Harmonia site background

Harmonia Shiona

Earlier today, visual novel publisher VisualArt’s posted on their Facebook page with the release date of Harmonia, the upcoming kinetic novel from Key. In addition to announcing the official English website for the game, the Steam store page is now live, including the release date. Harmonia is officially set for release in English on Steam on September 23, and will be available for $9.99 USD, apparently even before the as-of-yet unconfirmed Japanese release date.

The Steam page includes a plot synopsis, as well as some other information:

This is a story of the distant future. An immense war left the world broken and torn.
Ashes covered the sky, the land was stripped of vegetation, and water dried up.
As a result, the human population drastically decreased.
The remaining humans huddled together to survive.

During this time, an emotions-capable robot known as a Phiroid woke up in a decayed factory.
Prior to the war, science created these human-like robots capable of feeling emotion.
As new partners for the humans, the Phiroids promised better lives for all of humanity.
However, upon waking, this Phiroid soon realized that its emotions were not functioning.
Its right hand lacked artificial skin and the mechanical parts showed how its production likely went unfinished.
This young male Phiroid had an innate desire to be with humans.
And so it began a journey to obtain its lost emotions, and wandered across this devastated world.
One day, the Phiroid was discovered by a young girl.
Thinking he was a human, she began to look after him.
She brought him to a small, but pleasant town.
While living with the young girl, the Phiroid slowly learned about emotions.

Harmonia is a game that has been in the wings for a fairly long time now, first going up on Steam Greenlight in October and being greenlit in early November. The game was first set for release in December 2015, before being delayed that month until spring 2016. Then, this May it was delayed again, without a release window given. However, the long wait is finally almost over.

Harmonia is meant to celebrate the 15th anniversary of developer Key, the company behind such games as CLANNAD and Little Busters! It will be the second game self-published on Steam by VisualArt’s, following Tomoyo After ~It’s a Wonderful Life~ which released on July 1. It will eventually be joined on the platform by Little Busters! Perfect Edition, Rewrite+, and Angel Beats! First Beat.

Chris Melchin
Chris is a computer science student who has been gaming ever since he knew what to do with a Super Nintendo controller. He's a fighting game player, with a focus on BlazBlue and Under Night In-Birth games. His favourite games include Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Persona 5, and Little Busters. He started watching anime in high school, and his favourite series is Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. He also writes Vocaloid music for his personal YouTube channel, and has a (slight) obsession with Megurine Luka.