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

[Abnormal Freak]

Holy hell, I didn't realize there were 4+ pages of this shit when I made my last reply, lol.

I see one or two people who mentioned it being similar to SOTN being a problem, then now I see two people bickering back and forth about it as if everybody felt that way. This thread got silly.

[Nagumo]

Ok, let's settle this by two people punching each other repeatedly, and depending one who is the last one standing, it is decided if HoD is a SotN clone or not.

Or if you're not that mad about someone having a differing opinion than you on a video game forum, talk about normally or just agree to disagree. It appears the situation has been settled already, but if people can't behave decently I'm going to lock this thread.

[Abnormal Freak]

I don't really see the comparisons to SOTN myself. HOD was the first IGA Metroidvania since SOTN, so obviously it's going to have a certain familiar quality to it. At the time it was really exciting because yeah, the guy was back in the game. It just didn't feel as rich and satisfying to me as COTM did, although its background are indeed lush and beautiful and those giant lanky-armed armor guys are super cool.

The dislike of the music is understandable, although I think it sounds all right, and underneath all that mess are some wonderful compositions. Not as immediately poppy as other CV soundtracks, but it's pretty complex and interesting.

If anything, AOS feels far more like SOTN than HOD does. It was the first Metroidvania to really feel like the one that spawned the sub-series. Soma controls like Alucard (except he doesn't have a down-forward slash which bugs me), he uses swords, he has a backwards dash maneuver, he doesn't float all over the place the way Juste does, and the excellent graphics and music just look and feel so much more like this was the true successor. And that's a good thing: it being like SOTN—to date the uncontested best of its sub-series—is what propelled it to being perhaps the best of the GBA trilogy (although I sometimes go back and forth between it and COTM).

HOD's similarities to SOTN are fairly superficial. Juste's portrait looking like Alucard's doesn't amount to anything within the gameplay, especially since his sprite and movements don't resemble Alucard in the slightest. He uses a whip and you can't switch it out for something else. There's two castles, OK, that's similar, but HOD surprisingly feels more lazy and retread-y. Warp rooms? Why would you want a Metroidvania without them? That's as basic a function as leveling up. Grabbing Drac's body parts, you do that in Simon's Quest as well, so what.

Between HOD and AOS ("hod aos," huh-huh), the latter is by far the one that resembles SOTN the most, and again, it's a positive rather than a detriment.

As I mentioned before, a lot of people's (I'm talking friends of mine, YouTube reviews, Kalata in his HG101 book, etc., not necessarily users on this board) problems with HOD are the floaty controls and the samey feeling of the two castles. It just doesn't hold up over time as well as AOS and COTM do, IMO.

[Lelygax]

Its like I've said on the beggining, I was giving info of why people dislike it, not why ME/WE dislike it

[Shinobi]

My only issue for the game is the 8-bit-ish music, Juste's floaty jump when he attacks and the bosses are way too easy/predictable.

IMO graphically-wise along with aria of Sorrow, it has a better quality than the rest of Igavania's I mean their sprites was made from scratch instead of reusing existing sprites from the previous games, yes they were look redrawn from SOTN or Rondo of course but still not recycled.

[theANdROId]

I wasn't too fond of Castle B either.  I mean...in the long run, I was glad it was there and I wouldn't get rid of it, but it felt cheesier than the inverted castle.  I don't know why...an upside down castle is probably more silly than a "parallel dimension" -like one.  I can't remember for sure at the moment, but I think it was recolored while SotN wasn't...and the way the castles were connected was neat (though I think that could have been used a bit more and/or better than it was).  SotN was first to do it though, and -- to me -- the inverted castle felt more "new" and "different" than the parallel one.  I like both though...I'm generally glad for gimmicks like that to make play last longer.

[Dracula9]

...The fuck happened in here? That's the last time I go two days without checking the boards.

[Captain Sheepy]

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.

promoting?....huh? I'm confused. I don't know what you mean. All you do is download my midi, and then click browse to look for the midi you got from me, then it'll convert it if you don't have a sound font converter already.

But if you guys have the SGM soundfont already in your computer, I use Coolsoft virtual soundfont. I've never heard of Unison Soundfont ^o^ I'll have to try it out and hear if that'll make my arrangements sound better.

[zangetsu468]

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

Except in Sotn you weren't actually harvesting his organs to resurrect him. It just happened to be coincidence that when you collected those body parts/ relics, the final boss door opens. In HoD Juste was resurrecting Dracula, and this is evident in his final form.

