Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes

Edna & Harvey is a very deceptive game. It begins on an innocent, unassuming note, setting the tone for what appears to be a harmless, cutesy adventure game. But then you send a pack of termites to eat a helpless classmate alive, at which point you begin to wonder what the hell it is you've gotten yourself into.

Lilli is the star of Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New eyes. She's a kind, virtuous girl, diligently performing each and every task given to her without fail. Even in the face of all the harsh, unwarranted criticisms of the Mother Superior, however, she keeps up her positive attitude, not letting anything get her down or stop her from doing what's asked. Even if it means a few accidental murders have to be committed.

The titular Edna, Lilli's best and only friend at the local convent, is the crux of the plot. When word of a doctor dropping by to "correct" the recent "bad behavior" of the students gets out, Edna panics. Doctor Marcel and Edna have a score to settle, apparently, prompting her to make a quick escape with the help of Lilli. Lilli, however, grows concerned and gives chase.

That exact point is where the game shows its true colors. Up until then, it assumes the visage of a typical adventure game with perhaps a few screws loose. But really it’s a juxtaposition of realities: of the cutesy aesthetic and harmless, innocent world that Lilli sees, and the dark reality of what’s truly going on. It’s an interesting dynamic that Edna & Harvey uses to its fullest.

It’s clear from the outset that Lilli is a bit off. She’s practically the perfect kid – she completes whatever chores are given to her without delay, is obedient to the point of being a servant, and never once loses her temper; all qualities that every parent probably dreams of. But it’s precisely that perfect shell that makes her strange. Despite her unfortunate circumstances – orphaned and living under the harsh rule of a child-hating nun – she appears entirely content, even as her classmates and Mother Superior bully her. In literally any other case, this would be incredible. For Lilli, not so much.

It stems from her skewed view on reality. Her subconscious often shields her from the truth, causing her to interpret harsh, dismissive messages as expressions of concern or constructive criticism, and outright self-censoring any particularly gruesome sights. Whenever she inadvertently kills someone, gnomes appear on the scene instantly, buckets of bright pink paint in hand with which to hide the offending content. Thus, despite being right in front of her, she’s always unaware of what horrible deeds she’s performed.

The dissonance this creates is effective, delivering a steady mixture of humor and horror throughout. The narrator is a primary source of both. His chipper attitude nets a few easy laughs as he describes and rationalizes Lilli’s actions (sometimes breaking the fourth-wall in the process), which usually involve a vignette or two from her life at the convent. As the game progresses, the narrator begins to talk in a more sinister tone, once more demonstrating the expert use of juxtaposition as the events reveal their true dark nature.

Eventually, Lilli is put under hypnosis. This procedure erects a number of behavioral blocks to prevent her from misbehaving. Things like, “don’t play with fire,” “don’t tell lies,” “don’t enter dangerous places,” etc. General good wisdom, but inconvenient for poor Lilli, as circumstances force her to break just about every safety rule imaginable.

She has to dispel the blocks before she’s able to act. And she can only do that by placing herself under a trance. Doing so allows her entry into the subconscious mind. A blue stuffed rabbit – the titular Harvey, and the tool of the original hypnotism – appears whenever she tries to counter the behavioral blocks, scolding her for disobeying. Even though they are figments of her imagination, she’s still able to use them to enter a trance state.

Once there, she has to destroy the block somehow. Each manifests itself in a form that loosely reflects the block (e.g. a snowman when dealing with fire, or a dragon when working with sharp objects), the means of defeating it being mostly straightforward since the excursions are always quick. On average, each location has one or two areas with maybe a couple non-player characters to chat with, leaving little room for complex puzzles.

The game primarily revolves around these blocks, along with the usual assortment of “when/where/how to use X object on Y item/person” problems to solve. Edna & Harvey does splendid work of communicating hints, for the most part, by employing sound logic. The usual adventure game annoyances of less than obvious solutions occur a fair amount (there were at least a few instances that stumped me completely), though it’s somewhat mitigated through the handy highlight feature mapped to the spacebar, which ensures you don’t miss something of potential import. Even so, a dedicated hint system would have been welcome.

Edna & Harvey is a reasonably lengthy game, clocking in at around 10-12 hours. It’s first chapter is a slow burn, but the rest of the game is nothing short of compelling. The dark nature of the tale is what makes Edna & Harvey: Harvey’s New Eyes a standout. Deadalic may fall through the same pitfalls that so many other adventure games do, but Edna & Harvey’s narrative alone is enough to make up for its faults.

Callum Rakestraw, NoobFeed.