Harmony: The Fall Of The Reverie is a new world-jumping story from the Life Is Strange devs
And it's coming this June
I had still thought the Life Is Strange team were called Dontnod, not Don’t Nod, so I didn’t pay too much attention when the unfamiliar logo popped up at last night’s Nintendo Direct. That was a mistake, since their newest story-focused adventure Harmony: The Fall Of Reverie looks amazing. Best of all, it’s coming to PC and consoles this June.
Don’t Nod have always created games with supernatural elements, but the world in Harmony is the furthest they’ve gone into the fantasy sci-fi genre. We follow Polly who returns to her hometown, the fictional Mediterranean city of Alma. Things aren’t exactly how she left them, as an evil megacorp is abusing its power and the people. That’s when Polly discovers the gift of clairvoyance, connecting her to the alternate world of Reverie, which transforms her into the goddess Harmony. So yeah, it’s more divorced from reality than, say, the mystical land of the USA seen in LiS.
Of course, as a Don’t Nod game, players will have to make plenty of tough decisions that can impact their world, or in this case two worlds. The studio have shed some details on how this works in Harmony, including the Augural, a game-board-like manifestation of Polly’s powers. Players can use the Augural to explore the outcomes of their decisions, and, as you can see below, some choices have far-reaching consequences. I’m excited for a new take on their choice-based games, since I was pretty burnt out by the time Tell Me Why released a couple years ago.
Harmony is also updating the studio’s visual presentation as their first-ever 2D game. The trailer shows off the crisp, comic-book-style world of Reverie, featuring a futuristic city and a number of otherworldly vistas. The gorgeous art is paired with music from Lena Raine, the composer behind Celeste; the first few soothing synth notes are immediately recognisable as a Raine-soundtrack, but it quickly escalates into bouncing boops and beeps that I’ll surely bop my head to.
All in all, world-altering decisions, a great art style, and Celeste-esque music makes me very excited to play and replay this one. We don't have to wait to long either, as Harmony: The Fall Of Reverie is launching sometime in June on consoles and PC via Steam.