Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly (2003) pt. 1 of 3 - intro & synopsis

Oh, hey! Didn’t see you there. Welcome back to my unnecessarily lengthy and verbose analysis of the Fatal Frame series. The last time we were here, we braved all manner of horrors to escape from the haunted Himuro Mansion in the original Fatal Frame, and it was a lot of fun. And pretty fucked up as well, I might add. If you enjoyed that, boy are you in for a treat as today we'll be discussing what is popularly considered to be the best entry in the whole damn series. Well, alright, some people prefer the third game, but some people prefer Silent Hill 3 over 2 as well, and those people are every bit as wrong.

I’m going to attempt to only brush over things that were covered in the first review. If you didn’t check that one out, you really oughta. And full disclosure: I actually have a personal history with this game compared to the rest of the series, so I admit to a bit of a bias on my part.

The game opens, much like the last one, with voiceover atop an initially black screen. A young girl’s voice asks a question we will hear repeated many times as the narrative unfolds. “Didn’t we always promise that we would always be together?” A little redundant but hey, we've got arc words. 

We then fade in on a gorgeous scene: two twin sisters, Mio and Mayu, sitting by a natural spring. They used to play here as children, we’re told. We’re also told that “All of this will be gone soon.” The air of melancholy is thick. Or maybe that’s just a kind of tension that we feel between the two sisters, who seem to be at ease, despite a niggling feeling that something unspoken is wedged between them. Just then, Mio confirms our suspicions. 

“Is your leg okay?” she asks her sister. “Does it hurt?”

Just then, we see fragments of a flashback, way back to when the pair of them were tiny. Mayu chases after her younger sister, begging her to slow down. Mio simply ignores her, speeding up and leaving her in the dust. Suddenly, Mayu trips and… Mio comes to and we’re back at the spring. 

Mio starts “Mayu, about that time back then…” only to turn and realize that her sister is no longer by her side and is instead plunging headlong into the thick of the forest. In front of her floats a crimson butterfly, to which Mayu eagerly gives chase, followed by a panicked Mio. 

This is also the first time it’s noticeable that Mayu walks with a distinctive limp. Battle scars from “that time back then” perhaps? 

In the woods, Mio passes a strange-looking statue lying on the ground, whereupon the day turns to night in an instant and she witnesses her fleeing sister transforming into that of another young woman in a white kimono. Ahead through the trees, she also spies a creepy village, with lit fires and distant chanting indicating that it's occupied and in full swing. 

Just as Mio catches up with her sister, Mayu turns and announces that she knows exactly where they are: “The Lost Village,” otherwise known as All God’s Village. It’s a mythical place that was wiped off the face of the Earth by some kind of cataclysm long, long ago, and is doomed to reappear on that same night each new year and relive the events that led to its downfall. Sort of like a ghost ship scenario, I suppose. Those who wander too near are rumored to never be seen again. So obviously, the twins decide the best thing to do is go ahead and check the place out. 

Following a distance apparition of a woman to a nearby house, the two intrepid sisters stumble upon a paper trail that outlines the story of a poor woman named Miyako, who went looking for her boyfriend after he disappeared while in the area. You see, this guy, Masumi, was a land surveyor, checking out the area around the village as the government prepares to build a dam there. This was what our two protagonists were referring to in the opening when they mentioned the wooded area they used to play in being cleared away. 

Anyway, long story short, Miyako went looking for Masumi after he disappeared, became trapped in All God's Village, and was eventually even done in by the ghost of her beloved. She now wanders the dilapidated Osaka House angry, confused, and is none too happy about having her space invaded. Luckily, the twins stumble upon the series’s signature Camera Obscura (an antique camera that can exorcise spooky ghosts) just in time to defend against her advance. 

After pacifying Miyako, Mio becomes overwhelmed by visions, both of things that have happened and things to come, and loses consciousness. When she comes to, she’s just in time to witness Mayu disappearing yet again, in pursuit of more crimson butterflies. The little brat even has the gall to apologize before running off. Kids today, eh?

