Harmony: The Fall of Reverie was developed and published by DONTNOD Entertainment. The game styles itself as a visual novel with a heavy emphasis on choice-based gameplay. I wasn’t expecting much going into the game, but I can confidently say that many aspects pleasantly surprised me.

Story

The main character is Polly, a young woman from a Mediterranean island city who is investigating the disappearance of her mother. Things quickly take a turn when it’s revealed that a group of people who are personified versions of certain societal virtues like truth, chaos, and bonds live in another dimension called Reverie. Polly realizes she can see these people, known as aspirations, and can even talk to them. These characters play a role in the game’s overarching plot along with the human characters Polly meets along the way.

Gameplay

Seeing as this game is a visual novel, most of the gameplay is done by clicking through text boxes. This could be seen as boring, but Harmony does a good job of preventing that. First off, the game is fully voice-acted aside from Polly’s inner monologue text so it’s possible to just listen instead of reading a ton. Second, the dialogue sections are short and broken up into digestible bites.

When each section of dialogue is over the player gets an overview screen of a webbed progression field. Each choice has an accompanying text interaction which, depending on the path chosen, will provide new paths for the story to follow and block off contradicting paths. The aspirations from earlier and the aid given to Polly manifest through this system. Each choice has an emotion or virtue to it. One choice might be chaotic, one focuses on finding the truth, and some focus on bonds. Whichever one is chosen will provide a material called egregore that allows the player to unlock further choices down the line. So, if you do a truth path then a truth egregore will be given and can be used to unlock new choices based on truth down the line.

This is a great way to balance the roles of the aspirations with the relaxing gameplay style of a visual novel. All these elements are straightforward and easy to follow since most of the game is just clicking. The user interface is not cluttered in the slightest and, in fact, provides great space between the basic visual novel elements like rewind and the menu. Nothing ever felt overwhelming on my playthrough, and I experienced absolutely zero glitches.

Audio and Visuals

The audio is simple. Most of the time the game relies on the ambient sounds of the environment. Since the game primarily takes place on an island, there are a ton of relaxing beach waves and birds chirping during conversations. The occasional music that is in the game is a sort of lo-fi techno that isn’t overbearing. The voice acting is great too. Each character fills their role, and no one felt cringe or inauthentic.

Visual novels rely on still-framed images of the characters most of the time, and Harmony is no different. What is different though is the cutscenes. During big moments like the end of an act, the game will play a fully animated cutscene that looks like a show that’d be on Netflix like Blood of Zeus or Castlevania. It is very impressive, and I found myself excited by the end of each act just for one of the scenes to play out.

Replayability

There are so many different paths in this game. I only got one version of the ending and there is so much I thought about doing differently that drastically affected my playthrough. It’s not a long game either so that, mixed with the different paths, guarantees replays.

What It Could Have Done Better

My only gripe with the game is the way the story was paced. The themes are all there and executed well but the speed of the story is a bit confusing. We as players don’t get enough time to get to know Polly, which means it’s very difficult to care about her struggle when we first start the game. The game throws the player into a quest to figure out where Polly’s mom went but the whole time I was thinking, “Wait, who even is Polly as a person?” This could be easily remedied with more of a prologue at the beginning to ease people in. Aside from that, Polly is mainly crafted through the player’s actions but she does have some underlying traits from her mom and their relationship.

The game is a little on the short side too. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but the conflict and stakes of the journey never had a chance to sink in. It felt like the game was over right when I started to get invested in the story. I wouldn’t have minded a longer game, especially if there were more animated cutscenes.

Verdict

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is a solid visual novel that understands its themes and purpose. It’s hard to give a better score due to the short length and slightly rushed story, but the game’s smooth technical aspects and the solid well-meant story carry it to above average. It’s a must for fans of visual novels, relaxing stories, and crisp animation.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is available now on PC via Steam.