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Ren Hojo
FFV Image 17
Japanese name 放生 蓮
Romaji name Hōjō Ren
Age 23
Hair color Black
Eye color Dark Green
Occupation Author
Status Alive
Family Dr. Kunihiko Asou (ancestor)
Appearances Fatal Frame V: Maiden of Black Water
Voice actor (JPN) Tatsuhisa Suzuki
Voice actor (ENG) Joseph May
I was right to bring them back. But what will happen when the mountain loses its Pillars?

—Ren Hojo


Ren Hojo (放生 蓮, Hōjō Ren) is the only playable male character in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.

Biography[]

Background[]

R3

Ren's assistant Rui Kagamiya

Ren is an author who lives with his assistant, Rui, at the base of Mt. Hikami, who mentions that he is messy and is poor at household chores. Due to his tendency of losing things whenever Rui cleans up, he often calls help from Hisoka Kurosawa to find things with her Shadow Reading. Consequently, he is acquainted with Hisoka's assistant, Yuri Kozukata. When Ren was in college, he became friends with Kazuya Sakaki and occasionally had Kazuya help do field gathering for him though Hisoka and Rui felt that he was a bad influence to Ren. He is also Dr. Kunihiko Asou's descendant and looks very similar to him.

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water[]

Ren Hojo had this recurring dream where he is playing with a girl with white hair and red eyes, who later on is found out to be Shiragiku. In his dream, he sees that she is pulling him into a hiding spot, and there she shares to him that she doesn't have much time to live and that the people in the village had said that she only has 7 years. In Mt. Kagiroi, the young miko was chosen to be a sacrifice for Mt. Hikami to appease the Black Moisture on the day of the festival. Here, Ren watches as "he" holds a knife in his hand and begs that the girl do "not look at him" over and over until Shiragiku falls into the box to become an eternal flower for Mt. Hikami.

Looking for inspiration for a new book, he requests Hisoka Kurosawa and Yuri to investigate and bring back a photo album by Keiji Watarai regarding the rituals that were held in the past.

As he is investigating the album, Ren immediately notices a photo of Ouse Kurosawa, and is more inclined to pay Mt. Hikami a personal visit alongside Rui. They venture off to Mt. Hikami looking for clues as to

Renconceptart

Ren's Concept Art.

what happened to Ichiru Manor, following the trail of Watarai. Their investigation, however, nearly kills Rui as she attempted to hang herself due to seeing a spirit do the same. When the pair attempt to leave, they are stopped by a miko and are barely able to defeat her.

With little choice, they make their way Hisoka's antique store and learn from Yuri that Hisoka had gone missing and that Yuri had just rescued Haruka Momose. Ren eventually goes back to sleep but is once again given a dream with Shiragiku. Following this, the pair return to Ren's office and begin investigating Keiji's trail further and attempt to find the Watarai household, where a videotape containing a spirit had been shot.

What's more, Ren's friend, Kazuya Sakaki, had also gone to Mt. Hikami and went missing. The last piece of contact between them being Kazuya claiming to be getting married and cryptically asking "will you die with me". This is enough for Ren and Rui to depart to try and and search for Sakaki at the Watarai household, but Rui encounters Shiragiku and goes missing. Ren is made aware when spirits ask him to "search for his bride". Ren eventually finds Rui at the Shrine of Dolls with the real Shiragiku, who promptly disappears when she believes that "Kunihiko" had lost the token she gave him.

The pair eventually find an underground path leading straight to the basement of Keiji's house, and Ren is able to retrace Keiji's steps and growing obsession with Ouse Kurosawa's photo and fears that Kazuya had fallen for the same trap as Keiji. Ren and Rui eventually make their way to the forest's abandoned cable car station Progressing through the game, it is revealed that this dream that Ren kept on seeing are actually memories of the creator of the camera obscura: Dr. Kunihiko Asou, and might be a possible ancestor of his due to his uncanny resemblance to the said doctor.

The dream had haunted Ren over and over due to the uncertainty if he ever did or did not kill the girl. As he continued his investigation about the mourning pictures (The key in knowing where his friend Kazuya Sakaki had disappeared off to) taken from Mt. Hikami, he later ends up tracing the footsteps of Dr. Asou when he last visited the mountain. After escaping the Watarai house, it disappears within the mountain's mist, and Ren and Rui are able to return back to Hisoka's store alongside Yuri and Miu Hinasaki.

As all girls are in their rooms, Ren immediately notices that ghosts were now attacking them and is forced to constantly shuffle around the house to keep them away. Despite his attempts, he eventually becomes too tired and falls asleep. Unfortunately, Rui and Yuri are both taken by the spirits, and Ren departs with Miu to save the two girls respectively. Ren would head back to the Watarai household through the Shrine of Dolls. Though he eventually reaches Rui, she pulls Ren into the box and knocks him out.

