WNR: 29th March 2010

hi all and welcome to the new WNR! The previous week Red Steel 2 came out and I hope many of you are enjoying the game :3 I'll be giving a review as soon as I can ^^ for now enjoy the news!

VC RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
no releases this week

EU
-Ogre Battle 64 (N64)
-Fatal Fury Special (Neo Geo)

WIIWARE RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Cave Story (2d action game)

EU
-Art of Balance (puzzle game)

GAME RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
30th of March 2010:
-Sakura wars: So long, My love
-The secret files: Tunguska

EU
1st of April 2010:
-Rune Factory Frontier

NEWS:

New screens for Cave Story have been released (2d action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35414/

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New screens and videos for Red Steel 2 have been released (FPS/action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35502/
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/weapons-trailer-red-steel-2/63483
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/payne-boss-red-steel-2/63532
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ninja-train-red-steel-2/63531
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/katakara-showdown-red-steel-2/63530
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-red-steel-2/63721

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New screens for NBA Jam have been released (arcade basketball game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35579/

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a new video for Furry Legends has been released:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35602/

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New boxard and video for Tournament of Legends have been released (fighting game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35594/

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New artworks and details for The Last Story have been released (RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35616/

- Separation between knights and mercenaries in the game
- Knights
ranked highly, try to master their skills
- Mercenaries treated like
“disposable units”, have to look for work
- Main characters are
mercenaries, director says they “have dreams of becoming knights, but
fight on the boundaries of death as mercenaries”
- Mercenaries want
power to protect loved ones (villages have been burned down, possessions
stolen, etc)
- “‘Extreme Power’ is poured onto those who harbor
’sadness and loneliness’ … however, they must not make mistakes in how
it is used.” – director
- Producer says mercenaries always fight,
makes them detested, knights are symbol of authority
- Producer says
Mercenaries want to be like the knights

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New screens and videos for Monster Hunter 3 have been released (action/RPG):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35621/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35784/
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/great-jaggi-monster-hunter/63646
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/qurupeco-takedown-monster-hunter/63647
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/barroth-takedown-monster-hunter/63648

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This is just for who's interested but now the wii got Netflix service
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35642/

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New screens for Sonic the hedgehog 4 have been released (2d platform):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35654/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35720/

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the official boxart of Super Mario Galaxy 2 has been revealed (platform):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35666/

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new video for La Mulana has been released (2d action game):
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/35690/

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GAME OF THE WEEK: Fragile Dreams: Farewell ruins of the moon
genre: survival/RPG
publisher: Namco/Bandai



this is one of the wii games I was most eager to get lately...it took over a year for publishers to pick it up and let us play it, but at last it's here! so here I am, diving in the world of Fragile Dreams.

The concept of the game is something quite particular: the main character is a young boy called Seto, who also happens to be the only human left on heart...or so it's supposed to be. He used to live with an old man who left him a letter after his death, telling him to go toward the great red tower (tokyo tower! :3) where there supposedly are more humans, not wanting him to be alone forever. On the way there he encounters a misterious girl, who pretty much looks human but she runs away before he can even ask her name...this is where the adventure starts.

visually the game is an early wii game. Despite this you can see the effort that programmers put into the environments. they don't use complex textures and 3d models, yet you'll never, NEVER see two rooms looking the same. every environment looks abandoned and in ruins, either covered in vegetation or dirt, but despite the post-apocalypse setting nothing is destroyed, rather it's just left there, in a mess, abandoned. there's an amusement park left rotting away, a hotel in wich the vegetation started to grow inside, written messages over the walls and personal belongings left everywhere. The feeling of devastation and lonelyness is given by a silent atmosphere, most of the time it's just the light of the moon or your torch your only source of light.

Despite the game got a strong anime artstyle, sometime the feeling of anxiety is quite strong, given also by how the environments have been worked on enough to look real in their setting. it's like the "style" of the models and the environments makes up for the game not being the top of the graphics on the console.

