The world is a great river, my life is as a boat

Spoiler warning

The following entry contains full-scale spoilers with screetshots directly from the game.
Do not read this if you wish not to be spoiled and decrease your thrill in playing it yourself!

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Note : the content is not complete and basically based on my own preference.
Simply, it means I will only talk about what I'd like to talk about. *giggles*

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Name : Fatal Frame 3 : The Tormented
Genre : Horror action
Platform : Play Station 2
Product of : Tecmo
Released year : mid-2005
Previous episodes : Fatal Frame, Fatal Frame 2 : The Crimson Buttlefly

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Playable characters : Rei, Miku, Kei
Number of chapters : 14
Settings : Rei's house and the House of Sleep
Ghost types : Malicious ghosts and wandering ghosts
Difficulty : Easy, Normal, Hard, Nightmare
Weapon : Camera Obscura with equippable lens

Character Synopsis : Rei, the protagonist is a 23 years old photographer. Yuu, her boyfriend was killed in the car accident that she was the driver. This remains a profound pain within her. Throughout the story, Rei sees Yuu's ghost appearing in the House of Sleep and follows him. She seems to be traumatized by the curse of the blue snake tattoo. Every time she wakes up on her bed [meaning the end of each chapter], the blue snake tattoo will appear on her body more and more obviously each time. In the ending movie, Yuu is heading to the hereafter world with other souls. Rei sees him and screams out his name to call him back. Yuu is back, just to tell her that she can follow him no more since it's not a place for her. Yuu takes away the curse of the blue snake tattoo and leaves her forever.

Rei has Miku as her assistant and they live in the same house. Miku is actually the main protagonist from Fatal Frame, the first of the FF series. Miku lost her elder brother to the haunted house previously and still misses him sorely. Near the end of the game, Miku sees her brother's ghost and follows him to the deep side the House of Sleep, ignoring Rei's attempt to hold her back. As a result, Miku is possessed by the curse of the blue snake tattoo. There's a scene Rei sees numerous wandering ghosts surrounding Miku's sleeping body. This indicates Miku's life is in danger and it is Rei alone that can save her. However, the first ending movie doesn't reveal whether Miku is saved or not. The second ending movie shows she is [but this ending would be achieved if only Kei found an additional female ghost and obtain a pair of earrings from her in Chp.10]

Kei is Rei and Miku's friend and a non-fiction writer who masters in Japanese folktales and traditions. In facts, he is the uncle of the two twins from Fatal Frame 2 : The Crimson Butterfly. He visits Rei's house from time to time and helps with research on the House of Sleep and secret bloody rituals performed within the house. While traveling inside the House of Sleep, Kei tries to search for his lost niece, Mio besides solving the mysteries. Near the end of the game, Kei goes inside a vast partly-open door only to find [almost] hundreds of dead bodies lying on the floor. All of them are women, with naked upper torsoes and the tattoo of blue snake all over their bodies. Suddenly, one of the body stirs and stands up, turns out to be the final boss of the game. She attacks him and the chapter ends mysteriously, making me wonder if Kei survives at the end?

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Secret Rituals : The central focus of the three episodes of FF series are the secret rituals. They are bloody, inhuman and suspicious. The ritual in FF2 is centred around the twin, taking Mio and Mayu as its victims and the next sacrificed ones. The ritual in the lastest episode, FF3 is centred around the curse of the blue snake tattoo. The sacrificed ones would be nailed down by the four little [cute but scary] Miko - Shrine girls at 2 hands and 2 legs. Moreover, there is another ritual [or maybe the consequent ritual of the first] in which the sacrificed one will be torn into 5 pieces by the wooden machine.
Interesting thing is that the sacrificed ones are almost always women. Maybe because women's malicious will is stronger than men and this makes them the scarier and powerful ghosts?

