Characters / Fatal Frame III

This is a Character Sheet for Fatal Frame III.

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Main Characters

Rei Kurosawa

Japanese: 黒澤怜 Kurosawa Rei

Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Kimberly Brooks (English)

"I have to find Yuu... I have to find him and be sure... Yuu... I..."

The main protagonist. Rei is a professional freelance photographer who lost her fiancé, Yuu Asou, in a car accident some time before the events of the game. While investigating a supposedly-haunted building, she sees what appears to be her dead fiancé, and follows him deeper into the structure. She finds herself entering the Manor of Sleep, dragged there by her grief and guilt. Now afflicted with the Tattooed Curse, Rei wanders the manor in the hope of finding and catching up to Yuu and break the curse before it consumes her.

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• Color Motif: Blue. Rei is a somber, melancholic character dealing with grief over the loss of her fiancé, and thus is represented by a somber color. It's also the color of her cursed tattoo, and a larger connection between her and Reika.
• Death Seeker: Repeatedly talks about wanting to be with Yuu, even knowing that proceeding further into the Manor of Sleep will end up killing her. Her fiancé's spirit successfully talks her out of this mentality at the end.
• Informed Attribute: Claims that she's the opposite of Yuu, who was quiet and gentle, but this doesn't really show. But it's justified, as she's still suffering from depression over her fiancé's death.
• It's All My Fault: Blames herself for the car accident that killed Yuu, since she was the one driving.
• Jack of All Stats: Capable of equipping most of the available lenses and functions, along with having a large capture circle, and dishing out adequate damage.
• Meaningful Name: The kanji for her name can be read as "zero", same as the game's original title. Additionally, the kanji for both her and Yuu's names together form the Japanese word for "ghost".
• Please, Don't Leave Me:
  • Towards Miku in Hour XI. Should the player choose to have Miku continue to follow Mafuyu's spirit into the depths of the Himuro Mansion, Rei will call after Miku to come back and not leave her behind, believing Miku is stronger than her.
  • Towards Yuu. When Yuu's spirit begins to cross the Rift, Rei rushes after him and begs him to take her along. Yuu refuses, saying that she should live on for him and his memory.
• Psychic Link: With Miku and Kei, allowing her to see their dreams of the manor within her own. She doesn't have any influence over their decisions, though, as shown when Miku heads further after her brother's spirit, and Rei begs her desperately to not follow him.
• I See Dead People: Her sixth sense is awoken through the Tattoo Curse. The fifth game suggests it's because she's a descendant of shrine maidens responsible for carrying out a different ritual.
• Shower of Angst: Some scenes are dedicated to showing her taking these, either as Fanservice or related to the plot in some capacity. Like the fact that Rei's curse got to the point where an Engraver tears down the bathroom door in a horrifying Jump Scare.
• Survivor's Guilt: The reason she's afflicted with the Tattooed Curse. Rei caused the car accident that killed her beloved but escaped otherwise unharmed, so she's constantly assuming she's at complete fault for his death.

Miku Hinasaki

Rei's assistant, who's seen her fair share of horrible rituals once before and is now suffering through another curse trying to take her life.

For her tropes, see the character sheet for Fatal Frame.

Kei Amakura

Japanese: 天倉螢 Amakura Kei

Voiced by: Yusei Oda (Japanese), Josh Keaton (English)

"We have to save Mio and Miku too! We can't give up yet!"

Mio Amakura's uncle, a non-fiction writer. He was also good friends with Yuu and Mafuyu, and wrote several letters to him during the course of the game, which Rei receives. These help her unravel the mystery of the Manor of Sleep. The main reason he is investigating the manor is to save his niece Mio, who fell victim to the Tattooed Curse.

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• Apocalyptic Log: His Research Notes and letters to Yuu.
• Badass Bookworm: Comes with being one of the series' folklorists who can actually fight off ghosts and not end up one of them. Even then, up until you play his chapters, he had no Camera Obscura and had to hide often, hence his ability and special filament. Regardless of how weak his sixth sense is, the man's certainly something special to have been sneaking around a haunted manor for so long (the extent of his tattoos show that he's been in the manor the longest out of the three).
  • In the good and apparently canon ending, he becomes the first main male character to survive the game.
• Can't Catch Up: In a somewhat different way than most examples. Being the only playable man in Fatal Frame III, he's physically stronger than the girls, meaning he can move heavy objects they're unable to. But his sixth sense is said to be weaker than theirs, which results in his attacks being overall inferior, and that's when he has a camera to begin with.
• Color Motif: Indigo, to closely associate him to Yuu.
• Hope Spot: He comes to the conclusion that in order to break the curse, the failed ritual must be finished properly by carrying out the staking Reika went through before. Given that this is how the previous two games handled their curses, this sounds like Kei's on the right track... Until Reika traps him at the Chamber of Thorns, leaving Rei as the only person left.
• Identical Stranger: To Akito Kashiwagi, Kyouka Kuze's missing lover. As a vengeful spirit, she is not happy to see him. He also vaguely resembles Reika's lover Kaname, who is Akito and Kyouka's son. This, plus having the Echo Stone Earring in a second playthrough, saves him in the canon good ending.
• Lightning Bruiser: His Camera Obscura has the lowest charge potential of any other in the series (only two slots), but makes up for it with a good variety of lenses and a large amount of Spirit Power to store. This is because he's meant to do chip damage towards attacking ghosts at rapid succession to build Spirit Power charges, then using the lenses more often than even Rei to do a lot more damage or stun ghosts easier and more efficiently.
• Mr. Exposition: Indirectly so. His chapters are where you usually find the largest amount of documents that explain the Kuze Family and their rituals, which led up to the existence of the Tattooed Curse and the Manor of Sleep. He also likes to elaborate on his research in his letters to Yuu.
• Meaningful Name: The character for his name means 'firefly', referring to the light of hope he has for finding a way to end the curse. However, fireflies are also known for their brief lifespans.
• Parental Substitute: For Mio and Mayu Amakura. Mio in particular, since she's going through the Tattooed Curse herself after losing Mayu, and Kei is doing a lot of research into the curse to save her.
• Pocket Protector: If you obtain Kyouka's Echo Stone Earring on a second playthrough or later, Reika will spare him at the end of Hour XII.
• I See Dead People: He possesses a very weak sixth sense, especially in comparison to Rei and Miku.
• Stone Wall: To compensate for his lower damage potential, he has the highest health out of the 3 playable characters.
• Talking in Your Sleep: He does this when he's staying over at Rei's house, pleading for either his nieces or his close friends Mafuyu and Yuu not to leave him behind.

Yuu Asou

Japanese: 麻生優雨 Asou Yuu

Voiced by: Takaya Kuroda (Japanese), JD Cullum (English)

"As long as you go on living, a part of me will continue to live on."

Rei's fiancé, killed in a car accident while she was driving. The guilt over his death leads her to follow him into the Manor of Sleep. In life, he was an old friend of Mafuyu Hinasaki and Kei Amakura.