So, as with the previous entry, gameplay consists mostly of running errands, collecting non-hostile ghosts with Paparrazi-like reflexes to pay for upgrades to the Camera Obscura, and fighting off the hostile ones that object to appearing in your photos. Resources are limited, and players must play a patient game if they wish to able to make it to the end, as is generally the case in the games it takes its influence from. 

The main skill being tested is your ability to navigate a sprawling environment full of danger, scares, and elaborate contraptions that must be solved to progress. Well, that and, as you’ll come to appreciate as we continue with this summary, your ability to make sense of several novels’ worth of cluttered and convoluted backstory that takes up the bulk of the game’s narrative.

Anyway, as Mayu disappears into the night, Mio gives chase. However, she soon becomes trapped when she’s led to a locked door and cornered by an angry mob of ghostly villagers. After defeating them and following our own pair of crimson butterflies to a little storehouse on the edge of town, we’re introduced to little Itsuki, a boy with snow-white hair who has boarded himself up in the storehouse. And for some reason, he keeps referring to Mio as “Yae.” How strange.

He sends us on our first fetch quest in a game chock full of ‘em. We’re to check every “twin deity statue” in the village in search of a key to that locked door from earlier, behind which lies our sister, hopefully as of yet unmolested. These twin deity statues, by the way, are the things Mio passed by in the opening that caused the time of day to suddenly spring forward abruptly. As fetch quests go, it isn’t too awful, as these locations should be new to the player at this point. Well, that is, if you didn’t, say, forget the correct sequence and get lost wandering around for an hour in places that you didn’t need to be. Not that I know anyone who’s done that, I’m just speaking hypothetically.

As we conduct our search and fend off hostile spirits, we’re occasionally privy to flashbacks to the night All God’s Village vanished. In these glimpses of the past, it becomes clear that some sort of ceremony was taking place in the village, involving elaborate costuming, music, chanting, butterfly iconography, and, according to documents at least, some kind of sacred pit that is said to go all the way down to the place where the dead reside…

Keys located, errand done, and locked door opened, we continue across a bridge in search of our sister. So far so simple, right? Well, it is as long as you choose to safely ignore that sobbing woman’s voice that’s echoing across the pond and avoid taking any compromising photographs. If not, be prepared for one of Fatal Frame 2’s most memorable and least-repetitive enemy encounters. 

One way or another, both options lead us to the Kurosawa House. Upon entering, it’s clear that we’re not going to have a fun time here, as our flashlight immediately goes out the moment we cross the threshold and enter. This place is dripping with evil, as it's the ‘house of ceremonies’ so to speak, where the horrible things implied earlier probably took place. As we make our way through it, a recurring non-hostile ghost garbed in ceremonial dress keeps appearing, alluding to some kind of sacrifice involving twins. Well, that and some other thing called a Kusabi, whatever the hell that is. Oh, and another thing: he seems to recognize you and your sister, seemingly confusing you, in the same way that Itsuki did, with another pair of twins that once lived in the village and were around during “The Repentance,” this game’s version of Fatal Frame’s “The Calamity.” The event that reduced All God’s Village to its current state, basically. Christ, what’s up with all this new terminology to describe old stuff? Is this a Dark Souls sequel now?

We’re told that when the denizens of Hell became displeased with the village’s offerings, the Hellish Abyss (the big pit that runs down into the underworld, remember?) began to overflow and the spirits that poured out swiftly wiped out the village’s tiny population. It’s at this point that we’re introduced to this game’s Lord Himuro, the robed figure that’s been after our sister since the opening. In a flashback of sorts, she stands in the center of a massive pile of dead, bloodied and laughing maniacally. And just when you thought this was nothing but a harmless vision, she sets a horrible monster, bound up in ropes in all the wrong places, after Mio. Did I mention this guy will kill her in one hit if he so much as brushes past her? Even if the player possesses a stone mirror, an item whose only purpose is to prevent instant death? 

It turns out the pursuing creature is none other than the Kusabi that we’ve been hearing so much about. You see, the village has this ritual they perform that involves kidnapping an outsider and subjecting them to the cruelest form of human sacrifice ever before seen, inflicting maximum pain before death which apparently results in a Kusabi. 

