Friday, July 29, 2005

Fatal Frame Producer Speaks, and Next-Gen Fatal Frame!

(Thanks to BCL for saying this!) When the text is like this, it's because it's me talking.:D

1up.com has posted a article about Keisuke Kikuchi talking about the development of Fatal Frame 3 and his approach to the player's sense of fear for the third installment of the series.

Take a look, everyone!

And if you don't wanna change site, then you can read it here. ;D (Remember... when the text is like this it means I will say something.)

As the town of Silent Hill boards up its windows until resurfacing next-generation, Tecmo's camera flashin' Fatal Frame series continues moving forward with a third installment with producer Keisuke Kikuchi at the helm.

Japanese publication ITmedia found time to sit down with Kikuchi and talk with him about the sequel. Kikuchi believes fear stems from manipulating the game environment, story and directing. Whereas Fatal Frame concentrated on environment and the second game on story, there's a new approach for the third.
"I felt like I wanted to challenge myself and do something new, and that's when I thought of 'interactive fear'," he says. "I want players to actually be afraid of searching out the truth because they will be afraid to find out what horrible things await their character." And we love the way, you want it!
Keeping with the theme of threes, Fatal Frame 3 features a total of three playable characters, but it's not meant to artificially enhance the game's length. Instead, the intent is to experience different kinds of fear as players switch between Rei Kurosawa (the series' first male lead), Kei Amakura and Miku Hinasaki, the main character from the original. Tecmo appears to be bringing the storyline full circle this time around. Characters have varying abilities, which means the scares will come from different and unexpected places depending on who you're running around as. Three characters?! Can't it be better?;D
Just because Miku is returning, though, doesn't mean players should expect a continuation of the original game. Kikuchi isn't a fan of interconnected sequels, a feeling that shouldn't change with Fatal Frame 3. As with Tecmo's Deception series, later installments featured characters and traps from previous games as a nod to the fans, but that was the extent of their influence.
"I prefer the type of games that players who haven't played any of the previous entries can jump right in and enjoy it to the finale with no problems, so that's how I make my games," he says. Yeah, because it will be sad for others, who doesn't know about the other games.

Part of what makes the conclusions to psychological horror games like Silent Hill and Fatal Frame are their bizarre endings. They often don't make complete sense in order to provoke their fans to replay the games for additional clues and discuss what really happened amongst themselves. Kikuchi is deviating from that approach a bit in Fatal Frame 3, and intends on making the ending a little more digestible. It won't, however, be 'dumbed down.'
"Maybe a few hours after the ending sinks in, the player can watch the ending movie again and get a slightly different feeling," he says.

I want players to actually be afraid of searching out the truth
A common theme amongst already revealed next-generation games is an effort to toss hundreds or thousands of enemies on the screen at once, and Kikuchi shares that desire for his future games.
"For instance I feel that with the current system if I can do 10 things I really want, then with the next system I can probably do 20 things I really want to do or show," he says.
Though Fatal Frame 3 may bring some closure to the series, it's by no means the end of producing horror games for Kikuchi. "I do still have some unrealized visions," he says. "I already have some ideas that I'd like to do if I had more development time and a more powerful system."
Fatal Frame 3's currently headed to PlayStation 2 this week in Japan, with an eventual US release in the fall. Previous installments have received Xbox ports months after the initial release, but Kikuchi says there are no plans for something similar right now.

Next-Gen Fatal Frame
(Thanks to Zero Shot for point this out!)

IGN reports that in a recent interview with IT Games Kikuchi (the Producer of Fatal Frame) confirmed that plans are being made to ensure that Fatal Frame continues on the next generation of game consoles.
Though he didn't specify which next-gen systems he was referring to, history points at a likely PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release -- as all three of the previous games began as PS2 titles while two of them were eventually ported to the Xbox later on. The possibility that the next game could also appear on Revolution shouldn't be ruled out, either. No other information regarding the next Fatal Frame was given, but we'll keep you updated should that change.

- sources (Beyond the Camera's Lens & Zero Shot)

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