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• Act of True Love: When Rei is reunited with him at the Horizon, he absorbs Rei's cursed Tattoos and tells her to go on living.
• Apocalyptic Log: His bookshelf is filled with these, written by notable folklorists... Many of which are known to have been killed in previous curses. He also has his own series of notes Rei uses as research into the Manor of Sleep.
• Famous Ancestor: He's a member of the Asou family, and has quite a few old knickknacks stored around his house as a result.
• The Lost Lenore: To Rei, after the car crash.
• Meaningful Name: Yuu means “gentle rain”. In Rei’s notes, she describes him as being “quiet and kind like gently falling rain” when they met.
• Nice Guy: Rei notes he was a very kind and gentle person, with a warm nature.
• Posthumous Character: He died prior to the beginning of the game, and it's his spirit that Rei follows into the Manor.

Major Ghosts

Reika Kuze

Japanese: 久世零華 Kuze Reika

Voiced by: Junko Minagawa (Japanese), Kimberly Brooks (English)

"I don't want to see anymore..."

The Tattooed Priestess, Fatal Frame III's main antagonist and possibly the biggest malevolent-yet-sorrowful ghost maiden in the series. Like Kirie, she was a Virgin Sacrifice for a ritual that, because of a secret romance and a string of tragic events, led to said ritual failing once she became the sacrifice for it.

Reika is an incredibly dangerous spirit that haunts the Manor of Sleep and its real-life counterpart, spreading the Tattooed Curse onto those who feel guilty of surviving major disasters.

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• Apocalyptic Log: The Tattooed Diaries and the Mirror Shards.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: She's topless, but the tattoos hide any semblance of nipples.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Painfully averted. You get to see what Reika looks like before she was tattooed, and she is gorgeous. Then, look at her now.
• Big Bad: Of Fatal Frame III, as the shrine maiden ghost responsible for the curse afflicting the main characters.
• Break the Cutie: Part of the Piercing of the Soul involves Reika taking on the tattoos that supposedly carry the grief and suffering of the living, so she can pass it all onto the afterlife and prevent the Rift from spreading. Breaking the cutie is part of the ritual.
  • Like Kirie before her, her ritual involved severing any ties to the physical world, but she had the misfortune of falling in love with a young man as she was chosen to perform in said ritual. Unlike with Kirie, however, the young man was murdered before her eyes as she laid dying for the ceremony. This was the final straw for the Unleashing to happen and the Kuze manor to fall into the Rift.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: She lived enduring this until the day of her death, as part of the Engraving ritual...
• Disproportionate Retribution: ...And she unleashed it all back, not only at the Kuze Household, but also those who longed to see their lost loved ones like the worshipers, i.e. the living that suffer from Survivor's Guilt.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Kaname Ototsuki, her lover in life. Because of this, she spares Identical Stranger Kei in the Good Ending.
• Fate Worse than Death: For eternity, she must dream of the grief engraved on her so that the living won't have to.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: She was adopted into the Kuze family after her own died in an unspecified disaster. She wasn't anyone important until she was chosen to become the next Tattooed Priestess... And then her ritual failed.
• The Heavy: Kirie and Sae caused the corruptions that devastated their own homes, but were otherwise rare spirits that only appeared ever so often, only chasing the protagonists of their games at certain situations (Kirie has two chases with obligatory endings and only one with any risk of death that only lasts about two rooms, while Sae has only one prolonged chase herself in one chapter). Reika, on the other hand, actively patrols the Manor of Sleep at several points in the plot, and even more if the player fails to collect Purifying Lights to contain the Miasma effect, meaning she'll chase you into save rooms.
• Hell Is That Noise: While patrolling the Manor, the player can hear her pained groans of agony and deep breathing. If she spots the player and gives chase, the sound of the tattoo's engraving on her skin is heard. And at the final battle, you hear her constant lamentations and sorrowful lines.
• Interface Screw: Averted for the first time with a main antagonist in the series, as encountering her before the final battle doesn't make the screen go monochromatic unless you're in the Miasma, which is a generalized condition.
  • During the final battle, though, she does have the one attack where she casts Rei into a mix of flashbacks that makes her move much slower, while Reika chases after her.
• In-Series Nickname: "Tattooed Priestess".
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Once the reasons for the ritual and its failure are revealed, it's hard to feel sorry for her initial victims.
• Lightning Bruiser: In the final battle, she walks fairly fast, can dive-bomb you from above very quickly, and deals a lot of damage when she attacks.
• Miko: The priestess of the Kuze Shrine.
• Memento MacGuffin: Her Echo Stone Earring, which was a gift from her childhood friend Kaname. You can find it on a second playthrough, and taking it allows Kei to survive for the good ending.
• Mirror Character: The game goes through great lengths to show this is the case between her and Rei, down to the similar-sounding names (with the same kanji for "zero", no less) and even sharing the exact same voice actresses in both language versions. To wit, both lost their loved ones in tragedies they blame themselves for, and share a common desire to be Together in Death with them, feeling the pain of their respective tattoos. Rei has to endure a seemingly-endless cycle of dreaming and pain, which was originally Reika's fate as a Tattooed Priestess, while she wanders the manor wide-awake and in torture, corrupted by the Rift to curse anyone unlucky enough to be in a similar situation regarding the loss of a loved one. Rei is also capable of looking into other people's dreams and witnessing their struggles, symbolically "engraving the suffering of others onto herself" like the Piercing of the Soul says the Priestess must do to prevent them from entering the dreams of the living.
• One-Hit Kill:
  • During the final battle, she has an attack where she'll trap Rei in a landscape of flashbacks and darkness (actually just the boss arena with a heavy filter), appear at a random location and chase after her while Rei is in slow-motion. It can be a small Luck-Based Mission depending on where she appears, because if she ends up in front of you... Say good bye.
  • She also has the traditional One-Hit Kill of the other antagonists in the previous games if she catches you in the Miasma.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Before the final battle with Rei. Reika has used this line before in the game, but the moment and the build-up to when she begins attacking helps to set it as this trope.
  "No one will survive... No one..."
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She took her revenge on every single person in the manor, and continues to try to spread her suffering to others.
• Shed the Family Name: Her former surname was Yukishiro, changed to Kuze once she was taken into the manor.
• Sole Survivor: Of an avalanche that took out her village and family, hence why she was taken in by the Kuze family willingly. It's also part of the curse, which targets survivors of great disasters that kill loved ones.
• Storyboard Body: Her body is filled with snake & holly-patterned tattoos, each and every one of them for the pain of someone else.
• Tattooed Crook: Literally every inch of her body is covered in tattoos, adding to her frightening appearance.
• Tragic Villain: The failure of her ritual mirrors that of Kirie's, with both women just wanting to be with their loved ones despite the commitment to their rites meaning they weren't allowed to do so. Unfortunately, witnessing Kaname die before her eyes filled Reika's spirit with so much hatred that the Rift easily consumed her.
• Together in Death: An ugly version at first, with Kaname's corpse at her side while she was unable to look away. After her defeat, Rei breaks the curse by sending Reika and Kaname to the Other Side together.
• Trauma Conga Line: In order: She lost her family and village to an avalanche, adopted by another family and forced to endure Cold-Blooded Torture until she died, during which she finally found love, only to have that love brutally murdered in front of her as she laid dying. Would someone give this poor girl a hug?!
• Virgin Sacrifice: Sacrificed as part of her role as the Tattooed Priestess.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: She's topless, though the tattoos conceal any details.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Being forced to watch her lover die and unable to ever look away from his corpse drove her to lash out with the Tattooed Curse.

