FIRST HUNTER ENCOUNTER (DEAD SPACE)

Dead Space is a horrifying game that tries to scare you to your wit’s end in a number of different ways- which, of course, include specific sections where you have to escape from a terrifying stalker enemy in the form of the Hunter. The first time this happens is one of the scariest sequences in the game. After quickly realizing that wasting your ammo on this thing is going to do you no good and dashing out of the room in a panic, hearing the thing’s lumbering footsteps slowly moving in your direct can induce quite a panic.

Ico

Are you tired about hearing how underrated Ico was (and still is)? Well, we’re not tired of saying it. Developed by Sony Japan Studio and Team Ico, the story of Ico and Yorda – told deftly through minimalist dialogue and incredible aesthetics – is still underappreciated. In terms of animation, presentation and puzzles, Ico was ahead of its time in 2001. It’s still a shame that it only sold 700,000 copies worldwide as of 2009.

Sephiroth – Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2

Kingdom Hearts players had a taste of Sephiroth’s power in the first game when fighting him in the Final Mix version of the game. Surprise, surprise, he’s even more difficult in Kingdom Hearts 2. On top of multiple health bars, he moves incredibly fast and can kill Sora with the first combo alone. He can also throw homing orbs, draw Sora into a fire wall and unleash Heartless Angel which, if successful, drops Sora to 1 HP. Sephiroth’s attack speed and damage also increase as he loses health, making for even more fun times.

It’s been roughly six years since we last saw a release in the survival horror series Fatal Frame, and though there’s been nothing but radio silence on that front in the time since, fans have never really given up hope that it will return some day. Not too long ago, series producer Keisuke Kikuchi talked about how he would love to make a new entry in the series for the Switch, and now, in another recent interview with Nintendo Everything, he spoke about the future of the franchise a bit more.

Long story short, according to Kikuchi, even though he personally wishes to return to the series some day, that, as per him, is a decision that Nintendo – as the series’ publishers – are going to have to make, and not something that he as the developer can decide.

“Even though I have these hopes, this is a series that Nintendo publishes for us and I only handle the development,” he said. “So even if I were to say I want to make another game, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what will happen.”

When asked about the possibility of remasters for Fatal Frame 2 and 4 – neither of which saw a North American release – Kikuchi said that various factors – such as his own overseeing of Gust, the developers of the upcoming Fairy Tail – make it so that even though he wishes for that to happen in the long-term, in the short-term it doesn’t seem very feasible.

“As for Fatal Frame 2 and 4, Nintendo handles the publishing rights, so we don’t exactly have a say in that matter,” Kikuchi said. “Another factor would be is that I’m basically overseeing the Gust brand at this moment, and to secure production lines and team members, in the short-term it would also be very difficult, but in the long run I’ve never really given up the idea. So in the short-term it’s not exactly realistic at the moment.”

Well, the developers certainly seem more than willing to come back to the series and bring it back from its hiatus, while it’s clear that there’s plenty of demand for a sequel (or at least remasters) as well. Ball’s in your court, Nintendo.

The Fatal Frame series has been a key Japanese survival horror series for many years. While the series never quite reached the legendary status of, say, Resident Evil and Silent Hill, it’s remained a steadily released series since the first game’s release way back in 2001. Now it seems the series Producer is hoping things get spooky again with the franchise with Nintendo’s successful hybrid console.

Speaking to Nintendo Everything, Keisuke Kikuchi said he’d love to do a new game for the Switch. The games focus heavily on using cameras to battle ghosts, so he imagines a console that can go into handheld mode could be a lot of fun for the series, saying “Yeah, I do want to make a Fatal Frame on Switch. I think it’d be a ton of fun to play with the console in handheld mode and moving all around.”

The franchise has been Nintendo exclusive since 2008 with the last game in the series being released on the Wii U in 2014, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. Kikuchi seems to imply there’s not a new entry in active development as of now, though you never know. And with so many Wii U exclusives finding a new life on the Switch, it won’t be too much of a shock to see a port for Maiden of Black Water ported to the system sometime next year.

Although Nintendo has gotten a whole lot better about this lately, localizing all of their own games, and even helping third parties with localizations, so that their games can release in the west, they were pretty bad about bringing over games from Japan to the west last generation. It got to be pretty bad- major Nintendo games such as Fire Emblem 12, Fatal Frame 4, and Disaster: Day of Crisis never saw a release in the west, while games like Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora’s Tower, and The Last Story only came over after a year plus of intense campaigning.

