音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

From now on I'm going to hate Japanese dolls! ∑(ﾟДﾟ)
-- It all the fault of Akane and the doll of Azami. They look the same, while the doll is damage-proof. And their speed is fairly slow and the invisible time is long. It could take me almost more than 10 minutes to fight them, and actually they are the ones cost most of my recovery items.
Meanwhile, Chitose-chan is so cute -- Let me purify your soul and turn you into a real Zashiki-warashi! <3

↑ Yesterday was Friday the 13th (look at the calendar again I just noticed last month had another Friday the 13th..), so (?) I finished Fatal Frame 2 for the first time.

... and then got traumatised.

Since the true end of Silent Hill 2 and various hunters in Biohazard series, FF2 hurt me seriously again: the ending under normal difficulty. Listening to the ending theme song alone long time ago didn't give me any special feelings until yesterday's game clear. Before I was thinking Mio would find out Mayu and the two escape together, but who knows the possessed Mayu (I can't tell who is who any more) chose to die under her sister's hands, so they could thus stay together forever.. Hey, you two can still stay together as long as you escape from the village; there's no reason to stay in the past you, don't waste your new life! << I know I shouldn't complain. Such an ending is good and much more impressive than an everyone-lived-happily-after. orz

Perhaps the yuri-ish ambience in FF2 contributed releasing my emotion. In FF1's normal ending, I didn't feel so much. Maybe I would if Miku had an older sister instead of brother.. ← sis-con declaration. >w<

The overall gameplay of FF2, on the other hand, is good and more smooth than FF1. The regular battles are so "delicious" as zero-shot (and fatal frame indicated by a special sound) could just come without too much trouble (or because I'm experienced after doing FF1?). Except the bothering Akane and Azami, other non-final-boss fights were not a problem at all (FF1's blind woman was the biggest challenge as a non-boss character to me).

As for the final boss, I mean the poor folklorist. Although his first time appearance in 3rd (or around) chapter didn't make me falling into the death trap -- people who've done FF1 all know, when everything loses colour, you can do nothing but escape, he game me a harsh time at the end of game. I sort of figured out that only zero shots could give him damage, but I wasn't sure and simply kept running around and retried about ... not less than 6 times (because the camera was not even charging!) until by chance I saw the focusing circle turned red at a moment (also I complain the closest save point is too far away! °A°). I even thought I might miss some key items to "unlock" his invincibility and reload my previous save to go back to Kureha shrine, yet thus I got a bad-ending-ish game over.

It's okay that the final boss demands zero-shot only. But I don't understand why a "kagami-ishi (= mirror stone?)" doesn't work. Is that the true power of a final boss? It's so unfair! ~_~

As a result, this old man cost me 5 shots in total, each consisted of one type00 film and one zero shot, with or without the fully powered zero lens.

Similar to the poor folklorist, when our hidden true final boss (under hard mode or above) Sae-chan shows up in chapter 7 (or around), everything fades into a black-and-white world. Although it was quite stressful, technically it wasn't hard as you know you should just run away from her (well, I almost forget that you can't really do anything else since you don't even have camera at that time..). To me, this part was the scariest across the entire game, and in this sense Siren 1/2/NT can be the scariest series...

Other than the colourless time, this game wasn't really that scary even only because the girls are so cute. Like what I said before, I've experienced enough in Silent Hill, Biohazard, Siren, Ju-on and The Ring, and I do believe I'm horror-resistant. I often play it at (usually late) nights, calmly -- of course I was scared at the jump-scare scenes, but they aren't the key to build up a horror game.

Although sometimes it's stressful when you open a door and see the filament turns to red, it can also be a fun moment. One example is in chapter 4 or 5 or around, Mio opens the door in Oosaka's house, and seeing Miyako (Masumi's girlfriend) stands still in front of her. Oh, hello, so it's you again! xD

It's all the fault of getting lost in Tachibana/Kiryuu's houses.

First: I knew I should go to find out Chitose-chan to get the key to the "bell-lock"; I also knew she's hiding in various closets. But I spent almost 2 hours wandering around, and eventually when I by chance hit the "wooden furniture" by the entrance I was honestly shocked: that thing is also a closet!? ∑(ﾟдﾟ#);
Second: the map indicates the location of Kiryuu's family crest, and I've also taken the picture of the creepy doll standing in the hallway. Then I spent another 1.5 hours to look for the wall and the hidden room, and was astonished when finally realising it's right beside this hallway.

Therefore, FF2 took me over 14 hours. Thanks to it, I feel like I won't need a map in future rounds.

While I don't even want to mention the annoying moving controls (radio-control would reduce the confusion but they preferred the left-stick...), I still wish:
The Project Zero staff should furigana everything as we normal players aren't folklorists who can read all those rare kanji!