Viewing the Fatal Frame endings as semi-canonical alternate universes. 1389 words.
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The term "alternate universe" has different meanings for different fans. The best way to define it is "things that happened differently that in turn affected other things, such as choosing the road less traveled". It can be as radical as a change in setup - for example, a universe where a canonically male character was born female or a character had a different sexual orientation - or as minor as someone being affected by a change of outfit. For example, the first Fatal Frame game would be different if Kirie had been in love with another girl, Miku had been the spitting image of the missing lover, and Mafuyu had been the one forced to chase Miku all over Himuro Mansion. An alternate universe, in essence, splits off from what the original storyline of the universe is supposed to be, through the choices of the writer or in this case the player.
In the games themselves, you do have choices that don't affect the ultimate ending. For example, outfit changes do nothing but affect how the character looks, not how the game plays out. It doesn't matter that Mio and Mayu have bikinis and bondage outfits because all of the other characters will react the same as if they were wearing their default outfits or kimonos. Because they're locked into their own miserable worlds, the other characters don't notice the main characters might be wearing something scandalous by their standards. Likewise, it really doesn't matter how you do certain things. Nothing will happen if you go the wrong way other than you might encounter a wandering ghost. If you're tasked to collect a certain set of something, such as keys, stones, or stone pinwheels, it doesn't really matter if you do one before another. Fighting a certain way might ensure that you're going to run out of supplies faster, but its only effect on the plot is that you might have to start the game over. Even a new game plus, which allows you to retain all the things you obtained on previous playthroughs, for the most part has no other effect than some extra supplies.
On the other hand, the first three games have canonical endings and at least one alternate ending, which could be seen as alternate universes. The first game has three; one, the canon and default one, where Mafuyu chooses to be with Kirie so that she doesn't spend eternity in despair, and two others, both where he chooses to leave with his sister Miku. The difference between the two alternate endings is that in the second one, Kirie is given comfort by the reappearance of her murdered lover, who has a chance to come back and be with her. Of these three endings, two end well for Miku, where she gets her brother back safely, and two for Kirie, where she isn't doomed to spend the rest of eternity alone. So, it's three paths, each caused by something different happening. In the first one, achieved by finishing the game at the easiest level, Kirie has the company of Mafuyu so things end well for her, but we know from the third game that Miku doesn't take it so well. In the second, Miku and probably Mafuyu are happy, or at least Mafuyu is alive - though possibly regretting abandoning Kirie, thus leading him to end up in the Manor of Sleep of the third game. In the third, achieved with the hardest difficulty setting, Miku is alive, Mafuyu is alive and hopefully happy, and Kirie is presumably happy with the company of her old love. Three different outcomes from the same general story, three different ways that the story can now go. These three major characters will now have different lives depending on how the story ended.
The PS2 and Xbox versions of the second game have a similar structure; the ending achieved on the easiest level is the canon one, where Mio is forced to strangle her sister to save herself and the village, and falls into despair as a result. The harder endings leave both siblings alive, but the second hardest ending has Mio sacrifice her sight, whereas the ending in the highest difficulty leaves them both alive and whole. As things get harder for the player, it makes things better for the character. There is more hope. The canon ending results in Mio almost dying in the third game's Manor of Sleep, whereas she has hope in the other two endings, and life gets better for her personally. The Mio who has her sight and her sister is going to be a very different person than the Mio who is now dependent on her sister or the Mio who had to kill her identical twin. There is a fourth ending, achievable at any level, where Mio makes a choice to abandon her sister to save herself, the first of the endings based on choice rather than difficulty level. It ends with the same result as the canon ending, where Mio is driven to despair, but for a different reason: she's basically abandoned her sister to die instead of killing Mayu herself.
