Fragile Dreams: A farewell to the apocalypse

There are plenty of post-apocalyptic games out there. Some deal with characters trying to survive against a cold, harsh environment; some deal with the relationships that are made between people in difficult situations.

Then there’s Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon.

This is a game about the loneliness that comes with being the last living person in the world. The game follows a young boy, Seto, who has just lost the only person he has ever known – his adopted father. Seto sets out from his comfortable home in search of the other survivors he knows must be out in the wider world. He picks a point on the horizon and heads to it, hoping to find someone.

During his adventure, he finds a beautiful girl who loves to sing, a sentient radio, a strange boy and a ghost girl, but the vast majority of Seto’s quest finds him in empty rooms and long corridors, all alone.

Beautiful backgrounds and stunning lighting effects make Seto’s world a brilliant one to explore at times. The characters he finds along his quest add a depth that is rarely seen in a game – you end up really feeling for Seto and these ‘things’ he finds.

A side quest of sorts of the game is to find ‘memories.’ These are relics of those who died in the apocalypse, capturing their last memories. The great voicework in the game delivers these memories with a passion and a feeling that really sets Fragile Dreams apart from many, many other games.

Fragile Dreams’ main feature – the oppressive solitude – is also it’s biggest weakness. Seto’s depression and search for someone to talk to is a very real and identifiable quest and helps the player immediately identify with the boy, however spending 5 minutes running down a long, dark corridor and still encountering nothing at all, makes for poor gameplay. The ghost-like enemies pop up predictably and it’s really the same handful of types that attack. Most can be run around easily, allowing for the much more fun challenge of exploration to continue. And they respawn when you leave a room, so killing them really nets the player zero gain.

There is very little soundtrack, instead opting for ambient noises to fill the quiet. The sounds of Seto’s footsteps echo in the many long corridors; leaves rustle on trees, insects chirp and cats mew. As said above, the voiceacting is phenomenal, especially with the memories of the dead. Each line is spoken to invoke the strongest emotional response from the player as well as telling the stories of the people who died. A little boy who was gifted at playing the piano spends his lunch money on secret piano lessons his parents don’t know about; a little girl has lost her mother; a father regrets moments of sadness in his life. These add up to create a powerful, and sometimes depressing game.

But no matter how emotional the voiceacting or beautiful the surroundings, when it all comes down to it, Fragile Dreams is a boring game. Fighting is worthless, collecting items is largely pointless, beware the endless revisiting of areas, and those evilly long, dark hallways. The end of the world doesn’t have to be so dull.

Written by: Jon