Topic: Why does the majority seem to dislike Harmony of Dissonance?

[limonpower]

I just finished HoD, and absolutely loved it, I got 200% of the castle and found all the furniture. I just got CotM and people seem to think it's better. I am only at the second bits, and don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but just not as much as HoD. Please explain why HoD is generally disliked.

[uzo]

Ugly sprites, odd music style, Juste looks like Alucard. I think that's the major points I see talked about.

I personally like HoD, and really appreciate it's background design as the best of the GBA Trilogy by far, and maybe even the best of the handhelds period. There's a lot of nice architecture and unique backgrounds that remind me of Symphony's structure.

[Mike Belmont]

Personally I didn´t dislike it. Is a good game, and among the best for the GBA. I think that the main complaint is when you compare the other two games with HoD, in music terms mainly, ´cause the graphics are very good.

[Lelygax]

I will say what I think to be the problem for who dislike it:

-It tries too hard to be a portable SOTN.
-Colors, it was made very bright because at the time GBA SP didn't existed and people disliked that they cant see properly the game in CotM, so they choose to give a "aura" to some enemies and playable character and brighten all colors, but then when GBA SP and Nintendo DS came out, it was too bright and people complained about that.
-Playable characters sprites aren't well made if compared to all the rest of the game.
-Music quality is outdated, also if you mix it with the dissonance style of music then a lot of people wont appreciate it since they cant decipher or simply doesn't like it.
-Enemies and save rooms tries to be identical to SOTN counterparts, also portals do that too.
-Bestiary without description
-Juste is like Alucard and even leaves a after-shadow.
-When you get your first magic book, you hardly will use hearts after that.
-Lack of difficulty, sure you can die, but there is a plenty of ways to destroy enemies very fast, even more if you have money to spend on mana potions.

Things like that. Since I know all of those flaws (some aren't really flaws and are even nitpicking from people) and still likes this game to the point of it being one of my favorites if not THE favorite, I must really love it lol

[Ratty]

For myself I just really disliked the level designs. As well as the songs as they sounded in the game, say what you will about the actual quality of the compositions. But that's me.

[crisis]

when it was released, i bought a gameboy micro just to play it

i can see why some ppl dislike it. as a whole, its not a very inviting game for newcomers. if u are unfamiliar with the series & gameplay its very easy to get lost in the castle & give up (i admit even i got lost several times & had to consult a guide on what to do next)

yes it does feel like a diet symphony. i can see why they made it like that cuz symphony is so revered & critically acclaimed, of course they'd want to emulate that (and circle of the moon also sold a shitload of copies, being the first to emulate symphony). i recall seeing juste portrait the day it was revealed on the internet & immediately thinking "alucard." nowadays i can easily point out the differences between the 2 artworks but that was just very 1st impression, cant change that


so yeah, ppl dislike it cuz it tries too hard to be symphony, whereas ppl like it cuz it reminds them of symphony. if that makes sense lol. to each their own

[Dracula9]

I think people dislike it because it very clearly tried to emulate SotN, from harvesting Dracula's organs to even parts of the castle layout (oh hey the final battle takes place in a square room in a pit in the center of the castle), but isn't dark enough in tone to really sell it. Colors, dialogue, etc. It just doesn't quite get that Gothic atmosphere that SotN had.

Not that I'm in that majority, though. I very much like Harmony...I just like CotM and Aria better.

[GuyStarwind]

It's not a bad game by any means. In fact it has really cool things in it but as others have said Aria and Circle were better

[Nagumo]

I don't mind the music quality, actually. People say it gets annoying when you listen to it for a while, but I have that more with music that uses FM synthesis, like Bloodlines or Adventure Rebirth.

[beingthehero]

I always found it bizarre when people compare Juste to Alucard but give Trevor strongly resembling Simon a pass.

I also like how people accuse it of being a SotN 'rip-off' because of graphical similarities (can you even rip-off your own series?) when HoD's team was mostly SotN's team plus some of Rondo's peeps.

[Lelygax]

People dont know what they want, when HoDespair was announced for the first time, everyone was jumping in joy thinking it was  a HoD remake or sequel

[X]

The reasons stated above are what I disliked about HoD. Yeah the music should have been given a better composition however the quality had to take the hit due to other things in the game the got precedence. Juste's look is what really gets to me though. It's too much like Alucard. From the pale complexion and white hair, to his leaving behind an aura whenever he moved. The castle was also a bizarre construct. I too had to check out a walkthrough because I couldn't seem to locate Dracula's heart, and I never even noticed the breakable wall in the save room eventhough I've been there a ton of times. But like others have also said, the background graphics are good. Some of them even surpass AoS's designs. Overall HoD tries to be something it's not; A SotN clone. It should have been it's own thing right from the start.

[Captain Sheepy]

Just an interesting thing I thought I'd share with you. The music sounds really awesome if you put it through an SGM soundfont  and re-arrange the music to be symphonic and what not.

Run the attached midi through this midi to mp3 conversion and make sure the "SOUNDFONT" says SGM v2.01
http://solmire.com/

With midis, you can either have the preset sound you normally have on the computer, or run it through a soundfont software making the instruments sound totally awesome! I did also re-arrange it to match that of a symphony set up as best I could ^^.

[Dracula9]

Why are you promoting SolMiRe for MIDI sharing? Those asshats don't allow MIDI downloads.

And no offense intended, but this is nothing new. Jorge's been doing exactly this for quite some time now. Except I believe he relies more on the Unison soundfont than the SGM soundfont.

[Abnormal Freak]

The floaty jumping is enough to take the game down a notch or two. Juste's run cycle is also the worst animation out of any CV character, including John Morris. At least you have both shoulder buttons for dashing so that helps make the controls a little more bearable.

I'm replaying all three GBA games and HOD to me is easily the worst of them. I've played all of them through several times and HOD gets really tedious with its stale area designs and two castles. With SOTN you at least had an upside-down second castle to switch things up, HOD just feels like you're having to explore the exact same area twice. Cool the first time or so, but on repeated playthroughs, the game gets much less interesting.

Those are my major complaints with the game.