For the third game, which is highly dependent on the canonical endings of the first two games, the idea of the second game's fourth ending - the player's choice - evolves in a new way. Harder difficulties enable you to buy more outfits, but they don't change the ending. Instead, there is a certain sidequest that can only be completed on a new game plus. This sidequest assures the continued survival of Kei, one of the playable characters in the game, and in turn, assures the survival of his niece, Mio. It's one of the times where what you do in the storyline, as compared to how masochistic the player feels in playing at harder difficulties, makes a difference in the ending. By choosing to find out more about the events between Kyouka and Akito, the player assures Kei's survival and therefore creates hope for both him and Mio. Interestingly enough, this is the canon ending, not the default one. In playing the game again and doing the sidequest, the player changes the ending to the canon one, instead of changing it from the canon one.
While the fourth game doesn't vary in its endings as much as the first three games - you find out what happens to a certain character in the hardest difficulty, and that's it - the remake of the second game brings back the player's choices of the original second game and the third game to create new endings. Successfully completing the game on a higher difficulty enables the player to buy more powerful things, but that's about it, just like the third game. These endings, these universes, depend on what you do in game to a much greater extent than in any other game. To get three of the endings, Mio must take Mayu to three different locations in a certain chapter. In two of the other three, the player has to make sure Mio does not take Mayu to those three locations. In addition, luck and skill play a part. So, in a sense, the endings depend on what the player chooses to do, both in game and in battle. Depending on the player's choices, Mio may still end up with the canon ending, despairing as she kills Mayu. She still may choose to abandon her sister, save her sister in a way that causes her to lose her sight, or get them both out safely. Or, depending on how things happen, she might end up being too late and dying by Mayu's side. There's even an ending where Mio saves her sister, and then Mayu kills her for not being willing to complete the ritual.
In some ways, completing these games is like reading a fairly limited "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, or playing a limited-choice visual novel like Katawa Shoujo. They provide a set number and variety of endings that do not change - or at least not until the next remake. But just like fan-created alternate universes, things happen differently here. Players create their own worlds in different ways, in ways set by the game developers, but they are still alternate universes. They are still, essentially, the road less traveled.
Meta 4: Alternate Universes
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The term "alternate universe" has different meanings for different fans. The best way to define it is "things that happened differently that in turn affected other things, such as choosing the road less traveled". It can be as radical as a change in setup - for example, a universe where a canonically male character was born female or a character had a different sexual orientation - or as minor as someone being affected by a change of outfit. For example, the first Fatal Frame game would be different if Kirie had been in love with another girl, Miku had been the spitting image of the missing lover, and Mafuyu had been the one forced to chase Miku all over Himuro Mansion. An alternate universe, in essence, splits off from what the original storyline of the universe is supposed to be, through the choices of the writer or in this case the player.
In the games themselves, you do have choices that don't affect the ultimate ending. For example, outfit changes do nothing but affect how the character looks, not how the game plays out. It doesn't matter that Mio and Mayu have bikinis and bondage outfits because all of the other characters will react the same as if they were wearing their default outfits or kimonos. Because they're locked into their own miserable worlds, the other characters don't notice the main characters might be wearing something scandalous by their standards. Likewise, it really doesn't matter how you do certain things. Nothing will happen if you go the wrong way other than you might encounter a wandering ghost. If you're tasked to collect a certain set of something, such as keys, stones, or stone pinwheels, it doesn't really matter if you do one before another. Fighting a certain way might ensure that you're going to run out of supplies faster, but its only effect on the plot is that you might have to start the game over. Even a new game plus, which allows you to retain all the things you obtained on previous playthroughs, for the most part has no other effect than some extra supplies.
