Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is a Wii-exclusive action/adventure hybrid title with a beautiful artistic style and a unique premise. Newly brought to North American shores by niche publisher XSeed Games, you play as a young boy named Seto in Fragile Dreams. The game begins with his guardian, an old man whose name he does not even know, dies just after telling Seto to head to a tower that looms far in the distant horizon. Upon exiting the tower where young Seto and the old man lived, the player discovers that humanity has been all but wiped from the face of the world. He meets a young girl shortly thereafter, but she flees before he can ask her any questions.

Seto must make his way towards the tower far ahead, all while searching for this strange girl and, presumably, allowing the player to unravel the mystery of humanity’s destruction. You take a third-person perspective behind Seto during gameplay, using the Wii remote to point his flashlight and illuminate areas of interest. It appears a bit Silent Hill-like in its integration at first glance. Seto also will acquire various weapons during gameplay to fend off enemies (any of which can break), but must also manage his inventory in a Resident Evil style box.

This is a quick overview of the information I have as I hop into this title. Now to take a peek for myself to see if Fragile Dreams is wet dream or more of a nightmare.

March 27, 2010

• I tried to fire the game up Wiimote only to which it replied “hell no, son!” After plugging a nunchuk into the Wiimote we reached an understanding and all was right with the world.
• Options consist of language settings (English, French, or Japanese), message speed, voices (English or Japanese), and volume settings. Very bare, but love the voice language option. Japanese with English subtitles is my pick.
• After a short narration about how his guardian is dead, I’m now in control and looking for anything the old man may have left behind that could help me.
• Holding down B on the Wii remote allows me to freely look about by moving the remote itself rather than shifting the way Seto is turned.
• A is evidently the “investigate” button as well as the attack button.
• Ah, you must be holding in to “look” in first-person view before you can investigate with A.
• Okay, so the remote shakes whenever you look at something that Seto has something to say about that object.
• After opening the observatory rooftop, I headed upstairs and found a flashlight. It’s on now!
• Fireflies hover over items that you can pick up as well. That should be handy since most of the game appears as though it will be dark.
• As expected, loving the art style. The lighting from the flashlight seems nice too.
• Aw, it’s a kitty that meowed at me from the Wii remote.
• OH GOD SPOOKY JAPANESE MASK MONSTER!
• After a brief tutorial on smacking dudes with a stick, Seto reads a letter from the old man upon a desk wherein he is told about the red tower in the far distance. We’re then treated the the beautiful animated intro sequence which (regrettably) I’ve seen before. Anime fans rejoice.
• After heading out, Seto meets with the game’s resident mysterious silver-haired girl who has evidently left quite an impression on him. From here on I’ll avoid specifics about the story.
• I’ve reached a dilapidated train station whereupon a voice called out. This is the voice of a robotic companion that also acts as a navigational aid and Seto’s partner in crime, it seems.
• Unfortunately, the shutter leading to the train tracks that will allow me to exit the station is locked. Key-hunting time.
• After taking out some jellyfish-like ghouls and some creepy arms that reached out of the bathroom mirror to rip me apart, I’ve acquired the key.
• At this point I have to say that combat is pretty clunky by virtue of the Wii remote simply not being very intuitive to look around in a pinch. Also, the angle from which you view everything behind Seto makes it difficult to gauge depth and hence the distance between your attacks’ range and your enemy itself.
• After viewing some memories at the campfire and saving the game I head through the shutter whereupon I was viciously slaughtered by a pack of angry hounds. I think it’s important to point out that Fragile Dreams’ controls are simply not up to the task of taking on this many opponents at once. This should be fun (note sarcasm).

And that seems a good place to stop for the evening. In a nutshell, my early impression of the game is that the premise is intriguing, but playing it isn’t particularly enthralling. Exploration is much more fun than combat, and even that gets hitched up here and there due to the Wiimote’s finicky nature. Nonetheless, I’ve got a long way to go. More impressions coming soon.

Howdy Rare Drop scavengers!

March has been on hell of a month for games — perhaps RPGs in particular. Perhaps as a result of this RPG influx, I’ve found the coverage of Resonance of Fate lacking a bit around the web. Bearing that in mind, I’ve decided to share my impressions as I play the game with all of you. Reviews are, of course, always nice to round out the package of a player’s overall impressions of the game in a clean, concise manner, but this will allow me to offer a more exhaustive, informative view of the game as I play.

With that said, for anyone casually interested I will still be doing a proper review for the game (probably an audio review), but for the hardcore RPGites out there, this is where it’s at. Of course, I will be avoiding spoilers so you may read on without fear. These impressions apply to the PS3 version of the game.

If you have questions, feel free to ask away on my twitter.

