Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => General Castlevania Discussion => Topic started by: PFG9000 on November 27, 2011, 10:07:29 PM
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Harmony of Dissonance gets no love. Between CotM and AoS, Harmony tends to be the whipping boy of the GBA games. I think I see more CV hate directed toward that game than any other, except maybe for Legends and, recently, Harmony of Despair.
But lately I've been playing through Harmony again, probably for the tenth time or so. I really love it. The graphics are beautiful and far more detailed than in CotM or AoS. The forward and backward dashing mechanic with the shoulder buttons makes navigating the castle quick and easy, and it gives the game's controls a feeling that no other CV has. The music might get a lot of flack, but it really builds atmosphere in a lot of areas. I can't imagine the Sky Walkway any other way. And yet, I wonder if a soundtrack with higher-quality samples would make people appreciate the game more. The low sound quality and the lack of difficulty are really the only flaws to the game, in my opinion.
I think the best thing about the game is the multitude of little quirks you can find. There's that crazy painting in the Sky Walkway with one man stabbing another, and the blood drips down from the wound, to the picture frame, to the floor. There's the giant Carmilla mask in the Skeleton Cave, and the two pinball racing rooms. The game is so unique, but still absolutely Castlevania.
Any thoughts on Harmony of Dissonance, good or bad? We're just a few months away from the game's ten year anniversary, so let's celebrate a bit.
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Wow it's been 10 years huh. i was in high school, funny how time flies.. I remember buying HoD at launch, opening it up right in my car and playing it in the parking lot with my GBA SP. I jumped right into it & loved it. Excellent graphics and gameplay, the castle is a true "manifestation of chaos" with it's bizarre design!
It has all these throwbacks to previous Castlevanias that only true vets would've recognized (Bullet Tip for instance, original translation Christopher's Soul). I'd say that Successor of Fate is one of the best intro themes in the series. Marble Corridor also stands out. But lets not forget the best track in the game,
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance - Seller Of Fine Goods (Merchant's Theme) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEM99EB9oKg#)
Till this day, I still have only encountered the Rare Ghost (http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Rare_Ghost) once, in the waterway area. That little bitch is hard to find (and harder to get its drop items). It is also impossible to get 200% in Maxim Mode, since Maxim can't unlock the gate to the final area. as far as i know, at least.
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I still totally dig it. I always loved the tons of nods to CV3 and CV2, both visual and otherwise. Also, Vampire Killer 2002 and Simon Belmont in boss rush. It would be strange to play the game without the dissonant music. Going by what he said on the linear notes, Soshiro Hokkai was pretty ballsy to go ahead with a 'progressive' sound even though he apparently knew the sound quality was going to be downgraded to make way for the better graphics.
Too bad many of the bosses were pretty unmemorable, save for the Legion bosses and the Dracula Wraith. Though, it was pretty nifty to see some of CV3's bosses back in SotN-esque graphics. If only they were more challenging, it would have been perfect. Like many of the latter day CV titles prior to OoE, HoD's bosses and enemies seemed to have been made with Richter Belmont circa Dracula X in mind. When taking them on with the ultra-nimble Juste, they're no match.
Like CotM, it has both great areas and very bland ones as well. The Entrance Hall, Marble Gallery, Skeleton Cave, Room of Illusions, and Chapel/Sky Walkway are all excellent. On the other hand, the caverns, Aqueduct of Dragons, and Castle Keep are all a bit tedious (especially for the aqueduct.) For some reason, I don't mind Clock Tower A, but I don't care for Clock Tower B. : /
I always felt the comparisons to SotN were a little unfair. The dual-castle mechanic of Bad Castle and Worse Castle struck me more akin to Silent Hill. Then again, I believe it was the EGM Order of Ecclesia issues wherein IGA said that HoD was meant to just be a portable version of SotN, so it really didn't aim as high as the others did.
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I never got too far in it, but I certainly thought it had charm. I didnt mind the music, it had it's own feel to it, though I can see why others might not like it, it's pretty different in sound.
If theres really one thing I have to complain about, it's that damn blue outline on Juste. What the hell were they thinking? That's even worse than Julius' solid BLACK outline in Dawn!
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I believe the blue outline, like the bright color palette, was intended to make the game easier to see on the original (non-backlit) GBA. When CotM came out, it was criticized for being dark and too hard to see. The GBA SP still hadn't launched when HoD came out, so the visibility issues of CotM had to be addressed.
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I totally like Dissonance. I admit that I hadn't played through it until this year, and I enjoyed it so much that I played through it a second time. Not sure why people diss on it. The running sprite does look completely retarded, and perhaps that image just overshadows how awesome the rest of the game looks? SotN is probably my favorite CV game, and HoD is closest to SotN than any other CV game, imo. I think it's an awesome game.
