does not nod, for many years, has been synonymous with storytelling and freedom. Most of his works, with the virtual exception of Remember Me, are based on allowing the player to make a series of choices to shape the progression of the plot in more or less important ways. This was the case with the narrative adventures Life is Strange, Tell Me Why, Twin Mirror and even the role-playing game Vampyr. Even as a publisher (of Gerda A Flame in Winter), Don't Nod seems particularly interested in games where being able to decide the fate of characters is a key part.
Therefore, it will surprise no one to learn that Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is once again a product of this type. Available from June 8, 2023 for PC (version tested by us) and Nintendo Switch and from June 22, 2023 on Xbox Series Exploration of the possible futures of the protagonists.
Just like the players, the developers also have to make the right decisions and we will tell you what their fate is in this one. review of Harmony: The Fall of Dreams.
Athens is a dream
Harmony: The Fall of Dreaming si svolge ad Atina, an island but more than anything a kind of fictional city-state located in the Mediterranean, with a marked Hispanic flavor. We are in the very near future, in a world that will be immediately familiar but partially alienating, with its drones flying everywhere and sci-fi holograms inside multicolored neighborhoods dating from the late XNUMXth century.
Atina is indeed a mixed reality, which combines the old city with more modern neighborhoods dominated by XNUMXst century glass and metal skyscrapers. It is a mix between those who remember what the quiet and sunny island was like when it had not yet become the headquarters of the multinational MK and those who must, voluntarily or involuntarily, give in to the excessive economic and cultural power of this company.
In the midst of all this there is Polly, a woman who is also fusion. Born in Atina, the young woman moved about ten years ago to study on the mainland, but also to escape a difficult relationship with her mother and this island that was too close to her. Now the protagonist is Atina's daughter, but at the same time she no longer knows her. Her return, provoked by the need to go in search of her mother missing in the air, will force her to redefine her vision of this small island world that is actually the epicenter of the changes that will determine the destiny of all humanity.
Harmony: The Fall of Reverie not only tells us the story of Polly, her family and her friends, but it merges everything with the dream story, an alternative reality in which the Ambitions reside, conceptual entities (but very alive and very active) that were born together with men on Earth. We talk about Happiness, Power, Bond, Chaos, Glory and Truth, the quasi-divinities that can influence the destiny of people but at the same time are guided and dependent on them. At the beginning of the story, Polly becomes the Oracle and travels between the worlds of reality and Dreaming, learning about Ambitions and trying to understand what happened to her mother.
The value of elections
The two realities are closely linked and the Oracle's task is to bring order to Reverie. As? When making decisions in the real world to accumulate Egregore, an energy in the form of crystals, different for each Ambition. In fact, each of our decisions will be guided by one of the Reverie entities. Crystals are not only a narrative element but also a necessity in the game, since certain options are only accessible if we have the right Egregore. The power of this system lies in the fact that each chapter of the story will not be experienced as in Life is Strange, in a completely linear way, but will be explained in summary on the Augural page.
L'Augural It is the representation of the Oracle's powers of foresight. In narrative terms and even more so in terms of gameplay, we can have an idea of where our choices will take us, thanks to a series of icons connected to each other that anticipate in a few words what could happen. Furthermore, at the end of each act (that is, the sum of several chapters), the entire Egregore adds up and unlocks very important options that will change the plot and make future events available or blocked. This pushes us to think in advance what type of actions we want to carry out from phase to phase to reach the future that we believe is most interesting.
We realize that said like that it could almost seem like the entire plot is revealed from the beginning or that the choices are just a mathematical game of "what do I have to do to get the crystal I want", but that is not the point. case . First of all, Polly's prescience is limited to the current chapter (and sometimes some parts of the Augural are invisible anyway) and so we never get a full idea of what's about to happen. Each plot event has long-term repercussions and the possibilities are truly many. You can see for yourself what the Augural is like in the image above: even taking into account that certain sections are blocked, there is always many possibilities and a balance will have to be found between aiming for a long-term destination and making decisions that we consider consistent with our version of Polly.
