Fatal Frame V: Maiden of Black Water Review (Wii U) 

  Fatal Frame 5: Maiden of Black Water is a traditional Japanese ghost story told through traditional, Japanese survival horror means. I really enjoyed the first two entries in the Fatal Frame series (I have no idea what happened to three and four...), and on most levels this is exactly what I remember of the core gameplay, with a few tweaks for better or worse that wind up being a wash in the end.

  The most promising feature of Fatal Frame 5 ends up being the most annoying; the Wii U gamepad seems custom made for first person photography overlaid on your main TV screen, but in practice it's a gimmick that gets tiresome very quickly. My Wii U has been neglected for quite some time, and this missed opportunity to showcase it's unique features confirms my belief that asking people to switch their focus between two screens is just a bad idea. At it's best it's disorienting in a good way, (though Zombi U's implementation was much better) but once the novelty of holding a giant standard definiton iPad in front of your face, obstructing your view of your nice, expensive TV wears off it's tiresome and frustrating. And the novelty wears off well before the game even gets going, so PROTIP: go to the Settings and switch the camera view to the right stick only like a normal person as soon as possible. It makes the game much more enjoyable, and I didn't even think of it until fairly late in the game.

  So the main gimmick is a bust, and even the standard controls are fairly cumbersome. Your on-screen avatar takes up a large amount of real estate and trying to maneuver in tight spaces is super awkward. Add the constant switching into first person to bring up your Camera Obscura to deal damage to your ghostly enemies, and it's a borderline mess. Thankfully the game adds quite a few quality of life concessions to keep it from becoming unplayable: if you're anywhere near an item there will be a giant white indicator so you don't miss it, a similar cue will appear for enemies, and holding down the right trigger at almost any time will summon a spirit guide to tell you exactly where to go next. Freeing up the gamepad from being a pain in the ass camera analogue allows it to be what it should be: a constantly available map. These handicaps for the player in most games would seem overly handhold-y and detract from the enjoyment of getting lost in the spooky environments, but here they seem fairly necessary to avoid overwhelming frustration and are very welcome as the game ramps up in difficulty and the maze-like levels get more complex.

  You'll be doing a lot of walking in Fatal Frame 5, often in the same exact environments. The story jumps between three main playable protagonists as they ascend a mountain, rescue each other, and escape... only to be called back to the mountain again, night after night. Yeah, it may sound like a convenient way to recycle the same spaces and assets repeatedly to pad out the game (and it is...), but there's at least some kind of narrative justification that somewhat works. The Groundhog Day, stuck in purgatory trope of Japanese horror has been an effective tool I've enjoyed since the first Silent Hill, so I was able to roll with it here while in most other instances I'd be ready to leap for the power button. Another cool Silent Hill analogy comes with ghostly apparitions invading what you assume is your safe house. In a nice change of pace from the constant trips up and down the haunted suicide mountain, you watch through surveillance cameras as poltergeists attempt to assault your abode and steal your women. It's very reminiscent of Silent Hill: The Room, and it hit me right in the nostalgia.

  Callbacks to old school, Japanese survival horror games is where Maidens of Black Water shines. It may not be the most original concept, it's probably the worst Fatal Frame game I've played, but it's bravery to stick to the tried and true formula is genuine and at this point in time seems fresh. It's not a wink wink, nudge nudge half step into a bygone era that is masking it's faults with pandering, it's asking you to experience an old concept that still has legs when done right. I can look at the game's shortcomings and come away lukewarm and dismissive at the mediocre and plodding gameplay, but there's something here that just works for me. Mainly it's the story.

  If you feel like you've seen and done everything Fatal Frame asks you to do mechanically, the long haired, contorting ghost girls and ancient cult rituals aren't too groundbreaking either. This is The Ring, The Grudge, The Evil Dead reboot, the other Fatal Frame games regurgitated... but again, somehow this works for me. The main male character, Ren, is surrounded by young, attractive females who constantly had me confused as to who was who. Maybe it's my latent racism or face blindness, or maybe it's the fact the story keeps jumping time periods and replacing characters with other, past versions of the same characters (or their sisters or mothers), but I was having a hell of time keeping track of what the fuck was going on. I got the basics: the girls are all shrine maidens who are placed in small boxes with black, tainted water (hence the title of the game) to absorb pain and suffering, and they can be “married” to men who can be shoved in with them to keep them company. Then there's the cursed mountain that is the place of suicides and rampant maniacs, and it never lets anyone leave. Yeah, it's rather nebulous nonsense to me, but I really do enjoy how it's told through written notes, photos, and excellent, creepy cutscenes. It's like horror poetry, and it makes the game worth checking out.

  There is quite a lot to do in Fatal Frame 5. Even if it does become glaringly repetitive, you can't accuse it of not offering a healthy length and high replayability. There are thirteen main chapters, and most of them run well over an hour each. The last one took me closer to two hours to complete, and felt like a small game in it's own right. You can spend points to upgrade your Camera Obscura or buy items to help you survive, though I never had a problem starting with the default loadout on Normal difficulty. You also get graded at the end of each chapter, but fuck me if I know how that works. Completing the main story unlocks Nightmare difficulty and additional costumes, and even more bonus chapters. I felt content when the end credits rolled so I didn't bother digging too deep into the extra material, but starting up the first extra chapter had me controlling Ayane from Ninja Gaiden/Dead or Alive fame. Of course it did, Tecmo... but that stuff is there, and I very may well dive into it at a later date.

  Fatal Frame 5: Maiden of Black Water plays like a greatest hits highlight reel of survival horror games of yore. The pacing is slow, but somehow adds to the ghostly atmosphere. The controls are clunky, but they're just serviceable enough to move you forward and want to explore and experience the next story beat. I could pick apart the game's flaws all day long, but overall I enjoyed playing it. It doesn't aspire to reinvent the wheel or even refine or modernize it. It sets out to create a spooky atmosphere and tell a traditional ghost story, and it does both of those quite well.