October Together Retro: Golden Age of Survival Horror

[Ack]

Yes, there are several types of non-aggressive ghosts. You'll see ones that reflect things which happened in the past (hence why they're usually gone in a flash), along with ghosts that seal doors. As you have to get those, don't worry about them. And then there are hidden ghosts tied to specific spots that will cause your radar to glow blue. They're all worth spirit points, so they're all worth photographing. Also, ghosts are tied to specific nights based on where you are in the plot, so keep that in mind.

[Exhuminator]

Thanks for the protips! I'm surprised at how much detail you remember about this game. Did you beat it recently yourself?

[Ack]

Thanks for the protips! I'm surprised at how much detail you remember about this game. Did you beat it recently yourself?

Yeah, I've been through it, though it has been a long time. I greatly appreciated it when I played through it. I also watched a girlfriend play through the sequel, though that was also years ago.

[Xeogred]

How's your ghost list coming along?

I've noticed that when you take pictures of non-aggressive ghosts, the photo is named like "man walking up stairs" or some such. But when I take photos of aggressive ghosts, those photos aren't always named. I'm assuming there's an aggregation going on in a menu somewhere, that will have these ghosts listed like a trophy hunt? After I beat the game I'll see how many I snapped. Some of the non-aggressive ghosts are very difficult to capture on film. The game only gives you about one or two seconds sometimes. I have noticed if you managed to snap a picture of a non-aggressive ghost before it disappears, you get a massive point boost for doing so. (Points are used to upgrade your camera.)

Can you change your ammo with the camera out? I can't remember if you can in the first one, but it might be best to make sure your weakest ammo is equipped from the start so you don't waste strong film on the NPC-like ghost encounters you can snapshot.

[Exhuminator]

Can you change your ammo with the camera out?

You cannot change the film type while you're looking through the camera, unfortunately.

This game crashed on me tonight during a cutscene. I'm playing the Xbox version, and the disc is in pristine condition. That was aggravating because it cost me twenty minutes of play time. But I'm still enjoying the experience regardless, I just hope that doesn't happen again.

[alienjesus]

I started up Koudelka tonight. It's interesting enough so far. Koudelka herself is thoroughly unlikeable, and the story hasn't really set up much background for her or why she's at this monastery though.

The game definitely has it's flaws, but considering it's only meant to be about 12 hours long I don't think they'll be game breakers for me.

I'll put where I am in spoilers in case Markies is earlier in the game than me, but I'm only about 2 hours in, and still on disc 1.

I made it through the starting area and defeated a giant plant, before rescuing the 3rd party member, who is a priest. Then I fought another boss in the form of 3 colour-coded elemental eyes who caused me some issues, and arrived in the dungeons. That's where I stopped for today.

[Markies]

The game definitely has it's flaws, but considering it's only meant to be about 12 hours long I don't think they'll be game breakers for me.

I'll put where I am in spoilers in case Markies is earlier in the game than me, but I'm only about 2 hours in, and still on disc 1.

I am currently near the end of Disc 2 with the hopes of making it to Disc 3 today.

I hope it is 12 hours long, but I think it might be longer. I am close to 7 or 8 hours and I am not even halfway through it. I saw somewhere that it could go upwards of 20-25 hours.

Granted, I also spent some time grinding and the first couple of hours, I was leveling my characters all wrong. So, I had to spend some time to get them on the right path. Now, they are set in stone and I'm kicking much more ass.

[Nemoide]

I made more progress in Fatal Frame II today; I'm into Chapter 3 and am exploring a house I'd much rather NOT be exploring. But my time in Chapter 2 gave me some good experience with fighting a bunch of different ghosts; I was able to clear everything with Type 7 film (the unlimited, weakest type) and just recently switched to Type 14 because I realized I maxed out at 99 of that and can't even pick up more until I use it.

Now that I feel like I'm in the swing of the game, I have less anxiety about playing. It's still a scary game, but I'm not longer convinced that I'll be getting my character killed by evil ghosts within seconds of starting! There's still a lot of the story to uncover, similar to the first game, however it's told differently: I kind of like the "spirit radio" which lets you listen to the thoughts of spirits (and your twin sister) through magic crystals. There are also brief moments where you take control of your twin and explore a new area with different context than when the player-character explores it. The history of the village I'm in is still murky, but that's part of what makes the game so interesting!

Also: remember how the original Fatal Frame was promoted as being "based on a true story" in the US? I'm glad they stopped doing that.

[pierrot]

The history of the village I'm in is still murky, but that's part of what makes the game so interesting!

Dude, that village is nucking futs! Get out of there while you still can-- I mean, wait. Don't do that, because then you won't get to meet Chitose. Seriously, though, the last chapter is a trip. I think I remember hearing back in the day that the first Fatal Frame makes you go into the crawl spaces underneath the house. That's probably way preferable to the final chapters of Fatal Frame II. It's great, though. Terrifying, but great.


I decided to start up Deep Fear tonight. I am going to start by admitting that I gave up on this game way too early the last time I was playing it, but it is still not a shining example of a survival horror game. The premise is essentially that some unidentified, pod like craft, was picked up by a military installation in Nevada, as it was hurling through the Earth's atmosphere, and into the Pacific Ocean. It's roughly some time just after the turn of the century (so, sometime in the past, already), and there's a former SEAL Team 6 member, named John Mayor, working in an underwater research/naval sub operations facility 300 meters under water, along the shelf of the Mariana Trench, as an ERS (Emergency Rescue Service) member. He fell into a bit of a drunken stupor after losing his fiance in a rescue mission, when he was still a SEAL, but recently bounced back by joining the ERS, and has been on assignment at this research facility (the "Big Table") for a little more than a week. The military facility that picked up the UFO sends a nearby sub to pick it up, and they bring it to the Big Table, but as they're about to wrap up that mission, all hell begins to break loose, and John, as the most qualified person at the time, is trapped in the middle of all of it.

So, I played a bit past where I stopped playing the last time, but I'm still a little upset with the game at the moment, because it threw this boss at me, that's in close quarters, with a ladder in the middle of the room, the most terrible aiming that one could possibly imagine, and it's also a total bullet sponge, that eats up all of the machine gun rounds I have, and even a good handful of handgun bullets. That's not all, though. After beating it, there's this timed escape sequence, that doesn't allow any saving. Then there's some pretty gruesome, if a little predictable, cutscenes, and things are getting real on the Big Table. Still could not save, though. I shot up a monster on a lower floor without much trouble, then went back up to the previous floor, and run into a monster that completely owned me, not even allowing me to heal. So now, I have to start over again back from that boss on the submarine. Really, really not happy about that. Otherwise it seems like a more competent game than I remember. Voice acting is still beyond funny-bad at times, though.

[Exhuminator]

remember how the original Fatal Frame was promoted as being "based on a true story" in the US?

I'm fairly sure there was zero truth to that. Sure a teenage girl went to a huge desolate mansion all by herself at night with nothing but a camera. OK

Speaking of Fatal Frame, I'm currently 6 hours 20 minutes into it. I've made it to the third night, which I'm pretty sure is the final night. And that's cool, I'm ready for this to be done. My growing irritant here is the amount of backtracking, I don't enjoy backtracking in video games, and Fatal Frame is full of backtracking. And although the gameplay is fairly unique, it's also very thin, and becomes really repetitive. I find myself tiring of playing Fatal Frame after about an hour every time, hence I haven't beaten it yet. I'm not saying Fatal Frame is bad though, it's not bad. It's fairly good. But I'm sure there's reasons why I always read about people praising Fatal Frame II, while they never say a word about the original Fatal Frame. (Speaking generally regarding forums over the years.)