Fatal Frame 4 (Chapter 10: Lingering Cherry Blossoms)

Actually to be honest, I dun really like using Choushiro (lucky this will be the last time) the Spirit flashlight is really full of crap… That’s why I’ve been putting off playing this chapter for so long… ok maybe not entirely true the LNY was also taking a lot of my time last week as well… so back to the game… I start the game with Choushiro in the room of creepy paintings (reminds me of the apartment of Isaac Mendez’s from Heroes season 1 but creepier), after taking a photo of the painting on the ground, it tells us to go to the courtyard… Ok on to the courtyard then… This time round I get to follow You Haibara around all the time.

After getting the key and black ledger near Sakuya’s picture, as I was about to leave I am attacked by the women in black. The fight is not that bad jus that I would have enjoyed the fight more if I could use a damn camera instead of the silly spirit flash light. Ok… ghost vanquished… Time to make my way to the courtyard… I only realized I had an item that can give you 1.5x more points when equipped.

Upon reaching the courtyard with the pool, a cut scene with Sakuya coming up from the basement is shown. This is the favourite cut-scene so far as I Think this is the eeriest one so far. This fight with Sakuya seems easy but I dun enjoy any parts of the game that dun give me fatal frames… Kinda boring…

I head down where she came up from and I am no stranger to this part of the house. So I just navigate myself around and finally meet Sakuya (friendly ghost version) she told Choushiro to pass a piece of the mask to Ruka and that she can be found at the place where Choushiro first saved her. I realised Sakuya is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde shortly after in the next room the mean and scary Sakuya decides to start chasing me around again… I manages to get away unscathed. Ok so now I’ll make my way to the Haibara Hospital basement. Like I said earlier, I just chase You Haibara around like we’ll playing tag… Seriously why would a ghost play tag with me? Along the way some emo undead villagers will attack so I just shine my torch at them until they scream stop. On to the underground basement, once there a cut-scene will play. After that Choushiro’s tag buddy will ask him to meet him “there”. Anyway it is impossible to not know where to go once again cos You Haibara will lead the way to the rooftop where you suppose to go.

From this point on everything seems like a chapter from the movie Sixth Sense. Choushiro is stabbed at exactly the same spot where Bruce Willis was shot in the abdomen. So as the scene plays I realized that Choushiro is actually dead since he saved Ruka from the ritual 8 years ago. Reason why he woke up outside the hospital grounds in Chapter 3 was because that was where he fell to his death with You Haibara. Although this was a reused plot from Sixth Sense but still I felt a little depressed and touched. But what I don’t understand is how a spirit is able to wield the spirit flashlight… Weird… More on chapter 11 next...

To be continued…

Fatal Frame 4 (Chapter 9: Ceremony of Passage )

Ok... Chapter 9 will start after the short intro cut-scene where some guy (which I think is Choushiro) handed me (Ruka) something which I dunno what it is and also a scene from the pask when Ruka was saved... So once i gain control, I made my way towards the creepy looking double doors and there 2 emo looking spirits stopped me from going any further... so I guess it is time to feed them some type-07... these guys are extremely slow for vicious blood-thirsty spirits... I managed to get some double shots and fatal frames with 3 hit combos... These guys are pathetic and I thought to myself damn I am good and felt that I owned this game... Boy was I wrong...

So beyond the double doors is a saved point... proceed on towards it and a cut scene of young Ruka being dragged away is seen. This area is fairly simple no helpful ghost to help this time but all i did was open up the map and explored every place possible and picked up every item around nothing too hard except there are times when the screen turns grey like the past fatal frame games the final boss of the game would appear to chase you around but Sakuya is pale in comparison. She is slow and dun even look frightening at all... I remember in the manor of sleep I srsly felt afraid and was running for my dear life but down here it is srsly disappointing... I just waltz my way past Sakuya... Only that i was stupid enuff to attack Sakuya the first time she appeared... I wasted one 零 shot and a few type-14 films on her before i realised she cannot be killed... Other than those emo looking ghost along the way some female version of the ghost will also attack you so just hit them with all the type-07 films they can handle nothing too diffcult up to this point...

At the end of the passage I reach a wooden sliding door and beyond it is a house... Inside I ascended a long flight of stair and after anor flight of stairs and a door leading outside I see the performing platform where the ritual is performed... From here everything start to go downhill... the next fight shattered all my previous confidence I had... I find myself battling one ritual dancer and 5 ritual maiden... Even thou only 2 maiden will attack with the dancer each time but let me tell you... they are really cheap... The are all over the place and disappear when I think they are going to attack me but actually anor maiden will attack from my blindspot either from the side or the back... the infamous attack by appearing from beneath the ground and attacking your legs from crimson butterfly is back... I used up at least 20 - 25 herbal medicine in this fight i used so much that i lost count... It is impossible to try and get any fanciful shots I gave up after i used up 10 herbal medicine... I had to switch to type-35 films for this fight... After "persuading" them to go away peacefully with my trusty camera obscura... I srsly dun feel any sense of gratification from winning this fight... I felt that i was just gang-raped by 6 female spirit... and trust me the feeling is not that kinky...

