Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, known in Japan as Zero: Akai Chou and in Europe as Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly, is a survival horro game developed by Tecmo. It is the second installment in the Fatal Frame series, and is considered by some gaming magazines as one of the scariest video games ever created. Fatal Frame II was originally released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and a "Director's Cut" version for the Xbox in 2004 included some additional features. A Wii Remake of the game was released in Japan, Europe, and Australia. It is unknown if this version will be released in North America. However, the original PS2 version of the game has been ported for download on the PlayStation 3. The PS3 port was removed from the online store shortly after release due to various technical issues before it was fixed and re-released on July 30, 2013.
==Gameplay==
Gameplay in Fatal Frame II has some changes and updates from its predecessor. For most of the game, the player controls Mio Amakura as she searches the Lost Village with (and sometimes, for) her twin sister, Mayu. Mio's health is shown as a bar in the lower right corner, although only during combat and/or in Finder mode. If Mio's health runs out, the game will end; the player can replenish their HP using different healing items scattered throughout the game. Shortly into the game, Mio will obtain a flashlight, which can be aimed in different directions, although the flashlight will not work in all areas.
Mio's only weapon is the "Camera Obscura", an antique camera that can photograph and dispel spirits. The Camera uses different types of film as "ammunition", with the weakest type being unlimited. The player can upgrade the Camera's special functions and lenses using Spirit Orbs found throughout the game, and points earned from photographing ghosts. The Camera also uses a Ghost Filament, which glows red in the presence of a hostile ghost, serving as an indicator of both its direction and proximity to Mio. The Filament will also glow blue when a benign ghost is nearby.
During the game, Mio must explore the village and its central buildings, finding various objects and solving puzzles in order to advance. Throughout the game, Mio encounters a variety of ghosts, each with different attack methods. The ghosts often provide some backstory or hints to the player; one ghost, Itsuki, directly gives Mio (and the player) clues to find Mayu and proceed through the game. At some points, the player will control Mayu in short sequences as she is led around the village by the crimson butterflies; these sequences give the player hints as to where to go next. The game is divided into nine chapters, each related to certain areas Mio visits as she chases her sister. In Chapter 7, Mio briefly loses both the flashlight and Camera Obscura, leaving the player with no means to fight back. In addition to the main story, there is a special tenth chapter only available in Hard and Nightmare difficulties. The player can save their progress at red lanterns scattered throughout the village. There is no limit on how many times the player can save their game; however, the game cannot be saved during combat - the lamp will go out when a hostile ghost is present, and will not relight until the ghost is defeated. The game has a "new game plus" feature, allowing the player to start a new game while keeping all their inventory, functions, and upgrades from their previous save file. Over multiple playthroughs, the player can unlock various pieces of bonus content, including a "Mission Mode", different outfits, gallery features, and special camera lenses. In Mission Mode, the player is presented with a challenge, usually to defeat certain ghosts as quickly as possible, or getting the highest points possible, either overall or with a single shot.
==Story==
Twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura are visiting their favorite childhood place, before it is cleared out for a dam in the Minakami region. Mayu, who walks with a limp after a childhood accident, follows a mysterious red butterfly deep into the woods. Mio, concerned for her older sister, follows, and they soon discover a village at night. While it seems abandoned, the twins soon realize that the village houses the tortured souls of the dead, forever reliving the event that trapped them in this state. Mayu soon falls under the village's spell and, beckoned by the crimson butterflies, is led deeper into the village. As Mio follows, she slowly learns of the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, the failure of which caused the "Repentance", a disaster which shrouded the village in darkness. The village also houses a system of tunnels, its deepest point home to the "Hellish Abyss", a deep hole that collects the souls of the dead. To keep this hole from unleashing darkness, a pair of twins born in the village are required to perform a ritual approximately every decade, in which the elder twin strangles the younger, after which the soul of the younger twin stays to guard the village as a crimson butterfly. The last pair of twins, Yae and Sae Kurosawa, tried to escape this fate, aided by Itsuki Tachibana, the Remaining twin of the previous (unsuccessful) ritual. During their escape, Sae was caught and brought back to the village, while Yae found herslef in the Himuro Mansion. Desperate, the villagers hanged Sae to try to satisfy the Hellish Abyss; the attempt failed, causing the Repentance to occur and the village to disappear. During the Repentance, Sae returned from the Hellish Abyss as a vengeful spirit and, along with the Kusabi—a visiting folklorist named Seijiro Makabe, made a temporary sacrifice to the Abyss—slaughtered the priests and villagers. Throughout the game, several ghosts refer to Mio as Yae and seem to expect her to perform the ritual with Mayu, who becomes possessed by Sae. Itsuki, however, tries to help her—believing the two to be the Kurosawa twins, he tries to aid their escape from the village again. Near the end of the game, when Mio finally reunites with Mayu, she discovers one of Makabe's documents, this one concerning the twin order. In the village, the twin born second is considered the elder, as they let the weaker, "younger" twin be born first. This completely reverses Mio's implied fate: instead of being sacrificed herself, she must strangle her "younger" twin sister, a fate which has driven many previous Remaining twins to madness and suicide.
