 Don't not make the visual novel of superb audiovisual quality, but does the writing measure up? I'll try to explain why I think that it does. I'll pay special attention to why the last chapter of the game works and why it is that you might think it does not. If you do, that's perfectly fine, I get you, I get why, but I've thought long and hard about the shift in tone and I believe I have gleaned some understanding behind its purpose. Before that discussion, let's define the conflict into which protagonist Polly is thrust. Polly returns home to the island of Athena after ten years of living abroad. This is no joy trip however. Ursula, a poet in the heart of the artistic community in Athena, has gone missing. Ursula is also Polly's mother. The strained relationship between the two is defined by long bars of silence, the occasional notes of disapproval and a general lack of understanding between the two women. This mother-daughter conflict is at least part of the reason behind Polly's decision to move to the continental mainland. The world that opens up to Polly as she returns home, however, is going to help our protagonist understand her mother for the first time in her life. What is that world? It is called reverie, a realm beyond Polly's own. The realm of aspirations that correspond to the main forces that drive humanity towards progress, chaos, bliss, bond, power, truth and glory. When Polly, harmony, as the aspirations call her, is first transported to reverie, this realm is in a state of disrepair. Some of the aspirations are unmade or are otherwise beyond reach. It is up to harmony to repair the damaged reverie through the collection of a resource called Egregor, produced whenever she makes decisions in the human realm, decisions I might add that shape the very future of the island of Athena. If you've read Neil Gaiman's Sandman, the aspirations will likely recall his endless, from the naming conventions and core idea, to Bliss' visual style recalling delirium. What has been going on in reverie is not independent of Ursula's disappearance. Both her absence and reverie's present state can be traced back to one entity, the mono-concern MK for short, Corporation, the de facto sovereign of Athena. The conflict quickly moves away from just the search for the missing Ursula and instead looks to MK's usurpation of power across this idyllic Mediterranean island. This usurpation has mystical origins resting in the current state of reverie, and this is where the aspirations play a part. Rather than agents of their own, most aspirations play the part of advisors. Bliss pushes Polly towards tackling different situations, with mine to bringing joy, happiness, personal fulfilment to those closest to her. Power is decisive, seeking control, dominating conversations and leading with authority. Power's voice actor is perfectly cast too. In fact, all the aspirations, all the characters, have excellent voice actors who don't pull any punches, but Power's in particular is close to my own heart because he sounds like a bloody sit-lord and also the voice actor voices not just the aspiration but one of Polly's closest people, Laszlo, her father figure. Returning to the topic of the different aspirations as advisors, there is one exception, which is of course Chaos, whose machinations can cause no end of travel to Polly and her friends. I thought Chaos was a lark, even as I did not follow his every plan, a choice for which I was awarded with his continued attempts to ruin my own designs. Root. But let's return to the title's main conflict. This is not the first game I've played that has a strong anti-corporate message. Last year I reviewed Citizen Sleeper, a socially conscious RPG that takes on the worst excesses of capitalism in large corporations in particular, the horrible human cost of human exploitation. Harmony, for with Reverie, enters into a similar conversation. It's not as capable, not as potent a piece of art, but then Citizen Sleeper makes for a high bar. Domtnot's writing team shows at first MK's benevolent face, countless social initiatives, the excellent pay they offer prospective employees, the urban development and modernization of the island. What follows Reverie does well is, it creates real disquiet in those early moments, as I realized how all those initiatives, all that goodwill, MK shows the city of Athena and the old city quarter of Alma in particular, how easily those initiatives can run dry if the corp holds the plug. The riches and benevolence the corporation pulls onto Athena are always conditional. Don't go against our interests or else. As the plot progresses, that is indeed what happens. We get to find out what that else entails. Harmony, the fall of Reverie, has a memorable cast of characters, both human and aspirations. The humans from Polly's family to friends new and old are personable, colourful, unique. That is to say, they contrast in every way the faceless facades of the monoconsoon. Polly and her family, father figure Lazlo, an adopted sister Nora, voiced by the brilliant Abigail Torn, creates lasting connections. With the community, with MK's enemies and critics and even some of their employees. MK