The long awaited fifth installment of the core Fatal Frame saga is coming state-side next week.

Where some horror franchises rely on jump-scares or graphic imagery, Fatal Frame takes the genre in a different direction by intentionally having players put themselves into unsettling situations. Inspired by Japanese horror motifs, Fatal Frame requires that the player actually let ghosts get close to them- often within inches of the character’s face. Ghosts can only be seen through a cursed antique camera, the “Camera Obscura”; the otherworldly inhabitants of the series can only be exercised by taking a decent picture of their faces. To the dismay and horror of the player, some ghosts require more than one good snapshot of their faces; this forces the player into multiple up close, extremely personal encounters. Apart from several spin-off titles such as the augmented-reality game Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir on the 3DS, Fatal Frame‘s legacy holds as the inspiration for a handful of Indie games, with one of the more notable examples being DreadOut for PC.

The first three Fatal Frame titles were released in the US, however the fourth chapter never saw a localized release outside of Japan. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water– occasionally referred to as simply “Fatal Frame V”- released for the Wii U in Sept. 2014 exclusively to Japan. To the delight of worldwide fans of the series, the title is getting localized releases for both North America and Europe, with both scheduled to release very soon.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water will release exclusively for the Wii U in North America on 10/22, with the European version coming on 10/30.

Source: Nintendo
Image courtesy of Koei Tecmo