Yoshino Takigawa

Japanese: 瀧川吉乃 Takigawa Yoshino

"I didn't want to survive!"

A woman who survived a fatal plane crash that killed her family and fiancé. She was admitted into the hospital for treatment of her injuries, but her survivor's guilt allowed her to fall prey to the Tattooed Curse and slowly sinking deeper into madness and depression, believing she sees the spirits of her loved ones tormenting her. Rei meets her while exploring the Manor of Sleep, discovering that she suffers from the same Holly tattoos she's bearing, and Yoshino begs her to wake her up from the dream. Rei does find her at the hospital, but by that point it's too late and the curse consumes her while Rei can only watch in horror, making Yoshino one of the "Lost Patients".

Yoshino becomes a ghost that haunts the Manor of Sleep, usually flanked by Black Shadows that attack the player while she either cowers in the corner or prepares to attack you herself.

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• Apocalyptic Log: Her diary.
• Despair Event Horizon: The loss of her loved ones in the plane crash, plus her suffering from the Tattooed Curse and survivor's guilt, caused Yoshino to slowly be driven insane by the Manor of Sleep dreams and completely destroy her mental stability. By the time Rei finds her in the hospital in the real world, she's too broken by the experience to do anything but quiver and mumble incoherently, which makes the curse take her with ease.
• Foil: To Rei. While grief-stricken by Yuu's death, Rei manages to keep pressing on despite the curse, finding enough drive to save her own life or, at the very least, reach Yuu's spirit and talk to him without letting the curse take her first, while also discovering the means to do so. Yoshino went through something even worse than Rei, lost a lot more people and was ultimately unprepared for facing the ghosts in the Manor of Sleep, meaning she's a lot more panicked and scared, running away and cowering in the corners, feeling she had no way to truly escape. The sense of hopelessness, contrasted to Rei being a Determinator, made Yoshino an easier target for the Tattooed Curse to take her. Yoshino herself comes to this conclusion after she dies and Rei is forced to confront her spirit.
  "You're not... like me...?"
• Flunky Boss: She's always accompanied by Black Shadows, which will respawn until Yoshino herself is defeated. She'll either send a wave of them first before fighting herself, surround herself with them as a shield, or attack while they continuously respawn.
• Hell Is That Noise: A loud, hollering wind sound akin to a distorted plane engine noise.
• In-Series Nickname: "Female Survivor".
• Recurring Element: The most recent victim of the game's curse, now a hostile ghost attacking the protagonists.
• Sole Survivor: She survived a plane crash, and was trapped with the bodies of her loved ones for several days.
• Survivor's Guilt: She was cursed as a result of her guilt for surviving the plane crash that killed her family and lover. She constantly blames herself for their deaths and even argues she should have died herself in her few remaining moments alive.
• Tattooed Crook: As a result of dying to the Tattooed Curse. Her tattoos become visible when she lunges for an attack.
• That Was the Last Entry: Her diary becomes increasingly lacking in details as she stays at the hospital. The Tattooed Curse made her start sleeping more and more often and with less time awake, so her final entry is just a brief reflection on how she's suffering.
• Trauma Conga Line: Was in a plane crash, got thrown from the plane, and was left in the wreckage for several days surrounded by the bodies of her loved ones. Afterwards, she falls victim to the curse and by the time Rei encounters her, she's nearly insane with fear after being trapped in the Manor for an extended prior of time.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: The first fight with her has Rei wake up to seeing Yoshino at the side of the bed, grabbing her arm. Afterwards, she'll appear a lot in Rei's home at several different times, wandering around or standing in place, watching her.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: At least during her first two battles, where the Black Shadows will be constantly trying to throw off your camera charge by chipping away at your health with their attacks, but Yoshino will still be the first ghost to deal considerable damage if you're not careful.

Amane Kuze

Japanese: 久世雨音 Kuze Amane

Voiced By: April Hong (English)

"Save the two..."

A Handmaiden in the service of the Kuze Shrine, tasked with caring for the Tattooed Priestess and carrying out the Impalement Ritual. She helped her older brother Kaname sneak into the manor to meet with Reika, which led to the Unleashing. For disobeying the Kuze Code, she was killed by the other Handmaidens, staked to the bottom of the Abyss. Her spirit aids Miku, guiding her through the manor.

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• Apocalyptic Log: The Blue Diary.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Crucified and left to bleed to death beside the leaking Rift, at the bottom of the Abyss.
• The Cutie: Unlike the other Handmaidens, she's a sweet and helpful girl.
• Girlish Pigtails: The only Handmaiden to have this kind of haircut, possibly to help show innocence and childish naivety in comparison to her cold, apathetic colleagues.
• Nice Girl: She is the sweetest and kindest ghost you'll ever meet in the manor.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She just wanted to help, but allowing Kaname to wake Reika up resulted in the chain of events that led to the Rift leaking out into the world.
• Optional Boss: She's a hostile ghost in certain Mission Mode challenges along with the other Handmaidens.
• Recurring Element: A helpful vanishing ghost guiding the protagonists in the right direction.
• Shipper on Deck: For her brother and Reika. Sadly, it led to disaster.
• Token Good Teammate: The only Handmaiden who is not hostile, doing her best to aid the protagonists. Her spirit can only be fought in the bonus challenges.

Kaname Ototsuki

Japanese: 乙月要 Ototsuki Kaname

Voiced by: Josh Keaton (English)

"I must go back...to the Manor, I've got to see Reika."

The son of Kyouka and Akito, smuggled out of Kuze Manor as a baby. He fell in love with Reika at the village she lived in, and was drawn to the manor by dreams of her. His sister, Amane, helped him sneak into the shrine to see Reika, and his death before her eyes was the trigger for Reika's curse.

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• Apocalyptic Log: Kaname's Letters and the "Ototsuki" recording.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to see Reika again. He dies with his eyes facing hers for eternity.
• Dies Wide Open: Part of the reason for Reika's trauma was that he died right in front of her, and they were forced to stare endlessly at each other.
• Identical Stranger: Like his father, he resembles Kei quite a bit.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His murder caused the Holly to enter Reika's eyes and cause the Unleashing.
• Recurring Element: A male love interest to the main antagonist, her duty as a shrine maiden making their love forbidden/impossible, whose fate was as tragic as hers.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Reika.
• Together in Death: His corpse laid next to Reika when he was murdered. After Rei defeats Reika and closes her eyes, she sends the two down the river to the other side in the same boat.