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just finishes CoTM and started this monster of a game.. only played for like 20 minutes so will give u guys a more substantial opinion once I've finished but so far it seems pretty decent, visual it has to be said (despite it's slightly damning the game with faint praise since its such a obvious observation) that the graphics are far FAR FAR superior to CoTM ( including animate backgrounds where with CoTM practically all the backgrounds where static except for the machine tower if my memory serves me right, (though a reviewer of castlevania on you tube elaborated on this to greater effect, will link when I find..)
although I don't know why but, besides the blue tinted highlight which PFG9000 explained is so we can see Juste, there's something about Juste's character palette that looks a bit off.. ( to me he looks like he's wearing a weird combination of converse shoes hybrid with platform boots, though that could just be me...).
Also aesthetically I find it does resemble SOTN ( down to the way the save points function/look) but rather than blatantly rip off I feel it merely doffs the cap to SOTN than be a complete carbon copy of.. (thus far anyway) ..
only complaint is.. yea.. I can see why critics panned the soundtrack as ( to me at least) it kind of sounds like the tinny chip tone of the old monochrome game boys, though the soundtrack isnt "awful" as they proclaim, it hasnt quite gelled with me yet.. ( think IGA even stated he "sacrificed the sound for the graphics", which tbh are quite impressive for a game made back in 2002)
anyho give more feedback once I've finished the game.. but so far I quite like it, =D
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Harmony of Dissonance gets no love. Between CotM and AoS, Harmony tends to be the whipping boy of the GBA games.
When all aspects of the game are bad or at least controversial there tend to be some disappointment in the final result.
I will not give this game a long review this time. Just say it was a big disappointment for me personally. After COTM I hoped that the next game will be superior to it. In graphics, in music quality, in gameplay department, though there are really few things that were wrong with COTM gameplay.
Instead I've got ugly, bright and almost acidic graphics with REALLY annoying Juste outline that become getting on my nerves in the latter part of the game. Crazy music, that was arranged...well, very specifically. And uninteresting gameplay that was much worse than COTM had to offer. My main impression from the game was a complete puzzlement - how in the world after COTM, which done so many things right (even over SOTN sometimes), HOD managed to screw up so much.
The only thing that HOD done right is an idea of the two castles. That's how it should have realized in the SOTN, instead of stupid "upside down castle".
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Harmony of Dissonance gets no love. Between CotM and AoS, Harmony tends to be the whipping boy of the GBA games. I think I see more CV hate directed toward that game than any other, except maybe for Legends ....
ok um sorry if I am diverging from the topic but abit but just out of curiousity how bad/good was legends.. dont tend to hear much about it ( heard it was considered "non-canon" with the rest of the series apparently, so if there is a reason they had to retcon it from the series it must have been pretty terrible :'(
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My personal view of this game is a mixed bag. The graphics were outstanding though the occasional background (like the one in the skeleton cave taken straight out of SotN) was just awful in translation. It didn't work so I don't know why they even bothered...
The music harks back to the 8-bit era. Was it intentional? Hard to say but given how everything else is jam-packed full, something had to take a hit. Also almost none of the tunes did anything for me. Even Juste's theme left me kinda scratching my head.
The sounds were good. They outdid the music by a long-shot.
I found the gameplay stiff and somewhat slow at first. At least the game caters around it so it isn't too big a deal.
Juste Belmont. It's been a while since IGA gave us a real playable Belmont in name (Don't know what his beef is with them). The things that bothered me about Juste is that he functions as though he's incomplete. Most of his sprites are stiff and ridged as if it were a rush job. The blue outline was not necessary as it just comes off as an Alucard wannabe (this includes Juste's white hair and pale skin). Even the vampirekiller was crap. It looked like a white rope with a blue outline rather then a chain whip that flashed different colors (as it should be).
But for all it's flaws this is a decent game and had a lot of different and interesting things throughout. The only thing that makes this game better imo is that hack that was done which alleviates some of the issues aforementioned above.
Till this day, I still have only encountered the Rare Ghost once, in the waterway area. That little bitch is hard to find (and harder to get its drop items).
I got lucky on this one with my first playthrough. I had found this ghost in the castle entrance and after killing him he dropped an item piece (armor I do believe). But that was it. Even today I still regret deleting that file... >:(
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I love dashing.
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I love Harmony of Dissonance. It's the best of the GBA games, even though Aria is a much more polished and less insane product. But I prefer the bizarre nature of HoD. I totally agree that Juste sprite is kinda ugly. Also, while it's not a very challenging game, it's a bit more confusing than the other Metroidvanias IMO. I actually got stuck in this game at least twice with no idea whatsoever where to go or what to do, which never happened in any other Metroidvania.
