Whether or not Wii owners are clamoring for more “core” titles or just “core Nintendo" titles is a topic with a new argument, rant, or rebuttal constantly popping up on blogs and news sites managed by gamers and industry insiders alike.  The final ruling?  Undecided. 

Sega’s titles The Conduit and Madworld, as well as EA’s recently released (and applauded) Dead Space: Extraction, have been the flag bearers supporting the argument that, “Third party games don’t sell on Wii,” and that, “Core gamers aren’t putting their money where their mouth is.”  It’s a sad story.  I guess those games are pretty good.

However, what if none of these arguments is correct?  Based on my (prematurely failing) memory, many of those nursed from young on the tits of Nintendo loved, played, and continue to enjoy plenty of “core” games, its just that the particular variety of “core” games is a bit different.  For many, this gaming experience was part of a pre-Halo, Gears, or GTA era.  It was even a pre-Goldeneye or Mortal Kombat era, which means that severed limbs, muscle men, and blood fountains played no role whatsoever in the player’s experience.  Games were a bit more, shall we say, Japanese?

If the above analysis describes you, deprived Wii owner, might I ask, “Have you caught word of Bandai Namco’s latest action-adventure title, Fragile Dreams?”  If you answered, “no,” now is the time to pay attention. 

Japanese box artTitle:  Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

Developer:  Tri-Crescendo

Publisher:  XSeed Games (NA), Bandai Namco (JPN)

Release Date:  February 16, 2010 (NA), January 22, 2009 (JPN)

Originally just titled, Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, a fine translation of the game’s original Japanese title, the additional “Dreams” was just officially tacked on a few days ago, following in the footsteps of the game’s European publisher.  (You can argue over the necessity of the change in the comments section below).  Whether you like the name or not, however, should be irrelevant, because Fragile Dreams offers an experience not only unique to the Wii, but a refreshing gaming atmosphere altogether.  It looks and sounds pretty swell too.  

Notice how I mentioned above that the game creates something of an “atmosphere.”  That was certainly a deliberate word selection, because if I were forced to tag the game with some sort of genre-descriptive catch phrase, I think that I’d have to go with something along the lines of, “atmospherically driven immersive adventure.”  (Feel free to quote me on that XSeed).  To simply call the game an RPG would be deceiving RPG fans, while referring to it as an action title would devastate this generation’s action gamers; however the pacing and degree of interactivity sets the game far outside of the realm of heavily text driven adventure games.  Fragile Dreams manages to lightly touch upon each genre with a basic level of competency, likely failing to satisfy gamers looking to fill any one of those specific voids in their game library, but instead takes advantage of its unique plot, stunning visuals, refreshing art direction, and impressive audio to offer a final product that feels both comfortingly familiar and strikingly original all at once. 

The player takes control of Seto, a young boy who finds himself alone in the world (literally) following a rather depressing incident which kicks off the experience.  With no direction aside from the advice found in a letter advising Seto to “head for the tower,” which can be seen in the far off distance at the start of the game (an uncanny resemblance of Tokyo Tower), the lonely adventure begins.

And oh, how lonely it feels.  While the game apparently takes place in the “near future,” every bit of the world around you, from the subways and amusement parks to the farmhouses and countryside, seems to have been entirely abandoned dozens of years prior.  With tiles and floorboards cracked and splintered and paint and wallpaper peeling and stained, every corner of your surroundings feels neglected – and that’s the best part.  The game, never for a second, pulls you out of this suffering game world.

Along the way the player will encounter an eclectic array of characters one-by-one, alone for reasons of their own as well, that manage to get entangled in Seto’s journey and act as helpers, hindrances, or clever diversions which serve to intensify the sense of solitude, as none of these characters are exactly “real” in the living, breathing, biological sense . . . or are they?  Regardless of these characters’ state in the world, the one thing that they seem to have in common is that they all establish some sort of meaningful connection with Seto, only to wind up parting ways a little too soon, plunging your character back into loneliness.  The game tosses in some interesting gameplay elements and storytelling methods in order to evoke a sense of bonding with these characters, making their eventual departure all the more effective.  In fact, your first “partner” in the game, possibly the least “human” of them all, for me personally elicited one of the more painful losses in a video game that I’ve experienced, period. 

