Come March 9th, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse will release across a variety of different platforms. Having not created a sequel in over a decade, Koei Tecmo has been hard at work restoring its previous successes, such as Maiden of the Black Water, with its Remastered version released in 2021.
Related: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water Review | Fatal Framework
So What is Mask of the Lunar Eclipse?
Originally, the fourth game in the franchise, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is another remastered game by Koei Tecmo. Game devs have been hard at work both restoring the old graphics that were fit for the Wii at the time. Another crowning achievement of this remaster is that they are reconstructing the controls to both make for a better and more immersive interaction for the player, and to combat the previous difficulty players experienced back then with the controls on Wii. With the promise to keep the original horror aspects that made the Fatal Frame series so popular, we await the final product come March to revisit its terrifying tale.
Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is centered around the Rogetsu Kagura festival, a special occasion that is celebrated every decade on Rogetsu Isle. But a mysterious incident results in the disappearance of five girls. And while a detective later rescued them, none of the girls could recall what had happened before they went missing. Years later, coincidentally ten, two of the girls were found dead. The remaining survivors, spurred by the tragedy, return to Rogetsu Isle to find out the truth hidden behind the mysterious incident during their childhood.
What is Fatal Frame?
Fatal Frame is a long-withstanding franchise since back in the early 2000s. A survival horror game, each premise is you, as the protagonist, must venture into a haunted scene where ghosts and mysterious rituals torment those from the afterlife. Hellbent, these ghosts can either come across as passive within their woes or aggressive and will turn against the player if you venture into their territory.
Not without a means of defense to arm themselves with, players eventually have access to what is called the Camera Obscura. This allows characters to capture and exorcise spirits by way of taking their picture. By charging up the camera and waiting until the ghost is ready to strike you, the player can optimize their damage to take down their foes quickly. A handy technique to use when encountering especially strong and vengeful spirits.
This series of games has long since been on the Playstation and Xbox, adopting to the Wii and Wii U systems, respectively in its later installments. Most criticisms of this style of gameplay, while meant to further immerse the player resulted in some rather clunky playstyles. But now, as the more popular games in the series are being rerendered and modified, they are being optimized for current versions of consoles and hardware. Also expanding to more systems, this game should be able to lend itself to a variety of new players who will get to experience the haunting yet thrilling tales that exist in the Fatal Frame Franchise. Look forward with us to March 9th when the fourth installment of Fatal Frame, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, is officially released.
