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Fatal Frame/Project Zero 3DS spinoff (Spirit Camera) is getting a western release!


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Posted

WHU?! NOA not sucking for once!? Impossible, but also true!

 

http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ZlXHN669zp19PVP0PJ7Nh8K4TVZ2DBKU

 

Comes out Apr 13, 2012 (A Friday... I see what they did there...)

 

Game Overview

 

A visceral 3D horror tale unfolds before your eyes The Spirit Camera™: The Cursed Memoir game invites players to experience supernatural thrills they won’t soon forget, using the built-in camera functions and augmented-reality features of the Nintendo 3DS system. The game’s mysterious storyline involves a girl named Maya who has been hiding in the darkness of an old house, cursed by a malevolent woman in black. To free Maya from the curse, players must use the “diary of faces” – a 16-page AR notebook included with the game - to view ghostly images and interact with the world Maya is trapped in. The Nintendo 3DS system becomes the Camera Obscura in players’ hands and is capable of revealing the supernatural and dispelling evil spirits. The lines between reality and fiction blur in this chilling horror adventure.

 

Features:

 

The included “diary of faces” is a gateway into the game’s absorbing Story Mode. When viewed through the lenses of the Nintendo 3DS camera, each page of the book displays a variety of augmented-reality experiences.

Some pages of the book come to life in the form of video segments that reveal past events and shed light on the game’s central mysterious storyline. Others appear to send spirits floating into players’ real-world surroundings. Some page even summons players to virtually enter a haunted house where Maya is hiding.

 

Additional modes let players use the system’s camera in spooky ways. In Spirit Photography, they can take photos at their leisure and watch as haunting visions appear within the pictures. Spirit Check, lets them snap pictures of themselves and their friends to uncover the eerie spirits that surround them. In Spirit Challenge, they can put their own face or a friend’s face on a spirit and then battle it.

 

Players can also use the notebook with their Nintendo 3DS system to face other challenges involving a mix of memory, hide-and-seek and other game play elements all with a supernatural twist.

 

HUZZAH! And a few screenshots for good measure

 

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The Project Zero series lives outside Japan again! It also looks to be the 3DS' killer AR game too IMO!

 

Can't wait :D

Posted

Hmm... Interesting. :hmm:

 

I'm very unsure as to how well this will function as a horror game though, seeing as to make any use of the 3DS Cameras/AR you need to be in really bright lighting conditions. So yeah... not exactly a perfect setting to enhance the horror experience. :heh:

 

To be honest, I'd still rather they release Fatal Frame IV on Wii. :hehe:

Posted
Hmm... Interesting. :hmm:

 

I'm very unsure as to how well this will function as a horror game though, seeing as to make any use of the 3DS Cameras/AR you need to be in really bright lighting conditions. So yeah... not exactly a perfect setting to enhance the horror experience. :heh:

 

To be honest, I'd still rather they release Fatal Frame IV on Wii. :hehe:

 

Get a reading lamp, turn out the lights. Sorted :D

Posted

To be honest, I'd still rather they release Fatal Frame IV on Wii. :hehe:

 

Hahaha... I played it... though through evil HBC and patching means.... but that english translation patch was awesome.... shame my Wii went and broke and I lost my HBC ability, I'd like to replay it :heh:

 

Wasn't there a remake of the Fatal Frame 2 coming to the Wii (in Japan)... is that out yet and/or has a hope of coming here... what with the likes of Xenoblade, Last Story and Pandora getting the localisation?

  • 3 months later...
Posted
Get a reading lamp, turn out the lights. Sorted :D
Apparently not:

 

http://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/3ds/spirit_camera_the_cursed_memoir

While Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir has a genuinely interesting premise, it's let down early by its own technological limitations, and the disappointment is fairly consistent from there. For a game so proud of its heavy AR integration, it's somewhat ironic that this is also its major weakness. Repeated calls for calibration, dodgy camera recognition and the requirement that you play in a well-lit area all work against the moody and immersive atmosphere Spirit Camera wishes to create, and its short length makes it feel like more of a tech demo than a satisfying gaming experience. Players are likely to see everything the game has to offer well within five hours, and we can say confidently that there's not much incentive to stick with it even that long.

 

They gave it 3/10. :heh:

 

I knew the AR thing just wouldn't work well for this type of game.

  • 2 years later...
Posted

3 year thread bump :heh:

 

Didn't think it was worth making a new thread for Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir so just thought I'd post in here.

 

I picked this up cheap the other day as I'd always quite liked the sound of it and wanted to try it out for myself.

I've played it for over an hour now and I have really mixed feelings about it.

 

Part of me is filled with praise for it. I mean, what a unique way to utilise the 3DS and all of it's features.

For anyone who doesn't know, you are given a booklet in the side of the game case that acts as the games mysterious 'Purple Diary'. The camera / AR reader of the 3DS allows you to view the diary in game where it responds to the story.

One of the first thing the game does is show that what is a blank page in the booklet to the human eye, suddenly has writing scrawled on it as you view it with the in game spirit camera.

It's really really cool! :awesome:

And really really frustrating. :shakehead

 

It's a brilliant, brilliant concept and when it works it left me grinning form ear to ear. :D

But the problem, as many noted above, is that the AR camera is just way too fiddly to work with this properly and effectively.

The story / game, therefore just can't flow as you spend half you time trying to get the 'handy' camera cross hairs to match up with the booklet so the game can then manipulate them.

 

Ive just spent half an hour trying to dispel a spirit in the form of a little boy wanting to play hide and seek within the diary. He gave clues as to what page he was on and I had to then find the page, look at it through the camera and catch him. If I scanned the wrong page, he attacked me, if I was right, he ran off to another page until I caught the lil blighter!

Again, amazing idea, poor execution as it took me so long to successfully capture the pages, or I'd do it but only by holding the booklet up to the camera and then didn't have a hand free to continue by pressing the right button. :laughing:

 

Some parts are brilliant, like you're walking down a corridor in a mysterious house and it's all gyroscope based. So you hear something break behind you so you have to physically be stood up to spin around and see it.

Other bits like there's a girl called Maya who you have to help and she often talks to you. You have to use the camera to find her. It was odd seeing her stood by the lamp in my living room :laughing: - she gave me quite the fright at first :heh:. It even prompted my mum to question what the bloody hell I was doing wandering round the living room with the 3DS up to my face!

 

But all very very good ideas and new takes on gaming. It's just a shame it is let down so badly by the unresponsive camera - though it's more the booklet that makes it an issue IMO.

 

I will continue with it, as I find the story really interesting and I want to see what happens.

These are the kind of experiences I'd expect more from on the 3DS as there has been little to no use of the consoles 'features' like what we saw on the DS originally. Even the touch screen is hardly used like the DS used it with games like Elite Beat Agents. And Hotel Dusk / Another Code were really quick to bring unique play techniques to handheld gaming, which is why I always wanted to pick this up (not so favourable reviews aside :heh: ) to see if some of that clever gameplay could be found on this system.

Whilst the idea is very much there, it's execution is not. Still take my hat off to them though! : peace:

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