Thing is, this is actually only something of a "backup" ritual, intended to tide the spirits of the damned over for a while while the real sacrifice is being prepared, or to patch things up if they become displeased. Well, as thoughtful as all of that is, it obviously didn’t work very well in the past given what eventually became of the village. 

After escaping from both the Kusabi and its giggling, psychotic handler, we finally locate Mayu! She lies unconscious in a creepy room filled with rows of dolls. Mayu then awakens, frightened and upset, and claims that someone was calling her here. Something about… performing the ritual “again?” She bursts into tears and embraces her younger sister, begging her to stay with her “forever.” 

It’s at this point that Mio should really think about cutting her losses and just booking it, but no. Instead she comforts Mayu and tell sher that everything will be alright, as the pair of them set out in search of an exit from this infernal place.

Yeah, so if it wasn’t clear by now that our big sister is fully possessed by this point, her wild ramblings throughout this chapter should make it crystal. It’s also reinforced that the one possessing her is most definitely the robed figure with the pet monster and spooky laugh, though we’re still in the dark as to why. 

We begin to hear rumblings of a failed ritual that took place not long before The Repentance. You see, at one point, there were two sets of twins living in All God’s Village concurrently. Itsuki, the boy trapped in the storehouse, and his brother Mutsuki, both of the Tachibana clan, alongside Yae and Sae Kurosawa. Apparently, Itsuki and his brother went through with their ritual, which we don’t hear the details of, only its clear enough that whatever it entailed, Mutsuki didn’t come back from the affair. 

Yet, it didn’t please the spirits holed up in the Hellish Abyss, and so another ‘make-up’ ritual had to be performed. This second rite apparently involved the two Kurosawa sisters, whom our protagonists have been mistaken for by everyone they’ve encountered in the village so far. It’s said that when Itsuki realized that his ritual was all for nothing, his hair turned instantly white and he fell into a deep despair.

But it’s okay though, because guess what? After the completetion of a ‘successful’ ceremony, those sacrificed rise again as immortal crimson butterflies to stand guard and watch over those who live in the village. How nice! It’s also said that during the ritual, both ‘shrine maidens’ become one, somehow. Needless to say, it’s clear that whatever the particulars of this so-called Crimson Sacrifice, it’s probably not pretty.

But back in the present, I hope you’ve been enjoying Mayu’s presence, because after a little brain fart on the part of both of our ‘heroines’ that allows a cell door to slam shut and seperate the two of them yet again, we’re tasked with finding a way to unlock it and rescuing our sister. Again. God, I’m getting flashbacks to the first Fatal Frame now.

As Mio tries to explain to her sister that she has to leave her just long enough to go find the key, Mayu becomes hysterical, begging Mio not to leave her. This sparks an important flashback to the incident that was alluded to all the way back in the opening cinematic, where Mayu was running after her younger sister in the woods. As she led her sister on a merry chase, Mayu slipped and took a bad tumble down a steep hill, making a real mess of her leg and leaving her stuck with a permanent limp. Mio has never been the same since, always waiting on and watching over her sister, guilt-ridden over the injury that she believes she’s responsible for. Mayu, for her part, seems to have grown incredibly clingy as a result, so that she can barely stand being left alone for any period of time. Still, she didn’t mind running off all those times before, so she’ll just have to suck it up presently while we attempt to locate a key to her cell.

I hope you’re ready for another scavenger hunt... No? Well, too bad. At least this one is fairly simple and the place that needs to be searched fairly small, but disguise it any way you want: we’re going back to the Osaka house from the very beginning of the game to hear more of the same backstory involving Miyako and her beau, doing battle with the same hostile spirits as before in the hopes of locating some kind of basement where the key is said to reside. Yay!

A not-insignificant amount of repetitive busywork later, we’re in the fabled basement, where Mio has a run-in with one of The Mourners, criminals who are forced to look into the Hellish Abyss, which blinds them and apparently makes them sensitive to the spirits that dwell within. Sure it drives them insane, but how else are you going to make sense of when to do which elaborate, ultra-specific ritual when you have no way of gauging the general feeling down there, am I right? This also helps establish something that will become important later on: those who look into the Hellish Abyss will be struck blind, no matter what the circumstances. This encounter ends with Mio in possession of the key to Mayu’s cell, and so she doubles back.

