Developers Don’t Nod Games, best known for Life is Strange, Vampyr, Twin Mirror, Gerda a Flame in Winter and so on, are back with another beautifully shaped narrative story, Harmony: the Fall of Reverie.

Initially released on PC and Switch early June (2023) and PlayStation and Xbox late June (2023), Harmony: the Fall of Reverie has players take on the role of Polly, who has returned home to find her hometown drastically changed by megacorporation MK. Unlike others, Polly has the gift of clairvoyance which connects her to another realm called Reverie, the realm of the Aspirations of Humanity. The line between the two worlds is thin so it’s up to us and Polly to decide how we want the fate of the world to pan out.

Recently, I’ve gone through the backlog of Don’t Nod Games and caught up with all of them, enjoying each and every one of them in their own unique but familiar ways. Because of this, Harmony: the Fall of Reverie attracted me from the get go and I was incredibly excited to deep dive into the worlds of Reverie and Brittle.

I’m not going to lie, it’s taken me a while to get used to the idea of 2D games again, taking on a more simplistic art style rather than using today’s increasingly realistic graphics to bring fictional worlds to life. As Dusk Falls, a narrative driven 2D game helped me appreciate and admire how rewarding 2D games can be, especially when having branching narratives and granting more opportunities and resources for endless choices that might otherwise not have been possible.

The art style of Harmony: the Fall of Reverie is gorgeous. Full of colour, texture, beauty and grit, every still image on the screen could be a work of art. Not one shot of the entire game wasn’t worthy of sticking up in a framed picture on a wall, and that’s saying something behind the quality and effort put in by the team to produce a high quality piece.

Characters from both worlds are fleshed out and layered, creating bonds between characters and players very easily, depending on which relationships you choose to pursue. On one hand, the Aspirations were my favourites, making us players constantly think from different perspectives and question our own choices and morals. On the other hand, Polly’s everyday family and friends complimented her in ways rewarding to the story and also pulled us in different directions when approaching scenarios.

As a narrative driven game, Harmony: the Fall of Reverie has no action gameplay. You won’t even find yourself hitting random buttons for quick time events. That doesn’t mean to say there isn’t action, it just plays out determined by how you have chosen the story to play out in the Augural.

Picture the Augural kind of like a family tree or a timeline.

Here is where you are constantly deciding which branch to take, with no going back once a decision has been made unless you start the game all over again. As someone who has currently only played the game once through, I’m unable to deep dive into how detailed choices actually make an impact on the story. It’s no secret there are an abundance of choice driven story games that claim players drive the story, only to have it pushed down the same path anyway. Saying this, there are also games like As Dusk Falls that utilise the 2D narrative story to provide an abundance of actual different choices and endings. My guess is Harmony: the Fall of Reverie is the latter, so I’m excited to revisit the game at a later date, making different choices and following other paths.

Players will find themselves lost in the narrative of Harmony: the Fall of Reverie very early on. The multiple path choices fill your mind with endless storytelling possibilities, leaving you eager to find out more and tell yourself, as the gaming hours add up, to play just one more chapter…

The post Harmony: The Fall of Reverie (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

DON’T NOD, French independent video games developer and publisher, is happy to announce the release dates for its newest seminal narrative experience, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie.

A free playable Steam demo for Harmony: The Fall of Reverie will be available for a limited time as part of LudoNarraCon, which takes place from May 4 to May 8 2023. This demo will be available until May 21 and will span the first act of the game which will introduce Harmony: The Fall of Reverie‘s setting, story, and most of its colorful cast of characters. Members of the development team will also stream the demo on the game’s Steam page.

A brand-new trailer, which offers a deeper look at Harmony: The Fall of Reverie’s colorful universe and branching pathways, is now available.

In Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, players will step into the shoes of Polly, a young woman returning home to look for her missing mother. On her journey, Polly discovers she has the gift of clairvoyance that connects her to another world, Reverie, where she becomes Harmony. Players must attempt to restore balance between our world and Reverie, the realm of the divine beings known as Aspirations: Glory, Bliss, Power, Chaos, Bond, and Truth.

As Harmony, they will have to choose an Aspiration to be the new Heart of Humanity. Use the Augural to go from scene to scene, see into the future, and open new paths. Reverie is the place in which resources will be managed: crystals that Harmony gains from making decisions and bonding with Aspirations. These will unlock important nodes in the story and change the course of destiny.

In addition to a captivating story, the game will feature a delightful cast of characters and a universe rich in lore to explore. It will also boast a colorful, lively, and futuristic aesthetic, and an outstanding original soundtrack created by the talented, award-winning composer, Lena Raine.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to participate in this year’s LudoNarraCon alongside many fellow narrative game developers and to introduce players to the universe of Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. We can’t wait to hear everyone’s first impressions of the demo and the enchanting worlds we’ve built.”, says Cyrille Combes, Executive Producer of Harmony: The Fall of Reverie.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is developed and published by DON’T NOD and will be available on June 8th, 2023 on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch and on June 22 2023 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

The post Fall of Reverie Gameplay Trailer appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Harmony, is a Japanese animated, sci-fi film, based on the novel of the same name by Project Itoh. The film is set in a futuristic world made up of a society controlled by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which mandates the use of nanotechnology to regulate society and monitor for medical abnormalities in humans to allow for better living.

The film follows Tuan Kirie and her two friends, Miach Mihie and Cian Reikado who decide to take control over their own lives, making a pact to commit suicide to escape the restrictions placed upon them by WHO. However, both Tuan and Cian fail to succeed in the task. Thirteen years later, Tuan works in the international medical police forces for the WHO, however is still distrustful of the system which controls society. Upon her reunion with Cian, Tuan uncovers a conspiracy which threatens the ‘perfect’ world in which she lives.

The plot is intriguing and very much depicts a harmonious world without any semblance of real freedom. The story has a similar concept to the anime Psycho-Pass, in which government regulation is forced upon society in order to better protect it. The only major difference between the two is that Harmony depicts an utopian society whereas society is still struggling to get accustomed to the Sybil System in place in Psycho-Pass.

While I enjoyed the concept of the film and the fact that the futuristic world utilises advanced technology that is undoubtedly interesting, the plot twist occurs far too early in the film and results in a series of moments, which are simply ‘weird’. My interest in the film dipped almost as quickly as it piqued. This largely stems from the way in which the film seems to lose its direction and momentum as well as the more outrageous ideas it tries to portray within the film.

Plot development throughout the film isn’t the only aspect which disappointed me. The characters were introduced to us in an appealing manner, with backstories that made it feel as if we could really connect with them, or at the very least, find them interesting. Unfortunately, as with the plot, the film attempted to do too much with the characters and provide a shock factor which did nothing for the film.

In many ways, I applaud the film for trying to portray a strong, no nonsense character. Tuan certainly had many qualities that would have made for fantastic character development however, it was definitely off-putting to watch her crumble upon being confronted with her past. The ending left me with a sense of disbelief and I regretted allocating nearly two hours of my time to watching Harmony.

That being said, the art style and visuals were certainly novel and I did appreciate the way in which the art used in the film portrayed the future. If not for the outrageous plot twist and ideas in the film, I would have said that Harmony provided for a nice, peaceful watch.

Whilst it isn’t the worst film I’ve seen to date and it certainly had a lot of promise, I wouldn’t recommend Harmony. Perhaps reading the novel would be better. If an anime series or film featuring a dystopian society is more your thing, give Psycho-Pass a go.