Do not spend your first save trying to force every ending. The 2026 remake locks its first proper clear to Crimson Butterfly; the routes to The Abyss, The Promise, Sprouting Wings, and Remaining Sun are built on New Game+ Spirit Stones and side-story progress. The useful plan is to finish the nine-chapter route with a well-upgraded Camera Obscura, take the Lonely Road Home detour before the point of no return, then use that cleared file as the foundation for the ending ladder.
This walkthrough follows FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE, Steam AppID 3920610, released on March 11, 2026. Research was checked on July 20, 2026 against the current official store data, the remake’s nine-part route, its 51-achievement list, and readable New Game+ references. It does not use room directions, collectible counts, or ending rules from the 2002 original or the 2012 Wii remake where they conflict with the 2026 game.
Spoiler warning: chapter objectives, bosses, side-story timing, and all six ending conditions appear below.
Set up the cleared file that the post-game actually needs
Normal is the sensible first-run baseline. Story reduces enemy pressure but also cuts photo-point income; Battle makes wraiths more evasive and damaging while paying more points. Nightmare is not a good reconnaissance run: supplies are drastically reduced, harder enemies appear earlier, and its difficulty cannot be changed after the run begins. Remaining Sun eventually demands a full Nightmare clear, so save that commitment until the camera, charms, and your route knowledge are ready.
Use manual saves to preserve decisions rather than relying on one rolling slot. Three moments deserve their own file:
- Chapter 4, before the Lattice Room: this is where the Light and Shadow Key route converges and the Kurosawa House becomes more dangerous to traverse with Mayu.
- Chapter 8, before placing the Family Crests: keep a village-exploration file while most routes and first-run side stories are still practical to revisit.
- Final Chapter, at Kureha Shrine: use this save for Lonely Road Home, then reload it and continue to the real finale.
Do not hoard every resource equally. Type-07 Film is infinite and should handle safe, predictable encounters. Type-14 is the cheap working stock. Hold Type-61, Type-90, and especially Type-00 for fast wraiths, multi-enemy rooms, the Kurosawa Patriarch, and the Man of Ropes. A Stone Mirror is insurance, not permission to ignore a lethal grab. Lunar Incense matters when Willpower pressure prevents you from holding a clean camera angle.
Read the Camera Obscura as four different tools
The critical path introduces filters in an order that also explains the village’s locks:
- Standard Filter: your default combat view. Wait for Shutter Chances or Fatal Frames instead of firing weak photos as soon as a target appears.
- Paraceptual Filter: reveals Vanishing Traces. If an objective says to follow Mayu or another presence but the room looks empty, change filters before leaving the area.
- Exposure Filter: performs Phantom Exposes on photographed clues, cracked walls, hidden containers, and concealed passages. A yellow or otherwise active frame is the signal that the subject is aligned.
- Radiant Filter: removes blood seals from doors, boxes, and objects. Later bosses can also require it for cleanup or a charged attack, so do not treat it as a puzzle-only attachment.
Against an ordinary wraith, keep enough distance to see the whole lunge, center the face, and let the high-value window arrive. When the enemy aggravates and gains the dark red aura, switch to the Exposure Filter and interrupt that state instead of trying to race its regeneration. Against multiple wraiths, a pillar or doorway can separate sightlines, but never back into an unexplored room while looking through the camera.
Mayu is part of the resource loop. Holding her hand restores Health and Willpower when the pair can travel safely, but it also changes how quickly Mio can react. Clear the next corridor, listen for a spawn, then bring Mayu through. In a chase, the objective is not a perfect escort formation; it is keeping the handhold long enough to move both sisters through the correct exit.
Chapters 1-3: leave Osaka House with every route tool online
Chapter 1, The Lost Village: enter Osaka House and locate the Butterfly Lantern in the Kimono Room first. The Great Tatami Room holds the Flashlight. Return to the Kimono Room for the Myoga Motif Key, use it on the Altar Room, and collect the Camera Obscura from the rubble after reading its memo. Photograph Mayu when the tutorial asks; it is both a mechanical lesson and progress toward the first-photo achievement.
