The mind behind Fatal Frame is bringing a new AR-enhanced horror experience to the Nintendo 3DS. Keisuke Kikuchi has teamed his studio at Tecmo up with Nintendo to create Shinrei Camera, a game which will come packed with an “AR Notebook” that reveals in-game details through the 3DS camera. Camera will have three modes: a story campaign set in the world of Fatal Frame, an “AR Notebook” mini-game compilation, and a “ghost camera” that takes supernatural pictures of the real world.
“I wasn’t all that interested in AR to start with,” Kikuchi explained to Famitsu magazine in this week’s issue, “but as I explored the possibilities, I really started to get into it. I thought we could really do something with it if we combined our traditional strengths in horror and adventure with the AR technology. It was a big challenge, but we went through with it, and the result is this style of horror that does away with the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural.”
“One big theme during development was how to incorporate AR into an adventure game,” Kikuchi continued. “I think we succeeded in achieving that, because the story uses AR consistently right up to the ending. Compared to previous Fatal Frame titles, though, there isn’t as much actual time spent with the game itself — that’s because you’ll also be spending time turning pages on the AR notebook and looking around in real life instead of moving your character around within the game.”
(via 1UP)