And so, without further ado…

March 20, 2010

• The game wastes no time getting into crazy John Woo+ gun-fu sequences, the intro movie already sending lead flying.
• There’s a short install for trophies as you hit the title screen. Fairly standard RPG options in the options menu are available (alternate control schemes, adjusting audio positions, etc.). I’m going to be playing the game in English seeing as I first started a Japanese game and found it seems almost overly typical. Besides, there’s Nolan North in English.
• There is an option to install the game to the hard drive on the PS3. In the interest of quelling load times, I’m undergoing the process now.
• After a 10 – 15 minute install, finally time to fire up a new game.
• An odd intro sequence and several lines of dialogue later and I’m in control. Huh, they really toss you right in. Time to have a look around town.
• So the menu screen gives access to a few different menus as follows: item, equip, customize, mission memo, skill, options, and load. Item allows you to view your current items, equip allows you to equip two weapons and two accessories per character, customize appears to allow you to customize your firearms (presumably where you’ll attach enhancements like scopes), mission memo is a listing of your currently undertaken missions with objectives and rewards, skills allows you to see how much exp a weapon requires to level up and, I assume, any skills you know with certain sets of firearms (though I don’t have any skills as of yet), and options and load are both self-explanatory.
• So you begin the game proper in our three heroes’ “base,” which is essentially an empty, ghetto bachelor pad. A look around reveals that you can change your characters’ clothing here, save your game, read a bestiary for info on any enemies you’ve faced, and rest on the couch. I imagine you return here a lot. It’s worth noting that it seems RoF has a sort of day/night system, as after resting it is now dark outside. I wonder if the day/night cycle changes enemies you face or such as that.
• I wandered around, visited the guild the heroes are a member of, picked up a couple of side missions, and then headed to the nearby arena which gave me a run-down of the battle system. Not a great tutorial, but I see why people say the battle system can be overwhelming initially. Nonetheless, it looks interesting. Battle seems fun, which I hear is the game’s biggest hook.
• Engaged in some battles around the world map. I’m getting a hang on combat and starting to mess around with how you unlock hexes on the world map to move around. I died once in combat for adopting a horrible strategy in a battle, so I can certainly vouch that careful planning is paramount to success in the game.

March 22, 2010

Okay, I got lazy and didn’t update yesterday, so I’ve got a lot to say today. Let’s get right to it!

• I’m 16 or so hours in (yeah, time sink) and am now in the middle of chapter 5. However, even now if you were to ask me about the plot in Resonance of Fate, I would be hard-pressed to answer you with any kind of conclusiveness. In the world of RoF the atmosphere of the world has degraded so far that the remainder of humanity has migrated to a giant tower. The three main characters Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne are mercenaries of sorts living within the tower. The game’s story revolves around these missions they undertake (typically for the upper crusty sorts that live at the tower’s apex). There are hints of a more grand scheme in place, but everything is disjointed and somewhat nonsensical as of yet.
• Combat is where Resonance of Fate places most of its effort and it shows. I won’t even try to explain the battle system here as its been done extensively elsewhere, but suffice it to say that entering battle with a sound strategy is absolutely critical to continued success. Grinding is also rewarded, but you won’t be able to simply bludgeon your way through any battle without considering your tactics.
• An interesting bit in RoF is that your characters’ level is not based on a single unit of experience, but rather is the accumulation of the levels you have achieved on your weapons. Your characters can equip and gain experience for handguns, machine guns, and thrown weapons such as grenades and molotov cocktails. So if I have a character with a handgun level of 10, a machine gun level of 7, and a thrown weapon level of 4, I would have a character at level 21 (10+7+4=21). Gaining levels will give your characters a higher HP count and each individual weapon type will gain skills based on their level and the character using them.
• The world map mini-game is a different beast. In order to move about on the world map you must uncover impassable hexes with unique puzzle-shaped pieces called Energy Hexes. These Energy Hexes will allow you to move forward and sometimes uncover treasure and new locations on the map that are initially hidden. In addition, there are also colored energy hexes that serve to keep you from uncovering certain areas until you are presented with the color energy hexes that will allow you to proceed. The result is that traversing the overworld becomes a game unto itself, though I admit I find it tedious at times as much as I do fun. Enemies drop energy hexes and they may also be found in treasure chests on the world map or in dungeons.
• While the story is lacking, the dynamic between the three main characters is really fun and entertaining. For example, they’ll sometimes take jabs at one another at the beginning or end of combat or offer a compliment for a well-executed barrage. While the overarching tale in RoF fails to deliver, the characters themselves come across as having a ton of personality and are generally a joy to listen to. There has been no lengthy exposition on each characters’ background, but you quickly gain a sense of where these people stand.
• The English dub has generally been good thus far. There has been some spotty performances here and there and frankly, some of the dialogue has that strange Japanese/American culture gap that makes things come off wrong, but it is certainly competent and passable.
• The visuals are clean but the color scheme is washed out and full of greys and browns and frankly, next to a game like Final Fantasy XIII (which it is inevitably compared to given the small gap between their releases) it fails to impress.
• The soundtrack on the other hand is quite good. One bit that I’ve enjoyed is that each area employs different combat music. Given that you’ll spend the vast majority of your time in this game engaged in combat, this is a godsend that keeps the music from getting overly monotonous.
• Wow. Onto Chapter 6 now and…seriously? I have to fight through a dungeon hoarded with monsters for a bottle of cold medicine? I mean, I know that humanity’s last stand is inside this tower, but c’mon guys.

March 27, 2010

Haven’t played Resonance in a few days as we’ve been playing other titles (Just Cause 2, Yakuza 3, and Fragile Dreams) and thus I’m going to call an end to these impressions. A detailed, full audio review should be forthcoming in early April!