HABROMANIA stands out as a single-player indie RPG adventure game that draws heavy inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, blending exploration, choice-driven narratives, and puzzle elements into a surreal journey.
Gameplay
In HABROMANIA, you control 19-year-old Alice in a point-and-click style, guiding her through lush, hand-drawn environments filled with interactables and collectibles. The core loop revolves around exploring these maximalist settings, solving puzzles with gathered items, and engaging in branching dialogues that influence outcomes via a karma system. This system tracks your choices, affecting the fates of Wonderland's inhabitants and Alice herself, leading to multiple endings across 12 chapters. Collectibles serve practical purposes like bartering or unlocking lore, while an original soundtrack on an out-of-tune piano enhances the dreamy yet unsettling atmosphere. The game emphasizes narrative depth, with each interaction revealing character backstories and moral complexities.
Mechanics focus on deliberate pacing, where every decision in dialogue or exploration builds toward uncovering Alice's lost memories and the truths of Wonderland. Puzzles integrate seamlessly with the environment, requiring observation and item use, while the karma system adds replay value by altering story branches.
Game Modes
HABROMANIA operates entirely in single-player mode, structured around a narrative progression through 12 chapters. Each chapter advances the story, introducing new environments, characters, and challenges, with multiple endings based on player choices. There are no competitive or cooperative modes; instead, the focus remains on solo exploration and decision-making within the RPG framework.
Story and Characters
The game follows Alice after she falls into Wonderland, awakening with amnesia and a drive to escape. She encounters a cast of socially awkward characters, each with intricate pasts and shifting morals, navigated through branching conversations. The hand-drawn art style brings the surreal world to life, packed with details that reward thorough exploration.
Is It Worth Playing?
For those drawn to narrative-heavy RPGs with point-and-click mechanics and themes of psychological depth, HABROMANIA offers a compelling experience, especially if you enjoy stories inspired by classic tales like Alice in Wonderland. As an Early Access title with a demo available, it allows players to sample the first chapter's puzzles, dialogues, and atmosphere before committing. The game receives ongoing updates, including demo patches for performance, and plans for chapter releases over the next few years. If slow-paced, emotional adventures suit your style, this could be a strong fit, though its unfinished state means waiting for full content.
