Chris Kohler from Blog.Wired recently got his hands on a Japanese copy of Fatal Frame IV and, while he has only played the first chapter, he was already impressed with the controls and plot.

Though don't expect the first chapter to jump straight into the scares. Kohler says that Fatal Frame IV has a slow lead-in (which he guesses is an idea used to attract the casual Wii audience) and that the first area where you play as Madoka is used as a tutorial before the actual game begins.

Discuss in the Fatal Frame IV forum

Maybe it's just a slow lead-in. I'm guessing that the idea here is to lure in the casual Wii audience and get them playing a horror title. So the first level is mostly there for tutorial purposes -- how to move around and interact with the world. Thus far, the use of the Wiimote controls seems well-done. You use the motion sensing to move your flashlight up and down and scan the room. It looks very natural on screen, as the sensitivity is set low enough that your character doesn't wildly swing the light around with every little hand movement.

Miss Razz via blog.wired.com »