Fragile Impressions

The C3xHOBBY fair had Gundam and Super Robot Wars drawing 50 minute waits as attendees lined up for dozens of playable kiosks. But my real interest was in a much lonelier part of the Bandai Namco booth: Fragile.

The Fragile and Sky Crawlers booths at C3xHOBBY. Not all that crowded, compared to the Gundam and Super Robot Wars games.

Bandai Namco had the upcoming Wii RPG on display through one kiosk. Even then, the line never seemed to reach past three people. I suppose that's the kind of treatment an RPG without big headed robots gets at a character show.

Unlike the Sky Crawlers demo, located right next door, the Fragile demo offered a mix of exploration and combat, providing what is presumably a good sampling of how the full game will play when it ships later this year.

The demo started off in a thick forest, putting players in control of main character Seto. After walking around a bit, I managed to get Seto to a gated mansion. Going in, he hears a mysterious voice, and decides to search after it.

The mansion was quite large, with multiple floors to be explored. I followed the instructions from Bandai Namco rep guiding me through the demo and climbed up the stairs. Arriving in a room at the top floor, I picked up an item of some form then faced off in a fight against a blue floating jellyfish-like ghost, which died after one hit from my trusty rod.

Following this simple encounter, I was instructed by the Bandai Namco rep to head to a door at the center of the top floor. There, Seto hears another voice, leading him into the door. Inside, he encounters a cute little girl who suddenly transforms into a boss that (because I didn't catch its name) I'm going to describe as Giant Mask of Doom. This giant face mask floats about, disappearing and reappearing. You need to wait for it to reappear, then strike it with your trusty rod. Unlike the jellyfish ghost from the previous room, this guy takes multiple hits to kill off, and he hits back if you're not fast enough with your blows.

Some Japanese dude samples Fragile

The demo came to an end after I killed off the mask guy. Seto picks up a key, which apparently leads to room number 301. Sadly, I had to give up the controller before finding out what's so hot about that room.

Controls over Seto make use of the Wiimote's pointing capabilities. You move the character around with the nunchuck analogue stick, but control his viewing angle by pointing at the screen. You turn around by pointing towards the side of the screen; left and right on the analogue stick just make you strafe. Picture mouse/keyboard controls and you'll have the picture, only the game does not allow you to make Seto look up beyond the bounds of the screen.

While the game is played from behind Seto's back, you can switch into a first person fixed-position viewing mode by pressing B. Here, you aim the Wiimote to make Seto look around, and you can go beyond the extents of the screen both vertically and horizontally.. The transition to this mode is quick, and given the prominent button that's assigned to it, I presume players are expected to use it often as they explore the ruins.

There were only two enemies in the demo, so I'm not sure how much of a sampling I got of combat. Based off the demo, you have access to a basic attack, which you perform by pressing the A button. Thankfully, there's none of that waggle nonsense that has failed in numerous other titles. In the demo, the attack was limited to your rod, but the full game will feature other weapons as well.

Other controls available to you include a duck, activated with the C button. The D-pad directional buttons are used for hot-key access to items and other menus. You use + and - to make a little radar map, constantly visible on the bottom-left side of the screen, zoom in and out.

It's probably too blurry to read, but there's the Fragile control scheme.

In their current, presumably unfinished state, the controls are a bit rough. While the viewing speed feels fast and responsive, the game occasionally gets confused and snaps your view into place. Particularly problematic is when you transition between scenes, as, if you're like me, you'll relax your hold on the Wiimote a bit and end up taking the pointer off screen. This ends up making your character's view snap awkwardly into place as soon as you bring your aim back at the screen. Hopefully the developers have some clever solutions to these problems.

Outside of the controls, the game's visuals are at present rough as well, with poor textures and and unconvincing lighting for Seto's flashlight when exploring indoors. It should be noted that I played Fragile after being awed by the lovely visuals of Sky Crawlers, so that might have dropped my impression of it. My flashlight experiences on the Wii have also been skewed by Fatal Frame which is a graphical showpiece for the system.

I'd be lying if I said I was blown away with Fragile following the C3xHOBBY demo. Still, I'm hoping to get a more complete sampling of the game's story and gameplay when it hits later this year.