Zero Punctuation: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

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Yahtzee Croshaw

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Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.

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Windu23

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I remember Pirates of Dark Water. Animation way too good for when it came out. It's nice being old.

OT: This sounds like a spooky game I can play. If the atmosphere isn't there, horror games just don't work.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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What they should have done is allow you to see only into the world when moving the camera about (with the gyroscope, your character could move the camera in game with the controller pad having solely the view through the character's lens) while making ghosts only visible this way and giving the odd slight cues if one's around. Also making it more challenging and not a badly disguised pedo-porno with just as much story. In fact, i'd say that is the real horror with this game. Especially as it's on a Nintendo console, bloody christ. Bayonetta, tell them where to go.
 

Cid Silverwing

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Jul 27, 2008
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That was completely unexpected. I thought you'd hate the Fatal Frame series for being "offensively Japanese", as it were.

But thanks for the delightful pissing on what sounds like the shittiest instalment so far. :3
 

Freedom153

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"characters acting with all the common sense of a lobster(*CAANNONBAAAALL*)in a Jacuzzi"
"They make Dead or Alive - a fighting game in the sense that late night CineMax films are thrillers"
Closing shot - BAD IMP!

Anyone care to wager what's going to end up on top and bottom this year? Without re-watching, all I can think of is bottoms...

Bottom, in no order, more than 5:
Godzilla(preeeetty sure this is going to show up)
The Order : 1886(same as above)
Alone in the Dark : Illumination
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Star Wars : Battlefront
Rise of the Tomb Raider (character irritation factor)
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (franchise irritation factor)

Edit: Maaaaaybe Broken Age : Act 2 as well. From the review, sounds like the second half was phoned in. Switch the two characters, aaaaand... they just adjust perfectly? Bwuh?
 

Blazing Hero

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To be fair Fatal Frame always seemed like it was being inspired by horror movie tropes more then most horror games. Horror movies are not exactly well known for having good well rounded female characters who keep their clothes on so I can't really fault horror games that mirror them...
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Freedom153 said:
Anyone care to wager what's going to end up on top and bottom this year?
For the top I'm thinking BloodBorne, Just Cause 3, Soma and Elite Dangerous.
Undertale as well if he decides to fuck his own rules of nominating only the games he has ZP'd.
For the bottom, pretty much those you listed. Maybe Mario Maker, because franchise irritation?
 

zero_traveler

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This is an "At least, as far as I know". It's "Project Zero" Because the Japanese word for zero, "Rei" is also the word for "Spirit" IE: Ghosts.

Something I'm pretty solid on though, is the Camera mechanic. It's not the flash that is damaging. The "damaging ghosts" mechanic is based off of the old myth that cameras can steal away your soul (or bits of it) when they take your picture.

I really liked the first three Fatal Frames, they are easily my favorite Horror titles. It's disappointing to hear that this one apparently is deep down the downward slope.



Though, there was another one wasn't there? Only in Japan? Wii title? I think it involved an old abandoned Hospital on a creepy abandoned Island? Also Ghosts were apparently killing young girls by pixelating their faces.

From what I've heard that one is supposed to be pretty good.
 

RJ 17

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Nov 27, 2011
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LordTerminal said:
Johnny Novgorod said:
Maybe Mario Maker, because franchise irritation?
Oh if he does that, I will never trust his opinions again. You don't try to stave off the bias label by putting THAT in there out of spite towards a franchise. That's elitism and it's one of the many poisons killing the industry.
To be fair there actually is a valid argument to be made for putting it on bad list for more than just "I generally don't like Nintendo" reasons. That is the fact that it's not really a game at all but instead a creation kit...and the fact that traditionally the highest rated "levels" are auto-Mario levels where you just stand on a moving object while all the bells and whistles are going off around you.

Whether or not it deserves to be on a "Top 5 Worst Games of the Year" list for that is up for debate, though. Personally I'd say that actually gives it a good reason for not appearing on any Best/Worst Game of the Year list in the first place. :p

Edited to remove some redundancy.
 

bluegate

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It might be a good thing for Koei Tecmo to just create a full on porn game and get that ridiculous ecchi shit out of their system already....
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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Freedom153 said:
"characters acting with all the common sense of a lobster(*CAANNONBAAAALL*)in a Jacuzzi"
"They make Dead or Alive - a fighting game in the sense that late night CineMax films are thrillers"
Closing shot - BAD IMP!

Anyone care to wager what's going to end up on top and bottom this year? Without re-watching, all I can think of is bottoms...

Bottom, in no order, more than 5:
Godzilla(preeeetty sure this is going to show up)
The Order : 1886(same as above)
Alone in the Dark : Illumination
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Star Wars : Battlefront
Rise of the Tomb Raider (character irritation factor)
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (franchise irritation factor)

Edit: Maaaaaybe Broken Age : Act 2 as well. From the review, sounds like the second half was phoned in. Switch the two characters, aaaaand... they just adjust perfectly? Bwuh?
Maybe Batman? On his Youtube Channel he really doesn't like Mario Maker because he doesn't consider it a game, but a creation tool.
Or if he really wants to boil the piss, FNAF.
 

thanatos388

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Apr 24, 2012
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It's too bad Yahtzee sucks at fighting games otherwise he would realize that DOA is actually pretty good as a fighting game. They even want to ban the sexy outfits at tournaments to get more people involved, which wont work but its a cute gesture. Also thanks for confirming that this crappy looking game is crap. Its too bad since its one of the few Wii U games that try to use the controller.
 

Alfredo Jones

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I was expecting Yahtzee to bring up the unlockable Nintendo costumes and/or the sexy lingerie outfits from the Japanese version.
 

Sheo_Dagana

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Ugh, ya know, I fucking love this series. Well, except that crappy 3DS game that had the potential to be cool but just wasn't. Fatal Frame is about the only horror franchise that effectively scares me - even Silent Hill can't make that claim. Well, sometimes they can. That new Pachinko machine looks terrifying as fuck. Fuck Konami, by the way.

I guess it's all in the different things that people find scary. I don't believe in ghosts whatsoever, but maybe that's what makes this whole series so scary to me. That and it doesn't always rely (or didn't as much) on Jump Scares. We never got the 4th one, which still makes me sad to this day. Sure, we got this one, but, and I'm really surprised Yahtzee didn't mention this, the game can only be bought digitally. There are no physical copies available and the game is around 16 GB. That's seriously HALF the Wii U's space, and actually more when you consider all the space updates take. Hell, those poor souls with the 8 GB drive can't even play it at all.

So basically I'd have to go out and buy a new flash drive/SD card just to buy this $49.99 game. Thanks for the heads up that it's shit, Yahtzee. Given that you confessed a love of past Fatal Frame games and other horror games in general, I shall take you at your opinion and just never play this one.

Bleh. The industry claims that horror games don't sell anymore, but they're generally not funding them very well, so it's like they're setting them up for failure. I mean, look at Bloodbourne! That's a horror game if I ever saw one, and it's sold like crazy. And instead of Remedy working on Alan Wake 2, we're getting another 'bang-bang-shooty' game.
 

ClockworkAngel

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Nov 9, 2008
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Wow. I haven't thought about Pirates of Dark Water in forever. I used to have a Ren action figure that I played with all the time. I'm a big fan of the Fatal Frame series, but I suspected this game would be a pass. But most horror games are passes for me these days.