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| by Mark Saunders |
 Horror game junkie that I am, I started playing Tecmo’s Fatal Frame II for the Playstation 2 this morning. Knowing the Japanese mastery of horror, I was expecting a thrill ride with this game… and I was not disappointed.Fatal Frame II is one of the creepiest horror games that I have every played. Yes, the Americans can also make good horror games (like The Suffering, Clive Barker’s Undying, Doom) but when it comes to consistency of quality, white-knuckle horror, and an almost cinematic pacing I take my hat off to the Japanese. They have really got the formula right.  The main object of the game is to solve a mystery which is linked to Japanese folklore. The player's main enemies are ghosts; a few are friendly, but most are not. The only form of defense is a Camera Obscura, which allows the player to exorcise ghosts by taking a picture of them and seal their spirit in the film. Twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura are visiting a childhood play spot when Mayu follows a mysterious crimson butterfly deep into the woods. Concerned for her twin, Mio follows Mayu and the two girls are led to a lost village. When they reach the lost village they enter a house where they find the Camera Obscura. Mio and Mayu have to uncover the mystery behind the Crimson Sacrifice ritual and why the village is cursed.
I don’t know what the Japanese videogame creators’ inspirations are that make them continually push the boundaries of creativity in making video games. Every time someone from another country is proclaimed to have the edge, the Japanese just quietly release a slew of games that are so jaw-dropping in their ingenuity, level of immersion, and quality that they leave its competitors biting digital dust.
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In fact, almost all the games that come from Japan boast of the kind of mastery of atmosphere and storytelling that always keeps me coming back for more. Games like Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series (the first PlayStation title of which is considered as one of the most cinematic and innovative games of all time), Shigeru Miyamoto’s Legend of Zelda, the slew of Final Fantasy games that virtually define the limits of in-game immersion every time one of the latest iterations is released, are just some of the many video games that are blurring the line between cinema and gaming as well as reinterpreting for the new millennium what story telling should be about.Newest Kisses!
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