Fatal Frame IV (very slowly)
Dec. 28th, 2013 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estiroseI shouldn't really be starting this, because I'm still mid-playthrough of III and partly through a replaythrough of Fatal Frame I, but I bought this over a month ago and told myself I'd put the English patch on and at least look at it after Christmas. I had a little trouble with the patch, but was able to fix it with a tip from the bcl forums, which are the big ones for Fatal Frame fandoms. (The fix involved moving riivolution.) Drat my idiot 4.3u console!
So, in this game five little girls were kidnapped at some point in the past. Now, two of them have died of mysterious circumstances, clutching their faces - Marie (?) and Tomoe. The other three, Misaki, Madoka, and Ruka, have now gone back to the island. Misaki felt called, Madoka went to make sure her friend was safe, and Ruka went after the other two. (Shades of I!) We get a little prologue/intro chapter, following Madoka. She's with Misaki, but Misaki wanders off without her, so we get to control Madoka. She ends up wandering down a hall and trying to follow a vision of Misaki. Misaki goes into a museum (the Aso museum) but Madoka can't follow because she hasn't got a key. We have to wander back, and then we find a staircase up to the second floor. Following a ghost hurse, we finally find the spare key at the Nurse's Station, and then go back to the Aso museum to check it out. Picking up a Camera Obscura (since this is a museum about Kunihiko Aso, who made all the cameras in the game series), she ends up fighting a ghost. After that, she attempts to leave the museum and gets dogpiled by ghosts. End of intro chapter!
It reminded me a lot of Mafuyu's intro chapter, except it was in color, and the setting (a hospital, rather than an old house) made it a lot creepier. Also, one of the cameras in the Aso museum resembles the Camera from I - I suspect if I looked at the others again, I might see cameras from II and III.
Next chapter was Ruka's, where we get the information above about why Ruka was going to the island. She ends up in the front entrance of a hospital (where she was taken several years ago, as a little girl). Interestingly enough, her mom tells her not to go during a flashback. So of course we have to go into a deserted hospital on a deserted island. Of course!
I had to wander about to get anything to trigger. Finally, I went up the main stairs, got a note from Madoka (apparently she is the Mafuyu of game IV?), and saw her ghost walking down the hall. So I went. Or Ruka went. Madoka's camera was still in the Aso museum, not good. No actual ghost encounters in there, but there was a door where you had to find a... mask? Okay. The place is full of masks for some reason.
Headed out and immediately had a battle with a ghost nurse. Got hit a time or two, figured out her pattern (slight teleporting, mostly likes to hide behind walls), got her. She dropped a crystal. Apparently this game's variation on things is that you upgrade your camera with these crystals and you can buy healing items/film in the "shop" at the floor lights (the save points) with the points you get from shooting ghosts.
Ended up in some kind of dining room by trial and error. Picked up some notes from Misaki, as well as some herbal meds (thank goodness). And also a key from an absentminded nurse ghost. (Literally, her description said "Nurse Who Forgot Key".) I'm so glad to see the ghost descriptions back after they went missing in III. Apparently the five masks that I saw on the door picture back in the Aso museum were in this room, but one was missing. A young thief took them!
The key got me into the storeroom below the stairs, but I couldn't figure out the puzzle at first, so I went out to save. A phone rang, and apparently somebody wants you to give something back (the key?). But I have no clue what! Gave me Fatal Frame I Long-Armed Man flashbacks for sure.
Went back to the storeroom. Apparently in order to solve things, you must flip the switches so that the numbers add up to 13. Huh. Got it, though. Opened the doors, went up. Kid ran for another door, but I decided to save. I figure he's probably not going to give up his mask so easily.
And that was it for the night. I need to put new batteries in the controller.
So, in this game five little girls were kidnapped at some point in the past. Now, two of them have died of mysterious circumstances, clutching their faces - Marie (?) and Tomoe. The other three, Misaki, Madoka, and Ruka, have now gone back to the island. Misaki felt called, Madoka went to make sure her friend was safe, and Ruka went after the other two. (Shades of I!) We get a little prologue/intro chapter, following Madoka. She's with Misaki, but Misaki wanders off without her, so we get to control Madoka. She ends up wandering down a hall and trying to follow a vision of Misaki. Misaki goes into a museum (the Aso museum) but Madoka can't follow because she hasn't got a key. We have to wander back, and then we find a staircase up to the second floor. Following a ghost hurse, we finally find the spare key at the Nurse's Station, and then go back to the Aso museum to check it out. Picking up a Camera Obscura (since this is a museum about Kunihiko Aso, who made all the cameras in the game series), she ends up fighting a ghost. After that, she attempts to leave the museum and gets dogpiled by ghosts. End of intro chapter!
It reminded me a lot of Mafuyu's intro chapter, except it was in color, and the setting (a hospital, rather than an old house) made it a lot creepier. Also, one of the cameras in the Aso museum resembles the Camera from I - I suspect if I looked at the others again, I might see cameras from II and III.
Next chapter was Ruka's, where we get the information above about why Ruka was going to the island. She ends up in the front entrance of a hospital (where she was taken several years ago, as a little girl). Interestingly enough, her mom tells her not to go during a flashback. So of course we have to go into a deserted hospital on a deserted island. Of course!
I had to wander about to get anything to trigger. Finally, I went up the main stairs, got a note from Madoka (apparently she is the Mafuyu of game IV?), and saw her ghost walking down the hall. So I went. Or Ruka went. Madoka's camera was still in the Aso museum, not good. No actual ghost encounters in there, but there was a door where you had to find a... mask? Okay. The place is full of masks for some reason.
Headed out and immediately had a battle with a ghost nurse. Got hit a time or two, figured out her pattern (slight teleporting, mostly likes to hide behind walls), got her. She dropped a crystal. Apparently this game's variation on things is that you upgrade your camera with these crystals and you can buy healing items/film in the "shop" at the floor lights (the save points) with the points you get from shooting ghosts.
Ended up in some kind of dining room by trial and error. Picked up some notes from Misaki, as well as some herbal meds (thank goodness). And also a key from an absentminded nurse ghost. (Literally, her description said "Nurse Who Forgot Key".) I'm so glad to see the ghost descriptions back after they went missing in III. Apparently the five masks that I saw on the door picture back in the Aso museum were in this room, but one was missing. A young thief took them!
The key got me into the storeroom below the stairs, but I couldn't figure out the puzzle at first, so I went out to save. A phone rang, and apparently somebody wants you to give something back (the key?). But I have no clue what! Gave me Fatal Frame I Long-Armed Man flashbacks for sure.
Went back to the storeroom. Apparently in order to solve things, you must flip the switches so that the numbers add up to 13. Huh. Got it, though. Opened the doors, went up. Kid ran for another door, but I decided to save. I figure he's probably not going to give up his mask so easily.
And that was it for the night. I need to put new batteries in the controller.
