Harmony: The Fall of Reverie

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie features striking character design and a vibrant art style, with a great grief experience that is mostly in 2D. It’s a game with great voice acting that will make the player reflect on current, but also more primitive, issues. However, it’s not a game that encourages to be played again and has some plot holes.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie has an amazing presentation that gives narrative adventure fans a visual treat to watch as they progress the story. The branching paths carry some emotional weight, but the second half really drops the ball on keeping the plot consistent. If you’re up for a relaxing mystery that revolves around unique themes and characters, make this your next weekend game.

Above all else, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is an interesting game. A blend of visual novel and magical relationship adventure, it's an intriguing mix that for the most part works extremely well. It may start to struggle when its simple design approaches fail to match the intricacy of its plot threads, but overall it holds its own.

The choices you make throughout attest to the game’s belief that logic and empathy aren’t mutually exclusive.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is a difficult case where strong individual aspects don’t fully come together as a strong whole. There are precious characters here that are worth getting to know, but it feels like they get lost in the macro-events of later chapters. And while there are numerous variations and endings to replay this 10-hour story, the systems governing which choices you make feel more limiting than liberating.

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie comes through as a mixed bag for several reasons, but the art style isn’t enough to make up for the way choices work.

I’ve really enjoyed some of DON’T NOD’s games and found a lot to love in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. Beautiful art, a fantastic soundtrack, two interesting worlds, and an intricately designed system designed to really make your choices matter are all worth exploring. Ultimately though, thinly drawn characters and too often feeling like I was being forced down a specific path instead of getting to enjoy the choices the game is designed around kept me from falling in love with Harmony.

Just like life, you can make all the right decisions and still end up with the worst outcome, only able to wonder how it ended in such disappointment.

I know this sounds contrary to the rest of my review but, despite my complaints, I still would recommend at least one playthrough of this game to fans of the studio and the genre. There is some charm to be found here, even if it’s only occasional glimpses when you make the right decision, and just visually you’ll be in for a treat.

Don’t Nod’s visual novel Harmony is an awkwardly balanced mix of gorgeous but limited production values, clumsy choice mechanic, and an intriguing story whose best parts you never get to experience yourself.