Discussing what motivates their decisions about what games to bring over to the west, Nintendo’s Chris Pranger said, “The hardest thing for everyone to understand and to accept — and I’ve seen this first hand in the company, that this is typified — people think that obviously they’re right, and what they like or dislike has to be the norm. Why would it be otherwise? And they just say the classic “Why do you hate money? Why do you hate money, Nintendo?”

“And it’s like “What are you talking about? We’re trying to make…obviously it has to make calculated risks, but at the same time, one of those risks…and I mean they’ll bring up games that are very Japanese games, like Captain Rainbow for instance. They’ll bring that up like “Look how many people want this. Don’t you want money?” And we’ll be like “Yeah, we do want money, which is why we know it’s a colossal waste if we ever try to localize that in this current market, because look at you people. You don’t make up a big enough group.

“The hardest part for people to realize is how much money it takes sometimes to make a game like…if it’s a Japense game, to bring it over the States. Not just translating and then localizing and marketing, but if it’s a game that has substantial voice text, oh my goodness! That is a collosal cost to bring that over. And some games you look at and you’re like “Well how are they going to bring that over?” and it’s like “Well, they can’t.”

“You look at something like even Xenoblade Chronicles. People love that game, you know, within a certain group. That game is not the type of game that just pulls in enough to justify the costs on that. So that’s like, we got it in the States by luck, that NoE decided “Oh, we’ll take the fall. We’ll localize that.” Okay, cause someone is going to have to eat the costs somewhere, because that game is guaranteed to not sell enough to justify how big that game is. You know, hundreds of hours, all voiced. That’s a lot of money that goes into that.

“And people are like “Why do you guys hate money?” We don’t. That’s why you literally can’t make everything. And people don’t like finding out that their fanbase is actually too small to justify the costs of the thing they want.”

I understand the reasoning here, but there are two intangibles that must be considered here too- diversity in a system’s library, as well as keeping your fanbase happy, both of which are achieved by sometimes undertaking projects that may not be profitable in the end. Sure, a localized Xenoblade probably won’t make money (although Nintendo insists that it did), but it keeps your fans happy, and it adds depth to your system’s library, so why not do it anyway?

Happily, it seems Nintendo has gotten better about it in recent years, so there is that, at least.

The brand new fatal Frame game, called Fatal Frame: Nuregarasu no Miko, launches exclusively for the Wii U in Japan soon, and Nintendo and Tecmo Koei are ramping up the hype. That includes some brand new TV spots for the game, as well as a brand new trailer, which you can see we have included above, and which gives us a nice overview of the game.

Fatal Frame has always been a chilling, unsettling, terrifying series, relying more in psychological scares rather than the ambling zombies that have defined the genre (in large part thanks to Resident Evil). Fatal Frame 4 found huge success on the Wii in Japan, so it makes sense that its sequel would be coming to the Wii’s successor as well.

Although no western release for Fatal Frame has been announced yet, we are hopeful and confident that it will be- with the Wii U’s lineup very lean, and Nintendo having to fill it up almost entirely by themselves, they are not likely to keep a perfectly fine high quality game out of its library for most of the world. Especially when said game is so different from anything else on the console.

That a new installment in Tecmo Koei’s horror game series, Fatal Frame, would be coming soon, and that it would be exclusive to the Wii U, is something we’ve known for a while now. However, that was the extent of our knowledge, until last night, when a presentation made and streamed over Japanese streaming site NicoNico gave us not only the final name of the game- Fatal Frame: Nuregarasu no Miko- but also the release date (September 27 in Japan, no release announced for the rest of the world yet).

We also got our first trailer for the game, which gave us a look at just what we can expect from the title, and it looks pretty damn scary and atmospheric, although the character animations and facial expressions look laughably ancient.

Fatal Frame on Wii U launches soon in Japan. Hopefully, this title also manages to be localized and launched in the west. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for further coverage.

Known as Project Zero in Europe, Fatal Frame has you playing as Miku Hinasaki as she travels to the rundown Himuro Mansion to find her brother Mafuyu. Seeing her brother missing and chased by tons of ghosts Miku has to use an old camera obscura to photograph and somehow exorcise the ghosts to escape alive.

Subsequent games in the franchise, especially Crimson Butterfly and The Tormented, received good critical praise from critics. While we’re unsure if this means the entire franchise is due to arrive on PSN, it would certainly help in bringing gamers up to speed on one of the premiere horror gaming franchises of all time.

We’ll keep you updated with more details as Fatal Frame arrives on PSN. Till then, sleep tight.

Thanks to Siliconera for the info.