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I enjoyed the spell fusion attacks. Unfortunately, they made the game too easy, but fun. The system returned in Lament of Innocence and I would be happy if they reused it in another 2D or 3D game.
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This game on hard mode is my personal favorite of the GBA games. I love pretty much everything about it, except that you have to go through easy mode to unlock hard. Hard should have been a "normal" mode available from the beginning, and there should have been a REAL hard mode for the truly hardcore(though I'd probably just play with that a little bit, like crazy mode in the ps2 'Vanias). I love the atmosphere, references to past games, soundtrack, graphics... it's a very interesting and unique game for the Gameboy Advance. It has some truly creepy areas, and the alternative versions of the areas are all interesting in their differences. I also love the magic/subweapon system, and how you can change and enable/disable spellbooks without ever going to the menu.
So yes, in short, I'm a big fan of this one. And yeah Thernody, the dashing was pretty cool.
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ok um sorry if I am diverging from the topic but abit but just out of curiousity how bad/good was legends.. dont tend to hear much about it ( heard it was considered "non-canon" with the rest of the series apparently, so if there is a reason they had to retcon it from the series it must have been pretty terrible :'(
Legends is another mixed bag. Have you played the first two GB CVs? If you liked those, you should at least give Legends a shot. The music isn't as good as Belmont's Revenge, but it's still a really good soundtrack. Sonia is more nimble than Christopher, and she is one of the only oldschool Belmonts who can change direction mid-jump. The levels are fairly large, and there are branching paths where you can go hunting for special items. But for some reason, the game just seems a bit boring to me. I always lose interest around the second level or so.
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I think that's because the levels are simply too huge, and begin to drag on. The design isn't all that inspired throughout the game, and yeah, by the second or third stage the game becomes a chore to slog through.
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Another thing that I diliked about HOD was lack of difficulty and useless magic subsystem. I used it only twice in the game - to beat Maxim and Dracula 2nd form. Maxim was annoying and I wanted to kill Dracula as fast as possible to finally finish this game and move to something more decent.
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HoD is actually one of my favorites, even though it was clearly intended to be SoTN on GBA, I believe it was better on some levels.
Bosses weren't pushovers and the alternate castle was both superior and more well though of than that lazy-ass upside-down castle with areas that have tints.
where this game is flawed is that it was too much for GBA, therefore alot of elements had to suffer, if it were to be remade for the 3DS or PSP/Vita it could truly shine.
but then again I disliked CoTM, the mass amount of glitches and exploitations killed the game.
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Another thing that I diliked about HOD was lack of difficulty and useless magic subsystem. I used it only twice in the game - to beat Maxim and Dracula 2nd form. Maxim was annoying and I wanted to kill Dracula as fast as possible to finally finish this game and move to something more decent.
Yeah, and this is the APPRECIATION thread, mmkay? We've already established that many people, such as yourself, don't like it. We're here to celebrate, not bash.
I think that Successor of Fate is the - dare I say it? - BEST entrance theme in the history of Castlevania. There, I said it. :o
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Yeah, and this is the APPRECIATION thread, mmkay? We've already established that many people, such as yourself, don't like it. We're here to celebrate, not bash.
LOL, I can't even see that guy's posts & he's still talking trash? Somebody needs to get over himself & stop complaining, or learn to read topic titles thoroughly.
but yeah, I think Successor of Fate is certainly one of the best, but.. I just love Alucard's entrance theme in Symphony. Damn near perfect. However the ending arrangement of SoF is just.. orgasmic
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance - Successor of fate (credits) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tuci49S4AQ#)
Incarnation of Darkness is just down right EVIL SOUNDING
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance - Incarnation Of Darkness (Dracula's Theme) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-lcT-NvOw#)
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plus its the second to last handheld castlevania game that doesn't mass recycle.
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^ Not entirely sure about that, I mean there are a fair few enemies that were taken from or based on SOTN, like the JP Bonepillar and Big Skeleton, which were versions of the Scarecrow and Paranthopus respectively. But it definitely stood out for me as being a good solid Metroidvania. And I dug the music - it fit very nicely with the theme, this is Harmony Of DISSONANCE after all.
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I loved the game, it was really genuine in its aura...but I got really frustrated the goddamn whip never changed its looks despite equipping different powers to it! the tunes were really good, as jorge can tell(really good arrangements there!) but the sound quality was pretty low valued.
The artwork is astonishing.
one of my favorite games
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Yeah, and this is the APPRECIATION thread, mmkay? We've already established that many people, such as yourself, don't like it. We're here to celebrate, not bash.
As far as I remember I said few positive things about this game. So it was not entirely bashing.