The image shows the ritual Rei experiences inside her nightmarish world. The four Shrine girls are about to perform the ritual, by literally crashing big nails into Rei's 2 hands and 2 legs. It's great the she wakes up before the ritual finishes. :D

This is what I call wooden body-tearing machine. The body of the sacrificed one will be put in the middle on the wooden table, with five ropes around her head, 2 arms and 2 legs. Then five ritual performers will move the five wooden sticks to fasten the ropes - tear the body into pieces. >.< The sacrificed one will turn to be the ghost for us to hunt down later.

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How to hunt down these scary ghosts : As the story goes on, each character will obtain the Camera Obscura - the traditional and trademark weapon of FF series. This camera is believed to be installed with spiritual ability that it could capture the image of the ghosts and take down the [malicious-type] ghost's hp every shot it takes. Firstly it'll come out as a pretty weak weapon - meaning you have to take several shots to take the ghost down. But after you finish the game at least one time - meaning you gather all additional lens and upgrade them, it will be a very awesome weapon. If you master in using it, you can simply kill the ghost in single or douple fatal frame shots, or even hunt down the bosses easily with combo.

The best shot ever in the game is called 'Fatal Frame Shot', which will take out as much hp from the ghost as possible. Normally, taking the fatal frame shot is not hard since there're additional len and ability that warn you the proper time to make a shot. However, the moment for fatal frame shot varies from one ghost to another. The fatal frame moment for some ghosts is insanely short, so the best you would do is to take random shots continuously without waiting for that 'hellish' fatal frame shot. :)

The very useful additional ability for the camera [for me] is the 'auto-focus' function. This means no matter which direction your character confronts, the camera will automatically focus the appearing ghost when you press the button to use it. So cool, right? One [gigantic] problem is that it will not work on some types of ghosts, especially when there are more than one ghosts appearing at the same time.

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Playthrough analysis : Rei turns out to be the most powerful character, maybe because she possesses the finest collection of additional lens and abilities. Now I'm at my 2nd time playing in easy mode. Rei can kill the moderate ghost with only 1 or 2 fatal frame shots with type 14 film. Her special ability is launching the flashlight to scare the ghost off, however, with limited number of flashlight can be used. I believe it's because Rei is the most used character throughout the game, therefore she can gather many score points to level up her abilities and lens.

Classic shot from the game, Rei with the trapped ghost of a mother inside the house. Normally she appears with her little kid on her side.

Comparing with Rei, Miku is rather weaker and it's really unfortunate for her that she has to meet up strong ghosts in a few chapters. The ghosts she encounters, the girl on 4 legs and the three shrine girls, are really pains in the ass to hunt down. The girl on 4 legs is insanely quick and the moment for fatal frame shot is damn little. The three Shrine girls are possibly the most annoying ghost-gang in the game. :( As you're about to take a shot on one girl, the other two will annoy you to no end. They disturb you by trying to nail your legs, flying towards you and crashing you, or trying to hug you [?] until you're hit, lost your hp and cannot take a shot at all. Things will be [a lilttle] lighter after you kill one of them, easier when you kill two. Miku's special ability is to slow down the movement of the ghost [and also of herself]. This will make it easier to take fatal frame shot esp. towards those with insanely quick movement.

Miku, to me, seems to be a little nerve-breaking down here. =P She gets scared easily as things fall down accidentally [or intentionally?], and her overly reaction does scare me!

Kei, the only guy in the game with pretty unique and weird abilities. hmm.. He can do actions that the two girls cannot due to his stronger physical muscle - like moving the bookcase, jumping from one roof of the building to another, and the weirdest of all, sitting - in order to avoid being seen by some ghosts. - -* His ability to hunt down the ghost is so so, but it's great for him that he does not really encounter any powerful ghosts. It seems like he keeps avoiding the ghosts throughout the game though.

Kei is not fortunate every time with his sit-down ability. This time he is strangled by the boss, the women with the blue snake tattoo. Maybe she's mistaken Kei to be her deceased lover?

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The Ghosts : The ghosts are various, yet have certain patterns within them. Normally, most ghosts in FF series come with traditional Japanese clothes. They are like the echo from the bloody past of the place. The ritual performers as the first catagory and the victims as the second catagory.

