Psychedelic Metroidvania game Fearmonium reaching Switch this week

In just a few days, Fearmonium will be appearing on Switch. Publisher Ratalaika Games and developer RedblackSpade announced a release date of December 8, 2023 today.

Fearmonium is a psychedelic Metroidvania game with many psychological themes. For more information, read up on the following overview:

Fearmonium centers around the inner world, the mind of a boy named Max with an infantile, meek mother and a mad stepfather he disliked, who didn’t miss an opportunity to beat Max. The game starts some time after Max’s grandfather died. He was the only person in his family who knew what love and care is. Depression began to grow in Max’s mind and some new phobias started to manifest.

Fearmonium begins when Max visits a city fair with his girlfriend and she says that she is moving to another city so they need to break up. Right at that very moment, traumatized by that comment, he sees a clown which leaves a lasting impression which is how our main character was created – we play as a coulrophobia. Our character is moving around Max’s mind and destroys all the bright, good, memories he has because of Lady Depression. However, we also fight with mechanisms of Max’s psychological protection: for example, when real Max tries to find comfort in his old toys, Regression appears (it is a harmful defence mechanism when a grown up person pretends to be a kid). We fight Regression and real Max stops to hide from his problems.

Although the abstract horror and psychological inner world ideas and gameplay elements might appear very cerebral, Fearmonium comes with superb challenges, great ‘Disney-esque’ cartoon animation and beautiful hand drawn graphics.

Gameplay presents a huge variety of attacking items and skills! Throw clowns, use Max’s old toys and even some bosses become abilities. After you find a boss you will then gain a new ability and can go back to progress farther.

Key Features

• Animated made frame-by-frame.
• 15-17 hours to beat the game.
• Huge map of Max’s consciousness, woven from abstract images and half-forgotten memories.
• Memorable enemies, whose images reflect what Max saw in the real world.
• Clues from Lady Depression.
• Battles with combo attacks and a variety of unique abilities.
• The answer to the question: does a phobia always cause irreparable harm, or can its presence change life for better?

You can see what Fearmonium has to offer in the trailer below.

Official Trailer

Expect the game on the eShop when it launches on Switch this week.