Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Aug. 28th, 2011 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroJuste Belmont, grandson of Simon, has a problem: His jealous buddy Maxim has been gathering parts of Dracula and has some sort of evil split personality/amnesia thing going on. On top of that, their friend Lydia's been kidnapped and taken to a giant evil castle. Fortunately, Juste's got a magic whip and far better jumping skills than granddad, so he's all set to tackle legions of monsters and the inevitable return of Dracula.
The first thing you notice about this game is the graphics issue: After the complaints about Circle of the Moon, they made Juste and certain enemies glow so they'd be be more visible on non-backlit GBA. On a backlit screen (a DS, for instance) this looks a little ridiculous. There are also plenty of areas and effects that would still be too dark anyway, so really the answer is that you need to accept rediculousness.
There's a lot more destructable scenery than I remember from the later portable Castlevanias. Whoever laid out this game apparently liked the idea of having you break things to open a path forward. I thought that made things a little more interesting as you explored. There are also several pushable block puzzles, and I love me some block puzzles.
What I don't like are the replaceable subweapons. You get and keep the five magic books, but the subweapons (dagger, axe, holy water, cross, bible, fist) replace each other and you can only have one at a time. (I believe Lament of Innocence did the same thing, and it annoyed me there, too.) The games where you collect various weapons and then just have them in your inventory are more fun, because you can switch on the fly and don't have to go hunting if you accidentally lose the weapon you like.
This game is noted in a bunch of places as being the easiest game in the series. I think an argument can be made that Aria of Sorrow is easier, even with that game's 9-potion limit, because of the greater weapon/subweapon variety. Also, there seem to be more enemies that are nastier and harder to dodge, but that may just me being out of practice. (Also, if you use a cheat code on this game, the final boss becomes invincible.)
The big secret to the game is that there isn't just one giant evil castle, there are two nearly-identical ones. Once you find this out, you can switch between them at warp points and eventually get 200% map completion. There are even a few points where there are light world/dark world puzzles, where you need to change something in one castle (usually break a wall or unlock a door) to access an area in the other.
However, there's a lot of wandering/backtracking caused by not being sure which castle you're supposed to go to next. I feel like other games have more of a "cartographical elegance," either causing more linearity or allowing for more exploring/sequence-breaking. This game forces you into a fairly strict sequence, but isn't very clear on what that sequence is.
It's amusing how much of a sequel this is to Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest than any other game. It directly references Simon. It involves collecting Dracula's remains. It allows for open exploration, but gives you misleading hints. And it involves trying to free someone from Dracula's curse, an effort they most likely won't survive.
Overall: Not the best Castlevania game, but a solid effort. For reference, I liked the two Sorrow games the best, and I would put this in the second tier with Portrait of Ruin and Circle of the Moon. Order of Ecclesia was just too dang hard, and I'm much less enamoured with the 3D offerings in general.
The first thing you notice about this game is the graphics issue: After the complaints about Circle of the Moon, they made Juste and certain enemies glow so they'd be be more visible on non-backlit GBA. On a backlit screen (a DS, for instance) this looks a little ridiculous. There are also plenty of areas and effects that would still be too dark anyway, so really the answer is that you need to accept rediculousness.
There's a lot more destructable scenery than I remember from the later portable Castlevanias. Whoever laid out this game apparently liked the idea of having you break things to open a path forward. I thought that made things a little more interesting as you explored. There are also several pushable block puzzles, and I love me some block puzzles.
What I don't like are the replaceable subweapons. You get and keep the five magic books, but the subweapons (dagger, axe, holy water, cross, bible, fist) replace each other and you can only have one at a time. (I believe Lament of Innocence did the same thing, and it annoyed me there, too.) The games where you collect various weapons and then just have them in your inventory are more fun, because you can switch on the fly and don't have to go hunting if you accidentally lose the weapon you like.
This game is noted in a bunch of places as being the easiest game in the series. I think an argument can be made that Aria of Sorrow is easier, even with that game's 9-potion limit, because of the greater weapon/subweapon variety. Also, there seem to be more enemies that are nastier and harder to dodge, but that may just me being out of practice. (Also, if you use a cheat code on this game, the final boss becomes invincible.)
The big secret to the game is that there isn't just one giant evil castle, there are two nearly-identical ones. Once you find this out, you can switch between them at warp points and eventually get 200% map completion. There are even a few points where there are light world/dark world puzzles, where you need to change something in one castle (usually break a wall or unlock a door) to access an area in the other.
However, there's a lot of wandering/backtracking caused by not being sure which castle you're supposed to go to next. I feel like other games have more of a "cartographical elegance," either causing more linearity or allowing for more exploring/sequence-breaking. This game forces you into a fairly strict sequence, but isn't very clear on what that sequence is.
It's amusing how much of a sequel this is to Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest than any other game. It directly references Simon. It involves collecting Dracula's remains. It allows for open exploration, but gives you misleading hints. And it involves trying to free someone from Dracula's curse, an effort they most likely won't survive.
Overall: Not the best Castlevania game, but a solid effort. For reference, I liked the two Sorrow games the best, and I would put this in the second tier with Portrait of Ruin and Circle of the Moon. Order of Ecclesia was just too dang hard, and I'm much less enamoured with the 3D offerings in general.
