Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a title previously confined to the annals of gaming history. Never having been localized outside of Japan when originally released, this remastered installment is a fantastic opportunity for new and established fans of the franchise to get acquainted with Fatal Frame. Offering wonderfully smoothed-out character models and textures, the remaster spruces up the aesthetics for current-generation systems. Adding extra content brings novelty and entices players to explore all the mysteries of Rogetsu Island. The Camera Obscura is back, as usual, and feels b...

A group of children mysteriously disappeared during a festival on Rogetsu Isle. Although they were found, they had lost their memories. Now they have returned to the island as teenagers. The girls rely on the Camera Obscura, a camera with the power to capture and seal away unthinkable horrors, and the faint beam of their flashlight while exploring various locations and fending off the ghosts that attack them as they attempt to discover the truth of their haunting past. Switch version reviewed.

In terms of scary-ness, well I think that really depends on you. Even though I jump at my own shadow, the game isn’t that scary. It’s more unsettling, with the depictions of incomplete and incomprehensible faces and masks lying about and ghosts that have been stuck in their routine for far too long. There are descriptions of suicide and animal cruelty to boot, which definitely add to the unpleasantness. But there’s nothing truly grotesque or gory, the game wants to spook you through jump scares and a creepy atmosphere.

The Fatal Frame that time forgot finally gets its time in the spotlight, showcasing just enough of the legacy’s qualities, alongside being a perfect introduction to the series itself.

FATAL FRAME: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a fantastic survival horror game that, even with its flaws, still has an incredible atmosphere and story around it. And with a minor change, the game can be fully enjoyed on the Steam Deck!

If Mask of the Lunar Eclipse has the same success found with Maiden of Black Water's port to modern platforms, then remasters of other Fatal Frame games or even a new game would have a better chance of being released. There is a lot of potential for renewed interest in the franchise, and despite gripes to be had with Mask of the Lunar Eclipse's remaster, the game itself still holds up as a solid horror game.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse doesn't set out to reinvent the franchise or radicalize what it means to be a Fatal Frame game, but with updated visuals and modernised controls, it does a great job of making an entry in the series from 2008 effortlessly feel like a modern, current-gen debut. The slow and sometimes repetitive pacing of the game will not be for everyone, and some long-winded animations and awkward loading-waits only serve to make that pacing even more of a slog, but if you have the patience for that, you're in for a solid Japanese horror experience that will keep you gues...

For better or worse, Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse brings an underplayed fifteen-year-old horror game to Western audiences in a well-preserved state. There’s a fantastic atmosphere and the horror is well-framed and executed with impressive restraint, but control issues of the time carry through to this remaster.

Here at Push Square it's site policy that we don't believe in the supernatural. Vampires, werewolves, and Frankensteins? Poppycock, hogwash, and flannel, we say. Having never believed in ghosts we've never considered what we'd do should we ever come face to face with one. We can plan for World War 3 or Covid 2 or bumping into someone we don't want to stop and talk to in Tesco. If a ghost popped up and started getting shirty we would probably end up running, hoping that we could get away while the spirit was busy murdering someone else.

It’s a shame that Koei-Tecmo decided to trot out these latter-day Fatal Frames instead of the older ones, because at a time when there’s a bit of an old-school fixed-camera horror renaissance (see: The Medium, Tormented Souls, The Hotel), the original trilogy would fit right into the current zeitgeist. It’s just frustrating that whether we see those (or a full-on successor) could be predicated on the success of a game that has spectral shades of the series at its best. It’s a ghostly echo of some of the best horror out there, which I desperately hope returns one day to haunt us again.

The most egregious tension killer for me was the game’s lack of direction. Often, I’d find myself finishing a task or starting a level with no clues on where to go or what to do next. It seems like the game wants you to explore until you stumble onto a ghost or check every room for new encounters or changes. Also, the map doesn’t distinguish between locked doors, unlocked doors, and doors you can’t currently interact with. So if you have an unlabeled key, you may have to try literally every door on a map to know which it goes to.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar is a remaster that does an excellent job supporting its great features but is severely held back by its several dated elements.