Hearing great things about the Japanese version last year I had ordered this and it was delivered yesterday. I was very excited for this one. After Lunar, Xseed once again gets a second sale from me in a single month.
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is out in English and I am frankly stunned how good the game is, how well it capitalizes on the Wii's features and how much effort was put into the translation.
Here's a quick rundown of what I like so far:
-Beautiful graphics for a Wii game. This is one of the best looking games for the system, bar none.
-Equally beautiful soundtrack. Start the game up and let the titlescreen music simply play. Few games these days warrant doing that, but this one sure as hell does.
-Motion controlled game, but no waggle to be found! Other developers take note.
-Extremely cleaver use of the Wiimote's speaker. Sound is louder or softer depending on where you point, helping you find targets. Not only that, but your female computer companion speaks to you if you hold the remote upright to your ear.
-Very well done English dub. The voices sound professional and spot on. Not as good as the best voice acting in a game (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey gets that title) but still QUITE good.
-Access to the complete Japanese original voices. There are plenty of RPGs even on the PS3 and 360 that don't let you access this! It's kind of ironic that its on a game with such excellent English voices to begin with though. In the end, both are excellent.
-No pathetic attempt to cover up Japanese signs or to Americanize names. You are in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, but it doesn't feel all that similar to Fallout 3's D.C despite what you might think
-Play for the first ten minutes and watch the opening movie. You'll be floored.
-Take a close look at the cover. If you remove it from the case, you'll notice it's double-sided. The other side is the Japanese original artwork! THIS is how all covers should be made.
Hopefully there will be others here who will see this and pick it up. This is one beautiful game.
I'm about three hours in and spoilers already a character has died. tri-Crescendo sure has a knack for making sad games!
