Currently, we live in the age of remakes, reboots and remastered games, also franchises that were always exclusive for a plataform are coming to others. Recently the last installment of the Fatal Frame franchise, formely a Playstation and Nintendo exclusive, are coming to Xbox and PC, a decent horror game and a must play for fans of the franchise, Fatal Frame, much like Silent Hill, always gave us some chilling moments mix with sad backgrounds. The first three installments of the franchise was brought to Europe and America, Playstation player could enjoy all three, while Xbox OG could only play the second one, sadly the games were launched the same times as some big ones, the first title were launched only two months after the iconic Silent Hill 2, while Fatal Frame Crimson Butterfly competed against Silent Hill 3 and finally Fatal Frame The Tormented was unlucky to be launched in the same year as Resident Evil 4, a game that still remain popular after sixteen years of its original release, the franchise is amazing, but went against some franchises with strong presence in the game industry, like Konami and Capcom. After that, in 2008, a new Fatal Frame was launched, Fatal Frame Mask of The Lunar Eclipse was only marketed in Japan, and a Nintendo Wii exclusive, a Europe version was announced but never actually launched, and once more competed with some famous franchises, like Resident Evil , also Siren Blood Curse ( a remake of the Forbidden Siren franchise) was launched a few days earlier, a famous franchise in Japan as well. The latest installment, Fatal Frame Maiden in Black Water launched worldwide in 2014 as a Wii U exclusive, and sadly the sales weren't good, despite being a solid game, and once more was overshadow by some notorious games, The Evil Within, Alien Isolation, the Silent Hill P.T demo and Last of Us's Left Behind DLC.
Honestly, Fatal Frame took a great direction, despite the fourth and fifht installment not being as good as their predecessors, they did good on their own, consider some others horror franchises, like Silent Hill, personally i don't think Homecoming and Downpour are that bad, but surely they lack the original essence, after that the franchise was simply store away, only ''brought back to life'' thanks to a Silent Hill DLC in the horror game Dead By Daylight back in 2020, no new annoucements, Konami could relaunched Silent Hill 4 for all plataforms, a great way to boost the franchise and enjoy the opportunity of old games coming back to life, sure Silent Hill is way more popular, but Tecmo was smart to relaunched the title, and maybe a full franchise relaunch in the future. Fatal Frame kept Its original essence, some people complain about a franchise that keep the essence, but also criticizes the one that change it. Gameplay wise Fatal Frame is unique, It was also the ''Mother of ghost haunting games'', games like DreadOut (and maybe Outlast?) followed the essence of using a camera as a weapon.
A great franchise shouldn't be bury in sands of times, despite not being so famous outside of Japan, Tecmo made a step into the journey of deserved recognition, Fatal Frame, Fatal Crimson Butterfly and Fatal Frame The Tormented can be play on Playstation 3, and on PS4 with PSnow, unfortunaly Fatal Frame IV can only be play on a Nintendo WII, but you can enjoy it with a Emulator. Fatal Frame Maiden In Black Water is coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S , Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and Windows in October 28th, if you never play any title is a great opportunity to know more about this franchise.
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