Before I got an Xbox One, I probably would have not been even remotely enticed to play a visual novel on any game system. Heck, I can’t even be bothered to read anything online that’s not a news article or review of some sort. I prefer physical books when I actually get a few minutes to myself to read. But with the wealth of titles (and not just ones from Telltale) on the Xbox One, it was only a matter of time before I tried them. So, how would I deal when I found a title that went right for the emotional jugular twenty minutes in? Well we are about to find out with Fragments of Him.
Information
Game Rating: M for Mature (Partial Nudity & Strong Language)
Size: 10.11GB
Release date: 06/01/2016
Developer: Sassybot
Publisher: Sassybot
Fragments of Him is an emotional story of four different viewpoints on the tragedy of Will who loses his life early on in this tale. (Not a spoiler, it’s in the description on Xbox.com) We get to hear from his grandmother Mary, his ex-girlfriend Sarah, his partner Harry and of course Will himself. They all speak of various experiences and how their lives intertwined. One phrase rings true: You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.
Graphics
Fragment’s art style is evident right off the bat, it screams of a sepia / black & white tone. There are flashes of colored light to either identify something to click on or to draw your eyes to an important part of a scene. It grows on you after a few sequences and most players should be able to work with it but it can also be a source of frustration. There is a good amount of detail here but often at times, you’ll need to click on the next object only to spend several minutes finding that object because you can’t see the very faint yellow highlight around it. This is also a knock against gameplay too but bears mention here.
Sound
This is certainly not a game where sound is really important beyond the dialog by the four principal actors and actresses. The dialog is strong and clear but I will have to admit that I never felt a huge strength behind the voice acting. The emotions comes from the written words and the scene that is playing before us. Yes, I do feel like there is some reading going on rather than acting. There is one exception to this and that is Harry. The voice of Harry actually pulls in a lot of emotions from his portrayal and thankfully he is the one who closes the tale as well.
Anyway, there is an almost haunting piano soundtrack that accompanies this visual novel and it feels well suited. It also seems to play at the right points which do their best to further draw you in. There was one part which had a club beat to it but it mostly sticks to the piano. Overall, it’s a solid effort and probably the highlight of the title next to the actual story.
Gameplay
The story starts out with Will, just hours before his untimely demise. We are introduced to the game mechanic of looking for the yellow highlight and clicking A. If it is a red highlight or a blue one this means that we cannot click on this object or we aren’t close enough to it. Sometimes this requires us to move around a bit with the analog sticks but usually this is right in front of us and easy to navigate to the next part of the scene. There are some dialog choices as well but they do not influence the game’s direction in any sense.
We then move on to Sarah, Mary and finally Harry (with scenes of Will’s perspective scattered throughout) that play out the same way. The game deals with some sensitive material that will turn some people off before they even boot up the game. However, what’s more important here is the story behind it with real emotions. One could simply swap out a few names and genders and most people would probably feel more comfortable with it.
Stepping back to the game mechanic for one second, I do want to make special mention of the yellow outline. I am not sure if I am blind (I did have Lasik a couple of years ago so I do not think so), but often times it is hard to tell where the next yellow outline is coming from. I spent a little over five minutes a couple of times trying to find the next thing to click only to realize it was a photo way above the action that was the next piece of the conversation. Often, it can be dumb luck that leads you to the next passage.
The game has no real difficulty, it is still easy despite the issues described above. The difficulty will probably come from trying to finish it in one sitting or the gameplay mechanic described above. It’s sad, but at times a bit boring especially if you have played anything more than 3-4 scenes. Therefore, I do find it best to tackle this game in about half a dozen sessions for maximum enjoyment. It personally took me four separate sessions, but I am on an assignment here so I had an extra long one thrown in there that was pretty unbearable.
Replay
The game as explained above is not difficult, in fact it’s rather easy. There are no puzzles or confusing dialog choices, only the difficulty of finding the next yellow outline. The entire adventure is only about 3-4 hours long. The only real reasons to go back to this game would be for fifteen minutes to mop up achievements and if you have a friend or loved one that you want to introduce this to.
Achievements are minor, with 10 of them equaling 1000 points. Eight of them will be earned automatically by going through each scene of the game. Only two of them have the potential to be missed and can be picked back up with the scene selector and very little time. It would have been nice for them to give a few more branching scenes (and achievements to match) even if it ended up going to the same exact place.
Final Thoughts
A lot of people will pass up this game because it is a visual novel (“we don’t like to read”) or the sensitive material (insert bigamist viewpoints here) but Sassybot should be applauded for a fine first effort. The story is well executed and it gets the touching moments nailed for a pretty good performance. Now, that comes with some criticism which include voice acting and a minor, sometimes confusing clicking mechanic.
But overall, I did enjoy it and I am interested to see what Sassybot has on tap for their next adventure. There are certainly many facets to relationships or even to losing a loved one. If they can create a little more branching and have a few more dialog choices, then Sassybot could potentially knock the next one out of the park. I leave you with a quote that sums up Fragments of Him nicely: “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.” Find a loved one, and give this one a shot. Take care.
Disclaimer: The reviewer won a code from #FreeCodeFriday from Major Nelson’s Twitter account. He played it for about four hours which included hovering and clicking on many objects, sensible and non-sensible to get to the next scene (and was mostly successful). He also might have wept a couple of tears at crucial moments but he swears he’s not an old softie. He also managed to gain 10 of 10 achievements.
| Graphics: |  (6.0 / 10) |
| Sound: |  (7.0 / 10) |
| Gameplay: |  (6.5 / 10) |
| Replay: |  (2.0 / 10) |
| Overall: | (6.0 / 10) |
