The music is very minimal, but the tones you do get are effective,В reminding me of Resident Evil 2's soundtrack, which helped enhanceВ the excellent atmosphere. Playing with surround sound, I absolutely loved using the camera to shoot and seal away ghosts in front of me while hearingВ another spirit trying to flank me from the side. The main characters felt more lifelessВ than the ghosts that were haunting them.ДЇortunately, theВ rest of theВ audio effects sound great. I recommend playing with the original Japanese dialogue on, as those performances have a bit more life in them compared to their EnglishВ counterparts. Underwhelming, dull voice acting isn't new to the Fatal Frame series, but the characters'В Ritalin-esque reactions to everything around them still feels unnatural, especially when Maiden of Black Water increases the number of frights and ghosts you encounter regularly. Despite these characters being involved in life or death situations at a supernatural hot spot surrounded by ghosts, the cast just seems bored when they're talking. Let me address the elephant in the room concerning Fatal Frame 5's audio :В the English voice acting is horridlyВ flat and unenthusiastic. The music and soundВ effects of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black WaterВ areВ on point and easily provide some of the best auditory experiences on the Wii U.

Luckily, the lightingВ and phantasm effectsВ redeem a lotВ of Maiden of Black Water's graphical shortcomings, just don't expect anything that looks anywhere near as good as Until Dawn.

Nevertheless, the game's character and ghost modelsВ easily grabВ your attention whenever they're on screen, though some features (especially the layers of hair)В look out of date, as if they were taken from Dead or Alive'sВ last-gen engine. While it's scarier than it sounds, Koei Tecmo's overt treatment of its female characters might be a turn off and just feels like bizarre design choices that needlessly standout when trying to craft something that is supposed to be scary. Within the game's first couple minutes,В you're playing as a girl in a near see-through top who falls into water and gets surrounded by a half-dozen female shrine ghosts who all have their cleavage hanging out. Fatal Frame veterans mightВ be surprised to see how well endowed most of the females in this game are and how they dress when compared to the rather toned down female protagonists of the first three games ( Fatal Frame 4 never got an official Western release). Given Koei Tecmo's decision to use part of Dead or Alive 5's graphics engine, the female characters of Fatal Frame 5 look quite familiar and have rather sexy looks. The character models of Fatal Frame 5В are captivatingВ for the most part.

Once you get stuck in the more cramped indoor areas, you'll notice that a lot of the textures look muddied andВ dated in quality.

Hikami and its dreary locales look eerie and gorgeous. Despite its solid attempts at spirit photography, there are some basic parts of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black WaterВ that feel underdeveloped, which can ruin the overall shot.ДЄt first glance, Mt. In an era whenВ survival horror has skewed into action-oriented gameplay or defenseless first-person perspectives, Maiden of Black Water is a welcome, old school-style callbackВ to survival horror's glory days.В Unfortunately, Fatal Frame 5 suffers from simple control issues pertaining to its core gameplay that should've easily been ironed out. This new Fatal FrameВ purposely maintains a slow burn in order to properly build up suspense, bringing back the ghostbusting gameplay of the Camera Obscura, which now utilizes the Wii U's GamePad to exorcise the dead. As the Silent Hill and Resident EvilВ series have started to stray and stumbleВ in maintainingВ survival horror, Maiden of Black Water ups the frights. Koei Tecmo and Nintendo may have skipped out on takingВ the Wii's Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse out of Japan, but the House of Mario decided to cave to fans' demands and give Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water a digital release for Western audiences.

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