Trials of Harmony ~ A Found Phone Mystery Visual Novel

Very enjoyable visual novel like game in the vein of titles like Replica, the Strange Phone or the SIMULACRA series. The atmosphere reminds me a little of the Zero Escape games, so if you are a fan of any of the games I mentioned you might enjoy Trials of Harmony as well. The characters are well defined and the story keeps you entertained until the end. There are a quite a few puzzle elements as well which are directly woven into the narrative making them interesting to solve. The game also offers different endings depending on how you do at the puzzles and on your decisions. For such a fairly priced visual novel you get quite a few hours of content. The dev team has also been very helpful on the forums, which is always great to see. I full heartedly recommend this title.

Ok, this is the time I write 'I do recommend this game, but...' To be fair it's good for it's price, as long as you don't expect it to be on Zero Escape *insert other title here* level. Pros: - the mobile messaging thing (you can actually play it from mobile phone btw, just not the Steam version); - story itself is nice; - music, definitely worth mentioning; - 22 achievements you can get in one playthrough, if you're after that. Cons: - meaningful choices - nope, some choices are there just for the sake of being there, most change nothing much; - text speed and skip button. Ok, I think the text speed could work on mobile (I play Mystic Messenger, I know the pain) but on PC it's frustratingly slow and skip button tends to freeze for minutes which left me staring at a blank screen and killed whatever tension the story managed to build. Another thing I want to mention is if you're expecting all motives will be revealed and logic will be found well, no. It's not that bad but spoiled so...

I've played my share of Death/Survival Games and the only thing that makes this stand out is the aesthetic and the fact that it's on a phone. I liked the concept, don't get me wrong, it's Sara is Missing mixed with Zero Escape, but my problem is that it gets pretty tiresome, and the characters are generic as hell or fits a common trope in this kind of genre. My biggest issue lies on the interactions. I have group chats with 10 of my close friends, and I am accustomed to having branching conversations while another conversation is happening, and sometimes clash of ideas could occur that would make the chat very alive. This game is better yet be written as a text-based story than a phone-mystery novel because the main chatroom feels really dead, and everyone just seems to wait on one person to send a message. Maybe it's just me, but that's not how chats work. It doesn't help that the music makes me sleepy especially since the game takes forever to complete. If you really like the concept...

Thematically, Trials of Harmony is a game in the vein of 999, VLR and other such escape room and visual novel mash-up games. Long story short, for what it tries to do within its scope, it's pretty solid. There aren't all that many western visual novels, so having a developer from a different background tackle this genre was refreshing in and of itself, as the game deviates a little from the usual VN formula. And while Trials of Harmony is certainly a variation on a theme, it's an interesting take with a more grounded approach than is typical for the genre. First and foremost, the writing is pretty good! I don't have the vocabulary to really break it down fully, but I enjoyed reading through it over the course of a weekend. The characters generally talk like you'd expect from real people, which is a nice change of pace from a certain class of visual novels that takes a very maximalist approach to expressing emotions -- the written equivalent playing to the back row. You won't find a ch...

I found [i]Trials of Harmony[/i] during the most recent winter sale, and I am definitely glad I did. Although the premise is a touch derivative (primarily of the [i]Zero Escape[/i] games, with a hint of [i]Danganronpa[/i]), and although there is the occasional typo, awkward word choice, or monologue that would be thumb-cramping for someone to type on their phone in real life, overall this phone-chat VN tells a satisfying story. The setup of the situation is effectively expressed, most of the characters are fleshed out and sympathetic, and the puzzles are straightforward. (Tip: To select answers, click and hold.) I would have liked a little more variation in the story--and thus more weight to most of my choices, and no cases of "but thou must"--but I realize that accommodating such branching would require far more complexity in the storytelling. As it stands, the experience is great for a little indie. Atmospheric music choices, clever use of the phone interface and chat concept, nice...

Having Just done a full Playthrough of this random game that was recommended to me, I can safely say without a doubt, that this is what I can call an amazing game! This is what you would call a masterpiece in design. It has a wonderful story that keeps suspense rolling, as well as characters that are fun and enjoyable to the umpteenth degree. The vibes I get from the everchanging colors and shades that delightfully come into contact with my eyeballs unnerve me in the best way possible. And most importantly, I always enjoyed the tenseness of hearing the message alert, not know what could possibly be waiting for me on the other side. The dialogue feels natural but unique to a point of being engrossing. I also always felt sad whenever a tragedy would strike unexpectedly. This game also gave me heavy Zero Escape vibes, from the "bracelets", to the deathgame, to the "AP Points", but I loved it all the way! If there is only one complaint I have about the game, it has to do with one partic...

Ugh, I'm sorry, I gave this around an hour - which I admit is not very long for this sort of game, and I just can't take anymore. It's so extraordinarily tedious to play through, despite the intrigue I have about the story Okay so the gimmick of this visual novel is that it's presented via a phone, conversations take place in text messages and a group chat. For starters, [url=https://i.imgur.com/8eXs8md.png]why does previous text end up fading when a character starts typing a message?[/url] If you fall behind or want to reread some text, it's very distracting. Secondly, being on a phone doesn't really add anything, besides making the player wait a few seconds while [url=https://i.imgur.com/aBa4cVH.png]characters type to see the next line of dialogue[/url]. I understand this is to mimmick real life conversations but it makes everything feel SO fucking sluggish. Also sometimes a character would say something and there would be no progress until 5-10 seconds later when a character would...

Yo, this is great! The music, the general design, the writing. Worth the money. My only two gripes are that the ate that new messages appear can be a tad slow, and I wish that some of the other characters got "after the event" blurbs after the ending (I got Ending A+).

If you'd like to experience this game's puzzles with far less time commitment and without an overarching uncompelling narrative, might I recommend TED-Ed? Chapter 3's Puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnSw8g3DPHw Chapter 4's Puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKh6z0X6KRw Chapter 5's Puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yDmGnA8Hw0 Chapter 6's Puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vd1dTBVbFg I'm fairly certain I've also seen chapter two's puzzle on a TED-Ed at some point, but I can't find the video any more. Regardless, these puzzles are easily available in plenty of other locations for free. As for the story itself, chapter 6 onwards was quite enjoyable, but certainly not enough that I could recommend trudging through the first five chapters to get to it. But the novel's biggest issue is that there's no way to manually progress the text. I cranked the message speed up to the maximum which still left me constantly waiting for the next message having already read w...

Another fine addition to my collection of games played through a phone screen.