Hello

Several weeks ago I had the honor of receiving the soundtrack to Namco's rather unusual (and decidedly niche) Wii survival-action-RPG title, "Fragile".  The game did only modest business (clearing only about 24,000 copies on its opening week), but the soundtrack, composed by newcomer Riei Saito, has received a lot of praise.  So much so, in fact, that a full soundtrack was inevitably released.

I intend to write a full-fledged review on this album, but here's my brief impressions.  This is a very good effort for a first-time score from someone who we haven't heard from; the music is melancholy in tone and often minimalistic.  Somehow it manages to match with the dreary but haunting visuals for the game.  The opening track is strangely reminiscent of some of Joe Hisaishi's scores for Studio Ghibli, like the first cue to "Spirited Away" mixed with a bit of the more quieter moments of "Legend of Ashitaka" from "Princess Mononoke", complete with synthesized strings and a very ubiquitous (more on this later) piano serving as the basis for the theme.

I like the music overall, but I do have one major qualm.  There are LOTS of tracks which are just piano solos (hence my mention of "ubiquitous"), all of which sound strangely derivative and hard to distinguish.  Not that this is bad music by any means; the piano solos are pretty, but they lack both variation and aren't anything memorable.  Some of my more favorite tracks were the ones which provided a nice break from the solos, notably the two battle tracks on Disc 1.

Quibble aside, this soundtrack, like the game, may have a hard time finding its audience, but for anyone looking for something different than your typical JRPG soundtrack, then FRAGILE may be worth checking out.

-Jon T.

Sounds good, and I'm glad we got this write-up from you. I've been wanting this game forever now (admittedly only because the art is so striking to my eyes). Probably gonna get this some time down the road.

How's the game?

I do not have a full opinion about the game, as I have not played it yet, but the folks at XSeed are bringing it to America later this year.  I've heard mixed reviews about this game; the graphics and the sound and storyline are generally praised, but the gameplay has received criticism.  I don't know any of this for sure, though, as I have yet to play it.

Definitely been looking forward to game since I first caught wind of it.

Definitely going to pick up the soundtrack, too.

The piano solo piece that was on the game's Japanese site reminded me a lot of the title intro for Legend of Zelda ~ Ocarina of Time. Not a bad thing, right?

After all, we NEED more games on the Wii that aren't those damn arcade/family/flail-the-Wii-mote-around-like-an-idiot titles.

I mean, hey, there's Waggle, and then there's just flailing...

There are two other highly anticipated Wii games that are practically BEGGING for full OST releases:  Muramasa The Demon Blade and Arc Rise Fantasia.  The latter got a 30-minute promo OST as a pre-order (similar to Fragile), but the former did not.  Since neither one of these two titles were particularly huge hits in Japan (or at least that's how ARF seems to be), I wonder if a full OST will ever be released for these two.  It happened with Fragile, so why not these two?

Although the way that Yasunori Mitsuda's OST releases have been going have been irking me somewhat; World Destruction didn't do much and only got a promo OST, and yet it never got a full OST because Mitsuda was dissastisfied with it; interestingly enough he's reworking the music for the U.S. release.  I wonder if a full OST will be released after that.  On the other hand, soundtrack releases tend to happen to games about a month or so after they're released.  Although they do operate on a rather frugal manner; some games that bomb DO get full OST releases, others don't.  The VGM industry is very puzzling to me.

That is sad news. Limited success usually means less of a chance to see games like this. I don't know about Arc Rise Fantasia or whatever (Mitsuda's composing? What?), but Muramasa's been high on my list of games for Wii I intend to pick up, which jumped from maybe 3 titles to 11 over the last little bit. And I absolutely loved Odin Sphere, so here's hoping Ignition treats the localization with the same level of love that Atlus gave to Sphere.

Yeah, I have to agree with that. The Wii starts getting some decent games, and no one wants to release the soundtracks for them, much less buy the games themselves.

Nintendo has really alienated the core gamer audience; I do honestly believe they're going to be the next console maker to bite the dust. Either that, or they're only going to have about as much notoriety as Tiger Electronic Games (remembers those little pieces of shit?)

Honestly, though, if they don't want to release hard copies, why not just provide digital copies for the fans that DO want them, either for free, or for a nominal fee, if they REALLY have to be greedy about it?

While I'll agree that Nintendo has alienated the core gamer audience (to a certain degree) with their titles and hardware that can't support the heavy hitting titles seen on the 360 and PS3, they've tapped into the non-casual gamer segment. I can see people who have never had a video game system getting a wii, but systems like the 360 and PS3 aren't going to create any converts.

Honestly, while I think the 360 is the most attractive system (game-library wise) the cost of making today's games is simply staggering and the video game industry may be setting itself up for a fall like some here have suggested. In such a event, Nintendo has really positioned itself in the safest position possible. Again, I'm not a big Nintendo fan like I was in the NES/SNES days, but despite the obvious problems with the Wii Nintendo has really thought a lot of things through.

