Maiden of Black Water
Project Zero, also known as Fatal Frame in the US and Simply ‘Zero’ in Japan has been my favourite horror series since I played the first entry on my PlayStation 2 almost twenty years ago (Yikes!).
The series stuck with me for being more oppressive and less action-focused than the likes of other traditional horror games such as Silent Hill or Resident Evil. The Story, ‘music’ and setting of the first two games, in particular, I can still remember vividly, and I would have never dreamt in a million years that I would, one day, be playing a Project Zero game on a handheld console.
Not only did I play through the first three Project Zero games at launch, but I also imported and played through the Japanese exclusive Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen which was an interesting experience for a non-native Japanese speaker. Shortly after this fourth game in the series was released Tecmo merged with Koei to become Koei Tecmo and my beloved series seemed to be all but abandoned. A Wii port of the second entry Crimson Butterfly was released in 2012 and I assumed the series was done.
Fast forward to 2015 and along releases Project Zero Maiden of Black Water, being one of the thirty or so people who actually owned a Wii U at the time, I was excited, and the game was instantly purchased (We even got a physical release here in the UK!). I thoroughly enjoyed Maiden of Black Water but once again, lost hope of any sequel or return of the franchise as the game didn’t exactly have stellar sales figures, which I will put down partially to it being exclusive to the ill-fated Wii U.
Now that I have outlined my Project Zero/Fatal Frame/Zero fanboy credentials we can get on to the main reason we are here, My review of the new port of Project Zero Maiden of Black Water.
Review
Project Zero Maiden of Black Water has you unravelling the mysteries of Mt. Hikami and the increasing number of missing person cases that all seem to be related to the once-bustling tourist destination. After landslides and other spates of misfortune, Mt. Hikami has become a popular spot for people committing suicide. Rumour has it that the ghosts of shrine maidens wander around and if you are unfortunate to make ‘eye contact with them, you’ll never leave!
Maiden of Black Water is split between three main protagonists, each with their very own reason for being drawn to the mountain. The person who I would consider to be the ‘main’ protagonist is Yuri, she can sense people and guide them from the shadow world due to her being a descendant of the shrine maidens. Yuri’s mentor goes missing early in the game, so she decides to head to the mountain to see exactly what she was investigating. Next up is Ren, who suffers from a reoccurring nightmare where he takes part in a deadly ritual, his reasoning for being around Mt. Hikami is to study the local culture and customs for a book he is writing and also to find his missing friend Kazuya. Finally, we have Miu, who is searching for her mother Miku, who just happens to be the main protagonist from the first Project Zero game.
Gameplay
The gameplay is third person and has you slowly exploring different locales on the mountain looking for clues and more importantly avoiding ghosts! As each character investigates different areas of the mountain you’ll come across spirits, some harmless and other malevolent. Luckily, each character has access to a Camera Obscura, a type of camera able to take pictures of the supernatural.
The Camera Obscura can be used to search for clues and also to damage aggressive spirits. Taking pictures of these spirits damages them effectively allowing you to ‘exorcise’ them. When an enemy is in the vicinity, you can quickly switch to your Camera Obscura which will switch you into first-person view.
Each enemy has its own individual HP and you’ll be able to use different types of film to inflict more damage. There’s a fantastic risk and reward system in the game that the US actually uses as the title of the game, Fatal Frame. To execute a Fatal Frame, you must allow the enemy to get real close to you, as they try to grab your Camera Obscura’s viewfinder will turn red for a brief instance and a sound will play, this indicates you can take a Fatal Frame. A Fatal Frame will do massive damage, has a knockback effect, and feels really satisfying to pull off.
Throughout my 16-hour playthrough, I played through Maiden of Black Water primary using my Switch in handheld mode and the gyroscopic control of the Camera Obscura feel’s just as great as it did on the Wii U version of the game. The sections of the game I played docked were perfectly serviceable, but personally, I much preferred the gyro controls which is something to keep in mind if you are torn between what version of the game to pick up.
It’s worth mentioning that, unlike your ‘traditional’ horror titles, everything in Maiden of Black Water is deliberately slower in pace, your character walks at a more ‘normal’ human speed and the run button equates to a light jog, even when there are numerous ghosts actively trying to kill you. I love this approach, I loved it in the first game, and I love it here. I guess we could describe the whole game as subtle.
There’s even a slow mechanic to picking up items. Unlike other games, in Maiden of Black Water, you have to physically hold the ZR button as your character slowly reaches out and grabs the item. There’s a chance a spirit may try and grab your hand before you can grab the item which results in some damage so it’s worth paying close attention when grabbing items and this really can be unnerving at times, however, by the midway point in the game the novelty wore off for me and I found it to be more annoying than anything else.
While I enjoy the slower pace, I did have to change the default camera speed up in the settings as I found the most dangerous and scary thing in the game was not being able to turn my character around quickly, this was especially annoying when I was in a room with one more spirits, I’d end up walking into a wall as I panicked to turn my character around, that could just be a ‘me’ problem though although it really left me wishing there was a quick turn function like you got in some of the later resident evil games.
The sound design here is fantastic, the creaking of old, bouncing wooden floors and the sudden clack of a door closing behind you does set the mood. There’s no ‘real’ music, just ambient noise. A kind of heavy oppressive audio white noise that really does add a great sense of atmosphere and makes any other sound really pop. I played using a pair of Bluetooth headphones and I highly suggest you should play the game this way, it adds to the tension.
I played through the game in Japanese and I must say the voice acting is perfect and does suit the characters well, even the throwaway lines the spirits mutter as they ‘Die’ are outstanding.
Enemy design throughout the game is also very good, however, I do wish they had a few more different designs as you do end up facing off against the same type of spirit over and over again. There have been a few graphical enhancements for this port but I didn’t notice any of them, the character models, enemies, items and Mt Hikami itself look fantastic and I found it hard that a game looking this good was running as well as it was on the Switch. There was the very occasional stutter when moving between certain areas, but the slower-paced nature of the game meant it was never a real issue and it seemed to pretty consistently hit its 30fps goal. That said, I did strangely find I had more slow down and stutter while playing in docked mode. Koei Tecmo has informed me that there will be a day one patch for the game which should speed up the loading times and have some additional improvements so hopefully, this will help. I wish I had access to a PS5 copy of the game to make some comparisons but that will have to wait until after launch.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Project Zero Maiden of Black Water is a fantastic horror game from an equally fantastic series. This was the last game I was waiting to get the ‘Wii U port’ treatment and I am really glad it did. In my opinion, the story is good but nowhere near as good as Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly and there is a little too much backtracking across the same areas with multiple characters. Other than that, Maiden of Black Water is a solid entry in the series which I enjoyed from start to finish. I hope, with this release, Koei Tecmo consider porting older games in the series to the modern console generations and perhaps even a new entry in the series? I guess a man can dream!
8.5
Nintendo Switch review code kindly provided by Koei Tecmo