meanwhile is an amorphous, shapeless entity, whose exploitative nature is defined by corporate hunger for profit. Like most choice-based narrative games, this one too has pivotal moments that cannot be changed. How you reach those and how they are resolved is very much up to your choices. Making a choice in Chapter 2, for example, will have lasting impact. Whole nodes will open or close depending on decisions already transpired. So, for example, I was hoping to develop a romance with one character, but chose instead to spend time after personal loss with a family member. That romance never had the time to grow following the choice. Because that character in Polly never had their time together. My final decision was informed by an inability to make the romance I'd wanted work. That reminds me, you'll find great non-traditional representation of the family unit here. Polly, Nora, Lazlo and Ursula are far from the traditional family unit and most of the relationships depicted are LGBTQ-friendly. Big fan of the cute romances that grow throughout this 10-hour narrative. And those that could grow, but that I kind of failed it. The most innovative, perhaps, system this title provides is called the Orgural. The Orgural looks like a game board and serves as the visual representation of Polly's gift of foresight of the choices in front of you in the current act. In practical terms, it's a series of semi-linear nodes which provide you with the opportunity to choose a part forward based on limited information. Each node provides you with some small amount of text that explains and allows you to guess about the kind of events that will bring about this particular choice. Think of it as a visual representation of the choices that other games in this genre keep invisible. So, for example, if you go down one part in your first playthrough, it's much easier to follow along a different part on your second, even just through a visual scan of the schematic that is this Orgural. The game also has a codex which provides you with a little extra information about characters, organizations and locations in the two worlds. I like this one, not least because it seems to be a diagetic or in-world document written by monoconsern employees, if sentences such as the following are anything to go by. Unfortunately for everyone, MK reconstruction projects are often delayed by a small group of anti-monoconsern activists. The unfortunately for everyone has a particular positive kick towards MK, which you wouldn't expect to meet in, say, Polly's own notes. An interesting choice, certainly. Some people are unhappy with the 15 last chapter of the game, as I mentioned at the beginning of this video. It was a great beginning of a video, so if you enjoyed it, please subscribe. Anyway, back to it. I understand. The upset, but I do not necessarily agree with it. The reason why the fifth act is so different from the other four in terms of tone is not because the writing is any worse, it's because the writing moves away from character-driven towards big-picture social writing. Following along the shifting makeup of the fight against the MK corporation over weeks and months. It's a change that might feel jarring to some, but I would argue it serves an important narrative purpose, showing how the aspirations work in the long term, how Harmony's quest begins to shape the human world as she is aided by the inhabitants of Reverie. You can look at Chapter 4 as the conclusion to our core cast's character growth. What comes after shows all that Polly and Nora and Laszlo and Ursula and their friends, and the aspirations even, have worked towards. The grassroots movements, the resistance we worked to fan out from a single spark, all come to fruition, and the fight against MK is on. How does it go? Whether it's results? I'll let you find out for yourselves. I never, for a moment, regretted picking up Harmony the Fall of Reverie on release. It's clear that this was a passion project for Don't Not or a small team within the greater company. Whatever the size of the team that developed this one, they took an interesting concept and made it a colorful, socially conscious delight. It reads as a very modern piece of art, no question about it, and one I found myself taken with. It's not the most gripping narrative, yet it has heart, a cast of characters that didn't overstay its welcome, and plenty to say that's worth hearing. My five cents, give it a try. You might find more than you first expected. If you enjoyed this video, why don't you share it with your friends? Let me know in the comments down below. Have you been playing Don't Not's latest? Are you planning on playing it? I've been a fan of the company since Life is Strange and have played most of the games they have released since. I think this one was certainly different from many of them, but it was also an enjoyable experience. So yeah, next up I will probably have a review of Star Wars Jedi Survivor coming soon. If you'd enjoy watching that, don't forget to press that subscribe button, and of course, smash that like button before it's too late. Until then, I'm Philip Magnus, you're not, and I'll see you again next time. Bye!