News | Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake - Demo Impressions

We are so back! Before giving you the overal feel about the Demo, let's start with the latest trailer:

I must admit, I was not feeling it when I started, but very soon things "clicked". In the remade journey of Mayu and Mio - two sisters that get stuck in a haunted village who knows where; we get to haunt ghosts and let them haunt us, all while trying to survive and uncover events of the village ritual and some really gross events.

The big issue could be the fact that even on PS5 Pro the game runs at 30 Fps, and some stuttering is present when moving your camera while running. It doesn't happen often, but it's present. It especially hurts after playing RE9, which is the embodiment of quality for the genre. Still, I find 30 Fps to be enough, although 60 should be a standard for a game of this caliber. PC version runs at 60 though.

The biggest issue is the heavy film grain effect. Now, I know this comes with Japanese horror art as a filter to show more authentic experience. but the grain is so heavy it blocks your view in dark scenes. Whenever you use flashlight, it seems better, even in scenes it looks better, but overall - dear devs, please fix this. It's a game-breaking issue if you ask me. Users on X and Reddit are also having big issues with this filter, so this really needs a fix.

What else to say? The atmosphere feels freakin' great, the movements are a bit stiff, but that's normal for the series and I do like them here, they feel a bit more agile this time around, and I don't expect to control Leon from RE here, we are a girl, and we are afraid! 

In this short demo you can't really see a lot, but from what we've seen and what the internet shouts is that film grain needs to be adjustable, game mode doesn't offer performance at all - these 2 things needs a fix, and the rest will fall into place.

Stay tuned for the review a bit later. FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE is set to launch on March 12, 2026, for PlayStation®5, Nintendo Switch™ 2, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC via Steam®. Demo is available on March 5, 2026.