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Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins Of The Moon
Wii Review
I myself, struggle to see where it fits into the seemingly preferred and quite narrow Nintendo canon that exists for the Wii in the West, but another piece of software that confounds our expectations of the console is no bad thing, in fact I think it may; along with a few other recent Wii titles; point to a maturation of the console as a more general purpose system, and frankly that would be a very good thing indeed.
In the game the player takes the role of ‘Seto’, a young man who; after the death of his mentor; has had to come to terms with the fact that he is completely alone in the world. As a result of having no further ties that bind and ultimately fearing the consequences of a life of complete loneliness he heads off on an expedition to find other people who, like him, may have survived the apocalypse.
Seto’s expedition develops romantic overtones very quickly, after seeing and briefly meeting a silver haired girl, his journey to find ‘the others’ quickly narrows down to a very human journey to simply find ‘the other’. During this expedition Seto bumps in to a rather short but very endearing list of intriguing characters, most of whom want something from him, usually, and usually painfully obviously, a moment of his time.
Though the character list is short, some of the most interesting plot, or if you like, sub-plot developments come about when you stumble across the detritus of those who died in the apocalypse. This detritus manifests itself as ‘mementoes’ and these give Seto a short and usually quite emotional description of the concerns of their former owner, the key in these items is not in their sadness which would in any case be obvious, but in the subtlety in which the emotion is delivered, a subtlety which is mirrored in nearly every aspect of the game.
Overall, I think the graphics are the first thing that anyone who has played this game will likely recall and simply calling them ‘sumptuous’ actually does them a disservice. I think it is probably safe to say that they are the finest graphics produced on the Wii to date and may remain so for some time. Everything from the incredible sunsets which perfectly backlight your surroundings to the beautifully rendered internal backdrops and the superlative way in which they are lit provides the player with a real sense of awareness of Seto’s plight, which, in tandem with the heavy plot exposition does build up some genuine emotive responses in the player.
The audio too, is notable in its quality, adding superbly to the over- and under-tones inherent in the plot; and it is hard to think of how either visual or audio design could have been better suited, so adroitly do they help to manifest an elaborate duvet of context over the slumbering content inherent in the game.
Speaking of which, the game-play is a decidedly poor and linear affair, seeing the player move largely from one fetch quest to another and this is part of the reason why I have referred to the content of the game as ‘slumbering’, there isn’t that much room to explore outside of the expectations of the plot and the ‘fighting’ elements atypical of a JRPG comes in the form of the shades of the dead who appear; somewhat annoyingly; in the exact same place every time you visit, meaning that every time you need to backtrack through a section of the game world you need once more to fight the same enemies, over and over again and the dearth of locations means that you do need to do this on an annoyingly frequent basis.
This of course could easily be forgiven, if it weren’t for the fact that the control system is almost universally poor. The characters direction in play is controlled by the nunchuk, yet the torch that he carries to light his way is directed separately by the Wiimote. This in itself shouldn’t create too great a difficulty, but Seto seems unable to manoeuvre his wrist in any manner at all, leading to a confusing and highly aggravating control system that leaves Seto moving in the direction of his torchlight whilst concurrently attempting to move in the direction given him by the player control on the nunchuk.
The controls in combat are unfortunately no more better utilised, Seto is unable to do much short of waft his given weapon in the direction of an enemy with the eternal hope of actually connecting with it. It’s poor, it’s incredibly frustrating and it should have been done better.
But you know what? I don’t care, and nor should you. Yes, the controls are appalling and yes, the premiss is that of a moribund fetch quest adventure that a two-year old could master, but the plot exposition is so startlingly human and the graphic and audio sculpting so intensely beautiful that I would buy this game again should I so much as scratch the disc. It is simply put, a beautiful work of art, a masterpiece that draws many inspirations from the classic Playstation 2 title ‘Ico’. Like Ico, the incredible design and the subtle nuances in the exposition build Fragile Dreams up to be an ideal reflection of the human condition in the self’s struggle for connection with the other; and in this, it is simply too good to be ignored. Yes it will frustrate you, of that there is no doubt, but in return for this frustration it repays you with a genuine emotional feedback of which you’ll struggle to find in any other title on the Wii, or indeed, almost anywhere else in the current console market.
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Game Info
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
Nintendo Wii
Publisher:
Rising Star
Developer:
Tri Crescendo
Release:
19th Mar 2010
Also on:
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