Dual Castle was a good idea. Return of Belmont as main playable character was a good thing too. Dracula's second form was unique (not in entirely good way, but still). Destructable environment in the levels, though there were too less of it.
My first impressions of the game were very positive actually - I was impressed by return of multisegmented enemies and afforenmentioned destructable environmnets - a good start, impressive even. I hoped that further in the game there will be more of those things. And maybe some part of the Castle will entirely consist from destructable platforms and backgrounds, including traps and pits.
Sadly a bit later all my hopes were crushed.
LOL, I can't even see that guy's posts & he's still talking trash? Somebody needs to get over himself & stop complaining
You should take your own advice in the first place, poor thing.
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Really? I found Dracula's second form to be quite interesting, in that it's all of his artifacts fused together on a massive scale. I just wish it was more aggressive, but that's my complaint for all of HoD's bosses.
Still, it was a great nod back to Simon's Quest. Until HoD, it was mostly forgotten other than the zillions of Bloody Tears arrangements and remixes, official and otherwise. Even having the Dracula Wraith return was great.
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I'll also add that this game has two of my favorite areas of the recent CV titles, The Wailing Way and the Room of Illusions. The Wailing Way strongly reminded me of something that would have appeared in SCIV, given the ultra-somber music, the abandoned and crumbling buildings, and the mountains in the background. Back then, it was kind of nifty to be able to explore a little bit of an outdoor area.
The Room of Illusions had some great detail, especially with the two ornate beast-statues at the bottom of the altar room with the giant's remains in the background, and that trippy wave effect.
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I never did quite understand the hate for Harmony. I remember picking it up shortly after my birthday (8 days to be exact.) and being utterly enthralled with the game. still to this day it is the only castle, however brief that i have gotten lost in. As much as some may not agree, since the advent of the metroidvania style that has been my biggest enjoyment of the series is the exploration and HoD had it in spades.
The music suited the creepy nature of the castle quite well and the merchant theme still gets stuck in my head to this day. The only real drawback of the game was that it was pretty easy but hey, for the most part the only real metroidvania since their inception with any shred of difficulty was OoE.
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Had to delay my response a little just to give myself time to absorb every aspect of the game good and bad, and take a few things away so I may digest them to form a “FAIR” account ( serving as a first impression really as I did not complete the game in its entirety which I will cast more light onto further into the post).
Well.... After completing the game to a satisfactory extent, yea.. I can see why this is such a divide among Castlevania fans, as enjoyment is quite relative to what a certain type of player would constitute as slight hang ups in a overall decent game or if said hang ups are considered to be so completely beyond the pale that it basically shades the entire colour your opinion of the game as a whole. A certain type of player will either allow a few technical problems to go right over their heads while enjoying some arguably solid gaming mechanics, while others will just plainly find this game a massive travail in patience. I on the other hand, to be frank, can see valid points on both sides of the table.
As this is a “appreciation thread” I’ll try to tread lightly on how I express myself. Not that I set out on a crusade to lambast this game in any way, as to be frank I do quite like this game, but I would still consider myself still quite middle road when it comes to how I feel about the game overall.
Just to defuse confusion on the overall tone of my opinion I might as well give a sort of overarching summary right now, just encase my tone doesn’t translate well ( or if you get bored with me prating on which is likely). Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance at its core is a GOOD game, but I think the overall enjoyment factor is essentially dependent on the level of patience you have as a gamer in general. Whether you like the sense of trial and error involved and enjoy the satisfaction of discovering where you need to go, ( like a few older games I’ve played , kind of like point and clicks but not quite in the same vein) or if you hate feeling like a rat in a maze, DESPISE Backtracking and feel the need of a hint here and there on where to go for good measure, will make or break how you feel about this game as a whole.
k heres what I took from the whole experience ( post the positive and negative in separate posts)
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Ok I will start with some positives:
Considering that this is the first Castlevania game on the GBA where the original staff are at the reigns (while CoTM was first with the namesake but was made by an entirely different department inside konami. though their attempt was still in-keeping with the orginal games ) this is a pretty decent first try. There is nothing outwardly wrong or broken with the game as a whole( save for the soundtrack) and in essence it's faithful to the general game mechanics of its predecessors. You have a whip, you have sub items, you have to go explore a decrepit castle, what more do you want?. it looks like a castlevania game, it plays like a castlevania game and besides assessing the more intrinsic problems with the game, there are no outlying problems in the game that ruin overall enjoyment ( in comparison to the albatross of the series Simon’s quest where it didn’t even feel like the game had even gone beyond the drawing board). It may not be the apex of the series, but it’s still miles off being its low point (Simon’s quest is the game that kind of deserves the title “whipping boy” ) .
it still maintains the right formula I think to be worthy of the castlevania name, the only problems start to arise when you compare it to other titles in many different ways ( music , bosses, map system , ect). Otherwise if you’re a new player and this is your first castlevania game (despite maybe the map layout getting under your skin) I think it would still be received pretty well. It does do a few things differently but not to the point of becoming unrecognisable from the series as a whole.