To catagorise the ghost in another way, there would be the wandering type and the malicious type. The wandering ghosts are not harmful, they just appear for their own sake [or pleasure]. Sometimes they appear for a reason like giving you clues or lamenting about their past. The malicious ghosts are dangerous because they would attack you immediately as they see you.

You can simply avoid some ghosts by running away from them and move to another room, though a few ghosts will not give up and follow you everywhere until either you or them be hunted to death. Luckily for you, most ghosts move with the moderate speed. Only a few ones move insanely fast like a dash of light.

This is the example of what I call 'a pain in the ass' inside this game. Three Shrine girls appearing at the same time. They will take turn annoying you to no end. The tactic is to run and run around, make sure all of them appear in your sight and not in the range of hitting you, then make a rapid shot. Another way is to lure them into group or pair, then take a rapid double shot - meaning hitting two ghosts at the same time. However, the latter tactic is quite hard.

Yoshino, a single survivor from a plancrash accident was previously trapped inside the nightmarish world. Now she turns to be the ghost. She is one of the ghosts you will encounter early in the game, and she will reappear in later chapter[s]. She is so so, not so powerful. The only [little] problems are the gang of black shadows around her. You have to take them down before approaching her. Just take and take shots continously with these shadows [since there's not fatal frame shot moment for them], they will disappear and you begin your enjoyment with Yoshino.
Yoshino seems a little disturbing too because she keeps appearing inside Rei's house. Maybe she wanna stay with Rei and Miku?

This is something I call 'the bloody ghost with the dash of light moving speed'. The first time I encountered him was really terrible because he just moved damn fast, and that scared me enough to run around and around. The moment for fatal frame shot is rapid and he will just stap or hit you with his blood-covered knife until you got him. Annoying indeed.

This ghost is anonymous, still mysterious to me who she is. But I think she is Yoshino [remember that girl? the one that tries to move in staying with Rei and Miku, lol] She appears as Rei's taking a bath, scratches the bathroom glass door and scares Rei to death. Maybe she just wanna take a bath and says Rei's taking too much time bathing, who knows? =P

She is the final boss of the game, the big boss, the strongest, the bloodiest! Her mortal name is Reika, the previously sacrificed one of the ritual. Near the end of the game, it will reveal that she is only one amongst hundred of victims falling under the curse of the blue snake tattoo.
To me, she is not as powerful as I expect from a final boss. Her movement is predictable and avoidable. Only in the time of black and white screen that she will be deadly - simply touching you once means you're dead.
In the end, Rei places her body along with her lover's inside a boat, and pushes it towards the open sea - meaning her soul is set free and would re-born.

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Additional stuff : Actually another attraction within FF series are the humors and easter eggs where the players have to find out themselves. In FF2, there are numerous 'weird ghosts' appearing secretly around the place. For instance, some ghosts appearing with tormented faces, after you take shots on them, it reveals to be they're the production team who suffer because of funny causes - their wives and so on!

After you ignore the screen [meaning not stop the game, just place the controller still] for 5 minutes or more, the face of the ghost with blue snake tattoo will appear on the screen. Nothing concerning the game, just appearing to scare you.

Maybe this is special attraction made for guys. A few bathing scenes of Rei are seen throughout the story. lol

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Fatal Frame series provides another sense from other games in normal horror action genre like Silent Hill or Resident Evil. FF series sets down the Japanese setting, atmosphere and type of ghosts, while Silent Hill and Resident Evil series are made to be with more international setting. The ghosts from FF series are like those normally seen in Japanese films. They are not zombie-like, pro-spiritual yet powerful in the way to scare players. They provide the sense of haunting rather than disturbing like ghosts in Silent Hill and Resident Evil, and of course, they cannot be hunted down by bullets like the other two series, in which I think it's a little unsentimental - shoting those zombie-like ghosts down just like Time Crisis series. Moreover, FF series seems to stress on riddles, mysteries and solutions more than the other two. This is cool indeed, but also makes me curious whether I'd be able to finish FF without the guidethrough or not! :D

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Sources of image
www.gamespot.com
asianfantatic.com