As a remaster of a Wii game only released in Japan, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse struggles not to show its age and seemingly ancient mechanics. But beneath the grainy surface is a moderately chilling horror game with a unique way to tackle terror.
During the mid-2000s I spent a generous amount of time barrelling through a number of classic PlayStation games.
My well-documented devotion to Nintendo began to wane in the latter years of high school when I acquired my cousin’s PlayStation 2 for a dirt-cheap price. But being a kid with no job and little income, I could only play games new games at a trickle. First was Final Fantasy X, then some God of War, then some popular things I found for a bargain at flea markets and pawn shops.
Transitioning to college and a more social setting, I was prone to reading reviews of seminal classics and upcoming gems. An entire one-month, one-class semester of my freshman year in January 2004 was spent accomplishing odd jobs in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where one roommate or friend would toil away for hours while another was in class. Sophomore year I spent $60 on Shadow of the Colossus because of its phenomenal reviews.
That year was a time where I would hook up my PS2 in the common room and attempt to dazzle my floor-mates with my “skills” in between bouts of Super Smash Bros. Melee. I had an uncle obsessed with horror games who bought a PlayStation just to play Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Resident Evil, and the tie-in game for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace… what a weird time. So I borrowed his copy of Silent Hill–one that he likely never played because a wife and child rapidly took precedence–and played it on a CRT TV while a number of friends looked on.
Despite an obsession with Resident Evil 4, I hadn’t touched on the more psychological terror of a game like Silent Hill. Regardless of its polygonal age, the game was creepy enough and inspired me to buy Silent Hill 2, likely with some financial donations from others. A group of us even went to see the film version in theaters.
Those communal scares and shouts spurned me to invest more time in understanding what games would capture a collective interest, ensnare the most amount of eyes. My research at one point turned to Fatal Frame, another “spooky game” that had Japanese roots and was deemed worthy enough by the internet at the time.
However, it wasn’t until 2023 that I’ve finally touched a Fatal Frame game, one that is a remaster of a title for the Nintendo Wii, never released outside of Japan.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a 2008 game through and though, one made for a console that emphasized motion controls. 15 years later, Koei Tecmo has brought the game to a wider audience, one that may have been potentially voracious to experience it. Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is not a remake, it is a remaster. Improved visuals, English text translation, and not much else.
A part of me admires Mask of the Lunar Eclipse on PlayStation 5 for what it is and what it represents. Countless games prior to the PlayStation 4 era were never released outside of Japan. I’ve spent hours watching those strange compilations on G4 years ago, Cinematech’s Nocturnal Transmissions segment I’m pretty sure, knowing that most of those games I would never touch, let alone understand.
Fatal Frame appeared so comfortably nestled in the PS2 horror zeitgeist but I guess price or availability caused it to elude me. It comes as no surprise that Koei Tecmo thought that the Wii’s motion controls were perfect for a game where players point a camera at ghosts in first-person and snap a shot to damage them. It’s Pokemon Snap meets The Ring and Silent Hill.
Thankfully, players need no experience with the previous games to enjoy Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. It is a standalone game which thematic and mechanical threads linking it to previous entries. Over the course of the game, players will control four characters who come to Rougetsu island and are connected to its tragic history.
Whether as the amnesiac girls who once lived on the island and experienced terrible trauma or the detective who investigated events on the island, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse shines when it explores the eerie events of the island and the backstory of the world. Explored from interacting with the environment and numerous documents collected, it’s difficult to ignore the thick, oppressive fog that has been crafted here.
Soaking up the game’s narrative was the best aspect of playing, an element that can’t be eroded by time. While the outfits of the girls and some dialog may not have aged well, the core story of this game will be enjoyed by those who love ghost stories and mysteries. It doesn’t traverse the deep psychological scars of Silent Hill or broach the absurdity of Resident Evil, but I understand why Fatal Frame had its place in time.
Being a game where spectral entities are the primary antagonists, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and Fatal Frame as a whole implements the “Camera Obscura” as its tool for combat. Players will notice ghosts in the environment and pull out their camera to take a picture of the ghost, causing it damage and ultimately exorcising it. Depending on the angle, type of film, and the action used, players will cause more damage. Snapping a shot right before the ghost strikes will execute a “Fatal Frame” and allow for combo attacks.
It’s certainly strange to play a horror game where players get rating for their skill in photographing ghosts but I can’t deny the unique approach to combat and how it is explained in the world. That being said, there are several ways in which Mask of the Lunar Eclipse bares its soul as a former Wii game. I can imagine the constant use of motion controls as a boon.
On the PlayStation 5, using the analog sticks feels the best but it’s obviously no substitute for the Wii nunchucks and the likely the Switch controls. Additionally, there’s an aspect of the game where players must interact with objects by constantly moving the control stick towards and away from an object after highlighting it with a flashlight. It all feels very dated because it is.
These kinds of faults could be ignored when simpler motion controls were a novelty and players were excited to complete any action through non-traditional methods. Here, though, it makes the gameplay more of a slog than it should be. Flashing performance scores like a Devil May Cry loses its luster hallway after hallway of taking pictures of ghosts. The game never feels entirely challenging and scares are rarely derived from a true sense of dread or impending doom.
What I truly lamented from playing Mask of the Lunar Eclipse in this way were the visuals. Look, I can handle stubborn, clumsy controls. I’ll hate having to retread similar parts of the island with nary a clue as to what my objective is, but I’ll accept it. What I could not get around was the agonizing, grainy filter that was ever-present during the game. Certainly I could tell that this was an improvement over the Wii but the film grain gave the illusion that Koei Tecmo was trying to hide something.
There were times I would see ancient textures that had little definition or balk at empty environments that offered no activities just because I was trying to explore. But the buzzing of the screen constantly distracted me. It made the laughable “run” speeds of the characters worse and stripped away suspense. Was my brightness too high or low? I really couldn’t tell. Rather than deepen the horror aspect of the game, I just chalked it up to poor decision making. Was there no better way to do this?
A lot can be said for developers not wanting to mess with something that doesn’t really need to be changed. That argument can be applied for much of Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Sure, it’s better to have the game on updated consoles than not at all. Yet I can’t deny how cheap this remake can feel at times when it detracts from the good parts of the game. Players can hate manual save points and other hallmarks of games from this era, I don’t mind them. Instead, I have concern over simple choices that feel extraneous.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse‘s fair controls and slightly dated design are things I can accept because this is an old game that was given a layer polish rather than a complete overhaul. I’m sure its small pool of veteran players will appreciate bonus content like unlockable costumes and filters for the photo mode. But ultimately behind all that is a solid horror game, warts and all. And like many updated classics, this could potentially serve as a litmus test of whether a long-running franchise will receive a new entry. Maybe the same applies to Fatal Frame.