On the other hand, the first three games have canonical endings and at least one alternate ending, which could be seen as alternate universes. The first game has three; one, the canon and default one, where Mafuyu chooses to be with Kirie so that she doesn't spend eternity in despair, and two others, both where he chooses to leave with his sister Miku. The difference between the two alternate endings is that in the second one, Kirie is given comfort by the reappearance of her murdered lover, who has a chance to come back and be with her. Of these three endings, two end well for Miku, where she gets her brother back safely, and two for Kirie, where she isn't doomed to spend the rest of eternity alone. So, it's three paths, each caused by something different happening. In the first one, achieved by finishing the game at the easiest level, Kirie has the company of Mafuyu so things end well for her, but we know from the third game that Miku doesn't take it so well. In the second, Miku and probably Mafuyu are happy, or at least Mafuyu is alive - though possibly regretting abandoning Kirie, thus leading him to end up in the Manor of Sleep of the third game. In the third, achieved with the hardest difficulty setting, Miku is alive, Mafuyu is alive and hopefully happy, and Kirie is presumably happy with the company of her old love. Three different outcomes from the same general story, three different ways that the story can now go. These three major characters will now have different lives depending on how the story ended.
The PS2 and Xbox versions of the second game have a similar structure; the ending achieved on the easiest level is the canon one, where Mio is forced to strangle her sister to save herself and the village, and falls into despair as a result. The harder endings leave both siblings alive, but the second hardest ending has Mio sacrifice her sight, whereas the ending in the highest difficulty leaves them both alive and whole. As things get harder for the player, it makes things better for the character. There is more hope. The canon ending results in Mio almost dying in the third game's Manor of Sleep, whereas she has hope in the other two endings, and life gets better for her personally. The Mio who has her sight and her sister is going to be a very different person than the Mio who is now dependent on her sister or the Mio who had to kill her identical twin. There is a fourth ending, achievable at any level, where Mio makes a choice to abandon her sister to save herself, the first of the endings based on choice rather than difficulty level. It ends with the same result as the canon ending, where Mio is driven to despair, but for a different reason: she's basically abandoned her sister to die instead of killing Mayu herself.
For the third game, which is highly dependent on the canonical endings of the first two games, the idea of the second game's fourth ending - the player's choice - evolves in a new way. Harder difficulties enable you to buy more outfits, but they don't change the ending. Instead, there is a certain sidequest that can only be completed on a new game plus. This sidequest assures the continued survival of Kei, one of the playable characters in the game, and in turn, assures the survival of his niece, Mio. It's one of the times where what you do in the storyline, as compared to how masochistic the player feels in playing at harder difficulties, makes a difference in the ending. By choosing to find out more about the events between Kyouka and Akito, the player assures Kei's survival and therefore creates hope for both him and Mio. Interestingly enough, this is the canon ending, not the default one. In playing the game again and doing the sidequest, the player changes the ending to the canon one, instead of changing it from the canon one.
While the fourth game doesn't vary in its endings as much as the first three games - you find out what happens to a certain character in the hardest difficulty, and that's it - the remake of the second game brings back the player's choices of the original second game and the third game to create new endings. Successfully completing the game on a higher difficulty enables the player to buy more powerful things, but that's about it, just like the third game. These endings, these universes, depend on what you do in game to a much greater extent than in any other game. To get three of the endings, Mio must take Mayu to three different locations in a certain chapter. In two of the other three, the player has to make sure Mio does not take Mayu to those three locations. In addition, luck and skill play a part. So, in a sense, the endings depend on what the player chooses to do, both in game and in battle. Depending on the player's choices, Mio may still end up with the canon ending, despairing as she kills Mayu. She still may choose to abandon her sister, save her sister in a way that causes her to lose her sight, or get them both out safely. Or, depending on how things happen, she might end up being too late and dying by Mayu's side. There's even an ending where Mio saves her sister, and then Mayu kills her for not being willing to complete the ritual.
In some ways, completing these games is like reading a fairly limited "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, or playing a limited-choice visual novel like Katawa Shoujo. They provide a set number and variety of endings that do not change - or at least not until the next remake. But just like fan-created alternate universes, things happen differently here. Players create their own worlds in different ways, in ways set by the game developers, but they are still alternate universes. They are still, essentially, the road less traveled.