Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Review

Fatal Frame 4, I am going to be honest here and say that this could be a pretty good game or the very least a decent game but it is held back by two major flaws, the slow movement speed and the confused progression. I'll get to those later but I feel like I didn't buy this game and that had a weird madatory obligation to see every game I buy to the end, I would've dropped the game while ago. This game is certainly better than Maiden of Black Water but not by an overwhelming degree.

I'll start with the combat, it's...not that great, I'd say it feels clunky at best and absolutely frustrating at it's worst. When playing as the characters that use the camera obscura, it's an awkward game of following the meter on the top of the camera predicting when a ghost will come and hoping you don't get hit and lose your sense of alignment when you switch back into 3rd person, this will happen a lot since combat is slow and dodging is contextual meaning you can't consistently rely on it, I will admit that for a game that is considered "easy", I had a hard time on normal so I switch to easy so I won't get annoyed by how many times I would have to realign my shots when constantly cutting back into 3rd person then regain my sense of direction when switching into first person. But then the game actually offers a solution to the issues I have been having with the camera combat, the character of Choshiro Kirishima or should I say his flashlight camera controls, I am surprised this is considered the worst part of the game when I actually consider it to be the best, as him, I can reliably avoid damage since I have a better sense of my surrondings with the over the shoulder view and I can strafe left to right when aiming, so ghost combat actually felt somewhat enjoyable since I don't have to reposition myself nearly as often compared to the camera combat, I rarely if ever took damage as Choshiro. I'd say have the whole game be played like this and have a first person aiming option like Metal Gear Solid 4 and 5 do. Either that or have the game entirely be in first person. Instead of this weird inbetween of perspectives.

Now the thing that completely ruins the game for me: the running speed or should say jogging speed, this ruins any kind of enjoyment I could get from exploration, so much of the exploring feels like a chore due to how slow you are partner that with a hint and map system that works when it feels like it and also misdirects you and the game's structure of being in one location while slowly unlocking new areas throughout the game feels like a chore. The slow movement would get anyone to drop the game, and the ghosts giving you hints could easily be replaced with the game being like Resident Evil and pointing out areas of interests on the map, because the ghosts are vague and can even mislead you at times. The game points out areas of interest sometimes but not often enough and it's only when you get keys to unlock new doors not with puzzle areas or what's the next place you should be looking at. The slow movement also makes just wandering around and exploring a bore too due to how long it takes from one side of the map to the other. This game took me 8 hours to beat but I bet it would be 6 if my character could run faster.

Overall, I see solid game in here but it has too many issues to be a game I didn't groan at every 10 seconds throughout my playthrough. Not the most tedious "survival horror game" I played but not a very good one either. Improve the map and movement and I could enjoy it much more.