Yashuu Kuze

Japanese: 久世夜舟 Kuze Yashuu

Voiced by: Nana Yamaguchi (Japanese)

"Prepare for the Rite of Commandment. It's time to impale the priestess..."

Head of the Kuze family, mother to Kyouka, and grandmother to Kaname and Amane. She had no mercy for those that broke the Kuze Code, ruthlessly killing anyone she considered a threat. Upon carrying out the ritual, she discovered Kaname's involvement and attempt to see Reika again and killed him before her eyes. The image caused the ritual to fail and the Unleashing to occur, with Yashuu taking the full brunt of the Rift in the Chamber of Thorns. While she did survive that, she ended up tattooed herself and with little time left to contain the Rift from spreading, using every available resource. But it wasn't enough and she soon succumbed to the Rift's influence.

Yashuu haunts the Manor of Sleep trying to stop the events that led to the Unleashing. Her ghost is violent and attacks the protagonists at several points in the plot.

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• Apocalyptic Log: The Calico Notebooks.
• Asshole Victim: She brutally murdered several innocent men, and ruled the Kuze family with an iron fist, heavily enforcing the Kuze Code. Once the Rift taints her very being, it's hard to feel sorry for her.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Lord Himuro and Ryokan Kurosawa were following their respective traditions and rituals to ensure the dead wouldn't harm the living, but ultimately knew their methods were inhumane and, after their deaths, became deadly ghosts that were fought only in fixed moments of their respective games (Lord Himuro twice, Kurosawa only once). Yashuu, however, was an active agent in her ritual's progression and, ironically, its downfall (even if she didn't actively want to make it fail), and a ghost so hostile that she's even a Random Encounter at points, fought often throughout the Manor of Sleep. She could be argued as being a contrasting PREQUEL antagonist, too, as not even Doctor Haibara and the Marriage/Funeral Celebrants are battled in their games as much as she is, nor are they as intentionally cruel.
• Disproportionate Retribution: There is only one sentence for breaking the Kuze code in any way: Death.
• Evil Matriarch: The Kuze family master and the overseer of all rituals in her household, and a dangerous woman who enforces maximum punishment for any violations of the family code. In death, she's also a very hostile spirit that fights the player often.
• Floating Limbs: Her hostile form is surrounded by floating arms reaching out towards the player. It's possible they belong to the many Engravers that worked under her in the past.
• Greater-Scope Villain: She is the biggest cause of everything wrong with the setting of III. She takes in Reika just for the sake of making her the next Tattooed Priestess, callously murders Akito Kashiwagi, the lover of her daughter Kyouka, without her knowledge, causing her to progressively lose her mind, orders the murder of her own granddaughter Amane just for trying to help, and eventually murders her own grandson Kaname just for wanting to see Reika one last time. While her intentions may have been well-intentioned in trying to keep the Rift closed, the lengths she went to are incredibly appalling and unforgivable.
• Hate Sink: Yashuu is easily one of the most despicable and outright villainous ghosts in the series, who coldly murders innocent people, even within her own family, without remorse, and actively pushes a very painful and cruel ritual that was being done incorrectly the whole time (not that anyone actually knew until it was too late), for rather selfish reasons compared to the other games.
• Hell Is That Noise: What is assumed to be the Rift itself, a distorted mass of voices and moans, whenever she appears. As a patrolling ghost, the voices become whispers overlaying an echoed rhythm.
• Improbable Weapon User: The arms floating around her. Yashuu can throw a pair of them at you, or make all of them hold up the player character and slowly deal damage, as her own personal "grab" attack.
• In-Series Nickname: "Kuze Family Head".
• Interface Screw: She can make the hands behind her leave dirty handprints on the Camera Obscura's viewfinder if they hit you.
• Lightning Bruiser: Yashuu moves frequently and quickly, she can attack at range with her ghostly hands, and can take one hell of a blasting from the camera.
• Never Mess with Granny: In life, she was the ruthless matriarch of the Kuze Shrine. In death, her spirit is a deadly foe that all three characters must overcome.
• Recurring Boss: She appears and is fought 4-5 times in total throughout the game.
• Recurring Element: The ceremony master for the failed ritual.
• Tattooed Crook: She was the most exposed to the Rift when Reika's ritual failed, so her body bears the snake & holly tattoos all over, at what is likely the darkest shade possible, to the point you can only barely make out her face.

Kyouka Kuze

Japanese: 久世鏡華 Kuze Kyouka

Voiced by: Courtenay Taylor (English)

"I won't let you go...!"

The daughter of Yashuu Kuze, and mother to both Kaname and Amane. She was an extremely beautiful woman, and fell in love with a man named Akito Kashiwagi that came to the manor for the winter. After Akito's disappearance (actually murdered by Yashuu), she waited for him to return while obsessively brushing her hair which he admired so much. After her death from the Rift consuming the manor, her spirit continues to wait and mistakes Kei for her long-lost love.

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• Alliterative Name: Kyouka Kuze.
• Apocalyptic Log: The Purple Diaries.
• Boss Room: The Kimono Room, which was her bedroom and living area in the Kuze Manor, with clumps of her hair adorning the wall over her mirror. Her ghost will most often appear there to fight the player.
• Expy: Of Fatal Frame's "Long Hair Woman", although properly dressed and with a much more realistic length of hair (although still really long), but still sharing the tragedy of waiting for a special someone to return, only to never see them again. She's even fought in the same room at Himuro Mansion that the Long Hair Woman had a scripted encounter in.
• Hell Is That Noise: A shrill whistling noise. It's also the dominant ambient sound in her room.
• In-Series Nickname: "Woman Brushing".
• I Will Wait for You: She spent the rest of her life waiting for Akito, unaware that Yashuu murdered him, and continues to wait even in death.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Her most distinct feature is her hair, which gained her much admiration in life.
• Mythology Gag: She appears at the Himuro Fish Tank Room to attack Miku during Hour IV. This isn't the first time Miku had to fight a female ghost themed around long hair in that same room.
• Prehensile Hair: Sort of. She can hurl clumps of her ridiculously long hair at the player as a ranged attack.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Akito, a visitor to the manor.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: Her face is pale and her eyes have heavy shadow effects on them, with her lips being rather pronounced, possibly from a dark lipstick shade.
• Yandere: She became extremely obsessed with her lover after he went missing, and it drove her insane to the point that she chases the protagonist who she mistakens for her lover, and it is implied she self-harmed due to her strong feelings for him.

