"This full remake gave us the perfect opportunity": One of the scariest Japanese horror games is back after 20 years, and its director is just glad technology now lets you hold hands with your sister

If I were to carry Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly around like a handbag, cotton lace, butterflies, and a supernatural camera would all tumble out when I dumped it – fashion and ghosts are what make developer Tecmo's supernatural nightmare attractive even 22 years after its release. But series director Makoto Shibata seems most proud of something new he's added to the upcoming Fatal Frame 2 remake, due in early 2026: holding hands.

Compared to the many vengeful spirits smearing shadows across the Japanese horror game's cursed village, the new mechanic is like a good ghost, in a way. Shibata explains in a translated trailer during the Tokyo Game Show 2025 that Koei Tecmo has dusted off the old idea and let it become a lifeline.

"We added a new element: holding hands with your sister, Mayu," Shibata says. "By doing this, the story, but also the action and the bond between the sisters is further developed."

FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE - Broadcast Trailer | Tokyo Game Show 2025 - YouTube

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"We were exploring this possibility 20 years ago, but we gave up on it for a number of reasons. This full remake gave us the perfect opportunity to revisit this option."

The events of Fatal Frame 2 skitter out like baby mice after (impeccably dressed) twins Mio and Mayu Amakura get lost in a strange village soaked in darkness. Armed only with an enchanted Camera Obscura, which lets its users photograph and banish ghosts, the two sisters navigate rotten shacks and mildewy basements they don't know are cursed by the so-called Hellish Abyss.

As a sister myself, and just like Shibata seems to feel about the gameplay element in "the most beautiful and scariest version of the game yet," I love the tenderness hand-holding adds to an otherwise belligerent horror experience.

Even in the real world, where everything can seem bloody and bad, knowing the girl you grew up with is just as scared as you are makes you want to keep pushing through. It makes you want to hug her. Hand-holding in Fatal Frame 2 feels like a genuine instinct, then, and it's a sweet detail I'm glad Tecmo chose to preserve. These are the little bits of unselfconscious emotion that make female-led horror so potent.

Hideo Kojima wants to "scan a ghost" into OD, but he already recorded the ghost in his studio and "that's why we went to the shrine together with Microsoft" to make sure the game isn't haunted.