Fragile: Farewell Any Semblance of Decent Dialogue

[Kim]

I was interested in Fragile because of this

For those of you who don't know, Fragile is an action RPG that seems to take more than a few elements from survival horror games. Looking through your environment for the shiny objects and wandering down dark, narrow corridors armed with a flashlight. That sorta thing.

The controls are wonky, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Problem? Holy hell this dialogue is the worst thing.

Love interest: "You touched me."
MC: "Um... well... I was just checking to see if you were still alive."
Love interest: "...I don't know you." *runs off*
MC: "I touched her..."

Helpful AI: "You know which way's right? The hand you hold your pencils with."
MC: "But I hold pencils with my left hand."
Helpful AI: "Oh... um..."

Helpful AI: "If there is an important item, fireflies will be flying over it."
MC: "Why would fireflies be attracted to it?"
Helpful AI: "Good question. Maybe... because it is summer?"

AAAAAAAGH

This game could go either way at this point. Anyone else played/playing it?

[phil_]

Played it, beat it, playing again with English audio to find the memory items I missed. My prediction is that you're going to hate the game more and more as it goes on. I'm pretty well resigned to the fact that I enjoy bad games as much as good ones.

Oh, as for the controls, I'll give you a tip. If you take the cursor off the screen, Seto controls like a normal game character, as in, he faces where you point the control stick immediately instead of slowly turning. You can move a lot faster that way, you just have to use Z to center the camera. I ended up not using this trick very much, though, as it's unnecessary once you learn the proper footwork for each baddy.

[Kim]

Wait? You can change the audio? Fuck I better get on that like a bad metaphor.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by NonCon

Wait? You can change the audio? Fuck I better get on that like a bad metaphor.

But you have to do it at the title screen. You can't do it in-game. Death by a thousand cuts tiny frustrations.

But, yeah, there's English and Japanese audio, and English, French, and Japanese subtitles.

[Kim]

Doing it at the title screen doesn't sound too bad, unless you mean I have to start a new game in which case fuuuuuuck, but this doesn't feel like the sort of game you marathon through, so I'll probably be seeing the title screen a lot.

And I don't really hate it. There isn't a lot to say about it right now. I like the presentation, it's just very cheesy and the controls are kinda wonky. We'll see.

[phil_]

You know what? I'm just gonna do my little "This is what's dumb, this is why I really liked the game" song and dance now because, screw it, I did one for Crystal Bearers, right?

First, like I always do, stuff that people might not like. The most glaring thing is the long walks where nothing happens. 90% of the time, you're walking around, looking for the next area or key or something. To most, this is boring. Then, there's the limited inventory. You will leave stuff behind. However, most of what you leave behind will be money and healing items, and you don't really need much of either, since you heal at every fire and you get enough money to keep you armed and supplied anyway. Oh, and the game's not hard. I died once. I got a sweet katana way before I would have otherwise by doing what killed me, but, yeah, that was the only time I died. Also, it's not very long, even with the long hallways and tedious ladder-descending. So, in summary, walking, attache case, easy.

Now, onto why this game is worth the cash I spent on it. First, that whole walking around thing? I like that. To reiterate what I said back when Crystal Bearers came out, I like exploring. I like running to the edge of the map to find stuff. And, again, there's stuff to find out there, like memory items and secret messages and sweet katanas. So I actually enjoyed walking slowly, searching every room, looking in every crevice for items or bits of story or just to see what was there.

Speaking of memory items, that was a nifty idea. For those who haven't played, you find junk scattered about, and if you bring it to a fire (the save points), you get a short snippet of the memory of the person the item belonged to. Or, sometimes you get short stories. Or, in the case of a certain set of items, you get a really long story that has nothing to do with Seto or the end of the world at all. Anyway, the way these stories give tiny, fragmented glimpses into the world just before and just after it ended is really well done and forms this fuzzy picture of what actually happened that gets clearer as you find more memories. Of course, then the game ruins it by telling you pretty much exactly what happened, but if you've been paying attention you pretty much know by that point, anyway.

Then there's the story, told variously through cutscenes and stuff you find wandering around. Early in the game (but beyond where Noncon is), you find a green flashlight that highlights secret messages on the walls. I'm not sure who wrote the messages, but they stretch all across the game (part of my replay is finding ones I missed). Anyway, they give hints, they give glimpses into whatever the writer was doing or thinking when he/she passed where you are, and they freak you out, "The Shining"-style. The environments also tell a story, but I'm getting too long winded, so I'll cut that short in order to get to the cutscene-parts of the story. It's a mixture of standard anime BS and a story about loneliness, the importance of communication, and the value of life, human or otherwise. It's not Shakespeare, but it's at least Rowling. It gets a little Resident Evil near the end, though.

Combat is serviceable. There are a decent amount of enemies for how often you get into fights, but you fight recolors pretty quickly. Even so, they're creepy and you want to get rid of them, even though most of the time you can just run past. You can get a basic combo by tapping the button in the right rhythm, but that's as advanced as combat gets. Also, there are four types of weapons, each with variations within, but I only used sword-types and bow-types, mostly because of size-to-utility in my inventory.

So, there's a neat story, it's told in an interesting way, the world is worth exploring, and it's really creepy sometimes. And you can play it in Japanese like ＴＲＵＥ　ＪＡＰＡＮＥＳＥ　ＭＡＮ.

[Bells]

I like it. I'm playing Fragile from time to time. And Yes, the controle is Woky and the pacing is stretchy.

It reminds me a little like a "Japanese version" of Silent Hill: Shattered memories.

This is one of those games you have to "get" to enjoy. Once you "get it", you can let the "storybook" style gameplay take you trough a quite pleasent journey.

Yeah, the dialogue is quite "Kawaidesuuuuuuu", it's a tad silly and a bit over melodic (when not over dramatic) but it tells a decent story with a nice atmosphere.

I would say people should rent it first, then buy it if you really like it.

[Kim]

Does the helpful AI have a crush on my character?

[phil_]

Originally Posted by NonCon

Does the helpful AI have a crush on my character?

Everyone loves Seto. Everyone.

[Bells]

She's a non-evil japanese version of GladOs if you think about it