I finally remembered to finish this.
It was super ‘aight’, I feel like I just read an extended Mr. Men book with these characters and Little Miss Sad is still a dumb character design and dull character, the twist was pretty fun and I did enjoy the read by wooooow this is so nothing.
I mean it’s good but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone or reread it or anything.
This was actually not long, took me around 4 hours to complete the entire story, I liked a lot, however the ending was a bit ambiguous as to how everything became well again, but that I guess is left to your own interpretation
I read Harmonia over a few months ago. And wow, it was a good read.
I do admit that I felt bored reading some parts of it, but that can’t even compare to how bored I felt when I was reading Planetarian. With Planetarian, the inner monologue has world-building and really only 2 characters, so its a bit boring to read. With Harmonia, its more character-driven and has a variety of characters, which makes it a better read (to me personally). And the only time we ever get infodump is chapter 4 or something, when Shiona was explaining things.
Harmonia is definitely Hinoue’s best in terms of art. I can’t imagine how hard it may be to remember all the specific colors in the eyes to keep consistency. Her designs are also great in here. She still has the big eyes (which is her trademark) but, she put the cheeks and chin lower. This makes it look better and more mature. I can’t even express the appreciation for Hinoue for doing Tipi. Her design is definitely complex. She has curly hair (which is definitely hard to draw and replicate) and she also has a loli-dress (which is also hard to draw because of all the frills).
The soundtrack was also very good. It doesn’t have many memorable tracks, compared to something like Rewrite, but its only expected because Shinji and Ryo are making music that help the scenery, and not just to be remembered. I do love Towa No Hoshi E though. I think its one of the most melancholic official Key VN ED’s as the ED of the main/true route. And I really do love thoseelancholic tracks, so when its the ED, its even better.
As for the story itself, it was definitely mind-blowing. Though granted, I was waiting all night for the game to load, so I played it all In one-sitting and wasn’t as invested.
The only thing I still don’t understand is, that it was said that Tipi was in the generation of robots where they only function with one emotion, and will break down otherwise. It didn’t make sense to me, because there were multiple times where Tipi was happy when Rei was with her, yet she never broke down from that. Maybe there needs to be a certain amount of happiness, but its still interestingly flawed.
I do wish that Rei’s backstory was explored more. I mean, why was he in that facility in the first place? Why did Rei have a mechanical arm (other than the obvious fact that he most likely lost of real arm)? Why did Rei wake up at that specific point in time? Why did Rei have no knowledge of his past?
and Shiona’s character and back story. Why did Rei look like her brother? Is it possible Rei is her brother? Why didn’t Shiona stop Rei?
And that part in the middle of one of the chapters when a human came and was badly injured. Why did he know of the song that Shiona played?
I feel like there’s more connections than what is actually connected in the KN. I really do hope we get a drama CD or Light Novel like Planetarian to explain some of these aspects.
I also don’t know why people can compare this to Planetarian. Sure. Robots, post apocalyptic, Kinetic. But that’s it. That’s like saying you can compare Kanon and Rewrite because they have girls, romance, labeled as a VN, and from Key.
The ideals from Harmonia are far different than the ones from Planetarian. I do think comparing these 2 KN’s is Silly though. Harmonia will most likely reach people who didn’t like Planetarian and vise versa. Just because of their different ways of storytelling and ideals.
Story - 9
Art - 10
Designs - 10
Backgrounds - 10
Music - 10
Characters - 7 (well I mean most of them are purposely like how they are, so you can’t really change that).
Harmonia is a great read. I’d definitely recommend it to newcomers. It’d be an easier read than Planetarian (in my honest opinion). Planetarian will feel like a snooze fest to newcomers because of the emphasis between the only 2 characters (that possibly won’t be as relatable), and the world-building.
Edit - So does anyone wonder why the OP was placed as the ED? Or why it was even energetic in the first place?
Just finished Harmonia a short while ago. I had to hold on buying it until the winter steam sale since I was a little broke from Christmas shopping…
It didn’t take me long to go through the whole story. Although, it did annoy me that the ctrl button wasn’t working (Apparently, it’s a steam achievement). The whole game took me about 3 hours to finish though I don’t recommend smashing the enter button too fast. 
And boy, was it a ride.
To be honest, “Harmonia is probably the weakest game in the Key lineup” but don’t let that statement fool you. [spoiler] Cause you’ll be crying at the end anyway. I nearly did.
Playing this game, you can’t help but draw parallels with Key’s other game “planetarian” based on it’s premise. You know, the post-apocalypse setting.