The Handmaidens

Hisame, Minamo, and Shigure Kuze

Japanese: 久世冰雨 / 久世水面 / 久世時雨 Kuze Hisame / Kuze Minamo / Kuze Shigure

Shigure: "Stay here... Forever."

Handmaidens in the service of the Kuze Shrine, working alongside Amane. They served the Priestess, and were tasked with impaling her in the shrine. After the curse broke out, they killed Amane and were themselves sacrificed to try to seal the Rift, which also failed. Their ghosts now seek the Manor for victims of the curse to impale.

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• Airborne Mook: At the Abyss during the Final Hour, they begin flying as opposed to simply hovering.
• Apocalyptic Log: The Red Diary (Hisame), Gray Diary (Minamo), and Green Diary (Shigure).
• Creepy Child: All three are this, but especially Minamo.
• Creepy Children Singing: They can be heard singing the Handmaiden's Song periodically.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Shigure and Minamo were both impaled as part of the Final Sacrifice to contain the Rift. Hisame, being the last girl standing in the entire manor, either killed herself or succumbed to starvation.
• Dual Boss: Occasionally fought in pairs.
• Fragile Speedster: Their small size and quick speed lets them float circles around Rei, Miku, and Kei, but they have low health and can be taken down quickly with a well-placed Fatal Frame.
• Hell Is That Noise: The beating of their hammers onto the stakes, along with a distorted version of the Handmaiden's Song whenever they show up as enemies.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The same uniforms and same heights despite their different ages makes them difficult to tell apart from each other, although it's easy to tell which one's which by their hairstyles (Hisame has the long hair, Shigure has short hair and bangs, and Minamo has a red hairpin).
• Ironic Nursery Tune: The Handmaiden's Song, sung to calm the Priestess. It involves crucifixion, skinning, and threats of the Rift opening.
• Motifs: The four cardinal directions, where their respective Doll Altar rooms are located (Hisame at the North, Shigure at the West, Minamo at the East and Amane at the South).
• Punch-Clock Villain: Hisame is this, accepting her duties without hesitation and just follows the orders she's given.
  Hisame: Amane broke the Kuze Code. She must not be allowed to live. She must be punished for her crime.
• Sadist: The three will all sport big childish smiles whenever they try to attack, but Minamo is by far the most sadistic, displaying intense glee at the thought of driving a stake through a body.
  Minamo: I want to impale a real priestess soon.
• Sole Survivor: Hisame was the last person standing in the Kuze Mansion when all other attempts to prevent the spread of the Rift failed. This led her to presumed suicide, although not much is known about her death besides her final diary entry stating she'll "go to sleep forever".
• Token Good Teammate: While all three are still creepy, Shigure was the most morally conflicted of the three over having to kill Amane, as one quote from her diary shows. She also calls out for Amane in a sad tone when she's defeated.
  Shigure: Amane, I'm sorry.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: They were raised from a very young age to be Handmaidens, which reflects in how each of them carry out their duty. Hisame coldly accepts it as her job, Shigure is hesitant about certain aspects but carries it out anyway, and Minamo is ecstatic about driving a stake through a body.
• Varying Tactics Boss: They usually attack with their hammers and stakes to impale you, but come the Final Hour and they take to the air, becoming high-flying ghosts at the Abyss that hover above Rei and then dive-bomb towards her.
• Virgin Sacrifice: All but Hisame were sacrificed in an effort to seal the Rift.
• Weapons of Their Trade: They carry their ceremonial hammers with them, and will attack by either swinging with it to impale the player through the torso or emerging from the floor to stake the player's foot into the ground.
• Wolfpack Boss: Later in the game, the player must face all three of them at once... As they fly through the air.

Minor Ghosts

Tengai Narumi

Japanese: 鳴海天涯 Narumi Tengai

"It must not be spread. The Unleashing cannot be allowed to continue."

Head of the Shrine Carpenters serving under the Kuze Family for generations, specialized in creating mythical constructions for rituals and other eventualities, wearing a full-concealing mask. When the Unleashing occurred, Yashuu Kuze tasked Tengai and his team of carpenters to seal the Kuze Shrine and make sure the Rift wouldn't escape it, along with expanding the Manor and sealing off other areas so Reika wouldn't wander off its limits and, finally, cast it off into the dream realm, none of which worked all that well. As a last resort, he hesitantly decided to have his team of 10 carpenters become Sacrificial Pillars to strengthen the foundations of the new Manor, chasing after the ones who escaped with a meat cleaver, before finally sacrificing himself as the final Pillar.

It still wasn't enough, and his ghost now haunts the Manor of Sleep, attacking the victims of the Tattooed Curse, thinking more sacrifices will seal off the Rift.

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• Apocalyptic Log: A Map with a Mark, with directions to carry out the Final Impalement meant for the Handmaidens.
• Apologetic Attacker: He didn't like the idea of killing his own carpenters to make them into Pillars, but felt he had no choice. Even in battle, he'll sometimes say "forgive me" as he prepares a swing, hinting that he said the same to them as he chased them.
• The Faceless: Wears a bloodied cloth mask that completely covers his face.
• Hell Is That Noise: Rhythmic thumps on wood, followed by the sound of a scraping blade.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The very first time Rei enters the Manor, he'll suddenly pop up and attack her at some point, and since you only have the Professional Camera at that point, you have to run.
• In-Series Nickname: "Hidden Face Man".
• King Mook: To the Shrine Carpenters.
• Lightning Bruiser: He can run rather fast, chasing the player in a straight line towards them to attack with a slash. And if the hit connects, he can take a good chunk of health off.
• Magic Enhancement: He and his team specialized in doing this for buildings and shrines. It was also the purpose of the Sacrificial Pillars which he enforced onto his team in the Kuze Manor's final moments.
• Recurring Boss: You'll fight him a lot, seeing how many of these battles must be done to acquire some key items or, in the case of Hour IX, releasing the final seal on the door to the Shrine Courtyard.

Shrine Carpenters

Japanese: 宮大工 / 刺青を刻まれた男達 Miyadaiku / Shisei o kijimareta otokotachi

The carpenters serving under Tengai Narumi, all young men at the top of their ranks in building shrines, temples and other mythical locations. A team of 10 including Tengai himself served under the Kuze clan when the Unleashing happened, before they were assigned to expand the Manor rooms and cast the Shrine into a cave, far away from the sunlight, and into the dream realm. As a last resort, they were tasked with being made into Sacrificial Pillars, but many refused and tried to run away. Four carpenters, belonging to the Moriya family and whose bodies were corrupted by the Rift, aided Tengai with making sure none of them escaped, ambushing them at certain rooms and killing them, then killing themselves to become seals for the Shrine Courtyard.

Despite the bloodshed, the Rift was still tainting the manor, and the Carpenters' spirits were all dragged into the Manor of Sleep, where they attack any victims of the curse.

