Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a survival horror video game primarily developed by Tecmo and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console; Tecmo shared development with Nintendo SPD and Grasshopper Manufacture. The fourth installment in the Fatal Frame series and the first on a Nintendo console, it was released in Japan on July 31, 2008. Despite a European release being announced, the game has never been released outside of Japan. A fan translation was released in 2010.
The story, set on the fictional Rougetsu Island, focuses on Ruka Minazuki, one of a group of girls who was held captive on the island for unknown reasons. Years after their rescue, still suffering from amnesia, Ruka and the two surviving girls return to the island to seek out the truth. The game's title stems from a ritual mask key to the story. The gameplay, as with previous entries in the series, revolves around the main character exploring environments and tackling hostile ghosts using the Camera Obscura.
The idea for Mask of the Lunar Eclipse came to series co-creator Keisuke Kikuchi when he first saw the Wii hardware. Kikuchi and series co-creator Makoto Shibata returned as respective producer and director, while Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda acted as co-director, co-writer and designer. The gameplay concept was making the player literally feel the fear evoked in the game. The addition of further developers to the project enabled the team to reconsider the standard formula, although it proved to be a chaotic experience. As with previous games, the theme songs were sung by Tsuki Amano. When released, it became the best-selling entry in the series to that date, and received generally positive reviews from critics.
Plot[]
In 1970, ten years prior to the start of the game, suspected serial killer Yō Haibara kidnapped five girls from their rooms in a sanatorium on Rougetsu, an island south of Honshu. The girls were rescued from a cavern beneath the sanatorium by detective Chōshirō Kirishima, who had been pursuing Haibara, but they had all lost their memories. Two years later, a catastrophe strikes Rougetsu Island which kills off the inhabitants. Eight years later, in the present, two of the rescued girls have died in mysterious circumstances and two of the survivors, Misaki Asō and Madoka Tsukimori, return to discover the truth about their pasts. Despite being warned by her mother not to return to the island, fellow survivor Ruka Minazuki goes there to find Misaki and Madoka. Shortly before Ruka's arrival, Madoka is killed by hostile spirits. Chōshirō, the detective who rescued them, also returns to the island to both find Ruka and continue his pursuit of Haibara. During her exploration, Ruka learns that she and Misaki are suffering from a malady known as the Hidden Moon Disease, which affects their memories and identity and is spread by touch and vision. Each character also collects pieces of a mask used in a local ritual dance to ease the passing of souls into the afterlife. During the course of the story, it is revealed that Misaki arranged their return to the island so their illness might be cured, and that Chōshirō himself died ten years before, and is now helping the girls guided by the benevolent spirit of Ruka's mother Sayaka.
It is gradually revealed that Ruka's father Souya had become obsessed with helping complete a ritual dance that would purify the islanders of the Hidden Moon Disease, which required the construction of a special mask for the dancer. Ruka herself became infected, and was treated at the sanatorium along with the other girls and the dancer, Haibara's sister Sakuya. The ritual was a catastrophic failure, with Sakuya reaching the final stage of the Hidden Moon Disease and falling into a coma, while the other girls collapsed and had their memories wiped. Two years after Ruka and Sayaka left the island, Sakuya woke and spread the Hidden Moon Disease across the island, killing all the inhabitants including Souya. To lay her to rest, the ritual must be completed, and for that her mask must be restored. Ruka comes into possession of all the mask fragments, which reform into the complete mask. Confronting Sakuya atop the island's lighthouse, she manages to pacify her with a sacred tune communicated to her by Sayaka, then Chōshirō puts the mask on Sakuya, completing the ritual and allowing all the island's spirits to pass into the afterlife. Depending on the game's difficulty setting, Misaki's fate is either left unknown, or her illness is cured after she is saved by Madoka's spirit and she leaves the island with Ruka.