From derelict train stations to the woods dotting the mountainside, Maiden of Black Water sucks players into its world. It’s the environments that really steal the show, however. Hikami are varied and genuinely disturbing, and I looked forward to seeing all the different ways that they’d appear at random as I explored. For one, the wandering, hostile spirits that populate Mt. I experienced some pop-in and stuttering here and there, but overall the art direction is exquisitely implemented and more than compensates for these shortcomings. There are a number of different settings to explore, and they’re all rendered in rich detail.
Maiden of Black Water is gorgeous looking. The voice acting is the only real letdown here, but despite some cheesy dialogue and clunky line delivery in spots, it’s serviceable. Every detail here is in service to the story, and I enjoyed its twists and scares all the way to the end. There are suicides and grizzly deaths on display, and though Maiden of Black Water certainly earns its “M” rating with its gore and bloodletting, I never found any of it to be in excess. Justifying the warning that flashes on the screen at the start, the game doesn’t shy away from going to some deep, dark places. Each character brings with them the same core gameplay, but in terms of story pacing, rotating through the trio keeps the story humming along and provides a different perspective from which to take everything in. Maiden of Black Water revolves around the narratives of three people: Yuuri, Miu, and Ren, who are all drawn to the eerie, haunted Mt. Rather than create a traditional demo for the game, Nintendo has opted to release Maiden of Black Water as free-to-start the first and much of the second chapter (called Drops in the game) are available to play without having to plunk down any cold, hard cash, but I found myself more than eager to crack open my wallet by the time I reached the cutoff point. Developer Koei Tecmo might get some heat for its portrayal of women in some of its games, but the company shows some marked restraint here, and clearly pulled out all the stops in order to produce one of the best Fatal Frames yet.
There are some technical hitches that hold it back from the upper echelons of elite horror games, but Maiden of Black Water is a real triumph on Wii U and a must-have for fans of the genre in particular. Owing in no small part to its ability to sell an incredible sense of place, Maiden of Black Water is immensely creepy in all the right ways. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water for Wii U marks the end of an eight year hiatus, and is yet another solid entry in the series. Nintendo has been home to the Fatal Frame series for a few years now, but fans in North America would be forgiven for not knowing that, as the last two home console titles have been confined to Japan.
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