Indie Game of the Week 423: Fearmonium

Couple months back I looked at a survival horror game called Redo! which was presented in an explormer format and then became fascinated with the idea of the "explorror" game: one that capably marries the thematic genre of horror with the structural genre of explormers in a way that didn't necessarily detract from either side of the equation. Was it possible to maintain a significant degree of tension and trepidation in a genre where you typically spend quite a bit of the playthrough backtracking for items and upgrades to make yourself more powerful? To give the player additional power almost seems antithetical to a genre based around fear and how hopeless your odds of survival may seem. Redo! is one such Indie case, but even in the past Metroid has been capable of delivering a similar vibe with Fusion's SA-X and Dread's E.M.M.I.s. It might be an easier bet to follow Castlevania's lead instead and merely adopt the trappings of the horror genre for a memorably spooky game that doesn't so much trade in jumpscares but a muted sense of eeriness.

That's what we have here with Redblack Spade's Fearmonium, an explormer set within the troubled psyche of a teenage boy, Max, who is suffering from anxiety and depression due to his less-than-ideal home life and problems at school. His latent coulrophobia (that would be a fear of clowns) is suddenly given a new manifestation by way of a female clown performer at the local fair, who happened to interrupt one of Max's most traumatic memories yet: his childhood friend and love interest breaking the news to him that she and her family are due to relocate across the country. Appearing in Max's mind in a diminutive form, this phobia quickly goes about consolidating the fear she represents by joining forces with other figments of clowns that have scared Max in the past, and fights against other phobias, random fears, Max's childhood regression, his fantasies, his diffidence, and even his positive memories to grow in power and be the dominant concern on Max's mind. It's an intriguing idea for the basis for an explormer game, since the human mind is complex enough to be adequately represented by the sort of elaborate and barrier-ridden mazes you'd expect from this genre, and the game's author has clearly done some research on psychology and the darker recesses of the brain to give the game both some educational verisimilitude and plenty of ideas for bosses, enemies, and power-ups you might encounter. A typical example would be a school setting where your foes are bullies, indifferent students, and capricious teachers: by defeating them all, you subconsciously prove to Max that clowns are a bigger and scarier threat than anything found in the public education system.

Beyond the theme, it's pretty much a regular explormer but one that plays well enough. Once you get the usual double-jump and air dash your ability to maneuver through the world quickly makes traversal enjoyable but also expedient, which becomes an important factor whenever you decide to backtrack. Combat-wise you have a standard combo with your mallet but can also use various clown-related tools like bottle rockets and jack-in-the-boxes as ranged weapons, each operating on cooldowns and limited ammo but letting you take out more troublesome enemies at range like the subweapons of Castlevania. You also have a second selection of items, including your clown allies, which just have the cooldown to worry about. These items also include traversal tools like the scooter; not always ideal to have to go into the radial menus to fetch a power-up you need to cross the current obstacle, but having a selection of items at your disposal is always handy (as is the fact that you can have up to three healing items, and a special item that revives you from death once). Recovering health normally means checking in with Miss Depression, your staunchest ally, as she will also let you save the game, sell you recovery items, let you teleport to wherever else she happens to be, and dispense information about your current goals. Other interesting conceits include ravens which represent dark, repressed thoughts that fly around in Max's unconscious mind once freed from their restraints: this, in turn, allows you to traverse this unconscious world by riding on their backs across gaps, leading to various useful upgrades. It's a simple mechanic of "find this one set of collectibles to unlock more of this other area" but presented in a manner germane to the theme.

Graphically, the game has this sort of endearing... I won't say "amateurish" because it's far better than anything I could muster but certainly an unpolished look to its character sprites, many of which appear to be aping to some degree the old Fleischer cartoons in a style similar to Cuphead (if not quite as painstaking in recreating that older animation format and the scratchy film grain). They remind me a little of the visuals from old Flash games I used to play on Newgrounds circa 2001 and the sort of ingrained edginess that came with a lot of the material on that site, which I recognize isn't the most complimentary thing I could say but is pleasantly nostalgic in an odd way regardless. Like digging out an old Hot Topic t-shirt or something. Man, this really did sound nicer in my head. Uhhh... the music's good? At least, it's suitably spooky and unsettling with a mix of what sound like horror movie synth and orchestral stuff. A little eclectic and eccentric for sure, but neither of those are strictly negatives. What matters most is that Fearmonium controls fluidly and I rarely run into any issues beyond mild visual glitches while exploring; if I can't reach a platform it's pretty evident I'm not meant to go there yet without coming back with an upgrade or two. It's reasonably challenging too, between the bosses (which can be made less imposing by finding a "hidden fears" jar and smashing it beforehand) and having your health worn down by enemies while exploring, which is where that gaggle of healing items comes in clutch. It also likes to experiment with non-standard methods of getting around, including sliding down an obstacle course of playing cards or riding across a lake on top of a clown head (you're informed soon into the game that, as the representation of all clown-based fears, anything clown-shaped is there to assist you). They're not super engrossing as mini-games go but they do help break up the usual platforming on the rare occasions they appear.

Immediately after starting I was ready to be sort of down (with the clown) on this game after taking in the crude visuals and some very familiar rudimentary explormer gameplay but even if it's not the most mechanically innovative example of its genre, deep down it's still a solidly built game with a decently large map to check out and the platformer gameplay fundamentals that matter when it comes to traversing its enormous Halloween carnival of a psychological nightmare. Any explormer is going to struggle to stand out with just how many of them exist out in the wild now—with some more big rivals on the way, if that new Bloodstained announcement and the imminent arrival of Spoon Heaven are indication that this genre's not going to disappear any time soon—but Fearmonium is a real dark horse contender like Vision Soft Reset, Islets, or Redo! where it came up with a promising concept and just about had the chops to execute on it.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Playthrough Edit: As is often the case with these low-budget games the cracks started to show as it ramped up the challenge and demanded more precision from the player (whom, in turn, demanded more precision from the game with regards to hitboxes, flowing platforming, and stability). Beyond a rough final stretch though my opinions haven't really shifted on Fearmonium. It might register as entirely inessential beyond its novel conceit but I still appreciate whenever it's made clear that the developer knows the genre back and front. No missables, endgame upgrades to mitigate the frustration of finding the last few collectibles (there's a set of masks which are very well hidden), and the bosses are mostly tough enough that you'll probably need to heal once or twice but are unlikely to stay stuck for long.