“Don’t split heaven in two.” - Yumemi Hoshino (planetarian)
This quote seems to ring really loudly in Harmonia. In fact, I think it might as well be the main theme of Harmonia.
Whether we can coexist with robots, and whether we might one day find ourselves learning emotions from them. [/spoiler]
But you know, I like the background on how this kinetic novel came to be. It must have been a fan’s dream come true. You can read that story on wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia_(visual_novel)#Development_and_release
And the songs from the opening and ending really do resonate once you’ve finished the visual novel and read the lyrics.
(The songs strangely were released earlier than the game)
Todoketai Melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT4lbs4H8bA&ab_channel=KyouKeiKen
Towa no hoshi e: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Wfth5gPhA
I guess that’s all from me. Happy New Year’s everyone!!! 
This must be it: a teaser for a new something!
Finished the VN for the first time - I think comparisons with Planetarian are inevitable as it does address some very similar topics. I took it slow and according to Steam I spent 8 hours reading it.
This definitely didn’t give me as much “Orange” as Planetarian and again I didn’t have too much trouble guessing where the story was going and the twists. Beautifully presented though with some gorgeous tunes - the simple but atmospheric Pecado and Rruinus; with Towa no Hoshi e a lovely vocal track.
I’d give it 7/10 and it’s well below Clannad/Tomoya After and Planetarian on my urge to replay list - BUT saying that I don’t begrudge the money and time I spent on it because it was enjoyable although nothing to make me emote this time…
I haven’t read all the previous comments but a few here I have read are really helpful in opening my eyes to the possible themes beyond the obvious, so thank for those and apols for my own rather lightweight thoughts!
Harmonia Japanese version physical game will be releasing in Japan on May 26, 2017. That OST, that piano arrangement CD, THAT MUSIC BOXXXXXX!!
I mean, people are reporting this like it wasn’t already released at Comiket.
But yes, these goods are super exciting! We’ll hopefully have an article up soon.
Welp, that was one hell of an emotional rollercoaster ride.
I actually fell in love with Shiona during the first half of the VN. She was such a sweetheart, and came off as the older-sister figure to me. Seeing Shiona comforting and encouraging Rei to confront Madd was very moving to me, since being afraid of angry people is something I relate to. It melted my heart.
Then I got to chapter 5. Seeing Shiona trying to keep Rei away from Tipi, and then her verbal abuse at the end of the chapter. Being very attached to this character, having a fear of betrayal and going through it in the past, and relating to Tipi due to the fact that she’s always sad, the scene just messed me up very badly. It made me want to cry.
When I finished chapters 6 and 7, I got the revelation I needed. Realizing that Shiona was trying to protect Tipi (and Rei) the whole time brought a huge sigh of relief to me. I was scared of Shiona being the two-faced type of character who is only kind on the outside, but malicious on the inside. But knowing that she’s still an angel made me feel very relieved.
Humans forgetting love was a very interesting concept in the story to me. It relates to the thoughts I get sometimes about the world having a lot more hate than love. It warmed my heart to eventually see the world become a better place.
Anyway, I loved Harmonia. Great experience.
Finished this the other day. Short and sweet. Nothing amazing to me, but well worth the few hours I spent with it. I kept wondering why Shiona was keeping Rei away from Tipi, that was a good mystery to keep me motivated, and the ending was pretty bittersweet. Good read!
Finally got my Harmonia Box! Putting aside how blatantly they’re sexualising Shiona, the contents of the box are really something.
In particular, I’m very interested in the context of this short story included inside. I wonder if anyone will bother to translate it…
Whoa… “its really something” 
hehehe…~
I just finished reading Harmonia and I really loved it! It was quite different from Planetarian ( from what I have seen in the film ) and the characters and the soundtracks were great 
. I was able to feel a lot of emotions and it was a refreshing experience for me. Like Tipi, I used to be alone when I was younger and her sorrow touched a lot my heart. The message that Harmonia gives us is really important I think and shows us the true meaning of life. I hope Key will write some others kinetic novels like that in the future !
So today I have just finished Harmonia and I just want to start this post about my expections when I started the visual novel. The story in Harmonia is much better than I have expected. I had this visual novel last on my list due to it having the kinetic tag as I had very poor experience with other games with them in the past. But I ended up getting hooked after reading the first chapter.
Sorry if I end up missing the main point or go a bit off topic, This is my first time writing what I thought about a visual novel in this kind of environment, Sorry for going a bit into what happened over what I thought but I hope you all will still enjoy it.
I guess I will have to start with how much this visual novel has played with my emotions, through out the whole game, my emotions has been changing so much, At times I would feel sad, confused, mad, and happy for all the good reasons which were explained at the end of the game.
