Deadly Body 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake is completely terrifying.
Workforce Ninja delivers unequivocal, spine-chilling survival horror, if — and it’s a very huge if — you’re prepared to abdomen just a few acquainted frustrations.
Lately, Koei Tecmo has tried to resurrect the Deadly Body/Undertaking Zero collection with combined outcomes. Each Maiden of Black Water and Masks of the Lunar Eclipse acquired the remaster therapy, although we weren’t significantly impressed with both.
Deadly Body 2: Crimson Butterfly, nonetheless, will get the total works. It is a correct top-to-bottom remake, and it is clearly paid dividends.
Probably the most notable shake-up is the removing of the fastened digicam angles typical of late-’90s survival horror video games. Of their place is a contemporary third-person perspective that makes exploring Minakami village far much less cumbersome.
It’s simply the primary of many welcome modernisations from the devs at Workforce Ninja. Extra facet tales provide further narrative juice for returning followers of the unique PS2 title, and an all-new unlockable ending awaits these courageous mad sufficient to aim New Recreation+ on Nightmare issue.
As a result of the story explores the origins of the Digicam Obscura, we expect this remake serves as a super entry level for brand new gamers unfamiliar with Deadly Body’s distinctive mixture of survival horror, puzzles, and the famously divisive digicam fight.
Graphics and gameplay fare significantly better too, however right here’s the rub: this can be a trustworthy revamping of its supply materials. It follows intently within the footsteps of the unique, and whereas it undeniably seems to be and performs significantly better in 2026, it nonetheless falls sufferer to most of the identical criticisms of the previous. Which feels virtually ironic, if you recognize something in regards to the recreation’s darkish story.
The sport follows Mio and Mayu Amakura, twin sisters lured deep into the forest by a crimson butterfly. Sinister forces quickly separate the 2, trapping them in Minakami Village — a settlement lengthy erased from the map and shrouded in everlasting darkness.
Minakami is straight away creepy: an infallibly darkish ambiance filled with vengeful ghosts and ghoulies. These wraiths search to hurt Mio, abduct Mayu, and carry out the forbidden Crimson Butterfly Ritual. As Mio searches for her sister, she begins to uncover the village’s grim historical past and the tragic destiny of one other pair of twins whose story mirrors their very own.
Crimson Butterfly remake is constructed like a traditional survival horror recreation, and performs like a nostalgic lock-and-key shuffle by a handful of fear-inducing environments, harking back to style all-timers like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Put together your self for loads of backtracking!
Structurally, you creep from constructing to constructing, studying notebooks, discovering keys, listening to spirit containers, and snapping pictures of some fairly rancid-looking ghosts to progress by the sport’s nine-chapter story.
We love a great leap scare, and Crimson Butterfly Remake has loads to maintain you in your toes. We discovered ourselves bracing throughout each drawn-out door opening, and each lengthy attain for one thing simply out of grasp — moments clearly designed as the right setup for a wraith to pop up and scare the dwelling daylights out of you.
However the devs are intelligent sufficient to not bombard you and boring the stress. As an alternative, a lot of the worry comes from what isn’t there.
In reality, the final time a horror recreation made us really feel this tense was after we performed 2005’s Condemned: Felony Origins. Hell, this would possibly simply be the scariest recreation we’ve ever performed.
Early on, Mio and Mayu encounter their first wraith — an indignant murder-ghost with a hankering for strangling twins. Fortunately, simply moments earlier we had been launched to a magical ghost-killing digicam, and supplied with copious text-based tutorials on tips on how to kill an indignant murder-ghost. Phew.
However this additionally brings us to the primary cause we’re hesitant to outright advocate Deadly Body II: Crimson Butterfly Remake, and all of it comes right down to the collection’ signature weapon: the Digicam Obscura.
As you discover Minakami Village in the hunt for Mayu (and a option to escape) Mio can defend herself from wraiths by snapping footage to deal injury.
Capturing portraits of your ghoulish enemies is a good way to get a great have a look at their unsettling new faces, however the actual trick lies in timing your pictures. Ready for a wraith to maneuver in shut and snapping a brand new face card mid-lunge can set off a Deadly Body, countering the assault and considerably boosting your injury output.
The digicam comes preloaded with a limitless provide of Sort-07 movie, however a handful of different rolls might be loaded too, every with their very own quirks. Some reload quicker, whereas others possess increased exorcism energy, dealing rather more injury when used.
Toggleable Filters additionally introduce their very own exploration gimmicks and particular shot talents. We significantly favored the Publicity filter, which slows wraiths down throughout fight while additionally revealing hidden trails and treasures throughout exploration.
Battling wraiths is a tense affair, a novel and pleasing option to take down enemies, albeit a bit of clunky at instances. Fortunately, the remake provides just a few fashionable concessions. Now you can click on R3 to auto-lock onto ghosts in body and press X to dodge incoming assaults. When you familiarize yourself with focal factors, focus, and slap on a few upgrades to the Digicam Obscura, fight begins to really feel rather more pleasing.
Sadly, it’s nonetheless not with out its frustrations.
One mechanic we weren’t so eager on is when a wraith turns into aggravated. At any time throughout a scrap, there’s an opportunity they are going to flip pink and get correctly indignant about being papped.
Managing an aggravated wraith isn’t the issue. They nonetheless transfer and assault the identical approach, just a bit faster. The true drawback is that additionally they regenerate well being and might seemingly faucet into this state at any time when they bloody nicely really feel prefer it.
We received’t spoil something, however throughout an enormous set-piece second in opposition to a boss wraith, we merely couldn’t exorcise it. Each time Mio had the groany git on the ropes and was able to ship the ultimate body, the wraith would chill into its aggravated state and we’d spend one other 15-20 minutes duelling with them. What ought to have been a tense and pivotal second shortly grew to become a bit exhausting.
We weren’t a fan of the stealth sections both. A number of sections take away Mio’s capability to battle completely as her digicam is both misplaced, or ineffective in opposition to an enormous dangerous ghosty, forcing you to run and conceal from them.
Initially, we favored the variation it supplied, however finally discovered it relied too closely on trial and error for our liking. It usually appears like we had been anticipated to fail on the primary event, which means it may take possibly two or three makes an attempt at navigating a sequence to get it proper. Which is a disgrace, as a result of it subdues an in any other case terrifying expertise.
