Fatal Frame U has been announced

[cimerians]

Looks like they (whoever develops this game now) laid an egg with this one. Maybe Nintendo knew it wasn't worth a physical copy?

[Mord]

If Nintendo bothered doing QA that well the Wii U (And Wii before it) would have had an incredibly tiny physical library.

[cimerians]

And they (NOA) as usual censor games....that already happen to be rated M.

 

Of course the game is now totally not worth it for me.

[Atariboy]

It's just some bonus bikinis after you finish the game.

 

In Fatal Frame's defense, several popular review outlets that received it well don't provide scores and thus aren't represented at Metacritic where most go to see a summary of review grades. And when I made a count last night, 9 of the reviews there have it pegged in the 70-74% category, 11 from 75%-85%, 1 at 90%, and only 8 failing grades (Including a couple of names well known for wanting to create a stir on occasion by significantly low balling games). So I'd say that the Metacritic average, which has risen a bit since last night, is rather misleading when you look at the composition of scores.

 

 

It's no disaster like Devil's Third although it's clearly a very divisive game, but perhaps most importantly, a fair bit of the criticism I'm seeing are aspects already present in this franchise that are familiar to the fans and been acceptable in the past. Take the frequently cited backtracking for an example and go play Fatal Frame 3, a game that's fondly remembered today by those that played it. Nothing new to this franchise or for a Fatal Frame fan.

The biggest issues here are 10 years of no Fatal Frame in North America. People unfamiliar with this series are experiencing a franchise that's a cult favorite for many dedicated fans, yet finding a few game mechanics and aspects of it to take issue with that people didn't mind nearly as much back in the early 2000's.

Is it a problem that Fatal Frame hasn't evolved more to better suit today's audiences? Sure it is, but it also means that fans of the series most likely aren't going to mind these problems nearly as much as some of the reviewers did. And for those new to this series, Nintendo actually has you covered with a free demo of a substantial portion of the experience that will allow you to judge for yourself before spending a dime.

 

As a fan of the franchise, I'm not too concerned even if it has some problems like control issues that drag it down a bit. I'm confident though based off their track record and what I've watched of it in action, that most that play this as their first Fatal Frame will give it at least a 75% score (And Fatal Frame fans such as myself probably can bump that up 10%).

 

It won't dethrone Fatal Frame 2, but I bet it's a fine game. Looking forward to seeing for myself soon.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Atariboy

[Atariboy]

There's a censored cutscene, too.

 

 

Also, another theme that I'm seeing in the worst reviews is criticism of the well meaning utilization of the Wii U gamepad as your camera. Apparently this feature can sometimes be problematic for some, but something I'm not seeing mentioned in reviews like GameSpot's that have given this very poor scores is that you apparently still have the option of traditional right analog camera control if you so desire.

 

It stinks that the Wii U's premier feature perhaps isn't as natural of an addition to this series as it seems like it could be, but it's also apparently fully solvable with full tradition controls as an option. So letting it overly affect your grading rings rather hollow in my opinion. It's just too bad it doesn't seem to allow for the Pro Controller to be utilized though when using the right analog stick setting (or a Wii remote/nunchuck pairing like the past two Wii entries featured).

Edited October 20, 2015 by Atariboy

[cimerians]

My main problems with this one (based on what I've read) are the following: The repetitiveness and tons of backtracking you do in the SAME locations over and over again.... coupled with the fact that at some point the ghosts become widgets. Kind of like low level random battles in Dragon Warrior. Annoying interruptions that don't help you much. I also read some of them take a while to get rid of which makes it more of a drag.

 

The single worst thing for me in any game though is bad controls coupled with bad level design. I read you constantly bump into stuff and get stuck. Some people think this just makes the game more scary but the only thing you do is piss people off....like me. I loved the concept of the game 'Outlast' but what killed it for me was the constant bumping into furniture and other things hindering movement. That doesn't make a game scary, it makes it frustrating. "Who put this shoe box here and why can't I just jump over it?". My main rule of thumb is bad controls can seriously raise the chance of killing your game. If this would have been more scary and the story more interesting then you can overlook some of the crappy controls (Resident Evil).

 

Anyway thats what my feelings are from the reviews I've read but then again they are reviews so who knows, maybe I'll personally like it but I kind of doubt it.

 

I may pick this up someday "just to have it" cause I'm a fan of the older games but I don't think I'll spend time with it. Life is short, backlog keeps growing.