Namco Bandai broke a long and somewhat uncomfortable silence on Fragile today with an update detailing new characters and ruins.

First, some background for those who haven't been keeping up. This Wii RPG is set in the near future. Playing as main character Seto, players find themselves in a world of ruins and seek out any other surviving humans, in particular a heroine character known as Ren.

Seto explores ruins in search of Ren (pictured to the right).

The title makes use of the Wii's unique control options for its control system. You use the nunchuck to move your character around, and point the Wiimote directly as a support device, such as a flashlight or metal detector. When fighting enemies, who come in the form of evil ghosts, the game uses direct controls for slashing a stick and firing arrows.

New details for this latest update include the revelation of some of the ruins that you'll be exploring, including a dam, a research lab, and Foot Tower, the latter being a tower with 531 steps in its stairwell.

(left to right) The damn, research lab, and tower.

Also detailed in this update are three new characters:

PF (Personal Frame)

Rather than a character, this is a portable mechanical AI unit that Seto carries around on his back. PF helps Seto analyze the situation at hand and serves a support role. However, it occasional has sensor errors and gives gives Seto the wrong information. Voiced by Umeka Shouji.

Chiyo

A young girl who Seto encounters along his journey. While she looks like a young girl, she has an adult way of talking. She's selfish, but also lonely. Voiced by Chiwa Saito.

Item Shop

"Item-ya" in Japanese, this mysterious man appears before Seto and conducts item sales. He's always in good cheer and will speak with Seto, but once his busines is done, he disappears. Voiced by Tomohisa Asou.

Chiyo (left) and Item Shop (right). PF is the thing on Seto's back in all the other screenshots.

Fragile will be released some time this year.