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Rising Star crowdsources Spanish localization of Fragile Dreams
Rising Star Games has taken an unusual, cost-effective step to get Fragile Dreams into Spanish-speaking homes. In collaboration with fansite DSWii.es, Rising Star is helping a group of 50 fans produce their own translation of the game's 35,000-word script. The translated text will be made available from DSWii and Rising Star's site following the European release of the game on March 19. This is a clever approach to localization for a couple of reasons. First, fifty motivated kids will be able to get the job done in a fraction of the time a professional localization team would take. Additionally, it'll be much easier for Rising Star to laugh off the inevitable errors than it would with a 'real' localization.
Hands-on: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
I've never played a game quite like tri-Crescendo's Fragile Dreams for Wii. While, mechanically, it's a fairly standard action-adventure game – something like one of the PS2 Silent Hills with experience points – everything about the game contributes to a distinctive mood. Fragile Dreams is an exploration of quiet -- something few games ever have any room for. %Gallery-77517%
Fragile Dreams: Hello to a new title and screens
click for moon-sizeToday, XSEED announced a slight title change for the North American release of Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. The company has chosen to go the same route as Rising Star Games and add the word Dreams to the title. Along with the announcement, the company sent out the new logo. It's based on the Japanese logo, but -- to be extremely nitpicky -- loses something with the extra line and the subtitle font. However, the game, as seen in new screenshots below, still looks lovely. And that's the part that matters, regardless of our petty complaints. The new title does have the bonus of making us think of Johnny Hates Jazz's "Shattered Dreams." Totally great song. %Gallery-77517%
Rising Star's Q1 lineup for Europe includes Fragile, Way of the Samurai 3
Rising Star Games has announced a European release for Fragile (as Fragile Dreams), Namco Bandai's action-adventure game about exploring a haunted, post-disaster Japan, in March 2010. That's around the same time XSEED plans to bring the Namco Bandai title to North America. Also in March, the publisher will release Rune Factory Frontier on Wii, and Avalon Code and My World My Way on DS. Before that, in February, Rising Star will release Half-Minute Hero on PSP, and, through "affiliate label" Gamebridge, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Way of the Samurai 3. We've got Rising Star's full lineup listed after the break.
Fragile reveals its solid boxart
With a holiday release scheduled, tri-Crecendo's Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon has received its final boxart. Our E3 impression of the game left us wanting to know more -- a lot more. Considering the post-apocalyptic RPG, from the team that brought us Eternal Sonata, had no expense spared, we'll hopefully see that in the final product. What would make us really happy, though, is if Fragile ends a lot better than Eternal Sonata. Check out the final boxart after the break.%Gallery-26285%
Fragile arrives on European shores early 2010
The tri-Crescendo-developed Namco Bandai RPG, Fragile, will eventually make its way to Europe, GameSpot reports. Sometime in early 2010, Europeans will be able to get their own taste of this post-apocalyptic title following Seto, who is believed to be the last living human being. It's kind of like I Am Legend, but, like, bearable. Made by the same team behind Eternal Sonata, Fragile is currently set to release in North America during the holidays courtesy of XSEED, and will arrive in Europe via Rising Star Games.%Gallery-26285%
Impressions: Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)
After over a year of waiting, XSEED has graciously picked up tri-Crescendo's meditative Wii action adventure Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon for North American publication. In a brief walkthrough of an early segment of the game, XSEED introduced us to the protagonist, Seto, who is believed to be the only human left in the world after some unspecified calamity has reduced everything to rubble and left the sky permanently darkened.%Gallery-26285%
Interview: XSEED on what happened with Muramasa and more [update]
[Update: we had attributed some of these remarks to the wrong person. Our apologies to Mr. Berry.]Last September, XSEED Games announced its intent to publish Vanillaware's Wii side-scroller Muramasa: The Demon Blade in North America, to the delight of hardcore action gamers and people who like to see pretty things. Then, in April, it announced that it wouldn't be publishing the title, a duty that then fell to Ignition Entertainment.At the time, we wondered why XSEED would decide not to publish such an eye-catching game. The short answer: it wouldn't decide to do that. XSEED's Jun Iwasaki and Ken Berry gave us details on the Muramasa situation, as well as the recent Fragile announcement, and the timing of Flower, Sun, and Rain. And, of course, they gamely accepted our pleas for Retro Game Challenge 2.
