Saturday, December 26, 2009

Fatal Frame - Himuro Mansion Haunting

by Joan Seth


Picture is (C) copyright to Tecmo

Fatal Frame (known as Zero in Japan or Project Zero in Europe) was a video game developed by Tecmo and released in 2001.

The main basis of the plot focuses on a young lady called Miku Hinasaki, who travels to the supposedly haunted Himuro Mansion to search for the older brother. Mafuyu Hinaski was a novelist, who together with his assistant and editor went to the Himuro Mansion to search for his mentor, Junsei Takamine.

Please click here for an article on the Himuro Mansion

Although Miku eventually manages to find her brother, Mafuyu refuses to leave with her. It turns out that a vengeful spirit had kidnapped Mafuyu due to his resemblance to her former lover. Mafuyu states that he has to stay with her, so she will not be alone again.

Miku escapes the mansion alone, just in time to see the entrapped spirits of the mansion being released and floating into the night air.

How truthful is this game? Tecmo marketed the game outside of Japan with a "Based on a true story" tag.

The Himuro Mansion was a site of gruesome murders and deaths of a Japanese family and several associates a few decades ago.

However, the game does not make any mention of these murders; instead, other Japanese urban legends and ghost stories were included in it.

Please click here for an article on Japanese Ghosts

Ghosts like the Yurei and Onryo were mentioned in the game instead, which brings into question the factuality of this previous "basis" for the true story.

Nevertheless, this game was innovative for that time, in the sense that it helped popularize a genre of video games known as Survival Horror. It was also unique that it featured Japanese ghosts, spirits, exorcisms and occult rituals, which was not the main focus of any Survival Horror game before. It would be years later when Sony Computer Entertainment released Siren which is based on a deadly occult ritual.

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