Harmony: The Fall of Reverie
From the same developer behind Life is Strange comes Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, a story-driven adventure revolving around player choice. Through the power of clairvoyance and a connection to a realm defined by five aspirations, Polly must use her gifts to protect her hometown and guide it toward a positive future.
“Beware player, your decisions will matter!” A no-win type of situation where both including and otherwise excluding such bold and high-stakes a declaration in-game feels detrimental. Bank too steeply on the confidence of your own game’s dramatic weight and players are bound to set expectations too high. But to simply refuse making such a claim may in fact lull some into the idea that only the clearest and most focal of story beats will determine how latter events unfold. It’s a phrase so commonplace it’s almost as standard in these types of multiple-choice adventure games, but the dilemma facing any developer is naturally: how do you convey to the player that one should indeed take care? Walk, don’t run – think first, act second. That minor detail you could dedicate an additional minute or two in learning more of the world: may it save you at the death in the least-likely of circumstances.
Multiple choice games work best when the ramifications for one’s investment truly hit home. The satisfaction-come-relief that staving off some desperation early on helped you out later on, or the surprise-turn-disappointment that you overstepped the mark in a similar way and wound up inviting in more than you could grapple with. And that they hit home not because of the ways said outcomes are built, but moreso because they’re defined by what we put into it. Care little for the characters present or the events transpiring and there’s no stopping them from spiraling off into some unforeseen tangent. But it’s a tangent you allowed to manifest. And if that wasn’t enough pressure – to wind all this up back into the opening proceedings of Harmony: The Fall of Reverie – the stake at play here? Why, just a little matter of a shady corporation on top of determining the future trajectory of all of mankind. No pressure then.
So to answer the previous question on how a studio should frame that inevitable detail on choices with grand repercussions, take Don’t Nod’s advice and simply ratchet up the stakes to 11 from the get-go. Bold, perhaps a touch foolish you might presume and were this any other conclusion going forward, that decision may have been worth a closer scrutiny. But any such doubts are immediately and rather impressively put to rest here. Harmony: The Fall of Reverie isn’t just a fascinating inverting of one of the genre’s most golden of rules – reveal next-to-nothing so far as probable outcome – it’s a game that just might’ve trumped the studio’s other novel deviation in the genre, viaVampyr, in becoming the studio’s best work in some time. A delightful and eloquently-balanced mix of narrative, characters and voice work, all of which sitting beside what is easily Harmony’s most well-realized feature: its network-like illustration of the many paths the tale can tread.
But let’s be clear, Don’t Nod aren’t the only ones aiming to break the mold in so far as how these types of games can both be built and be unraveled. Go back to Supermassive’sUntil Dawnand that game’s ability to foresee probable events/deaths/solutions via optional collectibles very much exists. Even Quantic Dream dabbled with the idea of illustrating all the many ways and means its multitude of set-pieces could go. Yet Harmony’s method is different in that it truly feels like an attempt to encompass some form of a more puzzle-like deduction to its scramble of nodes and branches to follow. That choices aren’t simply placed at a player’s feet in the moment, but surprisingly are laid out – albeit with sufficient admission of details – from the very beginning. And just like any great puzzle game, Harmony sets off with a simple-enough handful of node types, but adds to it later on. Thus making decisions more complex to manage and potentially all that more impactful when something doesn’t quite go according to plan.
For when it comes to the actual decision-making in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, the process isn’t as simple as choosing one of two/three/four strings of dialogue. Rather, a lot hinges on whether or not one has amassed enough of a certain type of crystal that corresponds to one of the six Aspirations that make up the allegiances if you will. Taking one route may, for example, net you an additional crystal with which may come in handy when it comes to a crucial story-beat that requires two or maybe three of said crystal type to unlock. This system is soon added to by the prospect that gaining a crystal associated with one Aspiration, may also result in you sacrificing a crystal for another. The overall objective throughout Harmony being to manage your current total. Crystals accumulating over acts which inevitably serve as the means by which key, narrative-altering choices, are made available to select from. Or not select from; rely too heavily or blindly on one particular Aspiration and it may inadvertently close off potential routes to alter or even absolve the situation at play.
Which again is further explored when Harmony introduces different classes of nodes. Nodes/choices that allow you to glimpse forward at future events, some sealing others off completely, some that have to be played out so as to access specific routes. There are even nodes that act on a time limit – spend too long dilly-dallying with secondary information and the opportunity is lost. Simple it may be, it’s a cunning twist to the manner in which one prioritizes what particular brand or trait of personality you prefer to role-play as. Resulting in the occasional instance where one may decide against the personally-perceived logical choice in favor of one that will get a particular character on your side. And as a result, an Aspiration-aligned crystal that could open up one or two more doors. Or not; such is the continuing unpredictability of Harmony’s tale – with a fair few twists that are at times surprising and at others a touch on the ridiculous side, but still find a way to keep you compelled to ride it out.
