Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon Wii Review

Publisher – Rising Star Games – Developer – tri-Crescendo – Genre – Action RPG – Players – 1 – Age Rating – 12+ – Other console/handheld formats – N/A

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is the anti Fallout 3. They both take place in post apocalyptic worlds, where mankind has become near extinction, but whereas Fallout 3 has a focus on loud guns and hilarious gore, Fragile Dreams is more akin to Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road, covering more of the quieter and emotional side of being one of the last people left in the world.

After his grandfather dies, Seto fears he is the last person in the world. He’s a fairly empathetic central character, just simply wishing for human companionship on his journey through the lonely and broken world. It’s a very emotional and compulsive story, which is given further richness and impact by stories from the former denizens of the world that can be found by discovering objects that they left behind and are similar, though not as captivating or well written, as the wonderful dreams in Lost Odyssey.

The game is actually at its best when you’re just exploring the ruined world.

Fragile Dreams is a horror game, though one that is obviously aimed at a younger audience than the likes of Silent Hill or Resident Evil. Aurally and visually it excels, setting the mood well, and wandering through the world, hearing the murmurs of ghosts and witnessing the sorry state of the planet is still unnerving, in spite of its younger target audience. Some of the ghosts are twisted designs too, though not to the level of the monstrosities featured in Silent Hill.

Developer Tri Crescendo has made proficient use of the Wii’s capabilities, without using them just for the sake of it. Similary to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the Wii remote acts as your torch, which works well and good use is made of the little speaker, with sections that require you to find things, by listening to the approximation of noises from the speaker.

The combat is not a waggle fest either, so after excessive fighting it doesn’t leave your arm feeling as if it’s going to fall off at any moment. Combat is simple, with a combo system that is easily triggered through bashing the attack button, though well timed strikes results in heavier damage inflicted up on your enemies. There’s no lock on function though, so fighting can be needlessly clumsy and, in turn, frustrating.

Another thing to take into consideration whilst fighting is the fact that your weapons can break. There’s no way of telling how far your weapons have degraded and it’s seemingly a random process above anything else, though there are plenty of save points dotted around where you can switch out and buy new weapons, so it’s less of an issue than it so easily could have been, still needless though.

Survival Horror games are hardly renowned for having strong combat and Fragile Dreams is no different in this regard.

Inventory space is a bigger problem. During the course of the game, you’ll have to go to save points countless times to store items in your briefcase to make room for other items, which breaks the flow of the game and is just downright annoying and archaic.

So we’re left with a deeply flawed game, but with an immersive ruined world and emotional story, both of which are considerable strengths. Fragile Dreams is undoubtedly a more alluring experience than it is a game and, depending on how tolerant you are of its flaws, you may very well think that it’s a game that’s worthy of experiencing at least once.

6/10