If anything, AOS feels far more like SOTN than HOD does. It was the first Metroidvania to really feel like the one that spawned the sub-series. Soma controls like Alucard (except he doesn't have a down-forward slash which bugs me), he uses swords, he has a backwards dash maneuver, he doesn't float all over the place the way Juste does, and the excellent graphics and music just look and feel so much more like this was the true successor.

I agree that AOS feels more like SOTN overall. Alucard is quite floaty in comparison with Soma, but he has much more let's say 'gravity' than Juste.

I think HoD was a solid entry at the time. For me, although the musical quality wasn't great but the Castle Keep track is one which really captures the gothic feel of CV and still feels 'creepy'. Dare I say that post AoS, the creepy aspect was all but gone even from the 2d entries.

I'm not over the moon about a castle with 2 layers, but I thought the castle itself was well designed and fun. The only thing with HoD is that it's the easiest in the series by far, unfortunately there should have been a crazy hard mode included, because it certainly merits this.

All this talk of Juste/ Alucard, but does any one not think Juste and Leon resemble one another? (along with Maxime and Grant)

[Dracula9]

Except in Sotn you weren't actually harvesting his organs to resurrect him. It just happened to be coincidence that when you collected those body parts/ relics, the final boss door opens. In HoD Juste was resurrecting Dracula, and this is evident in his final form.

I'm aware. But HoD mimics a lot of gameplay elements that SotN had. I don't mean themes, I meant strictly aesthetical elements. Sorry, should've clarified.

And no, Juste doesn't look like Leon because Juste is the product of Trevor and Alucard having magic babies at the end of CV3. Likewise, Maxim is Trevor and Grant. Harmony of Dissonance is a paradox of spacetime narrating the events of two separate lives so that they ran together, because spacetime does what it wants. Harmony is "what would happen is retconned baby A and retconned baby B grew up together?" and fits accordingly.

[Darth Cariss]

Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who isn't a big fan of HoD. It is the easily the worst of the GBA/DS titles for me. I bought it at release and remember feeling very let down that it looked and sounded so much worse than COTM, which I was a big fan of. Other than Juste's main theme/castle entrance theme, I don't really like any of the music in HoD. Some of it is actually unpleasant to me and I'd rather it not even be there. Juste looking like Alucard isn't a huge deal for me, even if it is a bit "Hey, look, it's like Symphony!". The characters/story weren't really that interesting for me, either. I played the game to completion once, and haven't gone back ever since.

[Lelygax]

I'm aware. But HoD mimics a lot of gameplay elements that SotN had. I don't mean themes, I meant strictly aesthetical elements. Sorry, should've clarified.

And no, Juste doesn't look like Leon because Juste is the product of Trevor and Alucard having magic babies at the end of CV3. Likewise, Maxim is Trevor and Grant. Harmony of Dissonance is a paradox of spacetime narrating the events of two separate lives so that they ran together, because spacetime does what it wants. Harmony is "what would happen is retconned baby A and retconned baby B grew up together?" and fits accordingly.

So the merchant is Trevor and himself alone asexually magic baby.

[X]

In HoD Juste was resurrecting Dracula, and this is evident in his final form.

Not quite. Juste had collected all the body parts in the game, however it was Maxim that first collected them in order to grant his wish. Not sure what that wish was about as it is never followed up. It might have been wanting to become stronger then Juste so he could relieve him of his fate as a hunter. Who knows. It was coincidental that the evil spirit created by Maxim's will coupled with Dracula's remains, sensed the body parts Juste had on him and used them to create itself a new body to inhibit. Hence the Dracula wraith.

[beingthehero]

Maxim didn't collect them to get a wish as though Dracula was some sort of genie. His 'wish' was to be better than Juste and destroy Dracula. Of course only a Belmont or Alucard can safely handle Drac's remains without getting possessed by Drac. Shanoa seemed to be the oddball in that she could somehow carry them as well, but that's why she was so valuable to Barlowe.

[Anglachel]

I really enjoy Harmony of Dissonance. It does have flaws, like being way too easy, but I think it's the best "intro" Castlevania, meaning that it's probably the best one for new players to start with.

It also has two of my favorite themes: "Successor of Fate" and "Offense and Defense." (Thank you Jorge, for your great remixes.)