The gameplay is something quite particular too. It does have a few RPG elements, like item equip and level-up, but that's it...the rest of the gameplay can be compared to a silent hill game or an oldschool resident evil. Like in silent hill SM you move the torch with your wiimote. it can respond quite well, even if at times the camera may go a bit crazy, especially when you turn around certain corners or during battles. so yeah, the evil camera glitch we all know X3

The game mostly focuses on the exploration of the highly atmospheric environments, sometime having you walk for entire minutes just to "enjoy" the silence and the feeling of lonelyness...the never-ending hallway is a perfect example. despite not being claustrophobic, walking in this tight, silent, dark hallway gave me a feeling of anxiety and each time a monster would appear...well, it gave me the chills.

the battle system is quite similar to a silent hill game...no lock-on, just press the a button to execute the hits. There are 4 kinds of weapons, one of wich is long-ranged (bows and slingshots). The other ones are close-range, heavy weapons and long weapons. each kind haves a series of weapons, each one with its own attack level (the level up rises just your HP) and sturdyness...because each weapon can break after a certain amount of time, some are more fragile than others. The inventory system is pretty much the one of Resident Evil 4, with a bag with a certain number of slots to fill with weapons, items and health items. Eventually you can use the save points (they are a lot, scattered trough the game as fireplaces) to put the stuff you don't need in a bigger briefcase so that you won't lose it and keep it for when you need kit :3

some random times, when you go to a fireplace, there will be a merchant passing by. you can sell and buy items of any kind from him, but you'll have to be careful about how you handle those money, since the merchant may or may not appear the next time, without counting the stuff he sells is random too. All of this gives a "survival" feel to the entire game, rising the feeling of isolation that the atmosphere gives you.

Put this with the design of the monsters. The battles start with your wiimote starting to make noises depending by the monsters that is in front of you. moving the torch around you can highlight the hidden monsters and wack them to death. they can be wild animals, jellyfish ghosts or creepier stuff, like kid legs o.o; seriously, one of the creepiest monsters, just imagine ghost kid legs running around you, laughing maniacally, even when you wack them to death...not funny o.o;

anyway, the enemies will be in swarms most of the time, so not having a lock-on will force you to be careful about how you move, especially since certain weapons give you a slow recover, so while you hit an enemy another one may come after you and avenge its friend. The lack of a lock on didn't really bother me, I rarely missed enemies, especially after I understood their pattern and the range of the weapons. Be careful though, every enemy is different, some of them can block, some teleport, some duck and avoid...just study their movements...this will give a little more strategy to the battles and will also have you use less health items, most monsters can really take a lot of HP from you.

The camera here might give you troubles during battles, plus it's a shame that the boss battles are way too easy, I would have enjoyed a little more of a challenge, even if they're still fun enough. Defeating enemies sometime may give off items and "boxes". said boxes can be found scattered and hidden around the levels.

depending by their size in your inventory (they take up slots) they could contain different items. You can open them just at the save points. They can be health items, weapons...or memories. Memories are special items containing messages. They are memories of humans or even animals before they passed away for the great catastrophe that hit the planet. they will make you understand more about what's happened to humanity and many of them are quite moving too...I've found myself frowning to some of them :'(

so, the gameplay is simple and particular, haves its problems, but can be enjoyed.

Let's move on the story...it developes slowly, along with the memories you found, letting you get to know Seto, how he feels about being the only human in the world and you'll probably also get affectionated to the different non-human characters he'll encounter during his travel trough the ruins of his world (I cried twice during the game...you'll understand where, when you finish the game). Playing this game and following its story is like following a sort of Fairy Tale, or a Poesy, with many philosophical dialogues, many deep emotions and a lot of enphasis on things like friendship and enjoying your life until the end. Yet, in the end the circle will close, explaining everything, either trough the memories you find or the main storyline.

it can be described as a sort of magic game that can't really fall under a single category. The soundtrack is quite particular too, basing itself on the environmental noises around you and songs played on a piano, even for the battle theme (wich is awesome and fits the game perfectly). And the main opening is awesome and makes me shiver every time I hear it X3 a friend of mine felt like listening to the kingdom hearts opening not even knowing about the game, so yeah ;P

listen to it if you want X3 http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=v9cbIWO1kR4&feature=related

ahem, anyway, beside this the game lets you choose between english and japanese voice acting...you know what I'd suggest ;P

to end the review...the game does have its flaws like the camera, the easy boss battles and the battle system may not be appreciated by everyone, despite not being "bad". But it's certainly a game for people who love atmospheric games, who like anime and especially who loves to explore and dream...yeah, I'm being romantic now X3 but yeah, this is how this game can be described: as romantic.

here are a few screens:
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/61961520090202_192550_0_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/61961520090202_192551_10_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/61961520090202_192551_2_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/61961520100216_154811_0_big.jpg

and a video:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/japanese-launch-fragile-dreams/44515

that's all for this week! see ya next time with a new WNR! :3 have a good wii gaming time!