Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water Reviews
Fans of Japanese horror games are advised to repeat older parts of Silent Hill, Resident Evil, or Forbidden Siren. Although Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is a thrilling horror, it is spoiled by its repetition and slowness.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water provides a very effective atmosphere, with good scares and chills, and is unfortunately consumed by constant repetition, losing much or all of its "charm" in the final chapters.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The lack of care put into this maligned entry suggests that maybe higher ups at Koei Tecmo do not care about Fatal Frame. Maybe it should be laid to rest. If it can’t be allowed to be great, then perhaps it would be better off as nothing.
While I have a lot of issues with the core game I am happy to see the series return. I really want to see the original trilogy get an update it deserves. Would love to play those games again as they are genuinely some of the creepiest games I have ever played, and not for the wrong reasons. Maiden of Black Water just feels like something thrown together to gauge interest in the series return. I wanted to love it, I forced myself to finish it, but I just want the series to return to its roots.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water On the level of the improved version, provided a rather good improvement, but on the level of the game, it was one of the experiences that I do not want to repeat because the control is the biggest flaw in the game and the image of ghosts may cause you to be defeated and killed due to poor image capture in the game.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Project Zero (Fatal Frame): Maiden of Black Water is a remarkable horror game that earns points for the atmosphere, the setting, the history of the place and the player's main weapon
Review in Greek | Read full review
Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water brings a world of nostalgia and pleasure for old gamers who grew up with Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Review in Persian | Read full review
A camera of the omnipresent hell, a slow pace, an absent fear, this episode can only really count on its atmosphere, when it is not spoiled by the back and forth and the repetition of the environments, but even it will surely not be enough to make you crack.
Review in French | Read full review
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water brings back a game from seven years ago under the shape of a remaster with additional content. This survival horror brings its fair share of fear-inspiring tense moments, as well as intertwined character stories and very good level design that encourages players to explore. Its control system needs to be tweaked, though, as the actions should be better mapped, but while there are occasional performance issues, this is an overall great work, and one that deserves its place in the Nintendo Switch.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Although the story and combat mechanics shine in Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, the predictability of this game means that this horror title, in a short time, loses any kind of impact on the player. The new features that the remastering introduces do nothing to mitigate this problem, as they do not influence the gameplay itself. What's more, this version is marred by performance issues that severely tarnish the experience, especially in TV mode.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is an old-fashioned horror title capable of delivering many thrills thanks to a well-written storyline, anxiety-inducing atmosphere and unique gameplay, provided, however, you can turn a blind eye to the problems related to controls, the little care taken in graphics improvements and the lack of localization for several western languages.
Review in Italian | Read full review
While not a perfect experience because of some clunky controls outside of combat and weird story pacing, Fatal Frame Maiden of Black Water is a title that any fan of survival horror should look to have added to their collection.
Possessing a very unique atmosphere, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a classic example of the application of many of the characteristic elements of Japanese horror by blending psychological horror with supernatural and folkloric elements while following a structure of increasing tension. Although it is possible to recommend it from a game's point of view, it demonstrates much more value from the perspective of a representative product of this very different genre.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Although somewhat lacking on the horror front, PROJECT ZERO: Maiden of Black Water is a fun time with an interesting story and gorgeous graphics. The audio could use some improvement, but the pros far outweigh the cons.
Overall, aside from the visual upgrade, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is far from a suitable remaster as it fails to change many of the original issues. However, while it's also far from the best Fatal Frame game, it does still offer players the signature enjoyable camera combat and some surprisingly fitting aesthetic.
Koei Tecmo put in the effort to modernise Fatal Frame, and it shows. Not only have they ditched fixed camera angles, but combat has also been revamped to make ghost-hunting more fluid. While I miss the less-linear exploration, I know some players would greatly appreciate the guided episodic format.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water follows multiple protagonists trying to solve a mystery that intertwines with one another. During these investigations, they encounter supernatural elements and to battle them, a camera is used to deal various amounts of damage to “kill” the ghosts. Upgrades to the camera are gained that can cause faster film reloading or film that does more damage at expense of slower reload speed.
At the end of the day, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a solid effort despite its flaws.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water reminded me why I love this series so much. It has its flaws, but they are minor compared to what the title does really well. There is a genuine sense of creepiness that permeates almost all of the game, and those brief times of respite help to build up the interesting story at the heart of the game. Horror fans will want to give this a go. Meanwhile, I will impatiently await my remake of the original trilogy.
It's unfortunate that Koei Temco has no intention of remaking or remastering the Fatal Frame series from the beginning. This slightly upscaled and modified port from Nintendo Wii U to current gen platforms puts forth a subpar experience that doesn't sell me on the series. It seemed to just be the most convenient installment to make available for the 20th anniversary and it shows. If you're like me and Maiden of Black Water is your first Fatal Frame game, I recommend you keep those expectations low.