Falling into a dream, Ren realizes that he is now retracing Kazuya's memories and of his doomed "marriage". As he progressed the Matchmaker would mistake him for Kunihiko Asou and brings him to his "bride", Ouse Kurosawa. This shock manages to wake Ren up and he begins pulling Rui back to the antique shop. During the journey back, Ren encounters Kazuya's spirit, who attempts to bar their escape. Despite his attempts, Ren defeats his friend, and the pair leave the house once again.

After both Miku Hinasaki and Hisoka Kurosawa are rescued, it is up to Ren once more to protect the shop when all the girls fall asleep. Though he protects the others, Ouse would personally arrive to the store, and a bride had suddenly appeared in the security camera's feed. He immediately goes into a dream and chases the bride into a room, where he is startled to find Shiragiku, Miu, Yuri, Rui, Hisoka, and Ouse all waiting for him as brides.

Once he wakes up again, Ren finds the store to be filled with mist and immediately leaves to chase after the bride. As a result, he follows after Asou's path and is eventually led to the House of Commitment. After which, Ren proceeded and is given the opportunity to finally choose between two brides: Ouse Kurosawa, the bride that Dr. Asou took picture of, or Shiragiku, the girl he met at Mt. Kagiroi and made a promise of.

Endings[]

Love After Death Ending[]

Fatal_Frame_V-_Maiden_of_Black_Water_-_Love_After_Death_Ending

Fatal Frame V- Maiden of Black Water - Love After Death Ending

If the player chooses Ouse Kurosawa as the bride and approaches her, the player will be able to see a flashback where Dr. Asou's spirit will finally be able to be not only reunited with Ouse, but also tell her that he loves her. Ouse in turn tells him that the moment she met him, she knew how he felt for her but still she waited that he finally confesses to her himself.

Requirements

  • Glance at Ose Kurosawa

Alone in a Casket Ending[]

Fatal_Frame_V-_Maiden_of_Black_Water_-_Alone_in_the_Casket_Ending

Fatal Frame V- Maiden of Black Water - Alone in the Casket Ending

But if the player chooses to take a picture of her instead of approaching her, Ouse will say that: "So, you came to break ties with me. When you took a picture of me, you took a piece of my soul with you. It was so hard... so hard... But... I was glad. I will return to that darkness. Take that final picture. And leave it, before it closes forever". This leaves the player with taking a picture of Ouse as the "Waiting Bride".

Requirements

  • Take an photo of Ose Kurosawa with the Camera Obscura

If the player chooses Shiragiku, the young Dr. Asou's spirit will then be reunited to her, with her exclaiming that she knew he would come back to her as they promised. She then shows the young Asou the box where her physical body is kept and he stares at it with fear. As the game had explained, chaos is released whenever the bridesgroom have a change of heart at the sight of the dead bride. Here the endings branch out to two possibilities:

In The Reliquary Ending[]

Fatal_Frame_V-_Maiden_of_Black_Water_-_In_the_Reliquary_Ending

Fatal Frame V- Maiden of Black Water - In the Reliquary Ending

If the player lets Shiragiku kill them near her box, the player will then be pulled into the box and back to Mt. Kagiroi. Shiragiku tells the young Asou how she was feeling lonely all those years because she was different from all the other mikos, given that she had white hair and red eyes. She tells him how difficult it was to have friends then, but since the day she met Asou, she knows in her heart that she'll never be lonely again. With this, Shiragiku eventually had a change of heart telling Asou that she must stay, and that she lives forever, while Asou needs to die a slow death before finally pushing him back to the present where Ren's alive and realizes that the shrine that Shiragiku and Asou once played in had come into ruins all those years. Ren then goes back to the Kurosawa Antiques shop to look after Rui and finally getting over his shyness in looking women in the eye.

Requirements

  • Let Shiragiku slowly drains your health

Cherry Blossoms Ending[]

Fatal_Frame_V-_Maiden_of_Black_Water_-_Cherry_Blossoms_Ending

Fatal Frame V- Maiden of Black Water - Cherry Blossoms Ending

If the player kills Shiragiku, they'll be able to see the flashback of her and young Asou meet under the cherry blossoms trees with her saying that since she is a special miko, she will last as a sacrifice forever. With this, seeing young Asou for one last time, she says that she will be happy with that memory alone and asks Ren to forget about her already. Requirements

  • Defeating Shiragiku

Post Credits[]

Fatal_Frame_V-_Maiden_of_Black_Water_-_Rui_Kagamiya_Ending

Fatal Frame V- Maiden of Black Water - Rui Kagamiya Ending

Regardless what ending he has, he later appeared in post-credit when Rui wake up. He tells her that he will never leave her again. This post-credit scene will be available if the player obtains Yuri's good ending.

Etymology[]

  • The name Ren means "lotus, water lily" (蓮) (ren).
  • Ren's surname Hojo means "release" (放生).


Trivia

• Ren Hojo's height is 5'8" (173cm).


Gallery[]

External links[]

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