From what I’ve played (only played seven of the games thus far so please correct if I am out of my element) the Dashing mechanic is honestly for me the best implemented evasive mechanics ( makeshift magic evasive ones notwithstanding) out of the castlevania series so far . even comparing Alucard’s semi –back dash in SOTN or Soma Cruz’s Dash in AoS, the sensitivity of the mechanic to evade sudden attacks are so responsive that is becomes a integral part of your dodging ( especially with bosses, though having said that it can also make a few of the bosses a embarrassing cakewalk of a experience; so whether you think they removed the efficacy of the dash in future titles because of this is open for speculation.. ) . You may also dash in both directions which is also a plus. Slight gripe however would be how I feel slightly perplexed to why they didn’t just assign one shoulder button to be the dash feature while pressing a certain direction to be in conjunction to which direction you want to go,( leaving the designers a extra shoulder button to play around with , when designing extra moves and abilities) but then again this just a personal nitpick more than anything.
The visuals ( excluding Juste ofc) are really stunning on this one and there’s so much going on in specific areas with a few animated background quirks included into the mix as some of the prior members to this post here have mentioned. It definitely outranks CoTM in this regard ( which was a bit static-tastic tbh, save for the machine tower) and it also gives the castle a more claustrophobic feel imo, not in a bad way, but for me gives it more menace I guess. Especially the skeleton cave; yea I know not the most original of areas but I kind of liked how it was executed, and seeing those skeleton remains piled up in the background did make this castle feel like a viable threat.
SoTN is kind of seen as the main mover and shaker of the series in terms of shaping the castlevania format as a whole. There are influences from SOTN especially with some enemy palettes adopted from it, which might give the impression of HOD trying to ride the coattails of SOTN’s success, however dubbing Harmony of Dissonsance as a kitsch GBA counterpart to the SOTN is kind of cutting it’s unique qualities short. There’s are a few new additional semi puzzles or challenges in this one like the marble run ( no pun intended.. well alittle) challenge and the gigantic guardian armour room where you have to push the blighter into those rotating cogs ( yea shamefully took me just over a minute to work out what i had to do, talk about me being slow on the uptake >.> ) which do indeed make this game distinct from SoTN, as well as a plot deviating from Dracula being the main antagonist of the game ( well essentially he still is but only through influencing maxim... ) .
In addition to this the save points are spread more evenly than in CoTM ( though this is more my personal impression than anything else though, your opinion might be at odds to this so don’t take this as gospel truth or absolute.), and in places of decent utility like next to boss rooms and very close to warp and teleport rooms ( unlike CoTM where the most memorable lack of a save point was right next to the frickin last boss, sure you could save inbetween each form , which was nice, but you still had to travel through 4-5 screens to get to it. though this is just a gripe).
Now the spell book system, like the DSS ( which is also fun system to say the least) is ...decent if you , like the DSS system, are willing to put the time and effort in looking for the books and playing around with the combinations (echoing back to the principle factor of being a patient gamer). I guess it’s slightly annoying that you have to go on a treasure hunt to find the correspondent sub weapon to fuse with the magic book equipped, but the combinations were kind of fun. However, the biggest complaint about this system is that it, for me, it ultimately rendered the heart gauge utterly useless. I rarely if ever , used any hearts once I got my first spell book ( which is quite early on, so it does render it quite a problem)and would just rely on expending mp for moves as opposed to using hearts with the sub system. Why would you when the spell book fusion is so much more fun/effective in taking out opposition. I guess you could switch back once your mp gauge was completely exhausted but tbh the sub weapons where so weak as standalone pieces, I would just ether hack away at enemies with the whip until it refilled, or through sheer laziness throw a high mana prism my way when I wanted to speed things up a little..
I think now I mentioned the Spell book system, this would be a decent avenue to talk about the more negatives aspects of this game.. oh boy here we go..
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negatives:
K, beside the music, the most frustrating element of this game ( for me), would be the map layout, which to be honest was the only factor that was a near deal breaker in enjoying the overall game. Again I think this is relative to the individual’s preference than being a crippling factor of the game as a whole, but still ... where do I begin.
Firstly I stumbled on a lot of dead ends or closed off areas due to lack of a ability ( mainly the double jump) . Now I know that this does happen alot in the other games ( especially SoTN) but at least in those games you felt that you could still accomplish or obtain something in the general area you were in ( hard to explain but if you’ve played the previous titles as well as this you will know what I mean), besides filling the map up. For example my first time in luminous caverns, I remember I went in this one direction for a good 7-9 screens of a long and winding pathway, and all I had got at the end to show for it was a stupid mana prism item.