We’re shown flashbacks to a situation eerily reminiscent of the accident that crippled Mayu, only it’s Sae struggling to catch up with Yae as the two flee an angry mob of villagers. Itsuki helped the two of them escape, disillusioned with the beliefs and rituals of his people. Only thing is, Sae has a tumble of her own, and she’s recaptured and brutally, spitefully sacrificed by the furious locals in the hopes that it will at least do a little something for the legion of damned souls they hope to please. Needless to say, it doesn’t go over well and The Repentance occurs.

As Sae sat locked up by her family, awaiting her execution, she believed that Yae would eventually return to either rescue her or take her rightful place as Shrine Maiden alongside her captured sister, but she never does. in fact, she runs away with Ryozo Munakata from the first game, who happened to be visiting the village with the folklorist who ended up captured and turned into the Kusabi. She’s Yae Munakata, mother of Mikoto, herself grandmother to the two protagonists of that game. Presumably, whatever Yae saw that led to her hanging herself in the backstory of that game was related to the twin sister she abandoned here. All in all, a nice little way to tie everything together.

Back in the present, Mio finally arrives back at the Kurosawa House, cell key in hand, only to find that Mayu has somehow already let herself out. Not only that, but (yet again) Mayu is far ahead of us, glimpsed disappearing into Tachibana House by way of a bridge that connects it and the Kiryu houses, nicknamed the “Heaven Bridge.” To get to her, we’ll need to go all the way through Kiryu House and cross over exactly as our sister is currently doing. And we’d better do so pretty fast because some pale creature with a distinctive gait seems to be quickly closing in on our sister as she disappears from view...

Inside Kiryu House, we find the door to the Heaven Bridge that Mayu took locked, but also find evidence of another way across: an underground cavern that connects the two houses, referred to in documents as the “Earth Bridge.” With this knowledge, we set out to find it.

It won’t be easy, however, as Kiryu House is one of the more sinister locations in the game. Throughout her time here, Mio will have to do battle with the hostile spirits of two twin sisters, Azami and Akane Kiryu, many times in order to make it to where our sister was last spotted. The pair of them aren’t only difficult to deal with combat-wise, thanks to their functioning as a dynamic duo that attack in a way nearly guaranteed to lead to lots of one or the other sneaking up on you when you least expect it, but that alongside their twisted backstory makes for one of the more memorably frightening segments of the game.

You see, only one of the twins is the ghost of a real girl. Azami, or at least the Azami that we do battle with, is actually a possessed doll. Long before the events involving the Tachibanas, Kurosawas, and imprisoned folklorist, the Kiryu sisters were forced to participate in their own Crimson Sacrifice and Azami got the short end of the stick.

The ceremony apparently went off without a hitch, yet the guilt and loneliness experienced by Akane after the fact wore on her parents. One day, her father, a renowned dollmaker, resolved to make a life-sized replica of Azami so lifelike and realistic that Akane would no longer feel so depressed. Only, instead of making things better, this causes Akane to begin to have what can only be described as a psychotic break where she treats the doll as if it were alive and really her sister. This disturbs her parents deeply, but not as deeply as when evidence begins to mount that the doll might actually be autonomous.

It’s not only capable of moving itself and putting dangerous thoughts in Akane’s head; it’s also nearly indestructible and all Kiryu’s attempts to get rid of it end up failing. Soon after, the doll manages to get rid of him and finally has its way with Akane. It’s never ever explained what’s actually possessing the doll, but it's clear that it ain’t Azami. It could be bleed over from the Hellish Abyss, seeing as FAther Kiryu believes that throwing it into the Abyss will send the spirit “straight back to Hell.” but that’s hardly specific. Either way, it’s chilling stuff and makes this one of the more exciting chapters, even if little of it actually interacts with the main narrative. Think of it more as thematically connected.

