With FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE, We're in a Horror Game Golden Age

If there is one thing that I can say has been uniformly great about surviving the 2020s (so far), it's that we've gotten to experience a new Golden Age of horror video games. As lovely as it has been to see bold indie games inspire a new generation of fans while legendary titans of the industry get their chances at reclaiming the bloody survival-horror throne, we diehard fans of digital horror have still been kept waiting for one of the all-time greats to make its triumphant return. Now, finally, FATAL FRAME has woken from its slumber to terrify audiences with its unique and distinctly Japanese brand of ghostly folk-horror.

It is not surprising that KOEI TECMO has opted to take a cue from Konami by remaking the second game of the original run of FATAL FRAMEs. It's the one everyone remembers, even twenty years later, and for good reason – FATAL FRAME II was a damned scary experience when it first released on the PS2 and Xbox, and its legacy has long loomed large over the industry. When I got the chance to preview the opening chapters of FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE, I was excited to be reintroduced to the familiar tale of the Akamura twins and their nightmarish trip through the dark corners of Minakami Village. What immediately struck me when my preview began, though, was just how thorough and considered a reconstruction this really is.

One of the hallmark features of the whole FATAL FRAME franchise is its unique mix of third and first-person for both combat and exploration. Just as in the original, Mio Akamura must use the mysterious Camera Obscura to battle restless spirits, hunt for clues, and unlock the secrets that might save her and her sister Mio from whatever dark fate Minakami Village has in store for them. Back in 2004, it was novel and complex enough to ask a player to switch perspectives and take properly timed pictures of scary ghosts. This remake, though, understands that this new generation of players is up for a deeper and more rewarding challenge, and the entire combat system has been thoroughly enhanced to account for that.

The first-person controls are fluid and responsive, but not so much as to negate the crucial tension of combat. In addition to a whole host of upgrades and charms that can be added to the Camera Obscura to enhance its effects, Mio now also has access to several special camera filters that allow you to make tactical decisions on the fly. Throughout the preview, I was constantly having to evaluate whether the standard, short-range filter would do the trick, or if it would be better to risk the slower reload time of the longer-range filter that also allows me to expend Will (the FATAL FRAME version of Stamina) to blind spirits when I'm in a real bind. Mio also has quick-dodge and sneak-attack abilities that make combat and navigation even more engaging without overcomplicating things. At least so far, FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE is shaping up to have the most robust and engaging gameplay of the whole series.

If I had one complaint about the gameplay so far, it's that spirit health and aggressiveness feel a bit over-tuned in these early chapters. I'm no stranger to the often-methodical nature of FATAL FRAME encounters, which demand patience and timing to capture ghosts in the optimal “Fatal Frames” shot to do maximum damage. Still, playing on Normal difficulty, Mio's battles against her spectral foes often felt like they'd go on for just a bit too long. I'd be doing my best to manage my film stocks, time my Fatal Frames, and dodge the jump-scare special attacks, and yet almost every fight ended up reaching the point where it stopped being scary and started to become a task that I needed to complete to reach the next stage of the game. This is an issue that could easily be mitigated by some post-launch balance tweaking, of course, and I'm sure that the natural difficulty curve will balance out in further chapters when more Camera Obscura upgrades can be unlocked.

Thankfully, this is practically the only area that I've seen FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE stumble slightly in its efforts to inspire terror and awe in its players. On nearly every other front, the game has so far excelled at building a genuinely engrossing horror experience on the foundations of the original. With my mid-level CPU and ageing NVIDIA RTX 3060ti graphics card, I was able to run the game preview on mostly standard settings at 1440p and hit a rock-solid 60 fps (except during cutscenes, which seem to be locked at 30 fps regardless of gameplay settings).

My favorite parts of the chapters I explored came from soaking in the incredible work the development team has done in injecting modern lighting, textures, and animations into the expanded indoor and exterior maps of Minakami Village. Hidden dolls and more obvious side-quest triggers make it fun and rewarding to dig through every nook and cranny, even if the game constantly makes it clear that even stopping to pick up a simple roll of camera film becomes an exercise in stomach-turning dread. Several quality-of-life features are present to make the experience more accessible, such as a helpful mini-map and robust objective log for the main quest and any sub-stories you pick up, though most of the HUD elements can also be toggled to the player's preference should they wish to preserve a more minimalist, old-school atmosphere.

So far, the thing that excites me most about FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE is how it strikes a balance between delivering the iconic atmosphere and terror of a beloved survival-horror classic while still providing an experience that feels fresh, modern, and polished. This isn't just a PS2 classic with a shiny, new coat of paint. So far, this remake aims to weave a nightmare that is far more visceral and engaging than anything we could have imagined playing way back in 2004.