But amidst all this, it’s surprising in itself just how well Don’t Nod manage to maintain this shroud of mystery throughout most of the five act run-time. Harmony seldom letting things settle too reassuringly one way or another. Parts that skirt somewhere between telling you that you made a “wise” choice or you didn’t. And especially around the third act when the narrative truly starts to kick into gear, how Dontnod brilliantly make good choices seem bad…and bad choices not as bad as one might’ve thought. A sign then of competent writing that Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is thoroughly engaging from start to finish. Both in its world-building and its character writing particularly. The latter of which is separated into two halves. The real-world denizens of the primary setting. And alongside, the denizens of the parallel, metaphysical reality of Reverie, the Aspirations – personifications of what you might call the more primordial concepts of humanity.
Six of which preside in the game: Bliss, Power, Truth, Bond, Glory and Chaos – the latter of which, in both delivery and as much the narrative’s own focus, winds up being one of the stand-out personalities in Harmony’s cast. Less to do with the performance and more to do with the fact that once again the game never makes it too clear just what Chaos' (much like the rest of his fellow Aspiration brethren and indeed a few real-world characters present in the tale) real motivations and agendas are. Friend, foe? Someone who has your back or who’ll stab it when all the pieces finally come into place.
Yet this is just one example in what is a delightful assortment of voice performances in Harmony. Delightful in the sense that for the Aspirations in particular, how the nature of their respective personifications works into the smaller nuances. Bliss' extroverted and joyous energy; Truth’s stoic, reserved but ultimately calm demeanor. And then there’s the performance of Power; a voice that straddles that line between assured and outright domineering with its authority – a fitting reflection of how one might perceive such a concept as power in the context of human beings. But then you throw in the other side of the total cast and it’s easy to see why Harmony is quick to draw you into its dual-reality narrative. To the point that the weaving in of relationships with the main protagonist Holly, in conjunction with key story-beats, only adds further gravity in making the best of what takes place. The relationship between two characters for example, that may seem like it stops at merely Platonic, but could in fact grow into something more romantic. And while the possibility was there for the game to offer this in a rather shallow or otherwise hurried fashion, for all its dramatics and high stakes moments, Harmony does just as well at the smaller, “quieter” spots of its tale.
That said, for all the choices offered and despite how well the game manages to create an air of obscurity that is to the writing’s betterment, perhaps the least-secretive aspect of Harmony in so far as its themes are of its blatant anti-capitalist nature. And while Don’t Nod themselves thankfully avoid falling into the trap of bludgeoning its players with some zealot-like “capitalism bad!” broken-record of a one-liner, the fact players can’t, say, side with the antagonistic MK corporation. That the game is always veering towards some kind of stand-off or portraying of said side as “the bad guy” regardless, it may not be to everyone’s liking to hear that Harmony – and Don’t Nod by extension – isn’t providing some grey-versus-grey scenario. As well delivered the general story, outside its more politically-tinged ideas, still is.
Outside of that, the rather smaller-budgeted stature does let itself be known in ways that are, while not damaging, noticeable. The limited range of character animations – and how quickly one finds the same repeated loops used over and over – while it may wind up nothing more than a nitpick, could’ve benefited from a few more variations. The same can be said for the environmental backdrops; a nice compliment in offering 3D-rendered stills set against the 2D profiles of its cast they may be. Moments in the story that demand some manner of a change in backdrop, end up relying on the same images for a surprisingly lengthy amount of time. One example in my case being a situation involving infiltrating a building, having started in a scene set outside. Only for events transpiring inside said building to still weirdly rely on the same shot of the outside environment? Again, a minor nitpick, but one that does risk pulling a few of Harmony’s loose threads from out the seams.
Closing Comments:
Blending an absorbing tale across worlds, with a novel but mechanically-engaging interpretation of player-choice, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie sets a new standard for Don’t Nod with what might be their best, most rewarding work to date. A narrative chock full of interesting characters and equally-interesting curve-balls to manage – with truly great performances from its cast to match. A game that spends as much time on the smaller moments as it does the grandiose ones, what truly gives Harmony that cutting edge, is its puzzle-like subversion on offering choice to its player. A system, as much means of presentation, that balances long-term planning with short-term deductions on the right course of action versus the more helpful one. All while still finding the means to surprise and leave its players in suspense at just what lies around the corner. Intriguing from start to finish, for any fan of player-choice narratives and/or visual novels alike, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie can not go overlooked.