Moving on to the house in front of the stage which I found out is the house that Ruka grew up in. Here i just followed the ghost of Ruka father and then the end of chapter... I was so exhausted from the last fight that i missed a few ghost shots and when straight to the room that bring us to the end of chapter... i only realised that the next day when i watched the youtube walkthru... Saved my game and left the next chapter for anor day... next chapter is Choushiro I dun really like using the spirit torch so i might put it off for a few day... This week is the Lunar new year so maybe I can find time to play more fatal frame and hopefully complete the game.... More on chapter 10 next...

To be continued…

Fatal Frame 4 (Chapter 8: Sakuya )

I am not writing this blog as a game walkthrough but more like an in depth game review mainly on how I feel about the game I play. So I might skip some parts or jump ahead of some boring parts so please bear with me. But feel free to email me anything you would like to find out, I will try to help as much as I can.

So now more on chapter 8 first I would like to talk about the puzzle box in Sakuya’s room. I had a hard time with that puzzle. Imagine after a long day after work I want to just put some unholy spirits to rest with my trusty camera obscura but I am faced with this… So I decided to go youtube to find some kind of guide. But to think that the puzzle is random and it automatically shuffles after you exit and come back again… The puzzle is a picture 4 x 4 with 15 moving parts and only one space to play around. I gave up after 5 to 6 tries.

I took the image from youtube cos I haven’t found a way to screen shot the game.

The next day after work, I got home early and finally managed to get the puzzle box open, when I try to leave, a cool cut scene play and I find myself on the rooftop with a ghost getting ready to commit suicide. After the ghost fall to her “death” (like she can die a second time), I found the 囁 lens somewhere on the roof between two benches. An interesting equip function to have. Now a sound will be heard each time I get near to a Hōzuki Dolls *sweet*.

You will see this after you take a picture of the Hōzuki Dolls... nice but i feel not scary enuff and the child's laughter is not eerie at all...

Talking abt the doll hunting sidequest, it is really fun but a little irritating to do if you miss some of these dolls you can never get it again. Like for me I missed the 1st doll in the game during the prologue part and I cannot go back and get it already by the time I realised I need to collect all 79 dolls to unlock some stuff. Photographing all the dolls enables you to unlock costumes and lenses. There are a total of 79 dolls spread out through different locations. I quote the rewards from zerowiki as stated on the site, Rewards for the dolls is as follows, Ruka's Costume 3 (20 dolls) , Misaki's Costume 3 (40 dolls), Unknown Lens (60 dolls), Unknown Lens & Character Gallery (79 dolls).

Ok back to the game... from here on it is basically idiot-proof I just made your way back to the 1st floor, picked up any stuff along the way and explored all the rooms that are not locked. And to make the game even easier, I just had to follow the ghost whenever she appear...

This is who you should be looking out for just follow where she goes... anyway a bit of spoiler, she is actually Sakuya in disguise. trying to lead you back to the ritual chamber and to reawaken Misaki's lost memories.

Anyway along the way I was be attacked by a ghost in one the the rooms. She is not that hard, i took her out with a few type-07 fatal frames (use the chance to stock up on your blue orbs). After I blast the ghost to oblivion, she will left behind a 零 len I picked up under the bed after I defeated her (srsly, why would a ghost be holding on to a power-up lens). Alrite, so along the way some low-level spirit (They look like the angry mob from Fatal frame II: Crimson butterfly. I wonder why these spirits from the FF series all so grouchy and angry. ) also tried to harass me. I just fed them with some type-07 and they decided to stay dead (try to store your blue orbs whenever you have chance to fight the ghost).

I just kept following the girl in black until I reach a big gate. Ready myself for a boss fight and I opened the gate. Again anor nice cut-scene and than BOSS FIGHT: Sakuya. With the blue orbs i stored, I immediately blasted her with a fatal frame 零 shot, combo with 02 type-61 shots and it is good-bye Sakuya. 3 hit combo and she's dead too easy for a boss fight. I hardly broke a sweat. Following a sad cut-scene, I bid farewell to Misaki and assured her that i will see her again in nightmare mode. Saved my game and time for me to get my beauty sleep... have to go to work the next day. More on chapter 9 next...

To be continued…

Opening Credits

I am starting my first post for this blog... I will keep a record of my gaming process from now on. Starting today with Fatal frame 4 : Mask of the lunar Eclipse. Now I am already past chapter 8 of the game alr. Playing on normal mode seems pretty easy so far. Finding time between my gym schedule and work commitment I am only able to play one chapter each time I play the game. I will go straight to chapter 9 from now on. I will write about the past chapters on my second playthru when I am playing nightmare mode. For now I have yet to find out how to extract the photos from the wii so I can post here. Once I get that I will put the images here.

The game so far is relatively easy and not as confusing as the past installments as the “friendly” apparitions will lead you to the right path. Rarely I find myself stuck or lost with no idea where to go (but srsly, when you are stuck in a haunted house why would you follow the ghost around?).

I have to be honest, I am no hardcore gamer. So I’ll admit I do use some cheats to a certain extent. For FF4 I used the spirit points cheat so I can buy tons of items but strictly just the healing items else the game get too easy. All the ghost in the normal difficulty doesn’t have an insanely long life but they are really cheap. So you tend to drink the herbal medicine (Neo likes to call them cough syrup lol) like water. I rarely use the other film types except for the type-07 so as to keep the game a little more challenging. More on chapter 8 later…

To be continued…

PS. I forgot to mention earlier that I am playing the English translated version of the game made possible by Tempus from BCL forum. So Tempus thanks a million for all the hard work...