So I've been wanting this game for a while, because I love horror games and Fatal Frame / Project Zero. But I was really disappointing by reading reviews that said it was just too short. That was a bit disappointing, but didn't make me think "I won't buy this game". What made me think that was the fact that everywhere I read something about this game I was told I needed a hell of a lot of light to play it so it could read the AR book. This got me on the thin line between buying it and not buying it. After thinking about how I could make the game more imersive, I got a couple of ideas... And I took the risk and bought the game, unsure if I was going to waste my money or not.

I played for around 15 minutes with all my lights on (my battery was running low and I didn't have my charger with me at the time, so I just wanted to try it out), it was fun, I'll tell you that, and kind of eerie. I really liked the mechanics as well. But not scary, at all. So I got home, charged my console up and tried two ways which I thought would let me play this game while in the dark, and they worked. Immersion went up tenfold, and the eeriness became creepiness with some near-scary moments (only played for around 30 mins, early in the game). Here are the ways I tried it and that might help you getting more immersed:

1 - Flashlight

You only really need one hand to play this game (from what I've played so far at least): your right hand. Use your right hand to hold your 3DS and snap some screenshots and press A, and use your left hand to hold a flashlight. A real flashlight. If you concentrate the flashlight's spotlight on the AR book it will capture it really well, and you can still see your surroundings while searching for ghosts, it's just a lot more creepy. This worked pretty well, the downside being that my right hand started getting tired after a while (3DSXL).

2 - Smartphone

If you have a smart phone with a flash light behind, you can download the AR Book PDF from Nintendo's website and get it in your phone. Your 3DS will pick it up perfectly and you can use your flash light to look around and search for ghosts. You can also use your smartphone's flash light as a substitute for the first method.

I hope this helps anyone out that getting more immersed, it sure helped me and I'm enjoying the game more than I thought I would after reading all the negative hype.

Cheers! :)

Thanks for that, actually. I really could not get in to the game because of the light needed to look at the book, but I might actually try this.

I've only played about an hour, does it get a lot better?

It does! The story is very interesting and there are some really fun ideas with the whole AR gameplay elements.

BTW, I tried today with an older flashlight (bulb), it didn't work that well (still worked though), I suggest LED Flashlights.

Another method you could try is using a desk lamp focused on the AR Book, it still illuminates your surroundings a little bit, but not much, and it gives you a pretty good ambience to play the game (especially since I've had to place the flashlight down for some of the parts, and the whole bloody hand segment in the very beginning was impossible with the flashlight, I had to use my desk lamp).