Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake PS5 Review 9.5/10 “My Soul is Painted Like The Wings of Butterflies” 📸

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake Proves Horror Doesn't Age

Fatal Frame (or for us Europeans, Project Zero) holds a special and interesting place in my heart, I was exposed to these games at a very young age, some may say ‘too young’ as I was only 12 years old when I first got to experience the original Project Zero and surprise surprise - I found it very scary. 

But what was interesting was that I was watching my big brother and uncle play it and they found it creepy as well, it was the first time I had seen adults be rattled by something that I was also shaken by, and as a kid I found it quite shocking. 

We all still talk about the ‘eye in the floorboard’ to this day. Talking of big scares, for me one of the other biggest of this series was when I sold all 3 Project Zero games on PS2 to a local game store for a pound each and yeah… they are now worth quite a bit more that, it is genuinely one of the regrets of my life. 

With all that said, would playing Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake be a lifelong regret or would it take me back to being scared on the couch with my big bro and uncle?

I hold the original Fatal Frame 2 in really high regard, if I had to pick a ‘top 10 horror video games’ it would be in it and quite high up in the list, I remember finishing it and thinking ‘this is what a horror game is’, it was scary - obviously - but everything worked, it was a step up from the first, the story was engaging, the atmosphere is probably one of - if not the best - atmospheres in horror gaming history, its sound design was terrifying yet haunting, so this remake had a lot to live up to and I'm happy to say that I think it did, it takes all of what was great about the original and adds things that make it feel new whilst honouring the original, it does what a good remake should. 

Now, I’m going to get the only flaw I really felt out of the way first…stealth, oh I hate stealth. For the Metal Gear and Hitman series, great! For nearly every other game in the history of mankind past, present and future no..no..no. It is just annoying, stop it developers, stop adding stealth where it is not needed. With that out of the way, I will just now heap praise on this wonderful game.

The plot involves twin sisters entering a village that they used to visit as children, before it is flooded to build a new dam. Soon after entering the new village, they find that its haunted, which would be the time to turn tail and leave but one of the sisters gets entranced by a Crimson Butterfly and follows it deeper into the village, causing them to be trapped. They then have to work out how to escape this nightmare and learning the villages dark secrets along the way. 

A nice, simple plot that burns along nicely as the horror of the village is revealed. As you explore, you find the Camera Obscura which is one of the coolest names for anything ever, a camera that helps you fight the evil spirits that wander around the cursed village, it remains a clever idea all these years later, the remake does add focus, zoom, and filters to add to the combat using the camera.

The filters gave the camera some real power making the combat meatier which I did like, but could see why some players may enjoy the combat from the original - keeping with the simplicity, but personally the added options in combat did excite me as a nice change up. The map is expanded as well, adding new locations and lore to the ghosts making exploring fresh and more interesting, sometimes note reading can be tedious but learning of the villagers’ pasts really gave a gravity to the horror.

The sound design still remains almost untouchable; it really does its job to perfection. The music creates so much tension and dread, hearing the groans and wails of the ghosts while walking around with this oppressive wall of sound, it never seems to let up, I think only Silent Hill has it beat.

SUMMARY
What else can I say? it was one of the best horror games two decades ago and now the remake only adds to its legacy, I still think it is one of the most well-crafted horror games of all time; story, combat, and sound design come together to make a perfect horror experience, if you have played it before, or you are a newcomer - I can’t recommend this enough.

9.5/10

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