Det är tydligen en smått traumatisk uppväxt som ligger till grund för de rysliga spök-spelen i Fatal Frame-serien. I varje fall om vi ska tro dess regissör Makoto Shibata som sedan 2001 i någon form arbetat med spelen och som nu senast översåg arbetet kring re-releasen av Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (som rödvins-älskande kollegan Månsis recenserade nyligen). I en intervju med Xbox Wire avslöjar nämligen Makoto att Fatal Frame inspirerats av hans närkontakt med spöken och andar i barndomen.
"Zombies and monsters aren't scary because they're not real, but spirits have been a frightening presence in my life since I was young"
Han berättar också om hur märkliga fenomen även skedde under produktionen av spelen.
"Once we were recording sound and a mysterious voice was actually recorded in the background. We tried to remove it from the recording, but eventually gave up because no matter what we did, the voice kept coming back onto the recording, so we actually left it in the game!"
Makoto berättar också om en av platserna i Mask of the Lunar Eclipse som baseras på ett japanskt hotell i verkligheten där han och hans familj hade en övernaturlig upplevelse.
"Rogetsu Hall is actually based on an old, Japanese-style hot spring hotel owned by one of my relatives. We used to gather there as a family, and on this one particular night, my family were the only guests in the hotel, so there was nobody else around. I woke up in the middle of the night, and because the inside of the hotel was only dimly lit by the moonlight shining through the window, the fantasy-like atmosphere lured me to wander around a bit. That is, until I saw a man I didn't recognize standing on the other side of the hallway, looking out the window under the moonlight"
"There should've only been relatives around, but this man was definitely a stranger. As I slowly approached to see who he was, the man looked at me, then quickly disappeared. More curious than scared, I went to the spot where the man was standing. I looked out the window and gazed at the large moon. I stood there looking at the moon for a while until I realized that I was now in the exact same pose as the man I had just seen. I started to wonder, was the man a spirit? Was he a vision of someone's past? Or did I just see a vision of my future? I knew I wanted to capture a moment like this in the game."
Dessa upplevelser är långt ifrån de enda och i bloggposten kan man läsa flera utförliga historier om hans närkontakt med spöken och andar.
Tror du på spöken eller är det bara trams och vidskeplighet?
Bäst att ringa Ghostbusters!