Also it doesn’t help that each section of the castle was not only huge but usually quite long and winding. Which meant if you wanted to check a area at the end of a certain section (be it useful or not) even if you had the ability to access previously inaccessible areas, these areas set for a later point in the game, would usually be right at the end of a certain area. You could still complete 75% of a level/area but there would also be that little section in any given area that is unreachable cause of a need to double jump or something to that effect. Therefore you would have to come back to that small part ( which probably only has something like a high potion or something ) which in essence, takes a good ten minutes to reach when considering the layout of where the area starts and ends. And usually even at the point in the game where you get the needed ability, there would only be really one way to get to the previously inaccessible area, as the more convenient way would be blocked off by another requisite for a different ability (tell me if I am going off on a limb here but this is at-least how it felt).
The teleportation rooms for the first part of the game were really silly. Teleports in castle a or b respectively would only teleport in two directions ( even if you’ve visited the other ones) which means you would have to still travel a fair distance to reach a teleporter that would send you to the second respective teleport room. However near the end of the game when you find the rooms that warp you between A and B you have the option to kneel down which then warps you to the next warp room in the respective castle as opposed to either castle A or B, which in effect allows you to warp around the castle without need of travelling long distances, or between castle A or B. however this only available is near the end of the game where, for the most part , you need a lure key and a skull key to access the more usefully placed warp rooms anyway.
In general the map layout got so irritating that I will be the first to admit, after ¾ into the game I just decided to refer to a walkthrough to quicken the completion rather than turn up every stone of possibility left for me. I even realised I missed out the ring of vlad ( which I will be doing again) after completion . I think if I played the game again as I know now where I generally need to go, I would find the game a lot more enjoyable, as besides this and the music, even the shifty boss fights were fun in its own respect.
The music However .. I am sorry to say was quite bad..., and probably the only justifiable reason for hate on this game. I am really sorry for those more forgivable or if you really liked the music, but I am going to have to succumb to the negative partiality of the haters, as there were moments where I felt my ear canals were becoming cisterns for blood. I know it was to sacrificed to free up memory to give the graphics that extra polish, and harkening back to that 8 bit chip tone might be nostalgia fuel for some, but right after the vibrant and lively score from CoTM I felt it was quite underwhelming as a follow up, and because it sometimes to little more than analogue farting noises there was little distinction between them. Ergo, it makes the score as a whole very forgettable.
One track especially that made my acoustic centres want to commit suicide, was the luminous caverns . It just sounded like it was lingering in the background floundering about not knowing what direction to go in sound. If I was to anthropomorphises the luminous caverns ost it would be this rather dazed fellow staring at me blankly, shrugging every 5 seconds on the basis that it didn’t know how to climate the area it was set in. Eventually, after the second return into the luminous caverns , I just had to turn the sound of completely.. it just irked me that much..
The boss battles weren’t too bad, but did lack the epicness of the prior and even successive titles to follow. One could argue that the effectiveness of the dashing was what could have killed a few of the bosses difficulty, but to be honest I think a lot of the bosses as a whole had really simple attack patterns and one trick ponies available to pull out of their sleeves. The more damaging moves ( the minotaur gets special mention here) usually had enough downtime when charging a powerful strike to give you unduly time to get out of the way. Legion/Grandfaloon was the most disappointing for me. What happened to the usually imposing gestalt of damned bodies found in the previous games? Again when talking about one trick ponies this one ( or these two including its corpse form) really took the cake. First form only replicated small pint sized copies of itself in your general direction, whereas the second just drops these small goblets of goo at a snail’s pace, still allowing amble time to hack away at it’s core.... I Wasn’t impressed...
And finally Juste character palette...... urgh, is there any room for refute on how bad this character looks in game( probably the only thing lovers/haters must be able to agree on). I mean the out of game character design from Ayami Kojima looks pretty boss in that vermilion trenchcoat ( even with a few “Alucard” overtones with the hair and pale complexion , but still had enough to make Jjuste distinct) but in game, where do I begin.
I know the blue outline is to compensate for the poor visibility of the original gba, so can’t blame the game for trying to facilitate a inherent flaw of the console it was on at the time ( though the after-image that similar to alucard’s felt a bit awry, but again personal nitpick) but the overall body proportion is laughably cartoonish, for some reason , when in his whipping frame of animation it looks like his hands and feet are really disproportioned to a normal human being...
