Is that your wife with the camera?
My Top 11 Octoberween Game Titles for 2014 #11 - Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir
On 10/01/2014 at 11:59 PM by NSonic79 See More From This User » |
Two Octoberweens ago I shared with you all one of my finest treasures when it comes to old skool tech: My “Camera Obscura”. If you need a little mind refresher here is what it looked like.
This is my My Eastman Kodak, Model 1A Pocket Kodak from 1926. In that Old Skool Tech blog I spoke of how I was fascinated by spirit photography and with photography in general. My curiosity was mixed between the art of photo taking itself as well as the supernatural aspects of some photography. We are all aware of the “spirit photography” concept, something that’s been borrowed heavily, to varying degrees of success in some supernatural media. For me though this focus on spirit photography came to full focus for me with the release of the Fatal Frame game series. Call it a silly or intriguing concept but the idea of using a specially modified “camera” to not only document but battle evil spirits always struck a chord with me. It felt more physical of an item to use to combat ghosts instead of throwing salt, burning sage or saying a prayer. And since I was a big fan of the Fatal Frame series I’ve always wanted a mock-up to the original camera that was used in the game. Though my Model 1A Pocket Kodak comes close, it doesn’t quite give me the ability to take pictures of the spirit realm. But it wasn’t until this year that I was able to finally get ahold of a “Camera Obscura” to use for my own hobbyist purposes.
Don’t let this picture fool you. This may just look like a simple blood red, Nintendo 3DS XL. But thanks to some internal modifications I’ve been able to create my own personal “Camera Obscura”. It may not look like much but it gets the job done. And what personal modifications did I perform you may ask? Well to tell you the truth it was a simple matter. All I had to do was insert a copy of the game that is this year’s #11 choice for Octoberween gaming. I speak none other than Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir for the Nintendo 3DS!
This game was suggested to me by a former 1uper given that I have been known to be a big fan of the Fatal Frame series. It wasn’t until this year that I had the chance to actually try out this game for the first time. I have to admit that the premise of this game was intriguing. As you can see by the video, you use your 3DS as the titled spirit camera to explore the “Diary of Faces” (a 3D AR booklet) that comes with the game to unlock the mystery within it. Plot wise the game is pretty much similar to the Fatal Frame franchise as a whole (I’ll keep things a spoiler free as possible), consisting of dark Shinto rituals, corrupted spirits, a damsel in distress, trapped souls who have fallen under the cursed memoir and your quest to right the wrongs that brought this dark calamity about. In a way Spirit Camera has bits and pieces of plot points from all three of the known Fatal Frame titles for the PS2 but is crafted in a way that it doesn’t carry over into the main theme of the franchise itself. Instead it plays more like an “urban legend” to the general premise of the Camera Obsucra, complete with backstory (if read from the Japanese website) about the mysterious “Diary of Faces” that is so cursed that anyone who gains possession of this book eventually will have their face taken from them and placed in the possessed tome.
With that kind of story, along with the gameplay footage shown, you’d think this would be a solid title for any Octoberween Night. And for the most part you’d be right, expect for a few hiccups in executing this AR induced “visceral” nightmare.
Though the story, concept and themes hold their own, this game falters a bit when it comes to the mood setting atmosphere and in how you exactly control the “Camera Obscura” during gameplay. The game does it’s best to try to immerse you into the plot of the game, complete with story that you received the spirit camera and the AR Booklet in an unlabeled package, but the experience starts to fall apart when your expected to play this game in a brightly lit room. The 3D camera on the 3DS is unable to make out the AR images in the booklet in low light settings, a real mood killer when you’re trying to play this game in spooky surroundings. Though the game tries to make up for this by having you battle ghosts in your actual surroundings, the experience is marred by the fact that it’s bright as day as you trying to swing the 3DS around to get the ghost in the target rings of the camera.
And while being able to freely roam in your surroundings to combat these malevolent spirits, it doesn’t help much that sometimes just trying to get to these points in the game can be quite a chore. To date I have yet to beat this title due to the fact that I am unable to get past the level where you have to fight off a ghostly hand coming out of the Diary of Faces. The hand itself seems to want to drift away from the AR booklet itself, to the point where if I try to move my 3DS in where the enemy is located, I am unable to exorcise it because the game keeps telling me to face the camera at the AR Booklet. A hard feat to do when the enemy keeps drifting off the AR book that I assume is “jumping out of it. I’ve tried to recalibrate the camera and the system’s gyros, along with cleaning the lenses, but with no effect. It even makes it harder to play the mini games offered that involve the use of the AR booklet itself.
Oddly I’ve been having more fun playing around with the games “Spirit Photography” mode where I’m able to take pictures of my surroundings to see if there are any spirits hiding in the shadows. (Literally since the program only works when shadowing of objects are in the frame.) To date I’ve found a severed head in a pot of cooking spaghetti, odd brown streak marks surrounding a toilet seat, a spirit trying to crawl out of my “Rick Grimes” hat and a third person posing with “teh wife” and her sister in the same frame.
And don’t get me started on all the fun I’ve had taking pictures of random strangers in a new age store.
Too bad there is no option to transfer these pictures off the 3DS’s SD Card. (that I know of that is).
For the most part this game does play like a first person view of using the “Camera Obscura” like in past Fatal Frame titles, complete with waiting to charge the camera’s spiriting power and trying to wait till the last minute in letting the ghost get close enough to you to perform a devastating “zero shot”. The ghosts even have life bars to drain and you having the standard shutter attack to stop an attacking ghost without the need for special film.
In the end this game is a nice addition to try for any Octobeween gaming and it’s why it makes this year’s list. Though not as scary as the main Fatal Frame series itself, it does offer some incentives to play with some genuine scary jump scare moments, great use of 3D effects (though not required to have the 3D feature of the 3DS turned on to play this game), excellent Fatal Frame-ish soundtrack and a tried and true Fatal Frame story theme. If you can get the game’s AR Booklet and motion controls to work in your favor that is. I was able to find this game going for $9.99 new at a GameStop back in Connecticitia so I’m sure if you want to try out something different on your 3DS, this shouldn’t be too hard to find. Don’t try to buy the game used without the AR Booklet, it’ll take away about 80% of what the game has to offer and your mileage may vary in the “spirit camera” game modes.
If you haven’t played it before you might want to give it a try. If your patient, don’t mind the idea of playing a spooky game in bright daylight or having occasional technical issues, you might walk away surprised and possibly entertained. A cool concept this game is but it just makes me all the more curious in how Fatal Frame Wii U will turn out later on.
BONUS VIDEO!
My Top 11 Octoberween Titles for 2014
#11) Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir – 3DS: $9.99 new
What say you all? Do you like this game or prefer other Fatal Frame titles? Let me know or share your Spirit Camera/Fatal Frame moments. Share in the Octoberweeness!
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