New Project Zero Spinoff for 3DS titled Spirit Photo

Ghosts invade real world, I never sleep again

The latest Famitsu has revealed a surprisingly interesting spin off to the Project Zero series (also known as Fatal Frame in the US), which maps the core mechanics of revealing ghosts using cameras to the real world, using the 3DS’ Augmented Reality capabilities. The game includes a real book, appropriately called the “AR Notebook,” from which it projects all sorts of creepiness into your house. In addition to being the center of the in game story, the notebook will also allow the game to project a variety of mini games into the real world, in a fasion similar to the AR cards.

That’s not all the pack in software Spirit Photo is emulating though, as it also contains a “Ghost Camera” mode in which photos of your face battle photos of your friends! As if these face (raiders) battles weren’t enticing enough, it seems the game will also turn you both into ghosts!

I can’t possibly see how that isn’t something you want. On a more serious note though, the series is a natural fit for 3DS’s AR capabilities and I really hope that it can manage to read your environments in a more meaningful way than simply recognising where the AR Notebook is and projecting an image onto that. Imagine if this game could see, for example, your coat in you closet and like make it slowly solidify into some spooky cadaver. I bet I would giggle myself to death when it happens, but that kind of thing could totally keep playing on your mind when you’re lying awake in bed at one in the morning, trying to decide if that vague silhouette is just your coat or indeed something far more sinister.

I worry about that enough as is. It’s certainly a clever concept and even aside from the AR stuff, it’ll be interesting to finally get a horror game on the 3DS. There’s got to be some clever scares you can do with 3D.

For the moment there’s no indication as to whether this title is going to make it out of Japan or indeed when it’s likely to ship in Japan.

Thanks to Andriasang’s translation of the story.