Source: Minakami Village Secret Festival Record, page 38-41
Fatal Frame II Remake: New Ending Storyboards Commentary
Ending "Sprouting Wings" / EV1100-PAGE03,08 (within the Hellish Abyss)
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From here, I'd like to give some commentary on the art and background lore through providing explanations for some of the storyboards for Sprouting Wings. During Sprouting Wings, there's a scene set within the Hellish Abyss. In the Hellish Abyss ending, you only get a quick glimpse of what lies at the bottom, but here, Mio falls in. In Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, the souls of the dead fall into the Lunar Underworld, the gate to hell, but Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water was the first game to feature the depiction of a living human falling in.
For this scene within the Hellish Abyss, we made it resemble falling towards the bottom of the sea, similar to the Lunar Underworld. In addition, emulating the way Ose's body dissolves as she falls into the underworld in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, Mio's body dissolves, scattering crimson particles. As she repeats the moment of her death over and over, Mio transforms from partially to fully one of the dead, ultimately taking on the form of the spirits within the abyss.
Time within the abyss flows differently from the way it does in the realm of the living, passing slowly. Within a world leading towards death, scenes from her memories play like images projected by a revolving lantern, recurring alongside her final emotions.
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The darkness of death within the abyss is darkness that possesses mass. In the footage of the Repentance, too, we depicted it as something resembling lava or smoke erupting. Though the abyss is filled with the darkness of death, it isn't uniform - the darkness further down is deeper, and as Mio falls towards the bottom, she comes into contact with this darkness of death more strongly.
Within the darkness of death, the more Mio moves about, the more intensely she dissolves - and the more heightened her emotions become, she dissolves even more intensely. The crimson particles that begin dissolving from her chest along with the heightening of her emotions look like a firework exploding (in the storyboards, they're depicted as continuously scattering from her chest, but in actuality, in order to make the moment in which they embrace stand out, we only put them in at the end).
During the game, this is where the darkness that has been rumbling as Mio approaches the Hellish Abyss reaches its peak, spouting up from below and enveloping Mio and Mayu. As life and death intersect, the crimson sparks that pour from their chests the instant the two embrace look like a butterfly, so please pay attention to this when you watch the Sprouting Wings ending.
Ending "Sprouting Wings" / EV1100-PAGE12,14 (butterflies dash through the village)
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The scene where the swarm of butterflies, the sparkling crimson butterfly born from Mio and Mayu leading the way, fly through the village was created to give you a feeling of sprinting, of racing through this village that you've only been able to move around slowly up until this point. (Just like with the "wings" (羽) character from Sprouting Wings (羽化), I chose the character for "sparkling" (赫) because it contains the same character repeated side by side, calling to mind twins.)
The sparkling crimson butterfly brings morning to the village, the ghosts looking at the morning rays amidst the half-light.
Some of the endings from the original game were based on promotional wallpapers or key art that had been put together in advance. For example, the Promise ending was based on the image of a promotional wallpaper called "Invitation" that I expanded upon.
The scene from this game's Sprouting Wings ending in which Chitose appears is based on the image of a promotional wallpaper for the original game called "Nocturne". As if beckoning to Chitose, who has poor eyesight, a butterfly flies around her face, illuminating it, the faint sensation alerting Chitose to the fact that something has changed. Expanding upon this image of a crimson butterfly coming to announce an omen, I went about creating the sequence of scenes here.
Ending "Sprouting Wings" / EV1100-PAGE17 (butterflies dash through the village)
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For this scene, in which the swarm of crimson butterflies rush through the village, I focused on having the camera act like one from a drone race. It dashes down the village's main road from the perspective of a butterfly, my aim being to make the player feel like they're one of the butterflies flying through the village themselves.
On the village's main road, the ghosts of children who had been playing there cheerfully shout, "Butterflies!" as they spot the swarm and run along after it. As the butterflies ascend the hill towards Misono, bright light streams down over it, the children vanishing as they run.
As well as a sense of speediness, I think this scene has a sort of nostalgic, festival-like feeling to it, too.
Additionally, the voices of the children in the Japanese version of this game were provided by actual children. This decision stemmed from the fact that hearing the voices of real children from out of the darkness is spooky. However, I also wanted the innocent, happy voices of children to be heard as it got brighter, so we did some additional recording.
Ending "Sprouting Wings" / EV1100-PAGE19 (the darkness is imprisoned within the abyss)
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As the swarm of crimson butterflies arrive at Misono, the morning sun rises over the village, and taking it along with them, the butterflies descend towards the Hellish Abyss that lies directly below. The abyss is filled with the darkness of death, about to erupt forth, but the sparkling crimson butterfly and the sparkling morning sun imprison the darkness within the pit of the abyss.
Each title in the Fatal Frame series features a "gate to hell" that connects our world to the underworld. The gate to hell cannot be sealed up completely, in the same way that death cannot be sealed away in the real world. In the places that serve as the settings of the Fatal Frame series, people must face up to and coexist with death. And, in order to preserve the boundary between death and life, they must go on suppressing the darkness of death.
In the Sprouting Wings ending, the sparkling crimson butterfly forces this darkness of death, attempting to rampage, back down, pacifying it.
This is a sight only made possible by the fact that the crimson butterfly was born in the instant when death and life intersect to their utmost limits. In order to represent this phenomenon, we created a scene in which the darkness of death erupts, then made a video where that process is played back in reverse.
Ending "Remaining Sun" / EV1101-PAGE1
Remaining Sun, which serves as an epilogue to the Sprouting Wings ending, is an excerpt from the end of my initial draft, which was a grand finale.
Mio and Mayu sit by the shore of the reservoir. In the other endings, they sit in bright sunlight, but in this scene, the evening sun is reflected on the water's surface.
The image for this scene was based on the setting sun scene from a promotional video for the original game in which Mio and Mayu make their first appearance. My expectation with the scene was that they were supposed to be reflecting on the past after everything was over, but ultimately, it didn't end up being used in the game.
By appearing in Remaining Sun in this game, they finally return to that very first scene.
The setting sun that appears in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water - the Dark Sun - is the light of the end, where the end continues for all eternity and time has stopped. However, I endeavoured to make the sunset in this game a gentle light of the end.
Mayu's leg won't heal right away. But bright light shines from the direction in which the two of them head.
Finally, I'd like to tell you about a "non-spooky ghost encounter" I had related to the ending.
It was the middle of the night.
I was in the kitchen, putting away the dishes. The rest of my family were asleep, so I was doing my best not to make any noise, when suddenly I heard a quiet voice behind and diagonally upwards from me.
"Everything is meaningless, worthless and beautiful."
"Who's there!?"
I turned around, shocked, but there was no one there. I looked around the room, but naturally, I was alone.
It was the voice of a young man. For a ghost, he sounded quite clear. The ghostly voices I'd heard up until this point spoke of their emotions, but the word choice in this case was clearly unlike that.
This came right at the time when I was thinking about the meaning behind the ending, so maybe he decided to give me his opinion on it.
However, I don't know what he meant by that.
Was he saying that the vision I had in mind at that moment was a good one, with no thoughts about the meaning of the ending or anything like that? Did it mean that everything already appears beautiful through the eyes of a ghost, even without me needing to think up and provide anything beautiful for him? Ghosts are always so peculiar in their phrasing that it's hard to tell.
Feeling beauty is similar to feeling death. It provides you with a chance to return within yourself. And, though it's always close at hand, it won't appear unless you notice it. I wanted, therefore, to object that perhaps this is why beautiful things have value and meaning.
If I get the chance to encounter him again, I'd like to try asking him if he feels like the ending turned out well.