Is it me or is everyone an idiot in this game

[Michel Baie]

I only done chapter eight so far, so please keep spoilers to a minimum, however, I just wanted to rant a little here.

Every protagonist in this game is a moron.
Like, Ren. Dude forget about Rui half of the time, but keep bringing her everywhere even after the hotel event. For the pleasure of then having her spirited away or possessed by ghosts for the nth time. And then there's the surveillance cam mission. A clown car worth of ghosts could grab him though the screen, he probably wouldn't react. Can't stand the dude, he's like half blind and completely deaf to almost everything.

Rui isn't faring much better. Case example, the visit to the doll shrine : "Hey, I heard a noise. Let's investigate alone and certainly not telling that oblivious bumbling oaf who own the only mean of defense against ghosts we have". Her only use in the game so far : her face is an extra focus point during ghost fights so it makes getting shutter chances slightly easier.

And Yuri... while she's not as visibly dumb, one just wonder how many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ visit to a mountain during rainy nights you have to do before having the idea of bringing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ raincoat. Especially when being soaking wet actively puts you in danger.

I know protagonists in horror stuff tend to not be the brightest lights of the candelabra, but holy crap. I'm not far from rooting for the ghosts sometimes. Especially in Ren missions.

[Aura Enterpr//se]

That's... kinda the point in character design trope for Fatal Frame series

For every Fatal Frame game, every character has sort of ̴͕̼́͑͂̂̂̒͂͜ ̸̧̛͒̒͐̀̿͗̒̑̔͝ ̸͓̦͓̻͚̬̙̟̠̌̀̿͌ ̵̛͚̤͙̳̱̜̒̉̆̓̊͒̔̍́͐̂̚ ̵̟͕̞̝̮͓̽̐̃͗̒͒̈́̾̎̚ background, leading to them most of the time seems cold/pale/lifeless/lost, and obviously he or she wouldn't just react, make choices like a normal, level-headed person would do. And he or she even get easily influenced by the ghosts/spirits, especially by whom they hold dear the most.

As example for Ren, well he did not want Rui to come but she insisted anyway, and he's more allured to uncover the past of his, the young mysterious girl in his vision, than realizing what's more important around him to protect. And both simply just sunk deeper the further they went on with Rui captivated by the ghost just to have a chance of being Ren bride, and Ren is simply selfish by himself

So, it's not about them being dumb like B-horror movie you think, it's more like psychological and emotional struggle led them around. Because they knew the danger ahead, but they still chose to go, to act anyway.

[Michel Baie]

Fair enough. I'll admit I probably lack knowledge of the series to properly judge those characters.

I should probably play other games in the series after this one.
I do have some at hand, what would be a good follow-up between the first game, the second, or Mask of the Lunar Eclipse ?

[Aura Enterpr//se]

Originally posted by Hibachi:

Fair enough. I'll admit I probably lack knowledge of the series to properly judge those characters.

I should probably play other games in the series after this one.
I do have some at hand, what would be a good follow-up between the first game, the second, or Mask of the Lunar Eclipse ?

About which title to be next, you can play either First game, Second game (Crimson Butterfly) and Fourth Game (Mask of the Lunar Eclipse) just fine, in any order you want, though I guess Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is preferable due to Steam availability, all of their narrative and settings are mostly contained within, isolated from other games.

Third game (The Tormented) is the exception, therefore make sure it is played after First and Second game!

-------------------

The only thing you have to choose is whether to play Crimson Butterfly remake (based on FF4 gameplay, 3rd-person-over-the-shoulder camera) or the original PS2 or the Xbox (fixed camera)

Xbox version has extra endings and difficulties than PS2, but I never try out its emulation to say its bugfree, however PS2 works wonder, and look darker.

The Wii version have new extra minigame Haunted House, and extra endings than Xbox version, with better graphics, which essentially the Ultimate Edition, but I guess few of the aethestic may got lost with the new camera style, and those hand touching, opening stuffs. That being said, this version is likely to be the next one coming to Steam, if Koei want to do one more.

[Michel Baie]

It'll probaly be Lunar then, if only because it's just a button press away. As for the two others, I have them on PS2, but I never took the time to properly check them out.

[VaMp (Zaenyx)]

First 3 games and this one have SOME connections, whereas Mask of the Lunar Eclipse's story is self-contained so you could either go for Mask after this OR after you've played the old ones.

[Michel Baie]

Originally posted by VaMp (Zaenyx):

First 3 games and this one have SOME connections, whereas Mask of the Lunar Eclipse's story is self-contained so you could either go for Mask after this OR after you've played the old ones.

I just finished MoBW - including the few postgame chapters for the lol, wasn't expecting this character to show up - and started MotLE.

And, well, so far it's just the same game but better.
Not starting every chapter with a fresh truckload of items and being able to select an higher difficulty from the get go does wonder in selling you the ambiance.

[mdesaleah]

1, 2, 3, and 5 are connected to each other at least a tiny bit.

Although the only thing thats really recommended is 1 and 2 before 3. Cause 3 does actually expect you to know 1 and 2 for it to work best.

Everything else can go in any order.

(and yeah, you know at this point that Rui being ignored is a plot point, and Yuri is depressed so her not caring much for her own safety kind of fits)