The Life is Strange devs shift from reality to fantasy - Harmony: The Fall of Reverie Quick Review

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it if you’re a fan of visual novels or narrative-driven games. Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is a choice-based game from the developers of Life Is Strange, and while it doesn’t quite capture that game’s slice-of-life magic, it still tells a rich and fascinating story. Set in the not-too-distant future, Harmony follows Polly, a seemingly ordinary woman who returns to her hometown after her mother goes missing. Before she can start her search, Polly discovers that she’s actually an oracle that can travel to a magical realm called Reverie and see the future before it unfolds. Now, she must use her newfound power to make tough decisions and restore balance to two very different worlds.

TIME PLAYED

I played a little over ten hours of Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, and while that wasn’t enough time to get me to the finish line, it seems like I’m close to the end of the game. With that said, it also seemed like I was approaching an end an hour or so ago, and I thought things were wrapping up around an hour before that, so it’s hard to estimate how long the game will actually be once it’s over. Harmony does have branching paths and multiple endings, so I’m curious to see how much will actually change on a second playthrough.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Mature storyline. Not only does Harmony touch on some challenging topics, like manipulation and parental neglect, but it deals with these topics in a thoughtful way. Polly’s mother Ursula was inattentive at best and abusive at worst, but the game doesn’t present her as a cardboard villain, and I could understand why she made the choices she did, even if they were the wrong ones. The relationships between the characters feel authentic and lived in, and that gave my choices some real weight. I didn’t want to do anything to hurt people that Polly clearly cared about.

• Cool choice system. Like Life Is Strange, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie puts a unique spin on decision-making. As the Oracle of Reverie, Polly has the ability to glimpse the future and see where certain choices might take her. I was able to view a map that showed me all kinds of potential outcomes, but not every choice was immediately available to me. Making certain choices rewarded me with aspiration crystals related to my decision. For example, doing things that made me happy gave me Bliss crystals, while deepening my family relationships earned me Bond crystals. Collecting crystals gave me access to a wider range of choices, allowing me to take Polly down a path that I felt good about.

• Gorgeous animation. Harmony: The Fall of Reverie features two beautiful worlds and has some spectacular character designs, and those designs are highlighted by some stunning animation. There are some fantastic animated cutscenes during pivotal story moments, but characters also move around during normal dialogue, making even basic scenes feel vibrant and lively. Every character in Harmony is fully voiced, and the combination of animation and voice acting occasionally made me feel like I was playing through a Makoto Shinkai movie. My favorite character to watch was Bliss, who had animated emojis around her head whenever she spoke.

WHAT SUCKS

• It’s too long. I’m happy to sink hours into a visual novel, but Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is drawn out and has a lot of unnecessary padding. Every time it seemed like the story was wrapping up, the game would take me to the start of a new act. To make things worse, some sections of the story were extremely repetitive. There were a few  times when I had to play through the same basic scene with different characters. I still enjoyed the characters and the overarching narrative, but I really wish the story had been edited down.

• It’s easy to get locked out of choices. Harmony: The Fall of Reverie gave me a glimpse of the future, but that didn’t mean I was able to do whatever I wanted to do. Every decision I made limited the options available to me, and there were many times when my map was filled with paths that I was no longer able to take. These limitations are clearly there by design, but sometimes, the lack of options got to me too much. There were several points in the story where I only had one path open to me, which meant I couldn’t really make any decisions at all.

💬 Will you be traveling to new worlds and making tough decisions in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, or do you want to avoid looking into the future? Share your thoughts in the comments!