The first hostile spirit teaches the real priority: draw its attention away from Mayu, photograph the attack window, then help Mayu stand. When the force on the exit remains, follow the second-floor apparition. The Osaka House Study fight introduces Shutter Chance, Fatal Time, evasion, and the last-chance photo. Leave Chapter 1 knowing the difference between a harmless Spirit, a hostile Wraith, and a collectible pair of Twin Dolls.
Chapter 2, The Twin Maidens: collect the Spirit Stone Radio and listen to Mayu’s Charm. Outside Osaka House, the route unlocks the Paraceptual Filter; use it whenever Mayu’s trail seems to stop. At the Tomonaki Gate, follow the Crimson Butterfly to the Village Storehouse, then collect both Twin Jizo Keys on the two branches. The left key route passes Okunohara and its broken house. On the other branch, turning off the Flashlight and crouching lets Mio pass patrols that are not worth the film.
This chapter also establishes the optional-story rule: photograph the short-lived spirit and collect the object it leaves. Miyako Sudo’s thread begins after the Woman’s Notebook event near Osaka House; Masumi Makimura’s first section also belongs to this chapter. Missing one does not block the first ending, but it creates more work on the single-run side-story sweep required much later.
Chapter 3, The Repentance: Kurosawa House introduces the Kusabi. The black-and-white screen and sudden fog mean an invincible pursuer is near. Camera shots do not solve this version of the encounter. Break line of sight, reach the marked hiding place, and wait for the visual effect to clear.
Follow Mayu’s Vanishing Trace through the first floor, then enter the Guest Room. The spirit with the camera leaves the Exposure Filter Memo. Use the new filter on the bookshelf beside the Butterfly Lantern to reveal the suitcase and start Seijiro Makabe’s long side story. The Triple Diamond Key is reached by taking the photo clue back toward the blood-marked dead end, revealing the Servant’s Room, and photographing the hidden Revenant there. If the route appears to end at an ordinary wall or shelf, that is the game’s cue to re-read the most recent photo and use Exposure.
Chapter 4: solve the five-tome chain before moving Mayu
The Hidden Ceremony is the first chapter where several locks are active at once. Solve them in a controlled order so you do not keep escorting Mayu across the same dangerous hallways.
- In the Hina Doll Room, collect the missing head and the room photograph. Restore the display to match the photo, then frame it with the Exposure Filter. The center box gives the Double Diamond Key.
- Use that key to open the first-floor route toward the Cloth Hallway and Storehouse. Do not fight the Kusabi; hide in the Kitchen until the monochrome pursuit effect is gone.
- At the jail cell, reach the item beside the spirit to unlock the Radiant Filter. Test it on the blood-sealed drawer, then open the stained door and the shortcut back to the Master’s Chamber.
- Collect the five books needed by the Buddha Statue shelf. Their correct order is Crimson Wing, Twin, Taboo, Martyr, Disaster. That drops the Light Key.
- In the Lattice Room, remove the blood from the small box behind the altar to obtain the Shadow Key.
With both keys, return toward the cell while holding Mayu’s hand. When the Kusabi blocks one passage, retreat to the nearby hiding place and take the other route after it leaves. Inside the cell, take the Osaka House Map, Mallet Key, Photo: Altar Room, and the Folklorist notes before leaving. The cutscene that traps Mayu is the handoff to Chapter 5, not a sign that the key sequence failed.
Chapters 5-6: open the village loop, then rebuild the Kiryu doll
Chapter 5, The Sacrifice: use the Mallet Key to escape through the Underground Cellar while the Kusabi follows. The Tomonaki Gate opens after the pursuit, letting Mio return to Osaka House. In the Altar Room, use Exposure on the right altar and solve the four-disc leaf puzzle:
- top-left disc: three turns;
- bottom-left disc: two turns;
- top-right disc: two turns.
The revealed stairs descend to Deep Path. At the first fork go right, keep close to the right wall, then take the left branch after the Type-61 Film. The box in the small chamber beyond the low beams contains the Rusty Key. Mourners are blind but track sound; slow movement is safer than spending strong film in narrow tunnels. Bring the key to Mayu’s cell, then follow her traces through Kurosawa House and unseal the exit with the Radiant Filter.