In our case, we have I experienced each choice in a very painful way., staring at the Augural for minutes and minutes to process the whole range of options, but also trying to understand if we are really willing to betray that character, agree with that other or listen to a certain Ambition to obtain the power necessary to bend the future in the directions we desired. Harmony: The Fall of Reverie manages to convince because the plot is capable of merging the most everyday and "simple" moments, such as difficulties in relationships with parents, lost loves, the feeling of belonging to a place, and then moving on to political and ideological issues, such as the excessive power of megacorporations that are no longer the sum of individual managers, but rather become faceless beasts. Everything then merges with broader concepts, such as the real composition of the human soul and what guiding principles define our entire species and what we would do if we could decide the new course of History. So we talk about the microscopic and the macroscopic at the same time, jumping back and forth just as Polly jumps from the real world to Reverie.
Furthermore, everything is interesting too and above all because personajes de Harmony: The Fall of Reverie They are exciting. Polly will let us guide her, but she is not a blank slate. She has a past to discover and use as a reference to decide how to evolve it. Furthermore, all the characters that revolve around her manage to intrigue the player, thanks to excellent visual and narrative characterization. We will interact with them at every moment, discovering a new facet of them and letting ourselves be advised on how to act. Each choice will bring us closer or further away from them and, also taking into account the good number of endings (three categories, one of which offers six subvariants), replaying Harmony: The Fall of Reverie almost seems like an obligation, because it is a shame . not having seen everything she has to offer.
The Augural certainly gives us an idea of what alternatives we've ruled out, but it can't replace a completely new game. In our case we needed ten hours to get to the credits, but we think a second round would take less time because a large portion of the game is spent in the options menu weighing the possibilities, as mentioned above.
Rhythm, dubbing and art
Spending your time in the Augural to understand which direction to take the plot is part of the experience and we were quite satisfied because at each moment we really had the impression of having to make very important decisions. Furthermore, presenting the plot in this way is very clever, because it immediately makes it clear how much work is behind it, something that is not understood with more classic presentations.
At the same time, this also means that the plot progression is very fragmented. Sometimes a chapter is not much more than a couple of dialogues that are divided into many small pieces and each of our choices guides us in the dialogue, in search of the Egregore and the right future. If in a more classic and cinematic presentation this dialogue, even with several options available, would have lasted ten minutes, with the transitions from the dialogue to the Augural and the time spent reasoning about the options the duration is doubled. The rhythm of harmony: the fall of dream therefore, it is much lower than the average narrative game. We believe that it is a perfectly balanced sacrifice and, thanks to the quality of the plot and the characters, we never get bored, but every player must understand if a certain slowness in progress can be a serious point against the game.
However, a point against will be the total lack of spanish. The game is available with texts in English, French, Spanish and German, with dubbing only in English. The latter is of very high quality and, especially in the case of Ambitions, is really capable of giving more depth to the characters, making them emerge from the screen and expanding the limits of their two-dimensionality.
Harmony: The fall of dreams è a narrative adventure in visual novel style, structurally very simple and with few adjustments. Overall though, even with little Don't Nod was able to create a beautiful island. Atina, in her various looks, emerges strongly and almost assumes the role of an additional character, silent but always present. By the end of our trip we had grown fond of this island, which has significant ancient history and is not just a beautiful backdrop to look at.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam Holygamerz.com 9.0 Readers (10) 8.8 your voteHarmony: The Fall of Reverie is an excellent narrative adventure: deep, mature and exciting. It takes us on a journey that speaks of difficulty, identity and destiny, asking us what role we want to play in a larger than expected story and how we would like to shape not just the lives of a small group of people, but of an entire culture and in a certain sense also of all humanity. It's a pure narrative game, very focused on its strengths, even at the cost of limiting the pace and introducing any "action" game mechanics present in, for example, Life is Strange. However, despite some limitations, it is the best Don't Nod game to date.
PRO
- Great characters
- Mature plot that touches all sides of the human being.
- Visually pleasing
AGAINST
- The pace is slow, for some it could be a real problem.
- Spanish is missing and Harmony does not use simple English.