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Tropes applying to the Carpenters in general

• Anti-Villain: These poor guys just didn't want to be sacrificed and ran in a futile attempt to escape. Then the Rift tainted their spirits.
• Dirty Coward: Justified in lore, since they were assigned to be killed and stuffed into a corridor wall. It translates into their fights, though, since they'll actively circle the player and go into the walls where the Camera Obscura can't reach them. One earlier encounter also has a pair of them trying to get the jump on Rei with a Jump Scare through the wall.
  • You'll also see many "Vanishing Ghost" moments of the Carpenters hiding or running away from their slaughter, which is again justified as they were running for their lives;
  • Averted with the Moriya, who followed Tengai's leadership to the bitter end and proudly sacrificed themselves.
• Hell Is That Noise: Creaking wood and low droning sounds signal their presence.
• Improvised Weapon: A variant of them uses a pointed wooden rod as a weapon.
• In-Series Nickname: "Men in White", weapon or not.
• Mook: They're very common around the Manor of Sleep, sometimes holding a key item, but mostly just being the game's fodder ghosts that don't deal too much damage but can be dangerous in a group.

Tropes applying to the Moriya carpenters

• Apocalyptic Log: The four Moriya Tomes.
• Boss Room: They appear in specific areas of the Manor of Sleep, shown by the "Sacrificial Pillars" film reel. The entire goal of Hour VI is to find their rooms and defeat them; Shigeomi is fought at the Hall with Tatami, Nirei at the bottom of the Stairs Hallway, Tatsumi at the Futon Room tucked away through the Himuro areas, and Inui at the very end of the entrance Foyer.
• Elite Mook: Essentially the Men in White with a different weapon and able to cause a lot more damage.
• Flunky Boss: Tatsumi, the one fought at the Futon Room, is flanked by two Shrine Carpenters. There is a Mission Mode challenge where you have to do the same fight, but the common Men in White continuously respawn so the player can get a higher score based on how many they take down before the Engraved Man is defeated himself.
• Four Is Death: There are four Engraved Men, responsible for the slaughter of the carpenters and themselves.
• In-Series Nickname: "Engraved Men".
• No Name Given: Averted; the game itself doesn't tell you their names, but the Ghost List actually does name the four Moriya family members on their Fatal Frame shots: Shigeomi, Nirei, Tatsumi and Inui.
• Praetorian Guard: They acted as enforcers and direct aides to Tengai Narumi, being the most elite out of the group besides their leader. If one looks at the picture of the Carpenter team, the Moriyas are the four closest to the Head Carpenter himself at the middle.
• Tattooed Crook: The four are covered in snake & holly tattoos, most likely due to exposure to the Rift as they worked. You can't even make out their faces from how many there are.

Makie & Kozue Kozuhara

Japanese: 葛原蒔枝 / 葛原梢 Kuzuhara Makie / Kuzuhara Kozue

Voiced by: Courtenay Taylor (Makie, US), Miyuu Tsuzuhara (Kozue, JP), April Hong (Kozue, US)

Makie: "My husband..."

Kozue: "Daddy's dead..."

A mother and daughter duo that appear to Rei in the Manor of Sleep. In life, their husband/father went to get the child's ball that fell on the roof of their home, but slipped and fell to his death. Kozue blamed herself but didn't tell her mother, while Makie knew of his death but lied to her daughter that he just "vanished", carrying out frutiless searches in the forest to try and "find" him. One day, a neighbor went to check on them, since they hadn't left home for days themselves, but only found black soot marks on their beds.

Both fell victim to the Tattooed Curse and now haunt the Manor of Sleep as ghosts, looking for their husband/father. They attack Rei in a misguided attempt to shift the blame and sorrow they feel.

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• Alliterative Name: Kozue Kozuhara.
• Apocalyptic Log: Kozue's Scrap of Paper, which is an apology to her mother for what happened to the father.
• Creepy Child: Kozue, but the tragedy of her death mostly outweighs how disturbing she looks.
• Death of a Child: Kozue is one of the youngest child ghosts in the franchise, and the game pulls no punches in showing that Reika's curse will take young victims like her if allowed to.
• Dual Boss: They're fought together at first, with the mother as the single target, but Hour III onward separates the two and has you fight them as individuals.
• Hell Is That Noise: Ringing bells, loud droning sounds and the mother's moaning lamentations.
• In-Series Nickname: "Wandering Mother/Daughter".
• Interface Screw: Kozue can darken the room with her crying, making it more difficult to aim at her.
• The Scapegoat: Kozue tries to pin the blame for her father's "disappearance" on Rei, in a misguided attempt to help her mother cope. It only results in both spirits becoming hostile towards her.
• Tattooed Crook: The mother shows the tattoos on her body when she hovers in close for an attack.
• Tragic Villain: Like Yoshino, the two were a family broken by the loss of a family member that utterly consumed them through the Tattooed Curse, now restless, corrupted and trapped in a nightmare where their sorrow makes them attack other victims.
• Warm-Up Boss: They serve to introduce Fatal Frame III's combat mechanics, so they're the first bosses Rei has to face in the Manor of Sleep. Makie's moveset reflects this by being simple, just occasionally teleporting closer and closer until she tries to attack.

Kiriko Asanuma

Japanese: 淺沼 切子 Asanuma Kiriko

"It's so dark... Let me out! Please let me out!"

A young woman whose family was killed by robbers that broke into her home, managing to avoid death by hiding in the closet. Despite this, she grew increasingly isolated until authorities had to remove her from the house and hospitalize her, as she was growing increasingly weaker.

Asanuma was suffering from the Tattooed Curse and became one of the Lost Patients, having succumbed to the tattoos. Her ghost now haunts the Manor of Sleep's crawlspaces, crawling underneath the floor as she tries in vain to find a way out.

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• Hell Is That Noise: Her moans of anguish, followed by the rapid creaking of floorboards as she crawls.
• In-Series Nickname: "Crawling Woman".
• Lightning Bruiser: One of the fastest ghosts in the game, able to crawl around Miku and blindside her just enough to attack. Even fighting her as Rei in an open space is tricky, as she can outrun the Viewfinder and even crawl on the ceiling.
• Nightmare Face: Fighting her with Miku makes you do it always in first person view. And if you're careless and she grabs you, dear LORD.
• Recurring Element: This game's version of a crawling ghost.
• Tattooed Crook: The tattoos appear on her body whenever she closes in for an attack.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Miku's walk through the crawlspaces is done in full first person view, both in and out of viewfinder mode, meaning you're obligated to fight Kiriko always staring at her up close, which limits your field of vision considerably when she teleports to another part of the tiny room.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: She appears a lot in Rei's home in the real world, with an infamous cutscene having her hug Rei from behind in Yuu's attic. She also appears at the Darkroom and under Rei's bedroom desk.