There is a reason why niche titles like this haven't been clearing the shelves on the Wii:  There is no major IP on the system.  An IP, like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, or (anything else I'm missing?).  Those will sell without question in Japan, but other IPs will have trouble unless there's a major IP on the system.

Fortunately, Nintendo and Capcom have the answer to the problem:  Monster Hunter 3.  This is the newest title in one of the biggest series of Japan.  They're going out of their way to hype this game, even by including it in a black-colored Wii bundle package.  Once this game succeeds, there WILL be more of a core audience on the Wii, because the success of this game means more core games will be coming, as it will bring in a new fraction of core fans who would otherwise play an XBox 360 or PS3.  Need I also mention, too, that they've got Dragon Quest X--which arguably sells more than Final Fantasy.  So there IS hope for more traditional games for the Wii.

Now as for "nobody wants to release the music from these games", I wouldn't go to that conclusion; I never said that these will never get full OST releases.  Fragile, as I've mentioned, got it about five months after it came out.  And there've been games that didn't do so hot but still got the album treatment (Castlevania Judgment, No More Heroes, Baten Kaitos, Metroid Prime, etc.).  So I wouldn't totally give up on never having a full legit OST release (although there is ALWAYS the gamerips if you're that desperate).

As for Nintendo alienating the core audience, that happened mainly in 2008, as a result of a disastrous E3 showing.  This year's E3 show, while not great, was still a big improvement over last year's, and showed that they do indeed intend to target the core audience (New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M, and, to a lesser extent, a new Zelda).  So I wouldn't totally write them off.

As for which of the upcoming games for Wii will get an OST release, I'm unsure about Oboro or ARF because Marvelous is a very small publisher, so it's up to them whether these games were successful enough to warrant an OST release (although they did do that with No More Heroes, and that wasn't so successful in Japan).  Crystal Bearers should certainly get an OST release; Silent Hill Shattered Memories probably, although it's up to Konami.  Dragon Quest X absolutely; Tales of Graces certainly.

But what about Muramasa and Arc Rise Fantasia?  Well, the best thing we can do is try to contact Basiscape (Muramasa) and Procyon Studios (Arc Rise Fantasia), respectively, since they're the ones who wrote the soundtracks.  If we don't hear anything, then a game rip will have to do.  But remember--it took Fragile FOUR months to get a full OST release.  Perhaps it may take a similar time for either one of those two.

As for Fragile; thank its lucky stars it got a full OST release and that it'll be here in America courtesy of the folks at X-Seed.

I just finished it a couple of weeks ago, and what Jon says pretty much sums it up.
Graphics are really good, I LOVE the music, and am really glad it got a soundtrack, it's shaping up to be one of the contenders for OST of the year, and this is coming from someone who tends to shun soundtracks full of piano solo's, but these are really good actually IMHO.
The story is handled very well too, it's rather depressing, focusing on themes off solitude, (impending) death and abandonment and it's nice to see a game with such a family-friendly look still get a decent mature story.

I've resorted to calling it Silent Hill for the Whole Family, which means it's not scary in any way, but the atmosphere, presentation and story are great.

Gameplay on the other hand is totally uninteresting. All you do is run around, defeat some baddies with an extremely clunky melee system (that would be SH again), an inventory system that is more of a pain in the ass than it logically should be, breakable weapons (which is a thing I LOATHE) and non-existent puzzles.
I found myself playing through purely and solely to find out what was going on, not because I was having fun.

Considering the fact that there are NO unlockables, not even an extra difficulty, or alternative endings, the replay value is pretty much 0.

It is quite obvious from playing the game, that this is the same team behind Eternal Sonata: Same look, same quality story-telling, same dull and repetitive gameplay.
Still if you can get it cheap (I got it for 2000 yen or something), it might be worth the price of admission if you can enjoy a game on story and presentation alone.

Sounds like every Silent Hill game I've ever played. I'm definitely picking this game up when it hits. Sounds exactly like an experience I've been waiting for.

survival horror games in general aren't very 'fun' in my opinion. doesn't mean i think they are bad games, but i don't play them for the same reasons i'd play something like mario galaxy. i play them for the oppressive atmosphere and story. ammo/item management, halls of locked doors, clunky combat and controls, etc - these are all staples of the genre, don't see how those aspects could be considered fun.

I'd say they're a different kind of fun. I have a blast collecting gems and saving the dragons in the first Spyro the Dragon game, but I also have a blast turning the lights off and running away from mutated whatthefuckwasthat creatures while trying to find the one door in the hall that's not jammed or locked in Silent Hill. The amount of fun is equal, but the type is very, very different.