The Devil in the Details

Welcome back! When last we talked, we were just getting caught up with everything in the plot barring spoilers, and so you know what that means: it’s time to talk criticism! Opinionated shit.  Now, given that the game is due to receive its first North American release soon, I’d imagine many Fatal Frame fans out there are probably waiting with bated breath, so excited to finally play the one that got away. Hell, I was one of them just before I finally caved and shelled out for the Dolphinbar, and so I feel like I’m well within my rights to share with you guys my opinion on the quality of the game, even if I’m fairly certain I’ll be in the minority. Wait! Don’t click away yet! I promise, despite all my snarky asides and jokes during the summary sections of this analysis, that I went into Fatal Frame IV genuinely excited. It’s a new standalone narrative (take that Fatal Frame III!) and Suda51 worked on it for Christ’s sake. Even though I already knew that the series hit a widely-d...

Welcome back! Last time, we summarized everything from the opening of the game until its fourth chapter. This time, we're not stopping until we hit spoilers. Chapter Four opens with a bizarre introduction to the newest addition to our roster: hardboiled detective Choushiro Kirishima. The first we see of him, he's lying sprawled on the grass just outside Haibara Hospital with his notebooks and other work documents lying in a pile just a few paces from the entrance. Huh. That sure is strange. Strange and extremely convenient… What? No, no, of course I'm not implying anything. Let's just move on already! Christ. We soon learn that detective Kirishima is actually the man who once located the five missing (read: kidnapped) girls in the basement of either the hospital or the sanatorium or both many years ago. He’s here because he’s been contacted by a dying Sayaka - Ruka’s mother - who informs him that Ruka is going back to Rougetsu Island and begs him to follow her there an...

For those of you who haven't read my analyses for the original Fatal Frame, its iconic sequel,  or the conclusion to the trilogy, I'd advise you to check those out first as I tried hard not to repeat the same praises and criticisms in each analysis. Oh man, I could just about cry right now. No, I don’t mean because after fifteen years  Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is finally getting a North American release on March 8th of this year. Actually, it’s because I played this, along with the rest of these games, last year.  I’ve since learned from my mistakes, but after writing up these analyses and shoring up videos and screenshots to go along with them, I find myself getting dangerously close to becoming burnt out on the series and possibly blogging in general. How naive I was when I began this little pet project versus where I am now. Some might say this is the real reason for all my nit-picky complaints about Fatal Frame III’ s messy narrative, but those pe...

There is almost no greater achievement in art than that of becoming part of a person’s identity; imparting wisdom, however vague, at times where it’s needed desperately or even just being there to comfort someone in their darkest hour. Moments like these are what can turn a simple story into something more akin to a religious text, and are really what the magic of storytelling and escapism is all about, no matter the material.  Well, today’s film reached me in a similar way back when it first hit home video last year, although I didn’t realize it then. I enjoyed it and concurred with critics about all the things they loved, I disagreed with the vast majority of people who were angry it wasn’t more like what the trailer promised (aww, did those mean old trailers trick you into watching a good movie for once?) and I was ready to file the whole thing away under “Intriguing - Further Review Pending” until just recently when I suffered from that most mundane of tragedies - a beloved pe...