XSEED localizing Namco Bandai's Wii adventure 'Fragile'
When XSEED and Namco Bandai meet, wonderful things happen. The last Banamco title to be localized by the publisher was Retro Game Challenge. Today, XSEED announced to IGN that it will publish Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon in North America, with a projected Holiday 2009 release date. Wii fans have been clamoring for this game for a long time.The tri-Crescendo-developed adventure game takes place in a ruined version of the modern world, as one young boy named Seto looks for any other surviving humans, armed only with a flashlight. XSEED plans to include a full English voice track, and has received "very promising" feedback from the development team about a dual language option.%Gallery-26285%
Sting, Sarah McLachlan are hiding in your Garage(band)
Apple has added new "Learn to Play" lessons to the latest version of GarageBand, including two lessons by Sting and the first one by Sarah McLachlan. Gordon Sumner (a.k.a. Sting, so named by his friends when he wore a shirt with black and yellow stripes) will teach you how to play "Message in a Bottle" and "Fragile" (in my humble opinion, one of the lesser-known but more amazing Sting songs), and Sarah McLachlan, who really likes ice cream, will teach you how to play her "Angel." I miss Sarah McLachlan -- it's hard to believe we had someone that was even more bland than Norah Jones.But excuse my musical snobbery -- all three lessons are now available in the GarageBand Lesson Store for the low low price of $4.99. And lest you think I am anti-McLachlan in any way, think again: I too owned a copy of Surfacing. If you wanted to hang out with girls in my high school, you pretty much had to have a copy around at any given time. That, and Crash. Ah, how young we were.
Fragile screens: great setting, uneven quality
We've been big fans of Fragile since its debut, and it's certainly a highly-anticipated title around here, even though we don't know whether or not it'll ever see a release outside of Japan (though it's likely). That doesn't mean, however, that we won't criticize it occasionally, and so we're going to point out that the latest screenshots, though intriguing, are a little uneven.We've seen this room before, and it looks tremendous; bright and colorful while still keeping the abandoned atmosphere of the game. But a few of these shots look a little messy; there are ragged, ugly edges on the protagonist. It's probably just the old curse of Wii stills, but next to the rest of the shots from the game, which are mostly fantastic, they stick out.%Gallery-26285%
Fragile battle montage is very Hitchcockian
Well, maybe not really, because there's only a brief segment at the tail end of this video for Fragile that shows several attacking birds on a sunny beach. The parts of the video leading up to that segment mainly focus on battling other creatures, such as glowing, floating jellyfish. Check it all out in the video above.%Gallery-26285%
Fragile: 30 hours long, no expense spared on development
Three senior members of the Fragile development team have chaired a panel in Japan to answer questions about the RPG. Between them, producer Kentarou Kawashima, art director Keiko Harada, and head programmer Munehito Yasui revealed that Fragile would take a meaty 30 hours to beat, that developing the game has taken two years, and that the entire process (including advertising) will cost "quite a bit of money" (NeoGAF's translation). Apparently, they also toyed with the idea of basing the game on exploration, with no combat at all -- a daring design choice that didn't come to fruition. The news that Namco Bandai is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this gives us real, tangible hope for a western localization. We struggle to believe any sane publisher would throw oodles of cash at a project and limit its reach by making it Japan-only. You are sane, right, Namco Bandai? %Gallery-26285%[Via NeoGAF]
Fragile videos are awesomely heartbreaking
Wow. The Fragile theme song is amazing. It's definitely the Japanese video game theme song most likely to get tears out of us. The game looks beautifully melancholy as well, and that mood is in full effect in this haunting trailer. As the January 22 release approaches, and we still have yet to hear a word about localization, we're beginning to feel a bit down for a reason unrelated to the mood of the game. Between this and Fatal Frame IV, we're beginning to wonder what American publishers have against games about walking quietly through creepy old buildings.If that gorgeous video isn't enough Fragile for you, hit the break for five quick gameplay clips found on Gamekyo. We're glad this stuff came around after Christmas, because we're spared a pile of A Christmas Story references.%Gallery-26285%
