I will freely admit that I never got on board with the Project Zero series, or Fatal Frame as it will now be called globally, until the series came to the Wii. The first game that I played was Project Zero II: Crimson Butterflies on the Wii, so it is quite surreal to be playing the game again, this time as a full modern-day remake. Apart from the name change, was there anything else that caught my eye in my time with the game?

The setup for the story is that Mio and Mayu Amakura, twin sisters, are spending some time enjoying a quiet wooded area, which will soon be flooded to make a dam. The pair are quite close, as Mayu suffered a bad leg injury when she was younger, as a result of falling after running after Mio. While they are relaxing by a little brook, Mio begins to reminisce about their youth, only to turn around and see Mayu walking into the woods following a bright crimson butterfly. Not one to leave her sister, Mio chases after her and the pair soon find themselves in a village, where the spirits of those long departed seem to wander the streets. While I have not finished the game, this was only a preview after all, I can say that so far, the story is pretty much the same as I remember it being, even that very disturbing shot early on is still there. Given that the original game and the Wii remake did offer multiple endings, it is possible the team have more cooked up, but outside of a new confirmed ending, I could not say.

What I can talk about is just how much better the game plays in this Remake. It is important to note that Remake is capitalised and the Wii remake is not, this one is a complete Remake. That means that while the story, characters, plot points and locations are the same, the developers took the time to refine everything. I also noticed that this was more akin to the Wii version, than the video I watched of the original, which featured the classic Resident Evil camera angles. The thing that first caught me unaware was the holding hand mechanic, which as you might guess by the name, lets you hold hands with Mayu. This could have just been a nice thing to do when the sisters are together, as Mayu does wander off quite often. But nope, when you do this, you actually restore your health, as if drawing strength from the presence of your sister. At first, I thought it would just be a fun thing to do now and then, but I ended up using it far more than I thought I would.

Another change that I noticed early on is that your health is now different to the stamina, or spirit. Health is easy to understand, but the second is the one that is more deadly, because when you get scared, or even touch a spirit, you can lose stamina. Evading attacks and sprinting away from enemies all uses your stamina and if you have none, you can’t do those things. When you are not in a fight, you can run as much as you like, but once a spirit comes out to play, it becomes a finite resource. This added an interesting layer of challenge to some fights, not so much the one-on-one fights, but more the one on a few fights. You not only need to now keep multiple spirits in your view at all times, if you have to dodge one, you have to ensure you don’t dodge into another, because doing so can result in a drop of stamina, or worse your health.

There was even more new, the most surprising thing was that of aggravated spirits, beings who get annoyed at you trying to take them out. When a spirit becomes aggravated, they emit a red aura and so they look dangerous, but they also restore a lot of their health. They can also do more damage, more frequently to you, so keeping them from getting to that state is ideal. Another thing I did notice were roaming spirits, these are not the ones that loiter in buildings, or jump out at you when you pick up some film, but they are just walking around. You can try to hide or sneak away from them, your success will vary depending on where you are, you can also try to sneak up on them and use the camera to deal out some major damage. It should be noted that you won’t need to engage all of these roaming ones, you can choose to ignore them.

This feels like a good time to talk about the camera itself, which has seen it become easier to see. The core aspects are still there, the direction gauge for where spirits are, the film count and if you upgrade it, the zoom and focus function. But now instead of their being this massive ring in the middle of the camera, it is a smaller white box, which means there is less to distract you from the enemies. The camera now does not fill the entire screen, as it did in the original games and now behaves like the recent remakes, letting you see around it. Everything is out of focus, because that is how it would be when you use a real camera, and look through the viewfinder. Something that I did like was that the game no longer has two timers for you to wait on, before you can take another shot, you just need to wait for the film to wind up and you are good to go.

While I don’t normally spend a lot of time talking about the visuals in previews, there is no denying the game looks amazing. The Fatal Frame series have always had a decent dance between light and dark, but here it really feels like they are making sure to take full advantage of that. There were a few times when the game was a little to dark for me, so I had to bump the brightness to see, that is how well it is executed. Walking around the first house, called Osaka house, you will notice a lot of detail, from destroyed furniture, tatami mats that are falling apart and even clothes drying by the window. I need to give a special call out to the Drowning Woman fight on the bridge, it was a pain to actually play, but visually it was amazing. The Wii version of this did not really do it justice that you were underwater, but here, it feels like the Sonic drowning music could kick in at any moment.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is the second time this game has been remade, but the team working on this understand their source material. Every location, spirit and item feels placed to draw you into the world, even if you may not want it to at times. The story is the same so far as to the other versions, so long time fans may not be surprised by that, but the improvements to the gameplay, the addition of roaming spirits and even the addition of charms, will make it feel all new. With the game coming out quite soon, like a long flash charge, the wait might seem long, but just don’t blink at the wrong time, because this is one game, you will want to keep your eye on.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake will release on March 12 for Nintendo Switch 2, PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. If you are looking to pick the game up for yourself, be sure to check out our Bargain Guide, so you only have to pay what you need to.

This preview as made possible by Koei Tecmo.