Hello. Nothing written here is completely confirmed by other players, so bear that in mind.

Short version: Fatal Frame NTSC-U Xbox build played off an Xbox original console features faster running speed and less pronounced ghost slowdown effects in comparison to NTSC-J and PAL builds. Using NTSC-U Xbox build for speedrunning purposes results in free time saves.

Long version:

MrSilentVid pointed out to me that Miku seems to run faster in the English version of the game when compared to the Japanese version.

Let's check that. I took the temple stairs as a comparison point since the game lines up Miku perfectly upon exiting the temple's gates.

Indeed, in NTSC-U version Miku does run a bit faster which would result in a good cumulative time save across a complete run.

Now what about the slowdown effect that happens when the blur/noise filter overlay is active on screen?

Again, NTSC-U version have a slowdown effect toned down (or I guess underdeveloped) when compared to the other versions. Pay attention to how at some point the effect becomes completely inactive allowing Miku to run at full speed.

I highly doubt that this is my console's hardware choking up because the active/inactive stages of the effect happen at exactly the same spots no matter how many tries I made, so it's probably scripted like that.

An important thing to notice is that IGT ticks with the same rate across all Xbox builds, meaning that Miku running faster in NTSC-U build is not about the overall game process being sped up, she simply runs faster (PAL build is being played in 60Hz mode which is not exactly right to do since it doesn't have a build-in 60/50 switch but I guess no one runs the PAL build anyway):

(in the video above 2 IGT minutes are being counted with the same real time)

Thanks to the Cxbx-R emulator dev team it's possible to check development information about Xbox original games. Let's do that for this game.

*** Fatal Frame NTSC-U

[0x0F00] INIT: XeImageFileName = D:\default.xbe [0x0F00] INIT: Title : FATAL FRAME [0x0F00] INIT: XBE TitleID : TC-004 [0x0F00] INIT: XBE TitleID (Hex) : 0x54430004 [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Version : 1.30724 [0x0F00] INIT: XBE TitleName : FATAL FRAME [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Region : NTSC [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 0 : XAPILIB (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 1 : D3D8 (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 2 : D3DX8 (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 3 : XGRAPHC (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 4 : DSOUND (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 5 : WMVDEC (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 6 : XBOXKRNL (version 4721) [0x0F00] INIT: XBE Library 7 : LIBCMT (version 4721)

*** Fatal Frame NTSC-J

[0x1178] INIT: XeImageFileName = D:\default.xbe [0x1178] INIT: Title : FATAL FRAME [0x1178] INIT: XBE TitleID : TC-004 [0x1178] INIT: XBE TitleID (Hex) : 0x54430004 [0x1178] INIT: XBE Version : 1.02 [0x1178] INIT: XBE TitleName : FATAL FRAME [0x1178] INIT: XBE Region : JAP [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 0 : XAPILIB (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 1 : CalcSig (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 2 : D3D8 (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 3 : D3DX8 (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 4 : XGRAPHC (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 5 : DSOUND (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 6 : WMVDEC (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 7 : XBOXKRNL (version 4928) [0x1178] INIT: XBE Library 8 : LIBCMT (version 4928)

*** Fatal Frame PAL

[0x16C0] INIT: XeImageFileName = D:\default.xbe [0x16C0] INIT: Title : Project ZERO [0x16C0] INIT: XBE TitleID : MS-089 [0x16C0] INIT: XBE TitleID (Hex) : 0x4d530059 [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Version : 1.01 [0x16C0] INIT: XBE TitleName : Project ZERO [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Region : PAL [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 0 : XAPILIB (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 1 : CalcSig (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 2 : D3D8 (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 3 : D3DX8 (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 4 : XGRAPHC (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 5 : DSOUND (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 6 : WMVDEC (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 7 : XBOXKRNL (version 4928) [0x16C0] INIT: XBE Library 8 : LIBCMT (version 4928)

As we can see NTSC-U build was compiled with an earlier version of Xbox Development Kit — version 4721. American version was also the very first one to be released. I assume that the game was underdeveloped or something led the development team to make tweaks that made it only to the next releases — NTSC-J and PAL.

My console's specs just in case:

Rocky softmod 1.6 version Xcalibur X01203-003 video encoder Samsung 516 K40263238E-0C50 RAM Hitachi-LG GDR-8050L DVD-ROM Western Digital WD80EB-28CGH2 8GB HDD

Further matters:

1. It would be really nice if other runners would confirm any of this by using their Xbox original consoles;

2. I don't have an Xbox360 console but it would be really interesting to see how the backwards compatibility models would render the character's speed and the slowdown effects.