Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Reviews

We tell you, it's a good game! It's not average! It might have some problems here and there, but you must admit it is a "Good" game.

With that mitigating the danger, it’s to the game’s credit that the atmosphere still manages to build up a sense of dread and unease. The story is unsettling and worth playing the game for, and the game’s visual presentation and audio design are excellent. Aside from a delay every time you open a new door, I didn’t notice any performance problems. It also has some nice quality-of-life features, like an auto-save when you approach a save point so you don’t have to open the save menu every time. When you finish the game, you unlock some additional features, such as a mission mode if you really love fighting ghosts, and a new game plus. While it might not have given me the survival horror experience I was hoping for, I’m glad I finally had a chance to play Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse combines its limited controls with a haunting atmosphere to create a great Japanese survival horror game that still shows its age from time to time.

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.

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.

It always feels like an event when a game is finally localised and makes its way here to the West. That becomes even an bigger spectacle when it’s that of a beloved cult horror series. Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is here, fresh on current-gen consoles and playable outside of fan translations. On offer is an eerie time, filled with plenty of scares, Japanese folklore to immerse yourself in and picture-taking goodness. After spending some time in its haunted hallways, it’s as c...

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.

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.

Creepy and compelling, the game is finally officially out of Japan and offering a good time for series fans. Even if the controls and movement speed still leave a lot to be desired.

When I reviewed the remaster of Fatal Frame V: Maiden of Black Water just a year ago, I was hoping that would have been the franchise’s return to the spotlight, considering the fact the franchise has always been a cult horror classic that never really got the attention it deserved. More specifically, I was hoping for the fourth entry to be localised as it never got released outside of Japan. Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is that title and I’ve been looking forward to this one, now that my ple...

A slow-paced, languid horror remaster, Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is not only a chance for western players to finally play a Japan-only entry in the series, but it's also a haunted house experience that delivers on creepiness.

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.

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.

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!

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 better with an analog format on certain consoles. This feels somewhat disappointing when the original release was inspired by Wii motion controls. Yet deviation from native optimization is what occurs when games are remastered for current-generation hardware. Despite generational gameplay flaws, like awkward camera controls in areas and slower pacing, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a worthy remaster and offers fun value to any survival-horror fan.

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.

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 guessing until the credits roll.

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.