Shine a light on Fragile's secrets
The flashlight is part of what gives tri-Crescendo's Fragile its look. The ruined environments look more otherworldly viewed through a spooky light. It makes sense, then, for tri-Crescendo to add some gameplay integration to the whole flashlight thing, to emphasize it some more. In addition to the normal flashlight, Seto finds (at least) two more portable lights as he explores: a higher-power flashlight that can illuminate farther into the distance, and reveal hidden enemies more quickly, and an eerie green light identified only as the "strange light," which can reveal hidden messages written on walls.We'd be a lot more excited about this game if we didn't have to trust Bandai Namco's RPG-hatin' US division to provide us with it. But, then, maybe we don't, with XSEED and Atari publishing recent and upcoming Namco games stateside -- the latter due to an anime licensing issue, but whatever.%Gallery-26285%
Latest Fragile trailer shows off contrasts
In this haunting new trailer for tri-Crescendo's Fragile, it's hard to decide if the haunting opening sequence or the actual in-game visuals are more compelling. As a marketing tool, this one definitely works. Of course, we were already sold on the devastated world depicted in Fragile, with its life-restoring fire and amazing music. We're somewhat forlorn at the sight of the game, however, due to that pesky lack of localization (yet). For all that we stare lovingly upon the latest footage, we are jealous of the bounty Japan is set to receive. We are left picking at the bones of media, and hoping, and dreaming. Gallery: Fragile
Another character, enchanting boxart added to the Fragile mix
Namco Bandai's Fragile isn't short on interesting characters. The latest is Shin, a brilliant (but socially weak) scientist and the latest addition to the game's ragtag cast. He'll be voiced by Toshio Furukawa (all of the game's dialog will be spoken), former voice star of Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, and Jann Lee of Dead or Alive fame.Though Fragile still can't match the oddball quotient of No More Heroes, it's encouraging to see Namco Bandai isn't falling back on stock RPG characters. We were going to mention how Shin might be the oddest-looking Fragile cast member yet, but then we remembered this guy. Join us past the break for a look at the game's eye-catching Japanese boxart, and catch 14 new screens in the gallery.%Gallery-26285%
The healing power of Fragile's bonfires
tri-Crescendo's Fragile is a game about searching a ruined world for survivors. The decayed, destroyed suburbia gives Fragile a melancholy look, and the newly-revealed bonfire system only strengthens that impression.Bonfires appear in various locations around the game. They are the only way to identify the type and use of wrapped "mystery" items, but more importantly bonfires unlock the memories each object holds of its owner, helping provide clues to the reason for the world's destruction.Evidently, bonfires also act as storage for items (represented by cards) in your bag. Only during bonfires can you swap items in and out of your bag. In addition to this, they restore your character's HP.%Gallery-26285%
Fragile gets Japanese release date, but still no localization
As a game that we would struggle to understand (even with copious amounts of this), and also as something that looks fantastic, Fragile is near the top of our list of DO WANT imports. Just to rub it in some more, Namco Bandai has announced a launch date of January 22nd, 2009 ... for Japan. Wouldn't it be nice if the game arrived on western shores in time for the traditionally drier months of the gaming calendar, leaving us with ample time to poke around its beautiful ruins?While we contemplate the horrors of a life without Fragile, check out our gallery for fifteen new stills from the Kamikaze Douga-directed Tokyo Game Show trailer.%Gallery-26285%
TGS08: New Fragile trailer reduces stress
Because seriously, how mellow is that tune? Lovely. Yours truly almost drifted off at his keyboard watching this. It's also nice to be reminded that we don't reside in a post-apocalyptic wasteland! This is the Tokyo Game Show trailer for Namco Bandai's Fragile, featuring plenty more of hero Seto and his female colleague Ren (who could both do with a comb through their hair), the floating spirit of a young girl, and a lot of cut-scenery. All in all, it's as enchanting and as beautiful as ever, if a little light on gameplay.%Gallery-26285%
