Forum - View topicGAME: Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake Game Review
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 814 Location: PA / USA |
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That statement's an interesting two-way street, because Crimson Butterfly Remake is using a lot of same-y mechanics that the Wii version had going on it, and I notice my friends that are trying to play the Remake are having to re-remember the gamepad controls every time they sit down for a session. The Wii version was generally "point, shoot, go" - the wiimote was held like a flashlight and worked more or less exactly like one. Hearing that line in the review, it's like saying "I'd rather use a gamepad for a light gun game just to have better firing accuracy", IMO. The engine has been running well for me and my friends on an RTX3070. You just have to do some configuring. We blocked the patches and have been playing on the Launch Battle difficulty, and it's been fine with a cheap death now and again - I'm a longtime fan of the series so my guiding and strategy helped my friends figure out the combat, but I can also see without me there, they probably would have been too impatient to take the time to learn its nuances. A lot of what the review calls out as being added gimmicks were added to the Wii version for the sake of giving it a bit more challenge and depth. To date, I'd argue the Wii Crimson Butterfly is probably up there with the original Silent Hill 2 as one of the best horror games I've ever played, but you know what? Crimson Butterfly Remake for all intent and purpose captures the Wii version's magic pretty damn well, minus a few minor nags. I'm perfectly fine and happy with the Remake version being the one that my friends get to experience, since it's hard to move a Wii sensor bar every night we set in to continue. I just lament people didn't learn the initial combat system and threatened the company into patching it down so fast, but that happened on Armored Core 6 in recent times too - I guess it's not profitable anymore to push these games this hard. The short of it? I wish they'd have just put the Wii version out like they did for Lunar Eclipse. That's all they needed to do, and it would have been perfect. The new one is missing the ability to poke and read things which sucks, but the characters voice MOST of it now, so overall if you've never played Crimson Butterfly before, it's even more playable on Battle difficulty now, it's worth giving a look at this new one if you don't have a Wii - they're pretty much the same game but one has more lore, and one is more shiny. |
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Philville
 Posts: 186 |
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I get that argument and it felt fitting to use the Wiimote like a flashlight, but I did think that there was something slightly off with the Wii controls back in the day, personally (unlike totally different games like Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime 3 which I thought were the pinnacle of intuitive Wiimote controls, even if not everyone agrees). I'm definitely enjoying the re-remake on PC (I initially wondered whether a mouse would make sense for intuitive aiming, but of course I'm playing with a controller in the end due to the original game design mechanics). Overall I thought this was a pretty solid review from someone who loves atmospheric horror games. I felt James was a little too harsh on Requiem, although I agree that the story was lacklustre as hell and the Leon sections were a little too familiar (though they were definitely RE4 gameplay perfected). I even enjoyed the "open world" portion (at least for a time) and thought it was a nice contrast to the claustrophobic Grace sections. They definitely should have included a simpler way to toggle between first and third-person camera perspectives, though. On that note, since Fatal Frame fans still argue about fixed vs. over-the-shoulder camera, I wonder whether future installments could potentially offer both options, but that does sound much more complicated from a game development perspective than simply switching between 1st and 3rd person.
After having to build a new PC I upgraded from a 3070, with which I was very happy, to a more recent GPU right before prices went crazy due to AI-induced hardware shortages, so I'm not encountering any performance issues on very high settings. Still, I can't for the life of me understand how the console versions are capped at 30 FPS (unless that's been patched) in this day and age. I would have been perfectly happy to play this on PS5 if it weren't for the framerate.
Agreed on ranking it the Wii version as high as the original SH2, despite what I said about the controls. Atmosphere, art direction, story and sound design are huge factors for me. Also, between this and Silent Hill f, it's a great time to be a survival horror fan, especially if you're also into Japanese folk horror. I remember that there was a well-written opinion piece on the genre on the site recently, before Crimson Butterfly was released. |
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