Chapter 5 is also a side-story junction. Progress Seijiro Makabe while you are already revisiting Osaka House. Masumi Makimura’s second segment, Ryozo Munakata’s first segment, and Sae Kurosawa’s first segment all attach to locations on this loop. The efficient choice is to inspect spirit events while passing through, not to run an entirely separate village circuit before the main route opens the needed doors.
Chapter 6, The Remaining: enter Kiryu House from the back and inspect the Projection Room. Film Reel 8 points to the Kiryu House Key in the cemetery beyond Misono Hill. Retrieve it, return through the front door, and follow the Girl Clad in Butterflies to the Doll Room. The Earthly Bridge mechanism requires two arms, a head, and the doll’s “soul.”
The left arm is in a box off the Ombre Hallway. The right hand is inside a hidden chest in the Kiryu House Storeroom; reveal it with Exposure. The head is in the chest beneath the staircase after the Fallen encounter. For the soul, unseal the Sealed Room from the Altar Room sightline, collect the Doll Manual, then use Radiant on the doll with bloody handprints in the Hanging Doll Room. Defeat the Doll Maker and take the Glass Eyes.
Fit the parts and Glass Eyes to the right-hand doll. For the facing-dolls mechanism, press the right button twice, then the left button four times. Defeat the three-doll ambush before descending the newly opened ladder to the Earthly Bridge. A mechanism that closes again before the fight is resolved is behaving normally; the dolls, not another rotation, are the lock.
Chapter 7: run first, recover the camera second
Sae opens with Mio separated from the Camera Obscura. The Woman in White is an instant-kill pursuer, so side doors and pickups are traps during the first sprint. Run to the end of the Ombre Hallway, turn left into the hiding spot, and wait. Only after the chase ends should you search the Windowed Storeroom and nearby rooms.
Open the Heavenly Bridge route and retrieve the camera before attempting any spirit cleanup. When Mayu is visible behind the locked room, save at the nearby lantern, then follow the bell and the Girl in Crimson through the Tatami Wings. Each successful photograph advances the pursuit and leaves a Crimson Diary. The final hiding spot in the Tatami Lounge contains the Bell Key. The Girl in Crimson becomes a wraith as soon as the key is collected, so reload strong film before interacting.
Return to Mayu, then explore the north side of Tachibana House only while the route is calm. If you are advancing Seijiro Makabe, this is his third chapter segment. Do not confuse optional locked-room cleanup with the immediate Bell Key objective; the key chase is what restores the critical path.
Chapter 8: collect four crests before exposing the fifth
The Waning Moon begins with the Octagonal Key and access to the Village Storehouse. The cabinet inside the cell provides the Tachibana Family Crest, the village map, and the next photo clue. Three more family crests are spread across the village:
- Tsuchihara: open the blood-sealed route near the Tomonaki River shore, search the Minakami alley, and photograph all three hidden children. Collecting the crest triggers their wraith fight.
- Osaka: return to the Osaka House Study and expose the hidden chest between the bookshelves.
- Kiryu: in the Kiryu House Altar Room, follow the spirit with the Paraceptual Filter to the concealed second-floor room, then open its chest.
Bring all four to Kureha Shrine. The photo behind the altar points back to the large tree; use Exposure to reveal the tunnel while keeping Mayu close for the Kusabi escape. The crest mechanism below the Old Tree has five slots, so do not waste time rotating the four you already own. Follow the rear path through the abandoned graveyard, expose the Umbral Mound beyond the bamboo, and collect the Kurosawa Family Crest.
Place the fifth crest in the center. From the reset position, rotate the bottom-left crest twice, the top-right once, and the top-left twice. After the cutscene, help Mayu up. Before advancing, this is the best first-run village audit: Akane Kiryu begins in this chapter and finishes in the Final Chapter; Chitose Tachibana, Ryozo Munakata’s later steps, and Seijiro Makabe’s fourth step also become available across the open map.
