At its core, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake is a game all about exploring a decrepit Japanese village, zapping ghosts with a magic camera, and holding hands with your slightly disconcerting (and frequently supernaturally possessed) twin sister.
An expansive remake of a 2003 PlayStation 2 cult classic survival horror title, it’s been overhauled with shiny new graphics and a wealth of quality-of-life features that make it the first entry in the series that I would feel comfortable recommending to all survival horror fans rather than a dedicated subset of masochistic sickos.
It might be more approachable than any other instalment to date, but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in depth and, after playing an early preview build for roughly seven hours, I’m desperate to dive back in for more when it launches next month.
Into the woods
Compared to the multi-protagonist narratives of later Fatal Frame games like Maiden of Black Water, the setup here is refreshingly simple. You’re Mio, a young girl playing in the forest with her sister Mayu. Flashbacks hint towards a recent accident which has left Mayu injured, sporting a visible bandage around her leg, and Mio wracked with a sense of guilt and responsibility.
After the appearance of a mysterious crimson butterfly prompts Mayu to wander into the forest alone, you set off in pursuit and suddenly find yourself at the entrance of a ruined village in the dead of night.
Foreboding premonitions of bloody murders and whispers of a sinister ritual hint at the area’s dark past and, with Mayu nowhere in sight, you have no choice but to venture inside to explore. The first house you enter is fittingly creepy, with creaking wooden floorboards, torn paper screens, and a real sense of rot. It’s not long until you find the Camera Obscura – the series’ trademark anti-spirit weapon and your only line of defence against the undead.
While exploration is entirely third-person, helping you really appreciate the fear in the protagonist’s body language and emphasizing your vulnerability, whipping out the camera gives you a first-person look through the viewfinder. Unless you’re a seasoned Fatal Frame veteran, your first ghost encounter, which unfolds immediately after picking up the camera, is likely to be a messy affair as combat mechanics are very unique and intentionally fiddly.
The main thrust of it is that taking photos of ghosts inflicts damage, whittling down their massive red health bars one snap at a time.
Although you have an unlimited supply of basic film, it needs to be reloaded painfully slowly – frequently forcing you to put the camera away so that you can dodge incoming blows. Taking higher quality photos increases your damage, as does taking a snap right as an enemy attacks to trigger a ‘Shutter Chance’.
Inflict one just as you get the enemy down to the right level of health, indicated by a little white line, and you have the chance to activate the titular ‘Fatal Frame’ – allowing for a quick burst of high damage attacks.
In focus
The Camera Obscura has been massively upgraded for this remake, with a new focus slider that can increase damage further with clearer shots. Initially this is adjusted automatically, but an upgrade (purchased using points gained through taking snaps) allows you to tweak it manually to maximize your lethality. There are also now a range of toggleable filters, which drastically affect the camera’s capabilities and play an important role in exploration.
One, for example, allows you to reveal vanished objects by lining up the viewfinder just right to match an existing photo, while another removes magical bloodstains that seal shut important doors or chests with useful items. All of these new additions are implemented seamlessly, and feel like natural ways to add a little more depth to what was originally a rather simplistic experience.
It’s not long until you’re reunited with Mayu and set to escape, which lets you try your hand (pun intended) at another new mechanic: hand-holding. Mayu’s injured leg means that she doesn’t run very fast, so you can hold her hand to lead her along at a brisker pace. It’s a good way of ensuring that she sticks with you at all times, and there’s something undeniably quite sweet about watching the two sisters dodging past horrors at each other’s side.
Holding hands also heals you, helping you save your limited supply of health items for when it really matters.
Fatal Frame 2 was never the hardest game in the franchise by any means, but it could still be pretty punishing – mainly down to a save system that restricts manual saving to sporadic butterfly lanterns. Many fights can also feel, frankly, a little out of your control.
One enemy might shred you in a matter of seconds for seemingly no reason, only to be vanquished on your next run through almost instantly. So much of your damage output is down to luck, whether a specific enemy attacks in an easy-to-counter way or if it happens to be close enough to photograph just when you manage to reload for example, and this unavoidably starts to frustrate when one slip-up loses you twenty minutes of progress.
I definitely felt some of that unpredictability in this remake, but it’s countered wonderfully by a robust auto save system. Manual saving is still required if you want to quit, but if you die in a fight you’ll automatically be respawned right before you triggered it in most cases. It’s a blessing, and turns what could be a real nightmare into a much more lenient experience.
I’m sure some Fatal Frame purists will lament this new level of approachability, but if you’ve been looking for a chance to get into the series then Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake is shaping up to be a superb starting point. Even though I’m far from a Fatal Frame newbie, I know that I’ll be there day one when it arrives for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Nintendo Switch 2 on March 12, 2026.
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