To summarise I did enjoy the game to some extent but when I hit the four hour mark I did get itchy feet from exhausting every possible nook and cranny and cheated a little. I think if I played this game a second time around I would definitely like it more as at least I have the memory from the first playthrough to know the general direction I am supposed to go. Whether you’ll enjoy it is based on how you feel on retracing a lot of steps and back tracking to be honest, as that might start to wear a bit thin on patience. Other than that, fun game. ( sorry if this was way too long but I wanted to address all of the positives and negatives I could think of in equal measure in the game )
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To summarise I did enjoy the game to some extent ...
Are you sure?
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Patashnik, that's a pretty well thought-out analysis. Just a couple random thoughts you've inspired:
I know there's been complaints about Juste's sprite and color scheme, but they've honestly never bothered me. Perhaps it's because I've never gotten into sprite-making, but more likely it's because I'm colorblind. I probably don't see his sprite as vibrantly as most people, so to me it was never a problem. My colorblindness also gives me problems in the map screen of this game. I have trouble seeing which rooms are which color until I look really closely.
As far as the dead ends, I actually like that aspect of this game. That's the part I like about the Metroidvanias; you can see just beyond where your way is blocked, and you know you can get over there eventually, but you have to explore more to do it. So much more interesting than a locked door, but the function is the same. Although it does make the game more confusing, especially once you have two separate castles to explore. I can see how it's a kick in the pants to explore a big, new area, only to dead end at one spot with no new items of significance to make the trip worthwhile. Probably the biggest offender is the first time you can explore the topmost portion of the chapel. You trek all the way up there, pretty far from a save point, only to dead end at the locked door leading to the castle keep, erm, top floor.
I never thought about the teleporter thing, how there are two different types of teleports and how that really doesn't make any sense outside of gameplay confines. But I never did like how the first time you go through a teleport, Juste says something to the effect of, "Something feels different about this place." The game designers meant that to be a hint or a foreshadowing of the dual castle thing, but I just thought it was a big "duh" moment. Anybody who knows anything about teleports should understand that going through one puts you in a different place. I thought Juste was just stating the obvious, that he had just teleported to a different place within the castle, but I would have thought a little differently about the comment had the developers worded it more appropriately.
As far as the music goes, the general banner of the HoD soundtrack supporters is that the problem isn't with the compositions, it's with the sound quality. And that's true to a point, but there are some tunes that, in my point, are just bad all around. The Luminous Caverns theme is one of these. The Wailing Way BGM is another, and the merchant theme is just trash. But the good tunes are still good enough to redeem the soundtrack, at least to the point where it's not deserving of the criticism that is usually directed at it.
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Opium: yep I am sure.. honest =P ... game play is fine and loved flaying them skeletons back to hell, with the occational wind book + holy water “HYDRO STORM!!!!” combo for good measure... ( tehehe >=) ).... just man while doing it I felt like I was running around like a headless chicken, but again it’s just my attention span really...
PFG9000: yea I guess I have a low patience threshold with exploration sometimes, as a game in itself, the exploration and backtracking its not a broken element by any stretch of imagination, but I do believe it comes down to how patient you are with these things as a whole. For me it did unfortunately irritate me quite abit, but again I think its down to personal thresholds..
Good example, one of my favourite games system shock 2 did this quite often and at one point where you have to back track from deck 6 ( command deck) to deck 4 then to deck 2 then all the way back to deck 6 again. This really bugged ALOT of people, but not so much me, so yea these sort of things don’t really kill a game in terms of quality, but if you’re kind of the ADHD fidgety kind of person like I am, then yea might find it irritating.
You do have a very good point with the compositions though, I did kind of lump them all into one catorgory alittle. There some really great compositions, just unfortunately given the tinny 8-bit make over, they don’t translate so well.... it’s fair to say If you look at the rehashed versions on you tube, you can defiately see what Soshiro Hokkai was aiming for ( and if they were included in the original in that form then yea would have no qualms at all), just it comes down to not been given the right technical tools to give it more life.
Not sure this is a official arranged but still gives you a idea of what I mean:
Epic Castlevania Theme #31 - Successor of Fate / Sucesor del Destino (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsZo7h_fmOU#)
with teleporting I donno why they couldn't consolidate the warp rooms and the teleport room, when your given the option to use warp rooms (the ones that send you to a or b) gives you the option to move around the castle in a manner like the teleport rooms anyway ( with the kneeling down and all). if they did do that then access to the harder areas would be a bit to early I guess, but I guess maybe if they tinkered around with the map layout slightly then this might of not been a problem..
The Juste palette for me was abit ugly to look at... , I donno if any1 can relate but it just look cartoonish, and not right, not sure why. my comment doesn't really go into specifics to be fair but maybe it's just a personal thing.. but to be fair I did get used to it eventually, one of the rare instances where familiarity breed content instead XD.