The Final Chapter has two different commitment points
After Mayu is taken, defeat the opening group and save at Kureha Shrine. The passage behind the altar is now the Lonely Road Home branch. Take it once for the achievement; the game treats the result as a game over, so reload the shrine save and follow the Crimson Butterfly toward Mayu.
Back in Kurosawa House, Mayu’s traces lead to the Hall of Ropes. The Kurosawa Patriarch is the dangerous fight of the first ending. Priests create crossfire while the Patriarch uses the rafters, projectiles, and floor hazards. Keep a pillar between Mio and any priest that is preparing a shot. Damage the Patriarch until he aggravates and retreats overhead, then use a strong Exposure shot to knock him down. A Blinding Shot can create the clear second needed to aim; Zoom helps with the rafters. Finish him quickly after the fall so he cannot repeat the full recovery cycle.
The Deep Path beyond the house is the last supply corridor. At its first fork, Exposure opens a cracked wall with a valuable cache, but taking it triggers an ambush. Radiant opens the blood-sealed chest on a dead-end branch. The Butterfly Lantern near the Ritual Altar is the final clean save point. Entering the Ritual Altar collapses the return path to Kurosawa House. Finish side stories, shop, respec, and equip the intended Spirit Stone before crossing that threshold.
The Man of Ropes has more room around him than the Patriarch, so use the arena. Keep him visible, move laterally around projectiles, and wait for his direct rush: it is both his most dangerous attack and the clearest Fatal Frame. On Normal he commonly aggravates around half health; answer with Exposure before continuing damage. Do not carry Type-00 Film out of this fight merely to prove that it was conserved. There is no ordinary encounter after him on the first route.
On the initial clear, enter the Abyss after the fight and approach Mayu. That produces Crimson Butterfly and unlocks New Game+, Chapter Select, the first Charm Bag, and the Yae and Kusabi Spirit Stone shards.
Use the six endings as a dependency ladder
The ending conditions are loadout gates, not dialogue choices. The safe method is to make a manual save before the Ritual Altar, verify the equipped Spirit Stone, and keep each cleared ending save rather than overwriting the only file that contains its reward shard.
| Ending | Required state | Final action |
|---|---|---|
| Lonely Road Home | Secret Kureha Shrine exit open | Leave through the passage during the Final Chapter before entering the Ritual Altar; reload after the game-over result. |
| Crimson Butterfly | First clear, or no other ending condition equipped | Win the final battle, descend to the Abyss, and approach Mayu. |
| The Abyss | Complete the Kusabi side story in NG+ and repair his Sparkling Spirit Stone | Equip the Kusabi stone before entering the Abyss, defeat Sae in Chapter Zero, and finish the scene. |
| The Promise | Complete Yae Kurosawa’s NG+ side story | Equip Yae’s Sparkling Spirit Stone before the Abyss. This path skips the Chapter Zero battle. |
| Sprouting Wings | After Crimson Butterfly, The Abyss, and The Promise, complete Mayu’s story and Sae’s second story | Equip both Mayu and Sae stones, defeat Sae, then run to Mayu and take her hand. |
| Remaining Sun | Complete Mio’s stone after all 15 other side stories on one run; begin a full Nightmare playthrough | Finish Nightmare without Chapter Select, equip Mio’s stone, defeat Sae, and take Mayu’s hand. |
The dependencies explain the efficient order. Crimson Butterfly gives the Yae and Kusabi shards. The Abyss gives Mayu’s shard; The Promise gives Sae’s. Completing those two new stories enables Sprouting Wings, which gives Mio’s shard. Completing every other side story repairs Mio’s stone, and only then is a start-to-finish Nightmare run worth attempting for Remaining Sun.
When Sae appears in Chapter Zero, her grab is the main test. Photograph the committed rush at Fatal Frame range rather than backing into the arena edge. On the later versions of the fight, a successful grab can force an immediate last-chance photo. Red pools and projectiles restrict the floor; on Remaining Sun, destroy the large red orbs promptly because Sae heals while hidden inside them. Save strong film for the last portion, when her attack set broadens and another full heal would be most expensive.