The Engravers

Japanese: 針を刺す女 Hari o sasu on'na

A pair of master tattoo artists, summoned to the Kuze Shrine to tend to the Priestess, taking part in the Rite of Spirits to have their eyes gouged out to see the Priestess' dreams without sight, and needles driven into their arms to carry the pain into the ink. They made the sacred ink for the tattoos and ritually engraved them into the Priestess's body. As part of their duties, they were forbidden from leaving the shrine, staying fully within proximity of the Abyss. Once their duties were over, their arms were cut off and cast away.

Two Engravers served Yasuu Kuze for Reika's ritual, presumably succumbing to the Rift themselves once the ritual failed.

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• Body Horror: They bodies undergo extensive mutilation as part of their duties. Needles are driven into their hands and forearms, and after their eyes are gouged out, a hemp rope is looped through the sockets.
• The Dragon: Both of them to Yashuu Kuze, as guards of the inner Kuze Shrine and the Abyss, carrying out the Piercing of the Soul under her watch.
• Dual Boss: Sometimes fought as a pair, such as at the inner shrine.
• Eye Scream: They tear our their own eyes, to better experience the Priestess's dreams.
• Fan Disservice: Topless women with Godiva Hair? Nice! Needles sticking out of their hands, eyes gouged out and replaced with hemp rope? Not nice...
• Gameplay and Story Integration: At first it seems odd that blind ghosts can seemingly locate you unprompted this time, until you read about how the Engravers' lack of eyes make them see the Priestess' dreams and the tattoos guide them through spiritual intuition. They live in the Priestess' dream now, so they don't require eyes to see the protagonists.
• Godiva Hair: They are topless, but their hair is long enough to reach down to their chests.
• Handicapped Badass: They are blind, but unlike the previous examples of blind ghosts in the series, they don't rely on sound to find the player. Not to mention they can surprise you even more than the Blinded from the first game, appearing right behind you and hugging their arms full of needles around you for a good amount of damage.
• Hell Is That Noise: Presumably the sound of the Engraving process whenever they appear, which sounds akin to sharp nails scratching across a screen door.
• In-Series Nickname: "Needle Women".
• Recurring Element: Blinded ghosts, as well as ritual aides for the ceremony master.
• Tattooed Crook: Like the Priestess, their bodies are covered in tattoos.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: They appear in Rei's house twice, once during her shower and another at the bathroom mirror, indicated by bloody handprints on the inside of the reflection.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: They wear hakama, but without a top.

Stroller Grandma

Japanese: 乳母車を押す老婆 Ubaguruma o osu rōba

"Come here..."

The ghost of an elderly woman pushing a stroller. Little is known about her, but the Ghost List explains that she was unable to accept the death of her infant grandchild, so she dug up the body from the grave in secrecy and put it on the stroller to cart it around. The fact she felt immense grief over the loss of a loved one indicates she might have died to the Tattooed Curse, but this isn't stated.

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• Based on a True Story: Producer Makoto Shibata based her off an encounter he had while exploring some old ruins as a child, where he saw the image of an old woman pushing a stroller.
• Bullfight Boss: Especially in Hour IX where you fight her in a tight hallway. Her single attack is to charge at you with the stroller for massive damage, and if you don't hit that Fatal Frame shot in time or get out of the way, it will hurt.
• Creepy Long Fingers: Visible when you defeat her and she lets go of the stroller, but her hands are completely deformed with fingers that twist into crab-like pincers, pretty much wrapping around the stroller's handle.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Managing to get a peek at the right angle (or hacking the game's texture files) reveals that the inside of her stroller has a cluster of distorted infant faces.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: There's nothing in the game (besides her Ghost List entry, which you unlock only later) that indicates she's present in it. Unless you actively go out exploring during Hour IX, you won't even know she exists. You might end up meeting her completely by accident, entering the Foyer as you search for items, only to be suddenly attacked by her as you make your way to the other side.
• Glass Cannon: Lose sight of her and let her attack you? She'll do immense damage, even possibly taking you out in one hit. Nail that Fatal Frame shot right when she's about to ram you? She's the one going down in a single hit.
• Guide Dang It!: If you don't go out looking for her, you'll miss her entirely in Hour IX. One could argue that finding her on a first run is vital if they want to find the Notched Arrow Key, which leads to the Measure function for the camera (displays the ghosts' HP) guarded by Yoshino. Even worse, regardless if you do have a Stone Mirror to revive you, if she kills you, she won't show up again in the Hour, with nothing to indicate that this is the case with her.
• Hell Is That Noise: The stroller's creaking wheels, followed by a distorted baby cry.
• Implacable Man: One of the few ghosts in the franchise that doesn't flinch from a Shutter Chance shot. If you don't hit a Fatal Frame on her, or at the very least deal two very powerful shots in quick succession, she won't stop charging towards you. Either she goes down, or you do.
• Never Mess with Granny: She's one of the few ghosts that doesn't get push-back from a Shutter Chance. Your only options to not get hit are to either hit that Fatal Frame shot or run.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Played with; it's not that she has just 1 HP, she just has very little of it. Regardless, hitting a Fatal Frame shot will stop her in her tracks for good with just one photo.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: She appears in Rei's home at the altar room in Hour XI.

Black Shadows

Japanese: 曲がる影 Magaru kage

Featureless black spirits that attached themselves to Yoshino Takigawa, seemingly berating her for surviving the plane crash. You fight an entire horde of them whenever Yoshino herself fights you.

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• Ambiguously Evil: Who or what these shadows are is unclear. The Ghost List explains they're evil spirits that chase after the living, but a photo revealed in the Darkroom of Yoshino reveals they're wearing the same clothes as her family and fiancé when they died. It's assumed they're either evil ghosts that attach themselves to a bigger presence, the ghosts of her loved ones, or a mixture of both.
• Humanoid Abomination: Black shadow-like spirits with only the semblance of a face on their heads, attaching themselves to others to torment them. Taking a picture of Yoshino at a certain moment and developing it reveals they're wearing the same clothes as her loved ones at their time of death.
• Mook: They exist to surround Yoshino and make your fights with her harder, since they'll constantly ram onto you to knock you out of viewfinder mode. That being said, Rei's Flash ability is enough to make them disappear.
• Varying Tactics Boss: The first time you fight Yoshino, they'll appear continuously until they suddenly stop for her to stand up and fight you. Afterwards, whenever you fight the Female Survivor, they'll either just continuously respawn until she's gone, or surround her as a shield while she attacks.

Kizuna Himuro

Japanese: 氷室緤 Himuro Kizuna

Voiced by: Lusia Strus (US)

"I'll give my body over to the ropes and seal the gates."

A former Rope Shrine Maiden from the Himuro Mansion sacrificed to seal the Hell Gate, appearing in Miku's dream after she was affected by the Tattooed Curse. She represents the horrors of the Strangling Ritual and haunts the Himuro areas of the Manor of Sleep.

