Harmony: The Fall of Reverie
A nice game that could have been so much more than it is.
Reminder for reviews: I'm only really going to talk about what stood out to me, so anything I don't bring up is most likely just fine.
If an issue isn't bad enough to detract from the experience, then that's a good thing - just like something not standing out as being noteworthy doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.
It's perfectly fine for a thing to serve its purpose and nothing more.
MOVIES
- No movies watched in the last week, which is surprising to me as I'm sure I had, but I guess not!
- In order to catch up before the next Avengers duology hits, I'm going to start having Marvel Mondays, where I'll be working my way through the entire MCU over time.
- I'm glad Avengers: Secret Wars isn't coming out until 2027, which means I should have enough time.
GAMES
- Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is yet another game tempting me to move away from scores, because they just don't really work for something like this
- It really is little more than a visual novel which gives you choices between each part of a scene, which has its ups and downs.
- The scenes themselves are fine, with a variety of characters who are all at least well-performed, if not always particularly likeable.
- Shala Nyx is great as Polly, the main character, which really helps as you hear her more often than anyone else.
- I just want to single her out for special praise as the centre of everything in the game, but pretty much all of the voice actors give performances that are 'good' or better.
- The biggest problem is that the choices aren't impactful enough to make it feel like you're having a real impact on events, other than when you get to the very end and narrow down which ending you'd like.
- Otherwise, the choices are so insubstantial that you'll wonder why they exist at all.
- This is because you're only really making choices for Polly, but the game has a story it wants to tell regardless.
- There will be times that you'll just be locked into a certain route because the story needs to go in a particular direction.
- And there will also be times that other characters will take actions that undermine your choices.
- This could've made for some great drama if all your other choices truly felt like they mattered, but I ended up feeling more like the story was simply rail-roading me into doing what it wanted.
- I do like the idea of the two almost entirely separate casts in the fantasy world of Reverie and the real world, but I wonder if having so many characters restricted the story-telling.
- Another issue that ruined the illusion of choice is being able to see the rewards of a particular choice if there were any, with said rewards opening up different endings.
- The game is well designed enough that you can't 'soft lock' your progress as far as I'm aware, so you don't have to base your choices around the rewards.
- That said, if you want to get a particular ending, you can just choose the rewards that will best help you, again rendering the narrative decision-making irrelevant.
- After I finished the game, I did think about keeping it installed to maybe get the achievements for the other endings, but decided against it.
- For a supposedly narrative/story-led game, I didn't really care enough about what was going on to sit through a sizeable chunk of it again and again just for a couple of achievements.
- I don't want to come across too harsh, as I did have a nice time with the game, but that's about the highest praise that I could give it: it's nice.
- Aside from the excellent voice acting and equally brilliant animated sequences, everything else felt like it had been made to be 'good enough' to release and that's it.
- I really did like the premise of a world of god-like beings having an effect on the real world and vice versa, but I don't think the story makes the most of the set-up.
- Even the quieter, more personal moments don't really land in quite the way I'd hoped either.
- The choice to repeatedly undercut the player's choices to force the story in a particular direction just seems self-defeating and I would've preferred a shorter game with more meaningful decisions.
- Harmony: The Fall of Reverie has a great premise, excellent voice-acting and some brilliant animated scenes, but the story lacks the commitment to really impact the player and make a mark. [6/10]
TV
- No TV shows watched in the last week either, although Star Wars: The Acolyte is still planned as the next thing to watch.
- In addition to that, my Marvel Mondays will eventually include the Disney+ shows I haven't seen when I get to that point, which is actually more than I realised.
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