Broken Dreams

The divide between the artistic elements of a game (The Music, the direction, the voice work, the story) and the actual gameplay is a hard one to balance. Fragile Dreams: Farewell ruins of the Moon is a great example of this.

Released last month on the Wii, Fragile Dreams is a survival-horror esque game set in a post apocalyptic future devoid of human life, You play as Seto, a lonely young boy on a quest to find someone with whom he can share his life. Maybe an hour in, he runs across a scantily clad young girl who he scares the crap out of and runs away. Seto becomes obsessed with her and vows to find her, no matter what challenges he faces, Along the way he meets a few characters (None human, and thus not able to live up to our young hero's impossible standards) who tag along with him for a time and inevitably leave him and send him into yet another whirlwind of depression.

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Presentation.
Simply put, this game is beautiful. The characters are mostly voiced and animated very well, each having their own distinct characteristics and style. The music reminds me of the works of Joe Hisaishi and the Anime series Mushi-shi. The story is a little vague and doesn't make all that much sense, but in a very anime kind of way. So if you're into that you will probably dig it. The story is presented in a very interesting way. Seto knows even less than you do about what happened to the human race, and you both have to piece it together as you go along. This is done mainly through finding Items from which seto can hear the last thoughts of the person they belonged to. Through the items you find that while most of the victims had no idea what was about to happen, some knew quite exactly what was coming.

Gameplay.
This is where we get to the downside of this game, The controls are just not very good, You control Seto in an almost shooter game fashion; the control stick on the nunchuck controls his movements while the pointer on the screen controls where he looks. while just walking around and exploring the world the controls feel all right, just not as polished as I would hope, it's the combat that kills it. You spend a good 75% of the game fighting some sort of evil dog or ghost child, so you would think that they would have put a lot of effort into making it an enjoyable experience. But alas... Though it is in a third person action game style, the system lacks a lock on, so you constantly have to point frantically at the screen in hopes of facing the right direction. Seto can't block, which would be okay if not for the fact that he is SLOW AS BALLS so you just have to take the hits and stay stocked up on items to boost your HP, and when you get further in to the game there are enemies who CAN block... WTF??? To top it all off, as your weapons are "old and brittle" They have a tendency to break. So you may be in a hallway full of wave after wave of enemies, and lose your weapon.

Verdict.
About 8 hours in, I was almost ready to call it quits, I hadn't had measurable fun playing the game since hour 4 or so and the story was starting to lose it's grip on me. I checked a walkthrough and found that I was pretty near the end, so I busted it out one morning and saw it through. What it really boils down to is this. If I had actually payed for this game, I would be pissed. But as a rental, it's almost worth it for the story. I honestly just wish that it was an anime instead.

Hope Rides Alone

When you hear "Mega Man Rock Opera" you don't really know what to expect. You might imagine the Phantom of the Opera with a gun for an arm, Or perhaps The Rise and Fall of Mega Man and the spiders from Mars. What you probably DON'T expect is a sweeping epic,encompassing countless musical genres and intense emotionally charged vocal work,

I first discovered the Protomen in a 2005 issue of Nintendo Power, I looked them up on Myspace and though they only had 2 songs posted, I was hooked! I listened to them over and over every day for weeks, I couldn't get enough.

Unfortunately, I was broke and jobless. So those two songs on Myspace had to do, That Christmas, my amazing sister got me ACT I Their first album.

I was dumbfounded! Not only do they have amazing poetic lyrics to drive the story, but in the booklet there is a written story that comes in the instrumental lull between the singing.



The album tells the story of how Doctor Light created Protoman to combat the forces of Dr. Wily, but in the process made not just a warrior, but a son. So when Protoman fell, it destroyed him. In a rage , Dr. Light created a new robot, Mega Man. But Mega Man was not to be a freedom fighter. Light forbade him from entering the outside world, telling him that mankind is lost, that they have "chosen their own end". Mega Man defies Light, seeking revenge for his fallen brother.
The Album is 8 tracks of intense face melting righteous anger.



In September of Last Year, the Protomen released their Sophomore album "Act II, The father of Death" A Prequel, this Album tells the story of How Light and Wily created the first Robot, of how love was lost, heroes were made, and the world Fell under Darkness. ACT II Is about twice as long as the first, and has such a varying array of musical styles that it's hard to believe they came from one band. From 80s style Rock Ballads, to Rockabilly, to Electronica, and even into emotional Broadway-Esq pieces, it is an epic masterpiece.



In 2007, to combat the hunger for more Protomen that the band themselves were taking too long to provide, the house DJ Makeup and Vanity Set released "Makeup and Vanity set presents the Protomen. A cover album of ACT 1 done in an 8-bit style.



The band themselves are shrouded in mystery, they all have code names to hide their identity and they never break character for a second. Not even in interviews. They allegedly live in their home base the "Thunderdome" which is, as described by the band "high atop a green hill overlooking the desolate undertakings of an unrelenting new pop-country shit-storm."
The line-up has changed over the years, but the current band consists of
Commander
Panther
Murphy Weller
Turbo Lover
Sir Robert Bakker
The Gunslinger
The Gambler
The Nightwalker
K.I.L.R.O.Y.
Reanimator
and Frank Jaeger



If you like music or video games or love or world peace or meatloaf or any combination there of, check the band out at their Myspace, Website, or their blog.