Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon review

Ever since Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon was unveiled in Japanese videogame magazines, a long time ago, I've wanted to play and love this game with a passion. Everything i could see from the early pictures and videos of the game made me believe this was a game made just for me, a mysterious storyline set in a world reminiscent of Silent Hill (with less violence), fantastic art and high production values highlighted by beautifully rendered cinematic's, Ghosts and Demons, as well as the feeling of isolation and desperate hope for answers. Everything about this game screamed success from my point of view. While some might find the dated and sometimes awkward controls a reason to avoid this game, this did not effect my decision and i am pleased to tell you this game is a modern day classic.

(The beautiful sky brings the world alive, while retaining the feeling of isolation)

In Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon you play as Seto, a young "fragile" boy who awakens in a desolated world to find his last living companion, an old man, dead. After he buries the body of his beloved one in a shallow grave, he sets off in the hope of finding other survivors. Throughout this dark gloomy, yet phenomenally beautiful world there are signs that mankind befell some horrible fate, what that is however remains a mystery. It's a smart intricate concept which engrosses from the start and always leaves the player wanting to discover more and continue with the adventure. The story is told via a great combination of real-time voice-overs (the actors did a great job) and meticulously rendered cut-scenes, which just look utterly beautiful. Xseed Games, the publishers behind this modern day masterpiece, have included the original Japanese dub with English subtitles as well as the English dub. This will likely please purists and fans of the Anime, it really shows how much care and passion they had for this product and the detail they wanted to achieve to give fans the best experience possible.

Fragile Dreams is a straightforward adventure with action and some light role-playing elements thrown in to the mix. Seto wonders through the immense, lush world in search of clues and bumps into a silver haired vixen who runs off into the night before he has a chance to pursue her. This game is at it's best when you have one simple goal to explore, old depleted train stations with remnants of high technology that far exceeds our own, haunted hotels, rusted amusement parks, and old laboratory's are where some of these creepy and unique mysteries unravel. The games vast variety of locations help to add a sense to the mystery and the main thing you take away from each area, is an eerie atmosphere which reminds me of a little game by the name of "ICO". Developer "Tri-Cresceo" really deserve high praises for the love and passion they put into each area. The games locations are some of the most creative, beautiful, and imaginative locations you will ever see in a video game. It's not just an amusement park, it's an amusement park with a dark creepy atmosphere brought on by the lighting and colour of the sky, by the sounds you hear and in the areas you are able to explore. This is what the game does best, it allows the player to fully immerse themselves in this world and it creates a feeling of isolation and panic, without pressuring you with 100 enemies on screen. It's truly remarkable the way this game can bring on such feelings and emotions.

Seto controls awkwardly, however this is a great thing, Seto is a Fragile young boy without much strength so it's only fitting that he should find attacking enemies a tough challenge. The game manages to portray Seto as a young helpless, weak boy extremely well with the way it makes it's controls challenging to master. You control Seto using the Wii's Nunchuk's and the Wii Remote is used to point Seto's flash light. The whole experience is extremely similar to a Silent Hill game, the way you manoeuvre with the flashlight is allot like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The light responds to your every command and in very realistic way's it will light subway tunnels, underground hallway's, and even wide open terrain. The game doesn't have a lock on targeting system which most will say makes combat feel clumsy, however if you take into consideration the fact you are a young boy who is extremely fragile and weak, you can appreciate how the lack of a targeting system makes the games atmosphere feel allot more frantic and adds pressure to the combat which is needed to create such a unique world. I love how the awkwardness of the controls helped to pressure me into frantic situations and made my whole experience with this game allot more than it would have been had i been hand-held like most games do these days.

Other than the control issues there are not allot of reasons why people might not fall in love with this game, there is quite allot of backtracking but in my opinion it just makes the whole world feel that much more claustrophobic and isolated, if the game just skipped to a new location after you were finished with one, it just wouldn't have the same unique atmosphere.

As i previously mentioned, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon does posses some light RPG elements which work extremely well with the game. Weapon and item retrieval, damage upgrades, and an inventory slot you can manage and control what you hold onto and let go allow the player to have a sense of individuality while exploring the world. The majority of weapons in the games are thing's like sticks or sling shots, small weapons which break easily and this means you will spend allot of time searching for new weapons. When Seto hits enemies it shows how much his hit points increases which is always fun. The best thing about items and weapons is that you have a briefcase system which means you are limited to very little, much like in real life you wouldn't be able to carry 20 different weapons. Knowing you don't have much protection and that the protection you do have could break in a split second, will really make every battle feel intense, worrying, and extremely dangerous.

Overall i was utterly amazed and blown away with this game. Normally when you fall in love with a game years before it's released, one of either two thing's are sure to happen, The game is either bad or just doesn't get released at all. Thankfully Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon lived up to everything i had dreamed and even went further than i could Imagen. The main thing i took away from this experience was the immense atmosphere, it's reminiscent of Silent Hill and ICO. The game is one of the best looking games i have ever seen, not just on the Wii but in my entire life. Graphics are not always what makes a game look great, it's the art direction, colour tone, mood, setting, and design all together that really makes a game look beautiful and Fragile Dreams has all of this and more. There really isn't enough i can say about this, all i can say is go and buy it now.

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is possibly the best game on the Wii  9.5/10