When I got around the middle of the story I started getting attached to some of the characters, mainly Tipi as she was always left alone in the library feeling sad and crying in hope her parents would come back to see her after all this time. It was always nice to see her feeling happy that she had Rei with her so she wouldn’t feel alone, but then when Shiona started coming along, she started trying to break the two apart for the reasons of doing it all for them. Seeing Shiona keep trying to pull them apart and verbally abusing her kinda made me feel mad for her, but later in the game they started explaining the whole situation to Rei in detail as to why it had to be done, and hearing about it made me felt relieved as I actually thought she was planning to do something darker later on.
Around in that same chapter they also reveal to Rei as to what happened in the world with the humans and the phiroids, and how the towns people were all phiroids and that Rei is actually a human which he misunderstood himself as a phiroid.
I found it interesting how long it had been since the whole war(?) has been going for. and how over time the humans started forgetting how to foster love and started seeing them as something else. I actually found that last part sad to the point where I was crying while reading the chapter. and after they broke down then the staff roll played, I don’t even know how to say it, but I kinda didn’t want to see them just die at the end…
However at the end after the staff role they then showed what happned in the future which meade me feel happy that they were able to restore the world back including some of the phiroids which they sadly didn’t retain their settings, but at the very least they were able to feel when something was familiar to them which is great.
Anyways, I really enjoyed Harmonia, it was a very different experience, but a great one, I also really enjoyed with seeing how the phiroids lived on their own with Rei coming in trying to also help make everyone happy and how he really wanted too. I would definitely recommend this visual novel to some of my friends.
Harmonia was kind of an oddball for me as I never really liked it that much but I do plan on rereading it.
I mean its about emotions, so thats probably the idea. Although I never really had any emotional experience with Harmonia, the way different emotions are betrayed by the characters was always cool. Mad was funny as he was well… always… MAD 
. Tipsy’s backstory was always the best part of Harmonia to me, it was actually a really cool usage of someone who doesnt understand death and is waiting for her dead (foster?) parents. Shiona was well… I never liked Shiona.
Overall it was well… alright, I guess. It was kinda the Mr. Men show (which I have barely seen and that was like 10years ago when I was around 9ish so it might be a bad comparison), Havent heard the podcast though so I might listen to that.
So far its my least liked Key story, but I do need to reread it.
Harmonia is my favourite Key work, plain and simply. It is very different from their other stories, so I understand that it could betray many fans’ expectations. But personally, I was actually fed up with Key recycling their stories and concepts. I wanted something original, and Harmonia served exactly that.
While it is the same setting as Planetarian (post-apocalyptic world), it actually has nothing to do with it at all.
The main story is much more fleshed out than usual (except for Rewrite), the characters work much better together than usual (in every other Key work, the characters have their individual stories, as a result all these stories don’t blend in altogether ; it’s not the case here, every story matters in the grand scheme of things), it was also darker than usual as the mood is extremely depressing (arid ground, dry and dusty air, dead and dirty places, …)
Its short length makes it fairly easy to read, and I am definitely not against the “kinetic” format (no parallel story = better tied-in story).
The characters… they’re definitely not the best from Key, taken individually. But as I said before, they’re meant to work together, not individually. In that regard, what seems like the least developed crew turns out to be one of the best written group of characters from Key.
The OST is great, even for Key (especially Tristitia, which is a masterpiece).
The story is pure Key work: it had that charm and that subtlety, that magic recipe that plays with your heart and brain up until the very end.
Finally… that title screen, seriously! As soon as I launched the VN and got to the title screen, I was already mind-blown. That mood was just so much, I literally stayed on that screen for several minutes.
But of course, this isn’t perfect.
While I love the visuals, there’s one issue with it: the characters are hashed, I don’t understand why. I actually thought this was a bug, but it turns out, it’s part of the chara-design… Pretty weird. It’s still far better than any previous Key work though.
Then, I have to admit, I don’t want to count the post-generic scene. Before that scene, i found the end perfect. The very last scene, however, kind of screws it up in my opinion.
Finally… man, I really wish they had made it longer. They just scratched the surface of the world they created. While they did talk about everything they had to, I really wish we’d learned more about the Phiroids.
And I think that’s pretty much it. Harmonia was near-perfect in my opinion. It’s a mix between Pixar’s Upside Down movie and HBO’s Westworld series, made in Key. It’s a perfect combination!
Hashed in the way the characters are drawn? That was actually one of my favorite aspects of the character design… for some reason…
There is technically a side story continuation of Harmonia called Closed Memory but it’s untranslated.
