Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden trailered and dated for Japan

Just after lunch time this afternoon the developers and publishers of the new Fatal Frame / Project Zero game for Wii U held an event that elaborated on their plans for the game, film and manga that will be coming out sometime in the new future. For obvious reasons, we’ll just focus on the game.

Shigeru Miyamoto himself was in attendance and gave a brief speech about the game, before reminding the audience how he didn’t like scary things “besides Luigi’s Mansion”. He then went on to elaborate that the stuff he has seen in the new Project Zero game is extremely scary.

Putting his own thoughts aside, Miyamoto elaborated on how the game will use the GamePad as a replacement for the Camera Obscura – the main weapon in the franchise that can capture ghosts. Players will use the game “in the living room” and how different it is as a use for the Wii U GamePad and how it is one of the unique games that can only be done on the Wii U and he hopes it will be the beginning of bringing different kinds of genres to the Wii U.

The producer showed off a trailer which looks ominous and typically Fatal Frame which revealed that the game will revolve around a young girl putting out a missing persons request and heading into the mountains to find her. The game’s official title (in Japan) is Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko and has a prevailing theme of water, as seen in the trailer. The rough translation of this title is Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden.

The team also talked about the game’s main character, named Kagemi. Kagemi is described as a “private eye” for the ghost world – she’s often recruited to help find people who have been taken into the ghost world, and bring them back into the real world.

The game will also take place in what was described as an “open” kind of area called Hikamiyama. There’s lots of water, lots of mansions and lots of houses in the area which has lead many to refer to it as the “mountain of death”. The team have also promised this is one of the most “loudest” of the Fatal Frame / Project Zero games and that it’s a big priority to get the sound design right in the game.

Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko has a Japanese release date of 27th September 2014, exclusively for Wii U.The presenters at today’s events have promised that more information is coming in the near future.

We will provide new details if a localization is ever announced, though it’s encouraging to see how close the game is to release, and we did get Project Zero 2: Wii Edition after all. Although it’d be cool if this got a Halloween release in Japan, wouldn’t it?

A very special and heartfelt thanks to @RyougaSaotome for translating the event live.