Project Zero: Priestess of Black Water - Horror fun preview

Project Zero

Does Nintendo own the Project Zero brand, or Fatal Frame as it is called in other parts of the world? Well, at least that's what most observers thought so far. Many years ago it was said that the rights had been transferred to the Mario group, so the last couple of remakes, spin-offs and Project Zero: Priestess of Black Water were released exclusively for Wii, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. The new edition of Priestess of Black Water will now appear on October 28, 2021 in addition to the Switch for the other platforms, i.e. PC, PS5, PS4 and the Xbox consoles, and unlike on Wii U, Nintendo does not act as a publisher , but Tecmo Koei, who were previously only responsible for development. So you can be confused!

Table of contents

1 Horror, the second 2 Ghost drivers on the path 3 Arigato, Geist-san! * giggle * Recommended editorial content At this point you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I agree that external content can be displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration.

Horror, the second

Japan wants to be Japan, which is why the female figures are closely accompanied, thanks to optional costumes even tighter. Source: Tecmo Koei Either way, it's nice that the horror game is now being given a second chance, because hardly anyone came in view of the fact that it is already a niche product that was also stuck on a not very popular console embarrassed to play it. You always like to see classic horror, but unfortunately very seldom today, especially with such Japanese influences. In Priestess of the Black Water we end up in a forest at the foot of Mount Hikami, where suicides are overwhelming and where the spirits of restless souls are up to mischief. The model for this is without any question the real Aokigahara forest, which - without the supernatural aspect - has the same sad role and which came into the public focus some time ago due to the disrespectful behavior of the youtuber Logan Paul.

Always again we get an insight into the terrible events from days gone by by means of beautifully staged sequences. Source: Tecmo Koei We are thankfully saved from intelligence-free internet stars in the game. The three protagonists Yuri Kozukata, Ren Hojo and Miu Hinasaki have to deal with all kinds of ghost figures, each of the three at a different time. However, this is not done with a pistol or baseball bat. Instead, the only way to defend yourself is camera obscura. This antique camera can do more than just take pretty snapshots. Instead, it does damage to the aggressive astral figures, especially if we can get them properly in front of the lens. A highscore system evaluates our ghost hunt, which gnaws at the atmosphere through various flashes, is playful but nice.

The camera Obscura is the only way to defend ourselves against the countless ghosts. Care must be taken to ensure that there are rolls of film. Source: Tecmo Koei Behind this is an upgrade mechanism, thanks to which we can equip the camera with various lenses and special abilities. Nice: On the Wii U we had to move the gamepad back and forth to look around with the camera. Although this made relatively good use of the console's gamepad capabilities, it was extremely annoying and ensured that half the time you weren't looking at the TV screen, but at the living room wall. There were also games of movement, for example when we wanted to pick something up and a ghost hand grabbed our arm - that happened all the time and was extremely stressful. To what extent this gimmick has disappeared cannot yet be said. It can be assumed that we can now move the camera around with the analog stick as normal. In the end it worked without any problems.

Ghost riders on the path

The creepy story of the adventure unfolds gradually and revolves around motives such as guilt, revenge and the demons of your own Past. Source: Tecmo Koei Nothing should change in the basic structure of the game. In other words, linear areas await us, which we usually see more than once because of the trio of protagonists and some missions that take us back to areas that have already been visited. This backtracking is not a catastrophe, but it is also not really fun to play. But the areas are beautifully designed and above all full of creepy surprises. Not every ghost figure attacks us, some just hang around, stare at us from a distance and thus create an (un) pleasant atmosphere. Incidentally, that does not automatically mean that the Priestess of Black Water is too creepy. You quickly get used to the scheme, so you walk around, meet ghosts, photograph them into final nirvana, then repeat. There aren't too many puzzles, that was different in the previous versions. Most of the time you really just walk along one path and feel reminded of a walking simulator.

Arigato, Geist-san! * giggle *

In some aspects, the developers torpedo the atmosphere themselves, for example with the numerous costumes that you can put on the characters. What a surprise: The heroines are pretty tight over long distances. It remains to be seen whether the Nintendo clothes contained in the Wii-U original can be re-equipped exclusively for Switch based on various characters from the Mario group, or whether they have been deleted across all platforms. In any case, there are new costumes on board, including the tight ones, as well as a photo mode. You can tell: the best horror game of all time was not the Priestess of Black Water and it probably won't be on Switch either. But it's definitely good for a nice scary trip.