Project Zero V/Fatal Frame V (Wii U)
Well, to start with I'd say it's the weakest entry in the series thus far. Why? Well, the mechanics at first, feel really tight but as the game progresses, you tend to find that these new controls, new mechanics are rather broken. It's never been harder to get a Fatal Frame/Zero shot than in this game. The reason being that you have to be patient, so patient that sometimes enemies just...never attack you and you're left waiting for like two to three minutes and get bored waiting and take a shot
then the ghost lunges for you. It becomes this tiresome process of "should I wait or not" approach to the gameplay. I preferred it when ghosts just has a predictable attack pattern that made it more obvious when to attack (as in they float/walk/run towards you and as they are right in front of you, attack and you retaliate) but nope they just had to change it to something weaker.
The story on the other hand is really up and down in terms of quality (they also got a bit carried away with the amount of cutscenes in this game, I preferred the presentation approach of earlier games where they told the story through the gameplay and in the investigation/adventure sections). You get three characters to play as and certain recognisable characters/concepts make a return. You actually learn a lot about one mysterious character who has been in every single game in the series in this game, which was interesting, so was the strife of the ghosts in general, especially the ones who commit suicide or are killed by the two serial killers. Those stories are just freaky. It's just a shame it doesn't translate to the game itself and it is
easily the least "scary" entry in the series, but the atmosphere is still as strong as ever. In fact, in some ways it is the most disturbing entry such as the way in which people die and the story being all about suicide, which for personal reasons is not cool with me. But I think Shibata does a good job there, since it made me a bit sad whilst playing it. What he falters on in this game is the actual main storyline, which is very weak compared to previous entries, especially the third game. It all feels...very run of the mill, been there done that. The main shrine maidens story at first seemed interesting but you then realise her actual backstory is really...lame and nowhere near as interesting or memorable as the other "big bads" of the previous entries like Sai and Kusabi from 2 and especially Reika (The Tattooed Lady) and Head of the Kuze (The Floating Hands Woman) from 3. The "big bad" of 5 does have a great design though, but that's the most interesting part of her, her actual battle is also really good.
As far as the ghosts designs, some of them are very much "meh" but there are some good designs, but again, for some reason they throw the same ones at you time and again instead of the more creepy and memorable ones (like the Tall Lady; long limbs and an incredible creepy smile who watches you from a distance, the Falling Woman; who jumps off the cliff and pushes other people off cliffs/high places with the creepy messed up face and the Crushed Man; that awful scream). It was toned down in terms of ghost design, there's no real "hellspawn" ghosts in this one with half of their body missing trying to drag you into hell like in earlier titles. Which is weird to me since it is also easily the most violent/disturbing game from a Nintendo console that I have ever played. There's incest, a guy getting stuff into a tiny box, women getting drowned alive with their limbs going into weird directions, a serial killer gouging women's eyes out, suicide notes, kids justifying suicide and taking part just because their friends are doing it... all sorts of disturbing stuff. I honestly felt a bit depressed playing this game, maybe my negative reaction is because of this, I don't know. It got to a point where I had to play the game in short bursts since it got so grim.
As far as mission design/level design goes they honestly did a great job with around half of them (especially Missions 4, 5, 6, 8, 13 and the final mission) and the other half are just recycled ad infinitum and the fan in me realises they do this in other games, backtracking is a part of it, but here they literally, mission after mission (playing as different characters each time) make you go the exact same route and fight the exact same ghosts over and over. Plus the game takes so long to get into its stride; in 3 they just drop you straight into it and angry ghosts are relentless in their chase of you, here they're just wandering very slowly towards you, like they just don't care.
The whole 1990s VHS aesthetic to show you the ghost's stories is great and so is the camcorder/found footage aesthetic, they did a really good job of capturing that, since those are the most disturbing and quite frankly the only interesting moments of the game's story.
Overall, I enjoyed the game sure, but it's definitely my least favourite in the series. In the next one they really need to change things up more like they did with 3 (and by the looks of it, 4, which was set in modern day more and in different kind of locations like hospitals) since this was very much a "been there, done that" experience with clunky controls and repetitive missions and ghost encounters that just was not scary/creepy enough. At least the writing outside of the main storyline (as in the ghost's back stories) and the atmosphere were both as strong as ever plus the extra content is really good too (stealth gameplay with a certain Dead or Alive character). If you're after a classic survival horror game and happen to own a Wii U, then it's very much worth playing. Even as the weakest game in the series, it is still a good game, even if it disappointed me. And yes, both
Yuri and
Hisoka are both hot, even I'll admit as such.
I'll be buying Fatal Frame IV next for Christmas, supposedly all you need to make it work with the English fan translation is an SD card with the patch on it, a copy of the game and one app for the Wii and hey presto, away you go. Easy peasy.