So.

I thought it was likely that I was going to have finished the first Fatal Frame by the end of the long holiday weekend.

I was super wrong.

This time through (I’ve started the game twice before, but never gotten far), I made it a couple of hours in, but I ended up stopping for an odd reason: I just couldn’t stand moving that slowly any more.

The character you play as (and her brother before her) are snail slow. Like, crazy geriatric snail slow. There is a run option, but it is hilariously not a run. It is an ever-so-slightly-faster version of your snail pace.

And my beef doesn’t end there.

The control scheme for the general part of the game is fine. My character moves in the direction I move the analog stick. What baffles me are the controls for the camera.

The main “weapon” you use in the game is the Camera Obscura. Through it, you can neutralize ticked off spirits.

That’s all well and good, but they flipped the analog sticks, so what should be the look around stick is actually the zoom in or out stick. And vice versa. It is weird.

What is weirder still? There are eight control schemes to choose from, and not a single one of them would allow me to swap the sticks in the camera controls.

Which brings me to the present. I’m only now on what I would refer to as chapter 2. I genuinely want to progress in the game, but these controls and the general character speed are doing everything possible to work against me.

Also, allow me a brief beef (brief beef!) about the protagonist’s clothing.

Friends, I introduce you to Miku. If she were just going out on the town, I would have no trouble with her outfit. But she is about to go search for her missing brother in a derelict mansion.

This crap is not tactical.

I am proud of her for having long sleeves. But that skirt is painfully short, If she drops the camera and bends over to pick it up, her butt is going to be on full display. She needs some pants for this endeavor. Jeans would be even better; they are more durable.

I love fashion, and I love Japanese fashion, but she needs something entirely different for her forays into the supernatural.

Okay. Brief beef over.

So despite my issues with the character speed, camera controls, and her clothing, I want to enjoy this game. I fully intend to complete it, I just hope I can in reasonable time. I hope that the second game has amended controls, as I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about it, and I can’t wait to dive in. And honestly, I genuinely want to succeed at this month’s challenge. I’ve always wanted to experience these games; I just have to pick up some speed.

It also didn’t help my challenge that I spent the weekend playing various co-op games with my partner, but I have zero regrets there. He so rarely has the opportunity to play games at all anymore, and I was entirely pleased that we got some cooperative gaming time in. Hopefully we can continue on our way through the Handsome Collection (we were playing the Pre-Sequel) as the Borderlands series is our favorite for co-op.

So upon these thoughts, I will excuse myself to attempt to go further in Fatal Frame and to try not to aim the camera at the floor while I’m really trying to aim at the cranky ghost all up in my business.

I wish myself good luck with that.

What is the scariest game you have played? Is there a horror game you’ve always wanted to play but have never started? If so, which one and why?