estirose

So, when people are playing through, or writing about Fatal Frame, three people/places seem to invite a lot of cursing almost universally.

Specifically, Blinded/Eyeless (a ghost that apparently one sees a lot of and the one that you can't use your usual tactics to fight), the fish tank room (where you are basically walking along planks and stone walkways and it's terrible to fight in) and Mafuyu (the main character's older brother).

Now, I'm a newbie when it comes to the game; I just fought the Editor for the second time - the easiest boss in the game - and he came very close to killing me. I know there's stuff I need to work on perfecting before I get to the nasty people, but I don't mind. I'll do the second battle with him over and over if I need to in order to get used to the idea of moving in battles instead of standing there. (That being said, I got a one-hit kill on him during our first battle this evening. Nothing like a Fatal Frame/Zero Shot on a boss! I can't get the ghost in the intro chapter to be a one-hit kill!)

Mafuyu is the reason Miku, the heroine of the story, is in the mansion in the first place. He gets nabbed during his first visit and somehow wanders around until he ends up with Kirie during the last chapter. You have to rescue him. You spend the entire story thinking that you'll find him and you'll get him out of there.

Guess what? During the canon/normal ending for Fatal Frame, Mafuyu decides that he must stay with a purified Kirie, despite the fact you've probably been killed several times over trying to get to the doofus. So, players are understandably frustrated when he decides to do this, because that kind of gives Miku/the player the middle finger. (Endings on the harder levels are better - Mafuyu does live in the other two endings.)

Now, I like writing Mafuyu because he's intriguing to me - what would cause someone to choose to not only abandon the little sister that's been looking for four nights to save him, but die to be with someone who, up until recently, was trying to kill said little sister, and had killed his mentor? Has he really thought through the whole idea that he's going to spend the rest of eternity trying to keep Kirie from losing hope and letting the Calamity happen again? And as a ghost, presumably! (He's considered 'presumed dead' because of course, nobody can probably get down there to get his remains. I presume that he died in the rockfall.)

But, yeah, I'm sure I'm going to be really irritated at Mafuyu for being an idiot. (Which is understandable; he's a human being and he's barely into adulthood when this happens.) When I get there.

ETA: The more I reflect on it, as sucky as the canon ending is, it also perfectly exemplifies "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one". That is, Mafuyu needs to die and be there for Kirie to save the world (the needs of the many) instead of being there for Mayu (the needs of the one). It's very heroic in its own way, it's just... well, not very nice to the player, or Miku.