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The producer of Koei Tecmo’s classic survival horror franchise Fatal Frame, Keisuke Kikuchi discussed the possibilities of a future sequel following the re-release of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.
When asked by Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu if it was possible to make another Fatal Frame sequel, Kikuchi said that he would like to see a future project.
“I hope so. This time we are providing [the Maiden of Black Water ports] as a 20th-anniversary project. This becomes an opportunity for many players to play it, and we really want to connect it to the next title.”
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Balck Water is the fifth main entry in the Fatal Frame franchise (known as Zero in Japan and Project Zero in Europe). It was originally released on the Nintendo Wii U in 2014 but suffered from poor sales. This was in part due to Nintendo only localising the Western copies as digital exclusives on a console that didn’t have enough internal memory for it. It was also a niche horror game on the Wii U.
The series has taken a strange course in recent years as it became co-owned by Koei Tecmo and Nintendo with the 4th entry of the series, Fatal Frame: Mask of Lunar Eclipse for the Nintendo Wii. Said 4th entry was not released outside Japan. A remake of the second game Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly was also released on Wii and localised in Europe but not North America.
There’s been no answer why Nintendo of America is so reluctant to bring the series to the US but they do have a history of not wanting to localise niche 1st party Nintendo games even when their Japanese and European counterparts do. Remember, it took years of online campaigning for them to bring over Xenoblade Chronicles to The States even though Nintendo of Europe already translated and dubbed the game into English.
Fatal Frame: Maiden Of Black Water is being re-released for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC. It will release on October 28th. It will once again not get a physical release in the west but it will in Japan and Asia with English language options.
It seems Koei Tecmo is solely handling these ports. This perhaps means that they are the sole owners of the IP again or have come to some sort of agreement with Nintendo. Platinum Games was able to port The Wonderful 101 to multiple platforms from the Wii U despite that being a Nintendo owned IP so it’s possible.
They also recently made a Fatal Frame Pachinko Game. Because why not.