Something else that makes this chapter feel like a real turning point in terms of horror is the revelation of what actually occurs during the Crimson Sacrifice. I mean, it was easy to assume it’d be something not very nice, but it’s a particularly twisted and intimate brand of not very nice. Namely, one sister strangles the other and lets their lifeless body fall into the Hellish Abyss. Then, I suppose the dead sister rises as a Crimson Butterfly and acts as a guardian spirit for All God’s Village. Somehow. Not to mention, the older sister, which in this case would Mayu, is typically the one that does the strangling, which does not bode well for our protagonist.

To progress through this chapter, we have to search the entire house from top to bottom looking for doll parts, which we then use at the entrance to the Earth Bridge to reconstruct Azami, defeat it a final time, and rescue our sister before she gets captured again. 

Twins pacified and evil doll defeated, our heroine enters the underground cavern just in time to run headlong into Sae, looking as maniacally evil as ever. To add insult to injury, in the process of desperately fleeing from her, Mio manages to drop her Camera Obscura, leaving us with no means of defending ourselves in the upcoming chapter. You know what this means: chase sequences!

Just inside the Tachibana House, we walk out into a hallway, only to find none other than… Mayu! Hey, it’s Mayu, just wandering the halls! However, when Mio approaches her, she finds that Mayu is now fully in Sae’s possession and represents a serious threat to her younger sister’s wellbeing. 

From there, things go about as you’d expect. We spent a while ducking, diving, and hiding from Sae’s vengeful specter until we can successfully unlock the door to the Heaven Bridge, head back over to Kiryu House, loop back around to the Earth Bridge and get back our precious Camera Obscura. Does that sound convoluted and repetitive? Because it is. 

Once it’s done, however, Mio finds Tachibana House much easier to explore now that Sae is nowhere to be found and we have a means of defending ourselves in case she comes back. 

It should come as no surprise when Mio finds Mayu locked up (yet again) in Itsuki’s room, with the key, as ever, nowhere to be found. What may surprise you, however, is how you go about getting your hands on it this time around, though that’s more because it’s so poorly telegraphed to the player than anything else but I digress. This was one of the most frustrating segments in the game for me, seeing as it took me a lot of blindly wandering around and the eventual checking of a walkthrough before I was able to deduce what the hell I was supposed to do to progress. While you don’t have to go wandering all over town this time, you do have to intuit that a young girl, Itsuki’s sister, wants to play hide-and-seek with Mio for the key. She will hide five times, and you must find her five times. No biggie, right?

We’re here’s the thing: rather than set things up so that the player can find her in any of the five locations she will show up in in any order, they’re instead forced into following a strict sequence that results in the possibility of an unlucky player having to search every room in the house up to five times. And to make matters worse, the game doesn’t deem it necessary to lock you in the Tachibana House until you make progress, which means a particularly lost player might just start wandering around in places where the possibility of progressing is zero. All it would have taken to make all this so much better is to just have Mio say something like “Now where is she hiding?” when we first encounter the little brat in a cutscene, but nope. 

So, once that's finally done, key in hand, we double back and arrive at Itsuki’s room to find… Well, what do you think? Of course Mayu has disappeared again, and of course a nearby piece of literature gives us a hint as to where we ought to head in order to find her. It describes yet another underground passageway, only this one leads all the way out of All God’s Village and is the only means of escape. However, it’s been locked up ever since the incident with Yae escaping. Still, Mio notes the location: somewhere near the “Old Tree.”

Before we can resume the search for our sister, however, Mio sees Sae approaching the door through a window and braces for a fight. Only when the door opens, Mayu instead bursts through the door and embraces her sister. Mio is understandably shaken, but her sisterly instinct for her clearly unwell twin sibling overrides it and so she gets to work on comforting her.

Obviously, their next step is to venture out and attempt to locate this old escape tunnel, and hopefully make some real progress towards getting the Hell out of this place before something awful happens… 

But we'll pick up that thread another time. In the next part of this analysis, we'll instead be going back over everything we've seen so far and discussing its successes and failings before we move into spoiler territory for the final chunk. Stay tuned!

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