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Not sure this is a official arranged but still gives you a idea of what I mean:
Epic Castlevania Theme #31 - Successor of Fate / Sucesor del Destino (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsZo7h_fmOU#)
Actually that's Jorge's arrangement, I could recognize those trumpet and violin synths anywhere.
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yea sorry couldn't find a immediate official arranged version, but yea still if the soundtrack was done a manner likened to what Jorge did ( thanks Jorge =P) then yea it would have been a decent addition to the series.
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I love dashing.
That was a really cool feature.
I enjoyed HoD. I think Aria was a significant improvement over it and I played it first, so it was really hard for me to immediately appreciate HoD. The jumping feels really clunky compared to the other Metroidvanias, but you get used to it after a while. I still think Juste looks really ugly though. I think even Nathan looks better than him, but the backgrounds really are spectacular. Playing as Simon in boss rush mode was a blast, and I like how they gave Simon a unique screen when you finished it. Some bosses though, like the giant slime and giant peeping eye, were just really lazy though. I think CotM actually did the boss fights better. Anyways, its a good game, it grows on you after awhile. Better than most of the recent Castlevanias.
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Harmony of Dissonance gets no love. Between CotM and AoS, Harmony tends to be the whipping boy of the GBA games. I think I see more CV hate directed toward that game than any other, except maybe for Legends and, recently, Harmony of Despair.
But lately I've been playing through Harmony again, probably for the tenth time or so. I really love it. The graphics are beautiful and far more detailed than in CotM or AoS. The forward and backward dashing mechanic with the shoulder buttons makes navigating the castle quick and easy, and it gives the game's controls a feeling that no other CV has. The music might get a lot of flack, but it really builds atmosphere in a lot of areas. I can't imagine the Sky Walkway any other way. And yet, I wonder if a soundtrack with higher-quality samples would make people appreciate the game more. The low sound quality and the lack of difficulty are really the only flaws to the game, in my opinion.
I think the best thing about the game is the multitude of little quirks you can find. There's that crazy painting in the Sky Walkway with one man stabbing another, and the blood drips down from the wound, to the picture frame, to the floor. There's the giant Carmilla mask in the Skeleton Cave, and the two pinball racing rooms. The game is so unique, but still absolutely Castlevania.
Any thoughts on Harmony of Dissonance, good or bad? We're just a few months away from the game's ten year anniversary, so let's celebrate a bit.
Harmony of Dissonance is my favourite of the GBA Castlevanias. The tunes aren't bad just the quality.
One of the things I like of this game are the enhances for the whip and the spells you can get by combining the books with the sub weapons.
The great number of giant armor enemies is pretty amusing.
I still don't know what's the purpose of Juste's room though, I guess the point is just to collect all the furniture and that's it but still it's kinda fun to do it.
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I still don't know what's the purpose of Juste's room though, I guess the point is just to collect all the furniture and that's it but still it's kinda fun to do it.
Doing this allows you to see the true ending. Which is Liddie leaning against Juste whilst conversing. That's about it, nothing truly special. Just some extra animations for the characters.
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I see, that explains a lot.
I was told collecting all the furniture didn't have any effect in the game so I didn't notice I got the true ending because of it.
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Hum..To summarize,the game was pretty good!Considering the fact that it happened to be my first metroidvania.. ;D
And then i came across Circle of the moon.Which was a lot more difficult than i'd imagine lol
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Meh, I liked the warp rooms. They were a really cool idea. It took me some time to realize there are actually two separate castles. I liked the idea of exploring the castles in a parallel manner (unlike Symphony where you'd explore each separately) and I think it's a shame they haven't reused the idea in another game.
People say Harmony is just a ripoff of Symphony but that's not so. Symphony just reversed the castle and let you explore it a second time, while in Harmony you have two versions of the castle which are quite different, one of which was altered by Maxim's memories (as far as I remember). This makes the castle a powerful entity which may be altered by different consequences.
Also, lol at the merchant theme! It sounds like crap. Literally, crap.
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One of my favorite Castlevania titles. The only thing I have a serious issue with is the difficulty level, which is too low. There are a couple other more minor things that could have been cleaned up, like the sprites of the main characters. I have no problem with the music; actually, I think it's great, and I would never suggest that it be changed. I like the castle layout. It can be confusing, but not to the point that it's a detriment to the game. The original Metroid also has a confusing and loose layout, and that's one of my favorite games, and has been for as long as I can remember. I don't like for EXPLORATION games to hold my hand and constantly point me in the right direction. I'd rather explore, get lost sometimes, and have fun finding my own way, and doing some things in my own order. To tell you the truth, I would like the layout to be looser than it is. Aside from the main character sprites, HoD has some of my favorite graphics in the whole series.