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Lost in Harmony |OT| Emotional, narrative-driven, rhythm action for iOS

dream

Member
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Dive into a fantastic musical odyssey, brought by an immersive soundtrack imagined by famous composers, including Wyclef Jean.
Go beyond by creating and sharing your own levels on ANY SONG with the included level editor.

■ DISCOVER the musical story from the co-creator of Valiant Hearts
■ Guide Kaito and Aya through their adventures, in total harmony with music
■ Travel trough 30+ painted environments
■ Experience music in a new way with the combination of rhythmic tapping and choreographic runner
■ Customize your character's clothes, headphones, hat and skateboard
■ 3D TOUCH support


Beyond the story, you can create and share your own Playtracks on ANY SONG! From pop music to electro, metal, rock, r&b and many more, enjoy infinite possibilities.

■ Choose any track from your device, import it from iTunes or stream it from SoundCloud
■ CREATE your own Playtracks using the included level editor
■ Share your Playtracks and compete with your friends for the best score
■ Join the worldwide Community and play an infinite choice of tracks from music lovers
■ Select your landscape among beautiful artworks
■ Play with your favorite character
■ Easily record and publish your gaming session with Everyplay

Reveal Trailer
Launch Trailer
WYCLEF (!!) Trailer
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lost-in-harmony/id1018743724?mt=8

From Yoan Fanise, the director of Valiant Hearts, who explains:

“The idea of Lost in Harmony came from my past experience of blending music into storytelling. Magic happens when you see how, without any word, without any language form, you can provoke feelings into a multicultural audience by playing the right melody.

I was frustrated not to find a musical game that brought this level of emotion, with characters you care about, with a story you want to follow, it was more or less always about rhythmic tapping, about squares and circles. By marrying my storytelling experience and the talent of world class composers, there is a chance that this game will touch people’s hearts.”

REVIEWS:

Lost in Harmony is one of those experiences that difficult to pin down. It's a rhythm action game, an auto-runner, and a tragic story all wrapped into one.

It isn't like anything else on the App Store, and while it does have a couple of problems here and there, you'll stick with it to see what other new ideas or concepts it's going to drop into your path.

And on top of all that it looks stunning, it offers some really impressive user-creation tools, and it plays brilliantly.
PocketGamer

This carefree scene of teens sharing a skateboard ride is actually part of the touching tale of two friends coping when one is diagnosed with a severe disease. Who said rhythm games couldn’t tell important stories?

Certainly not games like Elite Beat Agents and Deemo, a pair of emotionally-charged rhythm games that come to mind when playing the new mobile game from Valiant Hearts co-creator Yoan Fanise. Lost in Harmony’s combination of rhythmic tapping and choreographic running doesn’t always come together well, but its heart is in the right place.
Kotaku

Lost in Harmony certainly tries to be too many things at once – a platformer, a rhythm game, a visual novel, and an emotive musical experience simultaneously. If it mastered any of those forms, it could be brilliant. It’s just not quite there.

But it’s also not far. The interactions between characters might be stilted or flat at times, but other moments feel genuine and heartfelt. The levels’ themes don’t always fit the narrative, but each is a fascinating little diorama that has a story to tell. Lost in Harmony is weakest when you chase high scores, and strongest when you let yourself get lost in the music.

Most of all, it’s ambitious. Mobile games and music games both tend to get short shrift when it comes to emotional narrative arcs. Lost in Harmony commits to one, and does its best to bring that through in level design, musical selections, and even small details like costume picks.

It also brings us a new Wyclef Jean single, but don’t assume that means it’s just a rhythm game wrapper for an upcoming hit. That may be the best evidence that Lost in Harmony works: an original track by a well-known artist doesn’t feel like a gimmick. It feels like a perfect fit.
VentureBeat

I make the worst OTs, but this game is something special. It's, at once, frantic, poignant, frenetic, and emotional. It's one of those games where I just get lost in the intersections of the music, the visuals, the narrative, and the interaction, reminding me--at the best of times--of experiences like Rez, Ouendan, and Elite Beat Agents (with the "You're the Inspiration" level being the best analogue to the sort of emotional experience that's going on in this game).
 

awp69

Member
Game is incredible. The story, mix of runner gameplay with the rythmn, gorgeous music and artwork...

Just amazing work.

The community built tracks is a wonderful complement too. I wonder how they get around licensing issues? I don't have much music on my device and at first I thought you may have to own the track those levels are set to. But doesn't seem like it. However, I did notice songs like Coldplay's "Sky Full of Stars" are not the entire track so maybe that has something to do with it?

Regardless, the main game itself is well worth the price of admission.
 

awp69

Member
I'm torn, on first impression. The visual concepts are beautiful, but the gameplay and timing still feel a little loose. It feels like sightreading is pretty much out the window, since you can't really see any oncoming obstacles in time.

(And you basically have to memorize the stardust trails in order to follow them.)

It feels like a game that Harmonix would make. Let's just hope it does better than their recent work.
 

wrowa

Member
Finished the game on normal and I just don't know. It looks and sounds great, but apart of that it's just kinda... meh. I like that it's trying to tell a story, but telling a story through short chat messages while interesting fell kinda flat for me in the end. The dream sequences are supposed to visualize the narrative, but it's quite hard to feel emotionally attached to the environment when you get "attacked" by random stuff on the streets all the time.

Mixing endless runner and rhythm gameplay is an interesting idea, but the execution wasn't quite there for me. Switching between tapping and evading never really felt good to me and running towards the screen while trying to avoid stuff you can't see never was never particularly fun to me in any game that makes use of the mechanic.

Still... It's not bad, I don't regret buying it, but it's just kinda shallow.
 
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