When Mio and Mayu attempt to reach an escape route, the villagers' spirits take Mayu back to the Kurosawa house, where the Hellish Abyss awaits them below. At this point, Fatal Frame II has three potential endings. The Crimson Butterfly ending sees Mio and Mayu proceeding with the ritual, where Mayu becomes a crimson butterfly. The Lingering Scent ending sees Mio escaping from the village without Mayu, which leads to an automatic game over. The Hellish Abyss ending sees Mio rescuing Mayu from Sae, only to become permanently blinded from looking into the Hellish Abyss. The Promise Ending, added to the "Director's Cut" version, sees Yae and Sae performing the ritual and freeing the villagers' spirits, thus sparing Mio and Mayu. Two new endings are included in the game's Wii Edition. The Shadow Ritual ending sees Mio unable to stop the Repentance in time, but chooses to stay with Mayu together in death over fleeing the village alone. The Frozen Butterfly ending sees Mio refusing to proceed with the ritual, resulting in Mayu strangling her instead (thus allowing another Repentance). According to the events of Fatal Frame III: The Tormented, the direct sequel of the game, the Crimson Butterfly ending is the canonical ending.
==Re-Releases==
===Director's Cut===
A director's cut edition was released for the Xbox in 2004. The director's cut added in several updates, including a first-person play mode, a survival mode, a new ending, enhanced graphics, and a greater number of alternate costumes to unlock. In first-person mode, the player can play through the entire game from a first-person perspective. The Xbox version also has a "shop" feature where the player can trade points from pictures for healing items and film.
===Project Zero 2: Wii Edition===
Project Zero 2: Wii Edition, known in Japan as Zero: Shinku No Chou , is a remake of Crimson Butterfly developed by Tecmo Koei and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It was released in Japan, Australia and Europe in June 2012, with no announcement for a North American release yet.
The main differences between Deep Crimson Butterfly and the original are the updated graphics and the new third-person camera angle, first used in Fatal Frame IV. The map has been updated to work better with the new viewpoint, and the costumes were designed with more emphasis on the back since it is constantly in the player's view. Also similarly to Fatal Frame IV, the game contains "ghost hands" which may randomly pop up when the player attempts to pick up an item. If a hand appears the player will have to shake it off, or incur damage. Some items, such as cloth-covered mirrors, may also be interacted with, and bars and the like peeped through. Ghosts also have many new attacks and special abilities for each one of them including Dark Return's which is an updated version of Blooming.
*Some areas throughout the game are newly accessible, such as the shores of Whisper Bridge, the atrium of the Osaka House, and the room on the top floor of the Kiryu House which could not be explored in the original.
*Several of the outfits from the original game, including the Yae and Sae costumes, have been removed and replaced with new costumes.
*The Camera Obscura, while its external aesthetics are identical to that of the original camera from the PlayStation 2 release, has a new viewfinder and new controls, a Lock on function, as well as a revamped upgrade system and a completely new way of using lenses.
*A new mode, Haunted House mode, has been added, a two-player mode in which players walk around a set course and scary events randomly occur and where the player may learn the backstory of new character Kureha. This new mode replaces Mission Mode and Survival Mode.
*The amount of healing items in the game has been decreased and some fights that were optional in the original are now mandatory.
*A mini-map as well as the system that shows you where each key goes from 4 has been incorporated into this game.
*A few unexplained events in the original game are now explained such as what Mayu was doing in the doll room during chapter 3, and the identities of the two Hanging twins in the Osaka House cutscene showing Miyako's death in Chapter 1.
*Several new cutscenes have been added to the game that further expand upon Mio and Mayu's relationship
*The way you obtain the endings in the game are no longer determined by what difficulty you are playing the game on and are instead determined by your actions in the last two chapters (including Chapter Zero)
*The game receives two completely new endings in addition to the ones obtained from the original and Xbox versions.
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