New Game+ changes what “cleanup” means
A cleared file keeps camera upgrades, film, healing items, charms, Spirit Stones, beads, the photo album, and most collectible progress. Prayer Beads respawn. The important exception is Documents: a new NG+ run begins with none, so the all-Documents achievement must be planned as a single-run collection instead of a cumulative sweep across scattered chapter saves. Filters also have to be reacquired through the story even though their installed upgrades return with the camera.
Chapter Select uses the inventory and optional progress from the save file you choose. That makes it excellent for repeating the Final Chapter after the relevant side story is complete. It does not magically merge two saves. If one file has Yae’s completed stone and another has Kusabi’s, selecting a chapter from the wrong source file will not combine them.
Use this cleanup order:
- On the first run, photograph obvious Spirits and Twin Dolls, activate every side-story event encountered on the route, and finish Crimson Butterfly.
- On NG+, complete Kusabi and Yae, then use Final Chapter saves for The Abyss and The Promise.
- Use the shards from those endings to finish Mayu and Sae, then obtain Sprouting Wings.
- Run all 15 side stories on one file to repair Mio’s stone. During that same route, do the single-run Document audit and repair missing wraith, revenant, specter, Phantom Expose, and blood-unbinding entries.
- Only after the camera and Mio stone are ready, start the independent Nightmare file for Remaining Sun. Chapter Select cannot substitute for the required full Nightmare clear.
The official Steam list contains 51 achievements. Chapter clears and basic camera actions arrive naturally, but the six ending achievements, all wraiths, all Twin Dolls, all Revenants, all Documents, every Phantom Expose, every blood unbinding, full camera upgrades, and the Nightmare clear require deliberate cleanup. A Twin Doll photo counts only when both dolls are framed together. An invisible Revenant needs Exposure. A spirit that vanishes before the shutter fires may require its chapter replay, so save before entering a newly opened room if the audio cue is obvious.
This route intentionally stops short of pretending to be a room-by-room list of every Charm, Document, Spirit, and side-story object. Several supplied collectible pages could not be read during research, and the readable chapter route is stronger than an invented checklist. Use the in-game Files categories and Chapter Select to identify the missing class, then return to a readable chapter reference for that location.
Diagnose the route by the thing that did not happen
- No path appears from a clue photo: equip Exposure, aim at the photographed subject rather than the door, and wait for the active frame.
- A blood-sealed object stays locked: switch to Radiant and charge the correct shot; Exposure cannot remove the seal.
- The Kusabi or Woman in White ignores damage: this is a pursuit segment. Stop spending film, break sight, and find the butterfly-marked hiding place or intended exit.
- The Chapter 4 shelf does not release the key: reset the five tomes and enter Crimson Wing, Twin, Taboo, Martyr, Disaster.
- The Kiryu doll mechanism closes again: finish the three-doll ambush; do not repeat the button sequence.
- The Old Tree mechanism has an empty center: the Kurosawa Crest is still at the Umbral Mound beyond the abandoned graveyard.
- The Final Chapter returns Crimson Butterfly again: the required Sparkling Spirit Stone is incomplete, unequipped, or missing from the selected save.
- Remaining Sun will not trigger: confirm Mio’s stone is complete, the run began on Nightmare, no Chapter Select was used, and Mio’s stone is equipped before the Abyss.
The route is working when each chapter adds a tool or opens a loop: Camera, Paraceptual, Exposure, Radiant, the Kurosawa keys, the village return, the Kiryu doll, the Bell Key, the five crests, and finally the ending stones. When progress stops, audit the last tool gained and the last photo or note collected before searching the entire village.
Sources & credits
Game identity, AppID 3920610, developer and publisher, March 11, 2026 release date, current 51-achievement total, remake mechanics, and the five unmodified 1920×1080 screenshots were checked against the official Steam page and the official KOEI TECMO site. Chapter routing, puzzle states, boss behavior, New Game+ carryover, and ending dependencies were reconciled among readable walkthrough references and achievement guides. Blocked collectible pages were not used to fill missing locations or counts.