Introduction

Just when you thought it was fine to pick up a camera, then comes along Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented. Released in 2005, and the only title released in the Fatal Frame series for a single console, Fatal Frame 3 is an oft forgotten installment in the franchise. This can be seen for a number of reasons: declining interest in survival horror games, the fact that people might have been tired of photography based terror, bizarre game play changes from Fatal Frame 2 to 3...it's a bit hard to say. But we won't be worrying about that really as we'll have other things to worry about as we head into a brand new nightmare.

Taking place roughly two years after the events of Fatal Frame 1 and about three months after the events of Fatal Frame 2, Fatal Frame 3 follows a brand new protagonist, Rei Kurosawa, as she attempts to come to grips with the lose of her fiancee and the unspeakable terrors she unlocks as she follows her love into the afterlife. But Rei won't be alone in her travels through the unknown, as Miku (from Fatal Frame 1) will be returning as her plucky, cheerful assistant to help with some useful information and to keep our spirits up with the endless rain and gloom that permeates the game.

But the story isn't the only new part of the game as we're given a brand new location and a brand new, horrible ritual to investigate in the mysterious Manor of Sleep. Hounded by visions and a mysterious blue woman, the Manor of Sleep seems to be a dangerous place indeed full of shifting hallways and twisted realities. What evil could have spawned such a place into existence and what can Rei hope to find out within the walls of such a damned location. Only time will tell and only the fates can really know what lies ahead.

Also it should be obvious but NO SPOILERS. Being as this is probably the Fatal Frame that everyone is the least familiar with, I'd like to keep the story and game a mystery as it does a better job than 2 at keeping a mystery going.


Rei Kurosawa is our protagonist and heart broken lead for Fatal Frame 3. A photography by trade, she has since decided to indulge in following up on supernatural and haunted locations in some attempt to maybe understand the after life more and maybe to get in one final contact with her dead love, Yuu.


Miku Hinasaki is Rei's able assistant and former sufferer of otherworldly curses as she too has dealt with the evil rituals of Japan in Fatal Frame 1. Following the 'disappearance' of her brother Mafuyu, Miku has attempted to put back together a normal life and get a normal job but has felt inclined to help out Rei's crusade for possibly personal reasons.


Yuu Asou is Rei's dead fiancé and skeptical urban legend investigator. Now while he isn't very present in the game, what with being dead and all, he's still an endless fount of knowledge as his room is filled to the brim with books regarding urban legends and the supernatural. Hopefully this knowledge will be more of a help than a hindrance.


Kei Amakura is a friend of Yuu and a fellow researcher in the realm of urban legends and the occult. He also has ties to previous Fatal Frame games in that he's the uncle to Mio and Mayu from Fatal Frame 2, and it's this connection that pulls him deeper than he realizes into the world of the unknown and the Manor of Sleep.

Wonderful Fan Art

by Skogul:

by MShadowy:

by yokaiy