Fearmonium is a very addictive, moderately long metroidvania that sucked me in for almost 20 hours. I even almost got platinum – if it wasn’t for those pesky bugs… Well, that is, the bugs in Max’s head, whose subconsciousness is the location for the entire game.
Fearmonium is an indie project created by Russian developer Slava Gris, who made the game together with Dmitry Emelianov, also known as Expecte Amour. Slava Gris is an interesting developer, he has a master’s degree in psychology, and this is directly reflected in his creations.
Slava worked in a social assistance center for minors, which may have added points to his karma, but not to his wallet. Then he thought about how he could help children in a more understandable form, and at the same time provide for himself. Fortunately, working in youth assistance centers gave him a wealth of experience, which found an outlet in his work.
Slava Gris created the Redblack Spade studio, and has released three games using the Construct engine: Catmaze, Reflection of Mine, and Fearmonium. The latter is the center of today’s attention. The game was developed over 3 years, with subsequent support and console ports. Initially, Fearmonium was to have a Pixel art style, like Catmaze, but it was later redrawn in the current style.
The developer drew inspiration not from Cuphead or Hollow Knight, but from the cartoons of the Fleischer brothers, Walt Disney, and from the fan clip Ghostemane – Mercury. As a result, the game has a very unusual combination of music and visuals.
The game’s visuals are quite impressive, although a little rough around the edges here and there. Fearmonium’s style does not require clearly refined proportions, and the rubbery animation adds a certain cartoonish effect, leading to the picture to literally come alive when moving. The dev himself admitted to having a great deal of love for Disney and old games of the 8-16 bit era, so there are quite a few references to various works in Fearmonium, from Castlevania to Pinocchio.
Now, onto the game itself. To begin with, Fearmonium features 7 languages – which is quite commendable for an indie dev. From the get-go, the game suggests you use a gamepad to have better controls of your character. All plot points are designed and represented as a comic book, with a special drawing style. At first, it might seem unusual, but it helps to immerse yourself in the plot of the game.
The story begins one late evening, when a boy named Max leaves the city fair and comes back home, where his mother and stepfather are waiting for him.
Previously, Max lived with his late grandfather, but with his passing the house stopped being his home, instead becoming a cramped and unpleasant place to spend time at. Maxim retreats to his room and falls asleep.
We see the subconscious through Max’s dream, where he reflects on today’s fair: children are having fun, artists are putting on a show and bragging about their craft, and then… Our heroine appears. A clown representing a fleeting fear or a neurosis, descending on a large balloon. In the blink of an eye, the cloyingly sweet dream changes to a terrible nightmare. All the visitors of the fair turn into skeletons, leaving Max sitting on a bench and having a panic attack.
The clown is a literal embodiment of fear, fear of clowns – coulrophobia, though we encounter it in its infancy, therefore almost all NPCs that we will meet will be clowns. The first among many will be Clown Felix, who will tell us about our inferiority.
After all, we were just born in the fragile mind of a teenager, and at the moment we are literally an unpleasant memory that can soon be forgotten. If we want to remain in his memory as a serious neurosis, we will have to try, maybe we will grow up to a big phobia. Then we will meet faceless evil clowns, almost forgotten, whose account is only an auxiliary element. During the game, they will give us consumables, tips or elements for solving simple puzzles.
Having overcome the first obstacles, we manage to leave the world of dreams. Max wakes up in the middle of the night from a nightmare with a clown. He catches himself staring at a box of old toys, but realizes that they are unlikely to help him and falls asleep again. Here we return to the subconscious and meet … Lady Depression. She is taking a luxurious bath of Max’s tears, enjoying his condition. Flying eyes always scatter around her, which always helps you to quickly locate her. After all, she is both a save point and a store with a teleport.
By diving into the bath of Lady Depression, our clown heroine can move to another bath. Conversations with Depression can give a lot of useful information, since she is also interested in the depressed state of Max. And she is not against helping us so that we can oppress Max’s subconscious, destroy all the good and bright memories, and get rid of competitors at the same time. After all, we are not the only phobia in Maxim’s subconscious.
We will meet an Antidepressant DLC, though she will immediately say that she is powerless against Depression, because she is too small, but for a modest fee of 30 balls (the game’s currency) she will be able to mark where the Lady Depression’s Baths are. Clown Malfis, half-forgotten and almost decomposed, will take an immodest and constantly increasing fee to show you where your further path lies if you cannot find the next piece of the plot.
There are many other NPCs you will meet on your way to becoming a Phobia, but it’s better for you to find out about them yourself, because it would be a big spoiler if I listed them all.
Fearmonium is a classic metroidvania. The gameplay is pretty standard for 2D hand-drawn (and other) metroidvanias, only with the note that autosaving here is called “the process of transition from short-term to long-term memory”, and to weaken the bosses you need to release Maxim’s “inner fears”. We explore the map, find new weapons and abilities, new amulets that give passive bonuses, various secrets, and return to the old paths with new abilities. Double jump, slides, scooter accelerations and other abilities will help us in exploring Max’s Subconscious.
The journey through the subconscious is not exactly safe. The heroine’s path is blocked by imaginary circus performers, toys, and hooligans. You will need to use your trusty hammer against them. The heroine also has a handy arsenal, which consists of firecrackers, exploding gifts, and homing ice cream vans. Plus, the developers tried to add interesting situations: sometimes we, having inhaled helium, fly like a balloon, maneuvering between enemies and spikes; sometimes we jump on horses; sometimes we ride a minecart, jumping over the same spikes, knocking down children on bicycles and balloons.
The in-game bosses are the embodiment of Max’s phobias. To advance through the story, you need to overcome the fear of dolls, bullies, teachers, and beautiful women. Fearmonium follows the traditions of indie games, where a good boss is the one that continuously spams attacks. Despite this drawback, the battles are still interesting and force you to look for unique approaches.
The plot develops according to the principle of the animated film Inside Out – from Disney and Pixar studios.
If Max moves through the park, then the main character ends up there as well, but in the subconscious. When Max arrives at school, the heroine also finds herself among the school corridors, where the enemies are turned into bullies. A similar principle works in the opposite direction: after defeating the phobia, Max copes with the fear, but begins to be more afraid of clowns.
The story will lead us to some interesting conclusions and decisions at the end. I don’t want to spoil it, but the true ending is very pleasant. True, to achieve it you really need to try, and the secret of our clown heroine will appear only in the true ending.
The visuals of the game are very peculiar, but after playing for an hour I fell in love with it. Yes, it is a bit clumsy, dirty, but it is stylish and beautiful. But the music… It is a whole separate conversation. The music in the game is something incredible. Sometimes it’s very addictive, sometimes it’s downright delightful, and I’ve put some tracks in my playlist as a keepsake. You clearly don’t expect such a musical accompaniment from a game in this style, but it’s very well-chosen and makes you love it. The soundtrack is gorgeous, there are no other words.
To sum it up, the game tries to convey information about neuroses and fears, about situations in life that we are all familiar with, in a new light. Sometimes it does it well, but sometimes the narrative suffers. The combat and some gameplay decisions can be called controversial, but I did not suffer much from inconvenience while playing the game.
The overall difficulty of the game is very simple, as the developer himself said, he tried to make not a hardcore metroidvania that punishes for any mistake, but an interesting game – a story filled with interesting messages.
Fearmonium was praised even before the release by many developers who were sent to watch it as part of indie competitions – for example, from Blizzard, Two Point Studios, NeocoreGames, tinyBuild Games and Creative Assembly Sofia. I will praise it too. I advise you to pay attention to the game, because it is worth it.