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[E3 2015] ‘Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water’ Haunts the Wii U This Fall
Phew. I was hoping we would hear from Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water this week, and like the angry tooth Golem that lives under your bed, its presence at E3 went largely unnoticed.
A couple months back we were given the dance-worthy news that the latest installment in the series had been freed from the shackles of its Japan exclusivity, and would be arriving in North America and Europe sometime this year. That nebulous release window has since been narrowed down to a more manageable fall 2015 release.
I hate to encumber genuinely great news with negativity, but I do hope Nintendo does a better job of getting the word out about this game in the future. Fatal Frame has been as dead as an already deceased spirit might be after it’s been killed again by the Camera Obscura, at least as a majority of the people who reside outside Japan are concerned.
Fatal Frame deserves to be treated like an established survival horror franchise that spent much of its impressive 14-year run earning its place as one of gaming’s all-time scariest series by producing genre classics like Crimson Butterfly. That kind of legacy is worth carving out a few minutes to let the world know it’s coming, even if it’s only coming to the Wii U.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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