Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii) Reader Review

Posted by By SirLink 7 Number of reads 4998 Posted 09.09.2011
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Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of The Moon is a RPG for the Wii, developed by Namco Bandai Games in collaboration with Tri-Crescendo. An European localisation was handled by Rising Star Games, which are well regarded among many gamers for bringing gems like Little King's Story or Muramasa: The Demon Blade to Europe. Fragile Dreams was released in March 2010 and has accumulated quite a bit of hype before its release. The question is, did it live up to expectations?

Well, that's hard to put in one simple word. It did in some ways, but didn't in others. Fragile Dreams is a great example of a game with a fantastic concept that could have used a lot more refinement of its gameplay. It's not horrible by any means but it still holds this game back from being truly great.

You take control of a 15-year old boy named Seto in a post-apocalyptic world trying to find out why everyone has disappeared and what exactly has happened. The story is told so well, that finding out what happened isn't just the goal of the game. You'll want to find it out yourself, and not because the game says so. I was constantly left in the dark and eager to find out more about the tragic events that were going on in this world. That in itself, is quite an accomplishment.

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Now even though this game is a RPG, it's better described as an "human drama". You'll meet a few other characters along the way, all with their own interesting stories and problems, although none of them are as touching as those of people you'll never see. Throughout the game, Seto can find various "Mystery Items" that tell sad and depressing stories of their former owners. These add to the constant feeling of loneliness you'll feel throughout the game that is made even more apparant by how Seto is always saying how he hates being alone and simply wants to find someone to keep him company.

The gameplay is where the real flaws of Fragile Dreams lie. It is an Action-RPG that has you fighting enemies in real-time but it all feels very awkward and is anything but fun. With the tone of the game in general, you'd almost think that the developers purposely made the gameplay feel just as depressing and frustrating.

The gameplay could best be described as a mix of "The Legend of Zelda" and "Silent Hill", with some RPG elements thrown in. You'll be exploring the ruined environments of Fragile Dreams' world with your flashlight that's controlled by the IR pointer of the Wiimote, which works well enough. The biggest flaw of the game is the combat itself. It's very shallow to begin with and you'll basically spend fights trying to hit enemies by mashing the A-button. With some timing, you can even pull off a fairly stronger combo. The weapons you find throughout the game are what you would expect from a ruined world, ranging from a simple wooden stick to a golf club or even a rusted iron pole. What's really annoying is that all these weapons can break and there is no meter that shows how long they're going to last. It's not consistent as well. Some weapons seem to last longer while others tend to break really fast, without anything in the item description pointing it out. A simple description like "Fairly durable" or "Very fragile" would have been nice because with a broken weapon and no others in your inventory, you're pretty much helpless. There are plenty of save points though, so should you get really unlucky and die, it's not such a big deal.

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Now even though you gain experience from fights, I quickly found myself ignoring any enemies I could simply run past because you don't need to get a lot of levels to beat the game. All in all, it just feels clunky and pointless.

The tone of the game is supported by some beautifully crafted music, which is mostly beautiful but also sad when you know what's going on in the game. The Japanese voices are fantastic and perfectly capture the emotions of the characters. There are English dubs as well and while they're a good alternative, I'd still recommend the Japanese ones.

Graphically, this game looks simply beautiful. With a setting like this, you'd expect a lot of grey and brown but it manages to mix things up with grassy plains, breaking dawn or even a worn-down theme park with many bright colours even in a nighttime setting. Characters are well made with some interesting designs and generally manage to impress.

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The game will last you for about 8-12 hours, depending on whether you try to find most of the "Mystery Items" to hear touching backstories of their former owners. Even with that though, it's still rather short and there really isn't anything to go back to it for.

All in all, Fragile Dreams is a great experience in a very believable post-apocalyptic world with a gripping story that will, depending on your mindset, make you think over some things that are brought up in this game. All that is supported by a beautiful yet sad soundtrack. There are a lot of flaws in the gameplay department with some really odd design choices, but if you can deal with those, you're in for a special experience that might even give you some things to think about.

SirLink 's Rating Rated $score out of 10  8/10

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Reader comments - add yours today Comments on this Review

It's been a while but I finally got around to playing this game. After having finished it, I felt that the game was often misunderstood and received some really harsh reviews from some gaming sites, so that's why I decided to write a reader review for it.

It's a lot shorter than my previous one but there really isn't as much to talk about this game without going into spoilers. I was thinking for a while whether I should give it a 7 or an 8 but the final score represents the overall experience for me and it was one worthy of an 8, despite the glaring gameplay flaws.

Hopefully it will be a good read for some of you guys and might even make you consider checking this game out, if you can find it for cheap. Smilie

This was a good review, and it being shorter actually made me want to read it! Detailed everything you wanted to know without spoiling anything or dragging on too much. Still need to get around to reading your other one...

Good to see you making the effort to submit reader reviews. Hopefully others will be encouraged to write some too!

Edit: Just featured it for you.

( Edited 09.09.2011 14:40 by Azuardo )

Heh yeah, that one was custom made for you. Smilie Nah, I'm just kidding. I learned a thing or two from my first one though, so they should keep this quality/length in the future.

Hopefully..yeah. I will continue to write reader reviews but not for each and every game I'm going to play. That would be overkill. Smilie It's probably going to be for select games that I think deserve one because they're underrated/underappreciated. Well, or simply because I feel like having another look at a game I've just finished and writing it down.

Thanks for the feature. Smilie I see that you also already reported the wrong link to the LostWinds review for me. Fast as usual. Smilie

Good review! Do want to give it a go at some-point, shame it didn't do so well with other reviewers.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

jb said:
Good review! Do want to give it a go at some-point, shame it didn't do so well with other reviewers.

Thanks! I think the reason why it didn't do so well with other reviewers is the fact that this game heavily relies on the player. If you aren't willing to dive into the story and its world and get a little emotional, all you're left with is sub-par gameplay and that's what, for the most part, got the game those scores.

( Edited 09.09.2011 23:52 by SirLink )

I'm confused...my C3-2-1 review of this (here) should say '9/10' but says 7, the same score as Shane's original review. Jorge, what's going on there?! Smilie

Loved the game, and don't know if you read my review, but it's a hefty length Smilie Great to see another fan of the game - I'm gutted that it didn't sell as well as it deserved. The dev team wanted to do another game, but whether it ever happens now is debatable.

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Oh, that's quite a surprise. I didn't check out the official C3 review for it (though I did see the wrong score in the game info) because I can get influenced very easily when I read other reviews or even essays at school which usually ends in a "writing blockade" where I can't think of other ways of expressing certain things or have problems writing it in my own style. I'll make sure to check it out soon though. Smilie

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Developer

Project Fragile

Publisher

Rising Star

Genre

Adventure

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  7/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10 (12 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   
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