Video by Matt S.
(Project Zero is also known as Fatal Frame in America)
Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water is one of the most artful and interesting horror games that has ever been produced. One of the big reasons for that is the way that it taps into yurei (Japanese ghost) artistic tradition.
In this video I take a deep look into the cultural resonance of yurei, and why that makes Project Zero an intense, but beautiful and evocative game.
Let me know your thoughts and your own Project Zero experiences!
– Matt S.
Editor-in-Chief
Find me on Twitter: @mattsainsb
Comment also on Youtube, but you may be more likely to see it here:
I first ran into Fatal Frame/Project Zero a long, long time ago, when I was a kid/teenager. And the reason I was drawn to it was for some of the reasons you describe. The original PS2 cover for the second game depicts this incredibly striking visual image of two women tied together via red thread connected to their obi. It looked like nothing I had ever seen before in my life, and more importantly it looked like a *story.* I…find this kind of hard to explain logically, but I first started playing video games for the plot, literally. I read like a relentless demon growing up, and so JRPGs just became an extension of that behavior because they were all text-based back then. Learning Japanese has, in a way, brought me the same ancient joy that learning to read off those games and books did in the first place.
Anyway, Project Zero looked distinctly different from what my mind treated as the “boys club” of Resident Evil, so I started playing. I got pretty far, but eventually – and I’m not proud of this – something got me badly spooked and I chickened out. XD;;;; My parents didn’t exactly monitor my video game purchases, and I was like, 13-14. XD I think I was close to figuring out what, fully, was happening, and that was why. For some reason though, the memory of that atmosphere stuck with me, all this time. And so…
…I am now going back to these games, especially after my wife got me into horror proper. I am pretty much immediately discovering what was scaring me, front and center. They don’t exactly hold back in terms of what they’re saying happened to the ghosts of these more beautiful (the imagery! The hair/water!), strange Japanese tales of pain and the inability to let go of the literal ghosts of the past.
It’s funny because there’s frequently very little shock value at all, but I’m projecting myself into the characters as I wander up this ridiculously haunted mountain (my wife and I now have a somewhat silly little “Maybe don’t go up the haunted mountain” joke that comes from Black Water, even if almost all the characters have a decent enough reason). So there’s this uneasy dread slowly seeping into my bones, which even though I’m this old can still get me a bit. Thank you for running me through what it is that seems so different about these games, that yes has the same vibe as Silent Hill F’s specific otherworld!
Also, since I plan to play all the ones you *can* play these days, and have all three on Switch, I’ll let you know which of them ends up being my favorite! :]
Also related comment to the other one: if you’re really a fan of those “only ten copies in the world” JRPGs, Okage is one of mine. Almost no one seems to know this game exists, and it had the world’s clunkiest translation, but it has a *lot* to say about conformity, obsession, parenthood and the failure to treat one’s kids like people, escapism and its purpose, power fantasies and their purpose, whether you have to take up the legacy you’ve inherited (and what your relationship to it even means, exactly), and philosophy…all packaged like Tim Burton got really drunk and sarcastic and played/read some combination of Final Fantasy and Dr. Seuss. It’s fantastic.
I do love Okage! It was released as a PS2 classic on the PS3 back in the day, which is how I got to play it, and I just loved it to bits.