The game’s mechanics are relatively simple and controls similar to what you might expect of an action shooter on the Wii, with player movement mapped to the nunchuck and the targeting reticule, in this case the illumination from your flashlight (or occasionally a small glowing green light, depending on the situation or weapon equipped), controlled by free movement of the Wii Remote.  The basic functions may not seem like much in description, but this simple design option made possible by placing the title on the Wii really does add to the experience.  Because its not simple crosshairs, but instead the glow from the character’s flashlight gradually unveiling the decrepit surroundings at the player’s discretion, in the case of Fragile Dreams there exists clear value in the waggle.  The built-in speaker serves to support immersion as well, as the volume level adjusts to reflect enemy direction, distance, and movement.  While the feature doesn’t always work entirely accurately and naturally suffers from the innately poor audio quality limited by the speaker itself, the sound’s presence serves as one more nice little touch on top of the rest of the package.   

Depending on the area there may very well be plenty of real time enemy encounters, with the effect of their presence ranging from creepy and interesting to dull, monotonous, and frustrating.  There seems to be no logical cohesion in their design or reason for their presence in any one particular environment.  Some form of explanation may be waiting further into the adventure, but at this point (about 7 hours in) they simply seem to allow the developers to check off the “enemies” box on the design document.  Battle itself isn’t particularly difficult or frustrating, with a few different varieties of sticks and slingshots offering a bit of variety to the player, but it isn’t all that satisfying either.  There’s no “quick-turn” or “strafe” feature here, just your standard tank-like third-person Japanese action-adventure game controls.  In practice it really isn’t all that noticeably frustrating or bothersome, except for when the player encounters a faster moving enemy in a narrow corridor, causing little Seto to suffer some seemingly unnecessary damage.

I could take the time to tell you about the graphical quality, however the screenshots should speak for themselves.  The developer recognized that they weren’t working on a high-spec machine and planned their art direction accordingly.  Limiting the color palette and constructing low-light environments gave them room to put their energy into the details, offering beautiful lighting in key areas and cleaner lines and shading in places that add to the overall aesthetic.  If you’re staring at these screen shots and saying to yourself, “Not for me,” then I’m not going to be able to change your mind.  However if you can appreciate the work that Tri-Crescendo’s artists have done, you’ll be in for a lovely ride.  While the game does have its fair share of cutscenes, they offer the exact same graphical fidelity as the in-game imagery and transition smoothly, thus keeping the player “in the moment.”  A good amount of text is also accompanied by a good amount of voice work, which is often used to add back story surrounding different items gathered along the way, or to get inside Seto’s head for a moment or two.  Since I’m playing the Japanese version of the game I can’t accurately comment on the execution in the final English version in this category, but if the overseas publishers aim to match the Japanese counterpart, I’d recommend playing with the audio set to “loud and clear.”     

Did I mention the music?  Again, icing on the cake.  Why don’t you have a listen yourself? 

I have two designated spaces for storing my game collection, 1) the bookshelf, with very limited space, and 2) the massive duffel bag in the closet, which is a bottomless game pit.  After being forced to put a game down in order to tackle another (hello, holidays), or pay attention to life outside of the game world for a moment or two, I have to decide on a home that particular game.  If it ends up in storage area #2, the game will likely rest there, loved in spirit but hidden from site, for a rather extended period of time - quite possibly eternity.  Should the game wind up back on the “shelf of honor” however, that is a game that I have resolutely decided to eventually play to completion, which is sadly an anomaly for me these days.  Fragile Dreams made it back on “the shelf,” where it taunts me as I battle through a busy holiday gaming season. 

I’m really looking forward to the New Year.