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• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: One of her attacks is to spin her severed arms at Miku like a horrifying mock-up of a flail.
• Body Horror: Unlike previous representations of the Strangling Ritual and Rope Curse victims, Kizuna's body is horrifically and realistically torn apart in her spirit form, with her arms and head floating right next to their severed joints, and without visible legs.
• Call-Back: To Fatal Frame, along with random areas belonging to the Himuro Mansion.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: If allowed to grapple the player, Kizuna will stretch their bodies up in the air, imitating the Strangling Ritual that killed her.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Miku's final hostile ghost encounter before she goes comatose from the Tattooed Curse.
• Floating Limbs: Her arms float next to the severed stumps, and she can swing them at Miku as a makeshift "weapon".
• Hell Is That Noise: The stretching and creaking of the ropes from the Strangling Ritual.
• In-Series Nickname: "Rope Priestess".
• Recurring Boss: Miku has two obligatory fights with her, both at the Himuro Rope Altar. Other encounters with her are random if the player lingers for too long in the Himuro areas of the Manor of Sleep.
• Retcon: Kizuna's presence as a named Rope Shrine Maiden makes it difficult to place her sacrifice in the original game's timeline, although supposedly she was a successful one before Kirie. Fan speculation ranges from her being Long Arms' daughter, Tokitada Kyuki's lover, or even both.

The Kusabi

An outsider to Minakami Village sacrificed in the Hidden Ceremony to appease the Hellish Abyss, appearing in Kei's dream after Mio passed the Tattooed Curse to him. It represents the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual and haunts the Minakami areas of the Manor of Sleep.

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• Body Horror: It lacks the haphazardly stitched-together arm of Seijiro Makabe's Kusabi form, but makes up for it with a completely skeletal face and bony arms, further implying this is a Kusabi made before Makabe's own sacrifice.
• Call-Back: To Fatal Frame II, along with many different areas from Minakami Village.
• Degraded Boss: Compared to Seijiro Makabe's Kusabi form, this one is incapable of killing you in one hit regardless of when you encounter it. That being said, this is compensated with a more diversified moveset and being able to deal a lot of damage. It applies to gameplay too, as he becomes a Random Encounter post-Hour VIII.
• Determinator: You meet him three times in a row in Hour VIII as Kei explores the Minakami rooms, with the second time being a proper boss fight at the Minakami Rope Temple. And yet despite being defeated, he reappears the second you leave the room, chasing Kei all the way back to the Cell room.
• Hell Is That Noise: His agonized moans and screams.
• Hopeless Boss Fight:
  • The first time Kei encounters him, he cannot be harmed, and you have to stall him out long enough until a crimson butterfly (implied to be Mayu) appears to guide Kei out. The third encounter also counts, as Kei can't harm it yet again and has to run back to the cell room where Mio was.
  • If the player is cast into the Miasma and enters the Minakami areas, there is a chance for the Kusabi to appear and also become invulnerable until a Purifying Light is collected.
• In-Series Nickname: "Rope Man".
• Recurring Boss: You meet him three times in the same chapter, with only the second having you be capable of harming him. Afterwards, he becomes a Random Encounter ghost on any area belonging to Minakami Village.

Other Characters

Akito Kashiwagi

"There isn't much contact with the outside world in the manor and guests are a rarity, so Kyouka always listens to my stories raptly. The sound of her plucking her koto is as fine and delicate as her hair."

Kyouka Kuze's lover, a travelling folklorist who came across the myth of the Kuze Shrine and a certain lullaby sung around its region, visiting it in the past. Despite a promise to return to her on the next possible period of visitation to the manor, he was never seen again.

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• Apocalyptic Log: Folklore Notes and the "Legend of Song" books detailing his study of the Handmaidens' Song.
• The Ghost: Despite supposedly dying around the Kuze Shrine area, he's never seen by the player with any character, with only the aftermath of his death seen through Kyouka's spirit and related documents.
• Identical Stranger: Bears an uncanny resemblance to Kei Amakura, which is lampshaded slightly in-game. Furthermore, Kei finding Akito's Echo Stone Earring on a New Game Plus run spares him from the Tattooed Curse, indicating the resemblance is enough to both him and his son Kaname for even Reika to spare him.
• Never Found the Body: He mysteriously disappeared one day before leaving the Shrine, Kyouka left with his only his promise that he would return for her one day and patiently combing her hair until she died alone. Yashuu killed him and hid the body in parts unknown so she wouldn't need to tell her daughter about it.
• Recurring Element: He's yet another folklorist in the franchise who meets a grizzly fate after prodding a little too deep into local customs.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Between himself and his son Kaname, which gets Reika to spare Kei in the good ending.

Musubi & Tsuzuri Osaka

Musubi: "It's okay, we are one."

Twin sisters who used to live in Minakami Village as members of the Osaka family, having performed the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual at some point in the past. Somehow, their spirits appear in the Manor of Sleep in the areas belonging to Minakami Village, which Kei witnesses as a grim display of what his niece Mio went through.

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• All There in the Manual: Their names and origin are never stated in the game proper, only expanded upon in the official manga tie-in for the game.
• Ambiguous Situation: How or why their spirits end up appearing in the Manor of Sleep is never stated, even through supplementary material, as there's no other mention of the other Minakami families in "III" besides rooms from their homes appearing in the Minakami composite within the dream. A widely-accepted theory is that Tsuzuri, as a consequence of killing her sister, was overcome with enough sorrow to become a victim of the Tattooed Curse.
• Cain and Abel: Subverted, as neither sister hated each other and were, in fact, very loving towards each other. However, Tsuzuri was still forced to choke the life out of Musubi to appease the Hellish Abyss, something she was not happy about.
• Call-Back: Another big one to Fatal Frame II, serving as the direct reference to the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual while the Kusabi alludes to the Cutting Ritual that sacrifices outsiders.
• Hero of Another Story: They're featured in the "Crimson Dream" segment of the "Zero Shisei no Koe Comic Anthology", which shows their history and how their Crimson Sacrifice ritual was performed.
• Locked into Strangeness: Tsuzuri was the sister meant to sacrifice her twin, and the sorrow turned her hair permanently white when she became a Remaining, as is often the case with the ceremony's results.

Mio Amakura

Kei's niece and the twin sister of Mayu Amakura, who's recently gone missing. Kei is trying to find a way to save Mio, who's now suffering from the Tattooed Curse and is following Mayu deeper into the Manor of Sleep.

For Mio's affiliated tropes, see the character sheet for Fatal Frame II.

Ruri

The Kurosawa Residence's pet cat, who is seen often all over the place.

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• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Beating the game up to three times lets you unlock a ribbon and a bell for Ruri to wear. It serves no other purpose than to make the cat even cuter.
• Evil Detecting Cat: At Hour V, Ruri will be at the Altar Room hallway in Rei's house, hissing at something she's clearly seeing that the player can't. Following her to the room's closet at the right side will result in a literal Cat Scare.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Rei can interact with Ruri at several points, and sometimes the kitty will playfully bat at her hand with her paws before backing off or falling asleep.

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