Harmony: The Fall of Reverie Review (PS5)

Don’t Nod is best known for their story driven adventure games. Though they are the developers behind games like Vampyr and Remember Me, action-adventure games with innovative elements, their name is widely recognized mainly for the Life is Strange series.

That being said, the team returns this year with yet with another touching tale, exploring the often-strange connection between a mother and her daughter, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie.

Life is Strange is a game that managed to conjure up a deep emotional connection with many players. Regardless of whether we talk about the story of Max Caufield, or the one about the Diaz brothers, the candid characters and their struggles are relatable, and they often hit close to home.

With Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, the fine folks at Don’t Nod took things to the next level, crafting a journey marked by self-discovery that engages the player in unforeseeable ways. In the center of it all we find Polly, a young lady who returns to her birth city, Atina, hoping to find her mother, Ursula, who disappeared without a trace.

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Visiting the house she grew up in, she discovers a necklace with magical powers that grant her powers of clairvoyance. Using them she can access Reverie, the realm of the Aspirations of Humanity, where she will encounter ethereal beings, born from the feelings and thoughts contained in the minds and hearts of every human being.

In this strange world, Polly turns into the goddess Harmony, who has the power to choose the Aspiration that will ultimately rule over Reverie and restore the delicate balance between the deities’ world and ours. It is up to the player to discover Glory, Bliss, Power, Chaos, Bond, and Truth and make choices that will influence the faith of not just one person, but both worlds.

The story unfolds following the style we already have seen in Life is Strange, with relatable and convincing dialogues. The narrative is conveyed in a simple, yet completely engaging manner. The main difference is that Harmony: The Fall of Reverie masterfully struck the chord of self-discovery. Every one of us can relate to Polly trying to find herself in a world that is constantly changing.

The story is supported by a gameplay structure that lets players choose their own path and make decisions based on their personal beliefs. Each decision will send you down a rabbit hole with different narrative paths. Called the Augural, this system allows Polly to see the future and try to fathom the various consequences of the possible choices.

Beyond choosing one node over the other, thus siding with certain Aspirations, there is not really any interactivity we can talk about. The gameplay loop is choosing the way think you want to go, watching the cutscenes, reading the dialogue and then dealing with the consequences.

Unfortunately, there is no real freedom because your previous choices condition your present and future ones, often expressed with crystals. Different actions will put you in good favor with different Aspects, by granting you crystals. Often a certain number of specific crystals will be needed to be able to unlock one node or the other.

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If you add also that certain paths require a certain decision to have been made previously, the result is a structure that adds tremendous replay value. You can turn back and make different choices, that reverberate through the five chapters and unlock a completely different conclusion to the story.

The system is not perfect, though. After watching various scenes, inevitably you will be taken back to the nodes representing the way your story continues, and this takes time. Also often can be quite confusing figuring out why you can go down only a certain path even if at first glance you have the requirements to choose a different one. This breaks somewhat the immersion and the flow of the story and leaves you wondering what you missed. And since this is an interactive visual novel where there aren’t too many gameplay mechanics, the story should flow unhindered.

Although due to the quantity of information thrown at you during the brief tutorial Harmony: The Fall of Reverie may seem complex at first, in reality the gameplay is very simple. It is a visual novel experience, that offers basic and limited interactions, choosing to focus on bringing a rich narrative rather than a complex gameplay structure.

There is no real right or wrong answer, and no matter what path you chose you will continue stumbling towards a conclusion. But you have to keep in mind that every decision has consequences, and they might not be the ones you have wished for.

The visual style of the game is just as whimsical as the world itself, with environments that seem more detailed than the characters themselves. There is a bit of cinematic content, but you cannot help but feel that they were neglected in favor of the dialogue scenes.

The facial animations are breaking the spell as well since the lip-sync of the characters is often pretty off. The beautiful visuals are accompanied by a truly mesmerizing soundtrack composed by Lena Raine. The sound design manages to combine masterfully the music and the ambient sounds to create a unique atmosphere, melting together seamlessly with the visual style.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion