"Spirit Camera: the Cursed Memoir" is a tragic story trapped by the 3DS' limited specs & tolerable-but-disappointing attempt at AR capabilities. As a spin-off of the Fatal Frame/Project Zero series, it has its fans as well as its critics. Often nothing can be quite as strong as the main storyline, so unlike Persona to Shin Megami Tensei, "Spirit Camera: the Cursed Memoir" is the only Fatal Frame game on the 3DS & one of two examples of failed attempts at extended lore for the series. ---- The Story (WARNING; Contains Spoilers) ---- You find the Diary of Faces alongside the Camera Obscura. There's only 1 benevolent soul of all the spirits tethered to the diary, though -- Maya. However, while she too is connected to the diary, she cannot remember who she is. She's your guide as you meet spirits trapped by the Diary's curse. This curse "steals" the faces of its victims, their eyes & mouths sewn shut & their spirits bound to the Diary & its inner world. It's through exorcising them with the camera that you & Maya collect her memories while hiding from the Woman in Black, a spirit of the Diary who made the curse & continuously "steals" faces, for reasons you figure out through the course of the game. Maya was a shrine maiden sacrificed for a ritual to save her village from a plague, but the ritual required a soul with no bonds. Maya was isolated to ensure this but found a headmate she held close like family -- whom we'll call Haruka (Japanese for "red-black" in reference to her design) for ease of discussion as she's also called Maya in-game. They'd write to each other using their diary, & they became sisters. Sadly, Haruka faced the consequences of the ritual forced onto them & was possessed by an evil spirit upon Maya's death. Haruka thus became the Woman in Black under the evil spirit's influence, & as a spirit herself bound herself & Maya to their diary & turned it into the infamous Diary of Faces, projecting their mutual inner world into the diary itself. Because the ritual demanded the sacrifice have their eyes and mouths shut, the Woman in Black extends this ritual to her victims as she takes the faces of those who fail to replace the one she lost -- her sister. Haruka wanted nothing more than to feel like she wasn't alone, & Maya always helped her feel safe, but the evil spirit perverted that reality, making the Woman in Black possessive, vengeful, & violent. Memories lost & suddenly trapped with this entity that horrified her & demanded she stay, Maya tried to flee from the Woman in Black by staying as far away as she could within the confines of the Diary of Face's world, so the curse began. The Diary of Faces began to be suddenly found & passed around with the Camera Obscura, becoming an urban legend that impacted random individuals who became ensnared by the curse -- a curse to stay with the Woman in Black. It's through helping Maya realise all of this & exorcising her & Haruka that the evil spirit possessing Haruka is finally released. The game ends with the sisters reuniting, holding each other in relief & peace. ---- The Gripes ---- While we adore the story & its execution, the English translation made the dialogue feel sluggish, especially when the plot information you obtain within each chapter became very redundant. Sadly, it did that very quickly. With our brain as an AuDHD Plural, the redundancy did more harm than good as it often felt like it falsely affirmed red herrings to what we knew rather than the full picture. We had to not focus on the dialogue at all & rely on a processing more akin to skimming in order to easily deduce the necessary conclusions for each chapter. Whether this confusion was on purpose or not, it made it difficult to feel connected to the story for the first half of the game. One note that we're unsure is good or bad is with the first half of the game, notably the one-dimensional spirits you find along the way who are also trapped by the Diary's curse & thus sealed within the book & its world. What snippets we get of them is a large B plot as victims of the curse after it was conjured, and while tragic and scary to encounter in theory is hindered by the dialogue. One intriguing note is that the spirits we encounter & exorcise relate to notable Japanese horror tropes & superstitions, such as the mischievous boy who wants to play but will kill you if you fail, the okiku doll & the dehumanisation of a victim therein due to being perceived as one, & the crab-crawling woman with long hair covering much of her face. Probably the biggest offence in all this is the fad of the 3DS system -- its AR functionality. The 3DS almost flew too close to the sun with its attempt at AR technology in the 2010s, as the cameras on the system struggle considerably thanks to their low resolution. Throughout the gameplay the frames are low (<30fps), which makes trying to get Shutter Chances -- your most powerful means of attack against spirits -- difficult. The low framerate seems to be a fault of the GPU or RAM of the 3DS, as there is notable rubberbanding of frames from when you take a shot to where it stops for your attack to land. This may be worse on original 3DS/2DS models, but while noticeable on a New 3DS XL model with a capture board it didn't disturb gameplay too much & became easy to work around in the end. Sadly, though, this mainly accounts for how the console renders what it sees through the cameras, as the NPCs & enemies move at a proper framerate (30fps). Due to this, this game may be disorienting for some to play. While you play the game on the 3DS, your console becomes the in-game Camera Obscura. You often use it to interact with the Diary of Faces to solve puzzles & dive into the diary's cursed world. However, with the faultiness of the console's AR technology, it's difficult to have easy legibility with the pages. It's better, from our experience, to use personal scanned copies or files from the Internet Archive of the pages, for example, on a modern tablet with a backlight for the best experience. Especially if you want to scare yourself & feel more immersed by playing in a dark room, your pages on your tablet will be your best friend. ---- The Graces ---- We LOVE the representation of what feels like a Plural experience with Maya, even though we know that it was never written with a Plural lens. The story & the dialogue does still use ableist language, as Maya calls herself "broken", calls Haruka "another personality", & the story recaps at later chapters refer to Haruka as a "piece" of Maya. Dated language aside, the core story -- two sisters separated due to others' superstitions, said sisters happening to inhabit the same body -- reminds us of our own experiences, both regarding our system & regarding our sibling system & our siblinghood after facing what we've had to when forced to live separate lives thanks to others' perceptions of us. The prominent religious abuse that's such a notable plotpoint in any Fatal Frame game is not referenced much given the story is so short, & we could see so much potential for well-placed padding & worldbuilding. We feel this story could've been enhanced if there were more spirits to find, more consequences of the curse, & if the pacing was slower, letting you talk with Maya more personally to humanise her & the other spirits more, given her dialogue often echoes the malevolent spirits' dying wishes. It's sad we mostly see Haruka as possessed, but seeing her so longing for her sister as who she truly is makes us smile & reminds us of our own bonds. This truly is a deep story about a hidden siblinghood tested by those that could never know, & it is a lot more real of an experience than people realise. Never did we think a mid-tier horror game would make us "feel seen", but here we are. Even despite our critiques, this game holds a special place in our hearts for what it tried to do through its successes as well as its shortcomings.

A dungeon-crawler with VN elements about racism, relationship quarrels, stalking, cheating, and combating predatory behaviour of those you don't want around? Sign me up! I've always loved Boyfriend Dungeon for the fact they have had content warnings at the beginning of the game -- though that wasn't there at launch, supposedly. What I haven't loved is the fandom -- specifically the history of the community harassing and threatening to harm the VA for Eric -- the titular antagonist -- for... being the antagonist. Eric in-game is a horrible character who stalks and disrespects boundaries, but for people to assume the voice IS the character is sad and concerning. That blemish aside, which is in no fault of the game, this is AMAZING! However, given the themes I mentioned before, especially given the prevalence of domestic violence and abuse in reality, it's best to be in a calm headspace to digest this game. It makes you uncomfortable with situations of the main character being a victim of predatory behaviour in multiple routes, not just Eric's and/or the main plot, and the game is supposed to make you uncomfortable to, in my opinion, understand the emotions, stress, and trauma of victims of domestic violence and why many may struggle with opening up in relationships. Give this game a shot! You won't be disappointed!