Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented - third time’s the charm

Sep 8

Pictured: Our 3 protagonists from left to right: Kei, Rei, and Miku

Fatal Frame 3 is by far my favorite game in the series. It takes the other two games and wrings them out for their ideas.

You return to a manor, but this time it's within a dream. It’s sprawling, and massive, and extremely haunted.

FF3’s atmosphere is amazing. The Manor of Sleep is freaky, the spirits within equally so, and the place gets worse as you progress, albeit in small and subtle ways.

Our three characters, Kei (Mio from FF2’s uncle), Rei Kurosawa, and Miku (hey, it’s her again!), are all drawn into the Manor and must unravel the mysteries within! The overall atmosphere is wonderful, and the slow descent into grief each character takes is authentic in how it feels.

Fatal Frame 3 uses a lot of soft blue colors, and the game’s menu design is all married together with the overall colors and themes too. The noise the game makes when navigating menus is chilling in hindsight, given what it represents.

The voice acting in this game is great, with my only major complaint about it being that the characters don’t talk enough. Several times was I sat there hoping they’d have deeper conversations and more heartfelt moments (especially given the subjects of the game are depression, grief, and survivor’s guilt).

FF3’s difficulty is higher than 2, yet lower than 1, and while it has some difficulty spikes, they’re closer to the end of the game. This game continues a trend the previous ones had, though it is far more noticeable here: the final boss can be extremely annoying. On top of that there’s a mechanic that is introduced in the last few chapters that makes exploration of the Manor far harder and in some ways far more annoying than in previous chapters.

As mentioned above, the story focuses on some heavier and more intimate material. Depression, survivor’s guilt, grief, these are the key ingredients to understanding both the story and the protagonists themselves. Each person has something they want, someone they miss, somewhere they wish they could be, and it ties together beautifully. The ending scene (no spoilers I promise) was genuinely beautiful.

FF3 ties into the other games, though more in the personal connections sense and less in the spirits that cross-reference sense. Kei is Mio’s/Mayu’s uncle, Miku lives with Rei and the two depend on each other somewhat. By far the closest the series gets to perfect, though it still feels like there are just a few small things missing.