Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

I haven't played it in a year, but the novelist, blinded, Himuro family master, wandering monk and the headless priests were all very memorable to me, can't pick a favorite but all of those are great choices.

I honestly can't even think of even 1 BS ghost or annoying moment in the game, aside from getting that damned S rank in battle mode mission 20 (Kirie)

It's a shame you never have to fight more than one Blinded at the same time. That would be nasty.

She does more than any other ghosts.

>Can't attack with her rush attack if you don't move/attack her.
>But moves slowly in your general direction.
>Can suddenly teleport behind you (I think after a Zero Shot).
>Her rush attack is scary because she warps to the side first.
>Two Zero Shots possible. Her rush and another where she's just wandering aimlessly.
>Due to the brief slowdown from normal shots, you can actually kill her with just these before she attacks.
>The 'stutter step' trick can be used to move without sound. This is when you mash the run button so you never truly take a step, therefore no sound.
>Stutter step, despite being a glitch, showed us how the game tracks you anyway. If you do it away from Blinded, she warps to a position near you.

Delicious.

Damn that's a big amount of details I never knew it had, very impressive and a great example of how to do good enemy design. Whenever I'll start my next run I'll definitely make sure to take notes of the ghosts' movesets.

I also wish we had more situations and missions that have you fighting 2 ghosts simultaneously, including but not limited to blinded. Fighting 2 headless priests together in one of the battle mode missions was a highlight.

At the 3rd night I had 2 instances I think where you fight 3 kids simultaneously, and well that's another thing I saw people complaining about as part of the difficulty (needless to say, but I completely disagre) I heard FF2 has its ghosts dialed back due to complaints about difficulty.

Situations like those really push you to have better positioning and strategies.

>the 3 kids
>complaints of difficulty
>FF2 nerfed due to them

No way. Those 3 are some of the easiest in the game. You can kill them easily even on Nightmare. They don't even do anything special.

I get Blinded destroying people because when you first encounter her she just appears and you don't know how she works. Everyone will start shooting or run, both causing her screen length flying attack.

But those kids? Hell no. Though I shouldn't be surprised at this point.

I wasn't clear enough - I heard FF2's ghosts were dialed back to FF1's general difficulty or scare factor, not any particular ghost.

I don't recall having any issues with the 3 kids, but then again I also listed some common complaints we both disagree with.

>I heard FF2 has its ghosts dialed back due to complaints about difficulty.
This sounds like you said FF2's ghosts had their difficulty lowered due to complaints over FF1 being too hard.

>I heard FF2's ghosts were dialed back to FF1's general difficulty or scare factor
Dialed back means 'to lessen'.

So I'm not really sure what you're saying.

Noted. I meant that the difficulty and ghosts' aggression were lowered.

Due to complaints of difficulty in FF1?

I can't find anything regarding difficulty now that I searched again so I probably I misremembered stuff, but what I'm sure of is that they said they focused more on the story and less on the action due to complaints of FF1 being too scary. I guess I just confused them for being the same thing.

Weird.

What was so scary about FF1? FF2 ghosts are way more detailed. Compare Broken Neck. Even FF2's Blinded is way scarier, especially the cutscene when you first encounter them.

>more story less action
Yet it has way more ghosts. Forced and random appearances. A COMBO system. The devs sound schizophrenic.

Don't think I ever heard any of this development stuff before.

Played this recently and got to the final chapter and gave up out of boredom and frustration with the general design. Namely the constant area reuse, limited enemy types that are too easy and have excess HP(intentionally so you'd have to spam fatal frames), lack of atmosphere and awkward movement.

Not a fan of the OTS camera, it's too close to let you appreciate the environments, makes it harder to dodge ghosts and lacks the scale and artistry of the fixed angles that allowed for creative ghost placements. Here there is a prompt that appears to let you know to take a picture.

Started playing Fatal Frame 1 again on Nightmare, initially on normal before realising I had a save from the same part I stopped playing(2nd night). Beat it and have now started FF2 and stopped at chapter 5 today after my 2nd session.

So more than a year later than initially planned, I replayed FF1 on normal (started a new save, Xbox version) and S-ranked mission mode again. My thoughts about it remain the same. Only now realized that for a core shot not only you have to place your reticle exactly on the target circle, the kanji letter also needs to be flashed when taking the shot.

I also beat Fatal Frame 2 on hard difficulty (the Xbox version lets you start on hard right away) and got SE ranks in the first 5 missions.

When it comes to level design and exploration and atmosphere It definitely matches FF1 for me, both Himuro Mansion and Minakami village are great locations that were a joy to explore.

I prefer the the charge system of Fatal Frame 1 to the proximity system here, and combined with the more aggressive ghosts it definitely has the edge on the combat side of things.

However, I still love the combat here, much more than I expected. The ghosts while much less aggressive and agile than FF1, still have some aggression and agility so they aren't braindead like I feared they would be, especially in groups. One thing that I didn't like is how for some ghosts their Fatal Frame moment is really infrequent or takes too long to trigger.

Trying to have more than one ghost inside the reticle and doing Fatal Frame shots really lets the combat shine imo, since it rewards good positioning and planning, and this works well together with the meter-management-esque aspect of the special powers and combo shots, and this really comes into light when trying to go for SE ranks in mission mode.

I will update again once I'll finish the mission mode and survival mode.

I have now finished the first 10 missions, I achieved SE ranks on all of them aside from 2 where I got S-ranks (missions 7 and 10).

I still enjoy the challenge of having more than 1 ghost inside the reticle, doing some weak regular shots to build until finally positioning Mio to have 2 or 3 ghosts inside the reticle and starting a fatal frame combo.

It's not necessarily the combo mechanic that makes it fun, although I do like it, but the strategizing before utilizing it - how much damage to drain from ghosts before doing it, and where and how to position myself for the combo.

I also beat the survival mode in 30:14 minutes and got an S-rank, whereas SE-rank requires 30 minutes so I'm really close. I love this mode, and for me it was a highlight. It really ratchets up the tension and definitely leans towards a more survival experience as intended. While it doesn't fix the inherent issues with the ghosts, it does give the game some needed challenge.

Your goal is to get from Misono Hill to the Hellish Abyss as fast as possible and fight Utsuro. Unless you have a stone mirror you are dying in one hit, but it's generous enough with stone mirrors so even if you get hit, you will most likely have a stone mirror not far away. Some routes are blocked so as you play you will find new routes throughout the houses.

there are mandatory fights, and also fights that aren't, so in order to go as fast as possible and save film you will want to go through them when possible, essentially picking your fights. I still haven't started FF3, but I still wish it also had a survival mode, it's a great addition.

I also tried the first person mode and really liked it, I will probably do my nightmare playthrough in first person. The mission mode and survival mode are also playable in first person.