers of DreamWorks SKG in 2002. Many fansites tipped Courtney Webb to play the lead heroine, although she has recently changed talent agencies and has since been led away from the project. Courtney Webb's company said she officially was dropping her interest in pursuing the project .