Fearmonium Review

If you have spent any time on this site, you will know that I love retro-inspired games, especially platformer titles — that’s why my name is what it is. So, I was interested in checking out Fearmonium when I saw the trailer. It was a metroidvania-style platformer that had areas in the map blocked off until you had the power needed to pass it, so backtracking is going to be required. All this with a Cuphead-inspired aesthetic. Even though the title sounds like this would be a frightening game to play, it's not; instead, it deals with a lot of things that cause fear in people.

When I saw the rubber-hose style of art, reminiscent of classic cartoons, I was surprised to see that the game was a platformer with those Castlevania and Metroid elements that have you backtracking through areas with new abilities that you have obtained to reach areas that were once inaccessible. Instead of being a happy-go-lucky story, as you may expect, we are dealing with a more serious story that concerns the mental health of a kid named Max.

Starting Fearmonium, we see that the circus that has visited Max’s home town is now done, but the fears caused by it aren’t, besides all the issues he is having at home with his mom and stepfather. You are playing inside the mind of Max, who is already stressed and vulnerable, as a female clown who is trying to turn his old fear of clowns into a full-blown phobia. You start as an unpleasant memory, but you can grow and evolve as you progress. On your travels, you will meet NPCs, like Lady Depression, who control a lot of what is going on in his mind. Max associates clowns with balloons, so if you collect the ones that you find, she will give you beneficial items in exchange, like Adrenaline to replenish health or Nightmare, which lets you come back to life with 50% health.

There are other characters that you will meet, but some can be quite annoying as they talk a lot and have very long-winded dialogues that you are clicking through to get them to stop. Some of these chatty clowns will become allies to you and will help you on your way, so it is worth hearing them out. I was surprised to see a story where you are trying to cause nightmares instead of helping the character and trying to get rid of them.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward: fighting off the broken memories like skeletons and creepy puppets you encounter to increase your influence as a phobia — the fewer competing memories, the better. Navigating through Max’s mind can be difficult at times; it can be hard to figure out exactly where you are supposed to be going, causing you to wander aimlessly. Though the save points that you come across act as teleports that let you travel around his mind more efficiently, it’s always nice when you don’t need to walk back to every spot that you want to revisit.

As you progress through the mind, you will challenge different bosses trying to stop you. Once defeated, you will learn a new ability, like a double jump or a slide dash, to use on your travels. This means that you will be able to get to new areas that you couldn’t before. There is a map available where you can see the areas that you have visited before, but it will be worth taking notes on the locations of some of the obstacles that you came across to save some frustration later on when you try to find them again.

When you start Fearmonium, it is recommended that you play the game with a controller. The controls are pretty standard: A button jump, X for attack, and the shoulder buttons for dashing. Though I found the responsiveness of the commands to be a bit finicky at times, not enough that it makes the game unplayable, just that it can be mildly frustrating. It’s annoying when you are trying to use your mallet and your clown keeps flipping the directions that they are facing, or when you are trying to dodge using a slide, and it is so slow you are sure to take damage.

The visuals in Fearmonium are the rubber-band type animation that you would see in classic cartoons, but they give the feeling of youthfulness and happiness, so it was a bit surprising to see them in a darker story like this. Everything in Max’s mind is portrayed as dark and frightening; even the good memories you are trying to destroy look creepier than the nightmare clown that you are controlling. Though it definitely caught my attention and got me to check out the game in the first place, it was effective that way.

The soundtrack of the game has a moody feel to it, though it wasn’t as unsettling or creepy as I had expected from the title. There weren’t any times when the music would give me chills, but I guess this is more about Max’s mental health than what scares me personally. The sound effects that played along with the game were quite good whenever you’d take damage or hear glass smashing from a broken light.

Fearmonium is an interesting platformer to play. Even though mental health has been a more prevalent topic in games lately, this title felt pretty unique compared to the others I have seen. The visuals were interesting, and even though they were in a style that you would expect in something more happy, they were able to convey the creepiness of the situation quite well. There were multiple times when I had no idea where I needed to go, so I was exploring the same sections over and over again. There is a hint system, but to use it, you will need to pay, which deters you from exploiting it. So, to get money to access things like this or purchase refills on some items, you will need to do a lot of grinding. This was an entertaining title, but these few things took away from my enjoyment of Fearmonium.