Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake is absolutely terrifying.
Team Ninja delivers unequivocal, spine-chilling survival horror, if — and it’s a really big if — you’re willing to stomach a few familiar frustrations.
In recent years, Koei Tecmo has attempted to resurrect the Fatal Frame/Project Zero series with mixed results. Both Maiden of Black Water and Mask of the Lunar Eclipse received the remaster treatment, though we were not particularly impressed with either.
Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly, however, gets the full works. This is a proper top-to-bottom remake, and it’s clearly paid dividends.
The most notable shake-up is the removal of the fixed camera angles typical of late-’90s survival horror games. In their place is a modern third-person perspective that makes exploring Minakami village far less cumbersome.
It’s just the first of many welcome modernisations from the devs at Team Ninja. Additional side stories offer extra narrative juice for returning fans of the original PS2 title, and an all-new unlockable ending awaits those brave mad enough to attempt New Game+ on Nightmare difficulty.
Because the story takes place long before the events of the original game, this remake serves as an ideal entry point for new players unfamiliar with Fatal Frame’s unique mix of survival horror, puzzles, and the famously divisive Camera Obscura combat.
Graphics and gameplay fare much better too, but here’s the rub: this is a faithful revamping of its source material. It follows closely in the footsteps of the original, and while it undeniably looks and plays much better in 2026, it still falls victim to many of the same criticisms of the past. Which feels almost ironic, if you know anything about the game’s dark story.
The game follows Mio and Mayu Amakura, twin sisters lured deep into the forest by a crimson butterfly. Sinister forces soon separate the two, trapping them in Minakami Village — a settlement long erased from the map and shrouded in eternal darkness.
Minakami is immediately creepy: an infallibly dark atmosphere full of vengeful ghosts and ghoulies. These wraiths seek to harm Mio, abduct Mayu, and perform the forbidden Crimson Butterfly Ritual. As Mio searches for her sister, she begins to uncover the village’s grim history and the tragic fate of another pair of twins whose story mirrors their own.
Crimson Butterfly remake is built like a classic survival horror game, and plays like a nostalgic lock-and-key shuffle through a handful of fear-inducing environments, reminiscent of genre all-timers like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Prepare yourself for plenty of backtracking!
Structurally, you creep from building to building, reading notebooks, finding keys, listening to spirit boxes, and snapping photos of some pretty rancid-looking ghosts to progress through the game’s nine-chapter story.
We love a good jump scare, and Crimson Butterfly Remake has plenty to keep you on your toes. We found ourselves bracing during every drawn-out door opening, and every long reach for something just out of grasp — moments clearly designed as the perfect setup for a wraith to pop up and scare the living daylights out of you.
But the devs are clever enough not to bombard you and dull the tension. Instead, much of the fear comes from what isn’t there.
In fact, the last time a horror game made us feel this tense was when we played 2005’s Condemned: Criminal Origins. Hell, this might just be the scariest game we’ve ever played.
Early on, Mio and Mayu encounter their first wraith — an angry murder-ghost with a hankering for strangling twins. Thankfully, just moments earlier we were introduced to a magical ghost-killing camera, and provided with copious text-based tutorials on how to kill an angry murder-ghost. Phew.
But this also brings us to the main reason we’re hesitant to outright recommend Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake, and it all comes down to the series’ signature weapon: the Camera Obscura.
As you explore Minakami Village in search of Mayu (and a way to escape) Mio can defend herself from wraiths by snapping pictures to deal damage.
Shooting portraits of your ghoulish enemies is a great way to get a good look at their unsettling new faces, but the real trick lies in timing your shots. Waiting for a wraith to move in close and snapping a new face card mid-lunge can trigger a Fatal Frame, countering the attack and significantly boosting your damage output.
The camera comes preloaded with a limitless supply of Type-07 film, but a handful of other rolls can be loaded too, each with their own quirks. Some reload faster, while others possess higher exorcism power, dealing much more damage when used.
Toggleable Filters also introduce their own exploration gimmicks and special shot abilities. We particularly liked the Exposure filter, which slows wraiths down during combat whilst also revealing hidden trails and treasures during exploration.
Battling wraiths is a tense affair, a novel and enjoyable way to take down enemies, albeit a little clunky at times. Thankfully, the remake adds a few modern concessions. You can now click R3 to auto-lock onto ghosts in frame and press X to dodge incoming attacks. Once you get to grips with focal points, focus, and slap on a couple of upgrades to the Camera Obscura, combat starts to feel much more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, it’s still not without its frustrations.
One mechanic we weren’t so keen on is when a wraith becomes aggravated. At any time during a scrap, there’s a chance they will turn red and get properly angry about being papped.
Managing an aggravated wraith isn’t the problem. They still move and attack the same way, just a little quicker. The real problem is that they also regenerate health and can seemingly tap into this state whenever they bloody well feel like it.
We won’t spoil anything, but during a big set-piece moment against a boss wraith, we simply couldn’t exorcise it. Every time Mio had the groany git on the ropes and was ready to deliver the final frame, the wraith would kick back into its aggravated state and we’d spend another 15-20 minutes duelling with them. What should have been a tense and pivotal moment quickly became a bit exhausting.
We weren’t a fan of the stealth sections either. Several sections remove Mio’s ability to fight entirely as her camera is either lost, or ineffective against a big bad ghosty, forcing you to run and hide from them.
Initially, we liked the variation it provided, but ultimately found it relied too heavily on trial and error for our liking. It often feels like we were expected to fail on the first occasion, meaning it can take maybe two or three attempts at navigating a sequence to get it right. Which is a shame, because it subdues an otherwise terrifying experience.
