One of the biggest surprises of E3 2021 was the announcement of a remake of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water. The survival horror franchise has been dormant since 2014 when Maiden of Black Water was released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii U. It makes sense, then, to port the game for the Nintendo Switch, a strategy Nintendo followed with a lot of games that didn’t get enough attention on the Wii U. The good news for survival horror fans is that Maiden of Black Water will no longer be a Nintendo exclusive, with the remake also expected to hit PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. So do you want some Fatal Frame on your favorite platform? You got it!

As someone who skipped the Wii U, I’m pretty excited for Maiden of Black Water’s launch in 2021. And as the new trailer shows us what we can expect from the upcoming survival horror game, it’s time to break down the main moments from the reveal. So, grab your camera. The ghosts are waiting!

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The first seconds of the announcement trailer introduces new players to Maiden of Black Water’s plot. In control of three different characters, players need to investigate Hikami Mountain, a place known for the high number of suicides in the region and the countless hauntings reported by people who wander the place. These paranormal events usually happen near bodies of water, and they all seem connected to the Maiden in the title, a classic Japanese ghost with long black hair and a grudge against the living. Unfortunately, the Maiden’s spirit has been contaminated by the Black Water energy, an evil force that spreads through spirits and humans alike. The three protagonists of Maiden of Black Water will end up in Hikami Mountain for different reasons, and only by following through their intertwined stories can the player uncover the mysteries of the region.

As with every Fatal Frame title, Maiden of Black Water has a third-person perspective. The players control characters while they wander in gloomy places, looking for clues that can help them solve a paranormal mystery. While wandering around, the player gets attacked by ghosts, and the only way to defend themselves is to use the Camera Obscura. This special camera damages ghosts by taking pictures of them from different angles and distances. The best possible photo, known as “Fatal Frame”, is the most damaging tool in your arsenal. Think of Pokémon Snap, but all the Pokémon are ghost-types… and they are trying to kill you. The Camera Obscura is also your best friend while investigating abandoned places, as its photos can reveal connections between objects and help you find items you need to progress.

While taking pictures, the player can adjust the angle of the Camera Obscura in order to get better shots of each ghost. The angle, alignment, and distance from the ghost are translated into points that indicate how much damage a photo causes. Once a ghost’s health is completely depleted, the spirit is trapped on film. In the Wii U, the tablet gamepad of the console was used as a camera itself, giving the game a unique mechanic that’s hard to reproduce on other platforms. However, Developer Koei Tecmo still didn’t reveal how the camera manipulation will translate for PC and regular gamepads, or even for the Handheld Mode of the Nintendo Switch. Nevertheless, controlling the camera is a huge part of what makes Maiden of Black Water fresh, and the first trailer for the remake already indicates the feature was kept, even if we don’t know how it will be controlled. We can see the camera being turned freely, which was only possible by using the motion sensors of the Wii U Gamepad.

The trailer features some black and white images, a direct reference to how you can investigate the past with your Camera Obscura. Taking a closer look at objects spread out in the scenario reveals bits and pieces of the mysterious past of Hikami Mountain. The player can also learn more about the ghosts’ past by defeating them with the Camera Obscura. There are also special ghosts found in the region that need to be captured on film as fast as possible before disappearing forever. These ghosts serve as collectibles of a sort while helping the player puzzle out the dark background of Hikami Mountain and the evil rituals that took place there.

One of the most curious aspects of Maiden of Black Water is the wetness meter located on the lower-right corner. As the Black Water is a dark energy related to the bodies of water, the characters investigating Hikami Mountain will get wet as they explore the scenario. The water makes the characters get closer to the spiritual world, which increases the number of ghosts that show up in the player’s way, also making every ghost attack deal more damage to the player. However, as the Camera Obscura is a spiritual tool itself, the pictures the player takes while wet also deal more damage to the enemies. The wetness, then, is a nice risk-and-reward feature that adds a strategic layer to the game. Of course, you can decide to use items to lower the wetness level if the danger is too intense, but, in doing so, you also lose an obvious advantage.

Maiden of Black Water’s trailer ends with an ominous image of the game’s main ghost reaching for the player from the depths of some dark lake. Even if the photographic gameplay might not sound so appealing to newcomers, the Fatal Frame franchise doesn’t lack nightmarish moments that will haunt the player forever.

Maiden of Black Water didn’t get great reviews when it was first released, but the game was always praised for its horror atmosphere, an aspect that’s potentialized by the enhanced graphics we see in the new trailer. Besides, by remaking the game, Koei Tecmo has the opportunity to fix a lot of the issues the original title has. Unfortunately, it’s still too early to know if the remake will elevate the original, and we don’t have enough footage to tell. Nevertheless, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is a game every survival-horror player should keep on their radar.

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