Project Zero / Fatal Frame Video Game Series

For the fourth part of the series, i.e. Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen (English. Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse), intended for the Nintendo Wii console, players had to wait until 2008. Interestingly, the original version of this title never went on sale outside Japan. What's more, as Nintendo was involved in the project (which supported the developers and took on some of the publishing responsibilities), the title was initially only available on the Nintendo Wii console. In 2012, the series received a spin-off prepared with the Nintendo 3DS console in mind, titled Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir. The fifth entry, i.e. Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, came exclusively to the Nintendo Wii U console in 2014. Nevertheless, unlike the "four", the production could be enjoyed by gamers around the world.

In time, the rights to the fourth and fifth parts of the series returned to the hands of Koei Tecmo, which decided to introduce them to a wider audience. In October 2021, the game Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water was released on personal computers and eighth- and ninth-generation consoles; in March 2023, the fourth part of the series followed in its footsteps, which as Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse also appeared on PC and consoles.

The action of the games in the series Project Zero / Fatal Frame takes place in Japan, in the 1980s. Although the individual productions tell independent stories, there are some common elements in them; during the course of the game we play as various characters (most often young women), who have to solve puzzles of haunted places. On the way of the female protagonists (and a few protagonists) stand ghosts, which we do not fight in the classic way. Instead, we use the so-called Camera Obscura, which is an old camera. Taking pictures of the ghosts, we inflict damage on them, the value of which depends on the quality and detail of a given photograph; the matter is complicated by the fact that the ghosts are in constant motion, constantly appearing and disappearing. As we progress, we gain various camera upgrades, allowing us to face more and more dangers. During gameplay, we view the action from a third-person perspective (TPP); only when using the camera does the camera switch to a first-person view (FPP).

Series Project Zero / Fatal Frame is popular primarily in Japan. Although it is far from the giants of the genre in terms of sales figures, it has lived to see its own pachinko machine (the machine was named Pachislot Zero), a manga (Fatal Frame: Shadow Priestess by Shin Kibayashi) and a Japanese feature film (based on the novel Fatal Frame: A Curse Affecting Only Girls, which was signed by Eiji Ohtsuka). In addition, since 2003, the topic of a film adaptation, which would be developed by DreamWorks, has been recurring from time to time.