2010 is shaping up more and more for the Wii with Fragile Dreams continuing the strong line-up of great games coming down for the Big N's innovative money maker. Though I doubt Fragile is the next break-out hit, it's off to great start for best sleeper hit for this year.
Beautifully-stunning and bone-chilling are two words rarely seen in the sentence, let alone confide themselves to the same thing, but this game manages to pull it off exquisitely. Imagine Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Parasite Eve taken apart to the smallest unbreakable part and reconstructed together piece by piece by Hayao Miyazaki himself. Fragile Dreams is as close as it gets, taking in RE's item management, SH's strangeness and eerie atmosphere, PE's RPG-elements, and Miyazaki's heartfelt imagination.
At face value, Fragile Dreams is an RPG but at its soul, it is an immersive ghost tale like no other. Plunging into a post-apocalyptic world nearly void of human life....or maybe none at all. Nonetheless, you venture the darkened ruins in the hopes for human survivors however an aura of unease and unrest lurks about like an eerie shadow. Strange fellows and listening to lingering memories of the old world around the campfire keeps one's mind at ease. But the moans, cries, and shrieks of malicious, twisted spirits reminds one of the lingering dangers haunting a born-again world.
Woven by the creators, tri-Crescendo, Fragile Dreams embarks the horror survival genre into an unusual direction, drawing upon two powers of the Wii's "wand". The first is the flashlight. No different than the one in Ju-On, just point and the light will follow. A special flashlight allows one to see the messages hidden from the naked eye. Besides that, all flashlights have a purpose in battle revealing invisible enemies by shining the light on them, turning them visible.
The other is the voice in the Wii-"wand". It'll release eerie sound whenever you venture close to an enemy hot spot not unlike Parasite Eve and become louder the closer you get. It's adds to the overall chilling effect the game provides. On top of that, its act as a sonar for hidden ghost and give hints by placing it near your ear.
Seto, Crow, and a cast of strange fellow, all elegantly done and beautifully rendered even the enemy model give the HD lords a run for their money, having a surreal Shin Megami style and the childlike magic of Miyazaki. A weird combination indeed but plays into the tango of grace and desolation so well.
The loose thread is this tapestry is item management. Think RE4 meet Tetris arranging to fit as much as you can in the little box. Mystery items are a thorn in my side cause they take up unnecessary space and can't be scrapped til you find a bonfire. You kinda redo process over and over as there's little space to work on. One key note: weapons tend to wear and break, so you easily have to carry 2 or 3 at a time and that takes up space, so pick your weapons wisely.
I've played Fragile Dreams for 9 hours and so far I'm a happy camper. Though the bosses are pathetically easy, it's an interesting take that some RPG fan may like. Wonderful and very elegant. I'd say give a good 5 hours.
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