Concord: The Fall of Reverie Assessment (PS5)

On paper, Life Is Unusual developer Do not Nod pivoting to the visible novel style is sensible given its penchant for twisting, choice-based narratives. In observe, Concord: The Fall of Reverie is an underwhelming first foray into the house, missing the world-building mandatory to really promote a narrative informed virtually completely by way of phrases, that includes decisions that evoke little greater than a shrug.

The story begins with Polly returning to her house city within the wake of the disappearance of her mom. Whereas on the lookout for clues, Polly finds a magical necklace amongst mum’s possessions, and upon touching it she’s spirited away to the fantastical land of Reverie, which is inhabited by personifications of human aspirations, equivalent to Energy, Glory, and Fact. Polly — or Concord, as she’s recognized in Reverie — is probably key to saving each realities, and the one being able to bringing the disparate aspirations collectively.

This can be a visible novel by way of and thru, and you will spend most of your time listening to characters speak over static backgrounds till you are given a choice to make. The paintings is commonly lovely, with putting locales and character designs, and the voice work is ok all through, complemented by a sparse however nice soundtrack.

You are shortly launched to a mechanic wherein Polly can kinda see the long run, with the story laid out earlier than you within the type of a stream chart, just like ones seen in Detroit: Change into Human or Zero Escape: Advantage’s Final Reward, though some nodes on the chart are hidden till you progress additional by way of the story. It is useful, nevertheless it leaves the sport feeling extra such as you’re merely working in direction of a particular aim than organically shaping a world by way of heartfelt, trustworthy choice making.

One other double-edged sword is the brevity of the sport. Whereas we might argue that quite a lot of visible novels pad out the operating time and get a bit of lengthy within the tooth, the eight hours we spent with Concord weren’t sufficient to successfully flesh out the world or the characters. That stated, the story strikes at brisk tempo, and we by no means discovered ourselves bored even when we had been typically a bit of confused.