Harmony The Fall of Reverie - Review
Don’t Nod, known for their high narrative games such as the original Life is Strange, have released their latest game, Harmony: Fall of Reverie. And as you might expect, Harmony is a heavily narrative focused, and character driven based experience. Much like its predecessor, the main protagonist has interactions with characters whilst revealing internal thoughts and processes ideas and emotions along the way, getting you to understand the situation in more detail with emotions, as the story slowly unfolds.
Off the bat, the difference is the lack of character control in that you don’t move around as an animated avatar. Harmony follows the main protagonist, Polly, who after being away from her city named Atina, has returned due to her missing mother, Ursula. Polly returns to her childhood home, finds her mother’s necklace which seems to have a spiritual power that lets Polly talk to ‘Aspirations’. These Aspirations seem to be a type of spiritual internal monologue that have different characteristics. As you dive further into the narrative, you are met with a few different Aspirations such as Bliss, Power and Bond, just to name a few. As you can tell, depending which Aspiration you talk to and use, different reactions and personalities are clearly shown. For example, Power relies or straight forward honestly opposed to tip-toeing around any type of sensitive topics. And Bond would lean towards decisions and reactions where is heavily reliant on ensuring the connection between all things and beings.
The game itself feels more like a ‘choose your own adventure digital novel’ where players have to make decisions when in conversations with other characters. Depending on what’s chosen, there are different paths and/or consequences, as each interaction with people you meet along the way, will open or close paths. These options are shown via a type of node tree diagram, in which players will have to decide which characteristic or chosen Aspiration type personality to use, whether it’s a more direct Power conversations, or a softer approach that Bonds characters closer. Each decision brings a different outcome which changes the way the narrative and relationships of friends, family and characters unfold. Again, this particular game is highly narrative based with very little animated movements as most of the on screen presence of the game is shown through a dialogue box and conversation pathway, which you’re able to see in advance and somewhat plan your method tactic of conversation to go a certain way.
The visual art and design of the game are pretty with the use of colors and basic movement animation. Characters are drawn with a similar style to the likes of Aeon Flux, Masters of the Universe: Revelation and Legend of Korra, where you can definitely see an anime influence in its western design style. If you’ve seen the previously mentioned animations, it’d make perfect sense, opposed to a visual style like Steven Universe or Adventure Time.
The character designs of the Aspirations are clearly well thought of, ranging from different stature, race, age and so on to match the type of persona characteristics each of them are supposed to convey. For example, someone like Power would come across a visual presence that’s tall, big and a little more on the broad side. In that, the character designers at Don’t Nod did an extremely good job in their designs. Coupled with fantastic voice over for each character, whether it’s a young or old, deep or high pitched, or even accented Don’t Nod has created amazing and believable characters in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. It definitely helps that when reading the character dialogues, there are moments where the voice over kicks in to remind you what type of personality each Aspiration or people in Polly’s life are like.
Lastly, adding a really nice emotional soundtrack and sound effects when needed on que really puts players into the environment of where Polly is. Whether that’s in the city of Atina itself, or whether she’s transported to The Nexus, which seems to be a spiritual place where Aspirations can meet and talk, the use of music is executed so well. And as you unfold the travel between the real world and The Nexus, conversations between Aspirations, and childhood friends and family, and many new characters, you start to piece together the mysteries of the disappearance of Ursula, your mother as well as who you actually are and the abilities you have. These interactions are all set up upon different acts in the overall story arc, which are also broken into chapters as you progress and make your decision of which pathway to take.
Overall, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is what you’d expect if you’re familiar with Don’t Nod’s style of games… heavy narrative and character development first and foremost. However, what wasn’t expected is the way the actual playable game is executed, which feels like a ‘choose your own adventure’. It’s visually stunning, has a great atmosphere, world and characters, which is expected from the developers, but still insane to think its something that’s been created from scratch. The only call out would be the fact that this focuses a lot on reading through the dialogues, which some players might have to ensure they’re up for that type of game play. It’s definitely not one that you can easily just wash over and not pay attention to. However, in relation to how it all unfolds, why does Polly have these powers and abilities… that’s something you’ll have to discover as you progress through the world of Harmony: The Fall of Reverie and it’s worth it.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Don't Nod
The Pros
+In-depth and rich narrative and world that’s been created
+Great voice over work coupled with music and character design
The Cons
-Main gameplay is via reading dialogue boxes and may not be what most are expecting
-Players might have to be ‘in the mood’ to play game (not one you can easily just pick up and play)
