Topic: Harmony of Despair (The next Castlevania game?)

[thernz]

The purpose alone is kinda uh.

[Ridureyu]

The purpose is to have fun while playing it.  It's more of a silly little romp with stuff mishmashed in/heroes from different games/old enemy remixes than anything "Serious" or "insightful."  The question is whether the gameplay is fun, but that's pretty specific to the individual playing or not.  A game can have all-new graphics and crap gameplay (Judgement!), or it can have a ton of recycled stuff and awesome gameplay (Symphony of the Night, which arguably got this whole recycling thing started)

Or Castlevania III, which recycled a good amount of CV1 stuff, too.  Diod some good graphical upgrades in the meantime, but there was plenty of copypaste back then.

[K.G. Morder]

Except CV lll was actually furthering the story, and had new things to it. This... is just PURE rehash. Almost EVERYTHING is reused, and the story is non existent. It is simply there to explain why all the characters are there, and nothing more.

[Ridureyu]

Yes, that's the point.  This is Castlevania's "Greatest Hits" CD.  It was neer intended to have a plot-furthering story, nor advertised as such, and likely was programmed in a timeframe that would not have allowed it.

Now, Judgment.  JUDGMENT furthered the story!  We learned a lot more about our favorite characters, like Maria.

[Renonsgoods]

I agree, that is the entire point of the game.  It's just an excuse to indulge in various bits of this series' gameplay.  It's no different than what was done with Judgement, except that Judgement featured gameplay that was completely alien to the series as a whole. I understand that it's a disappointment to some that this isn't a proper new 2D Vania.....complete with a throw-away story that adds nothing to the gameplay (like most of the recent DS games), but it means little if you actually glean some enjoyment from playing it.  It's obviously just a product that was thrown together on a shoe string budget to gauge the level of interest that is still to be had for a 2D CV on the home consoles.  And if that is the case, then we should all hope that it does well, lest Konami come to the conclusion that it's fruitless to pursue 2D games any further on these systems.

[JR]

It's obviously just a product that was thrown together on a shoe string budget to gauge the level of interest that is still to be had for a 2D CV on the home consoles.

But then again, if that's the way they decide to gauge interest in 2D, they're going about it all wrong. I just hope it doesn't convince them to take the cheap and lazy way with new games.

[Foffy]

I agree, that is the entire point of the game.  It's just an excuse to indulge in various bits of this series' gameplay.  It's no different than what was done with Judgement, except that Judgement featured gameplay that was completely alien to the series as a whole. I understand that it's a disappointment to some that this isn't a proper new 2D Vania.....complete with a throw-away story that adds nothing to the gameplay (like most of the recent DS games), but it means little if you actually glean some enjoyment from playing it.  It's obviously just a product that was thrown together on a shoe string budget to gauge the level of interest that is still to be had for a 2D CV on the home consoles.  And if that is the case, then we should all hope that it does well, lest Konami come to the conclusion that it's fruitless to pursue 2D games any further on these systems.

The story isn't a throwaway, it's nonexistent. The concept of why the game takes place in a book is outright absurd, and clearly emphasizes it has no meaning to the series as a whole. I recall some people here stating the Japanese version is worse, as it implies that the player is actually taking the form of one of these warriors as they enter the book.


Then again, Harmony of Despair comes off as a filler game for your time. From the laziness of sounding very similar to Harmony of Dissonance, to the mechanics in the game that do not even mesh well, it came off as a game that people can play just for some nonsensical Castlevania gameplay, with a little drop of Getsu Fuma Den on the side. It was a good diversion for the summer, but it isn't what I'd want to see again with the series. I would prefer a game with a full fledged single player mode, and if they feel multiplayer is a must, make it a side plot to the main game, and give us the option to make our own characters.

[Chernabogue]

CVIII with multiplayer?

[Alutwon]

But then again, if that's the way they decide to gauge interest in 2D, they're going about it all wrong. I just hope it doesn't convince them to take the cheap and lazy way with new games.

I agree completely, there is so much potential for a true successor to sotn. It blows my mind that konami has yet to attempt it. It's not like sotn isn't a popular game   

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

To the person who said Judgment's gameplay was crap:

I thought Judgment's gameplay was actually pretty great.  The game is fun to play, even online, and the characters are cool (though they should have been in their original outfits dammitall, or at least have those as an option).  And they had personalized dialogue.  Rondo Maria has always been an omake character for the fun of it so I did not imagine her dialogue would be anything spectacular.

[uzo]

I share Jorge's view here. The gameplay was actually really well done, and very flexible with comboing. There were a few balance tweaks and issues with supers that needed to be addressed, but overall it was really good for a 3d fighter, much less as the FIRST entry to a new fighter series (not that I expect more of them to be made).

My main beef is with the costumes and camera slip ups.

[knightmere]

Judgement wasn't THAT awful. The game won't be played professionally, but at least it was decent fan service. The soundtrack was the best part.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Actually people did hold tournaments for the game.
Ironically, Golem was top tier for it since he was awesome with his Rollout attack.
Ha ha!  Pokemon move.

[Renonsgoods]

Ok, so now we're all about defending Judgement and condemning Harmony of Despair? Ok. I thought both were horrible concepts for a CV game that just happened to be fun to play.  No sense in trying to formulate some sort of educated critique that makes one seem more worthy of playing than the other.  You can easily have some fun playing either game, but both titles are fairly disposable entries in the series that I'm not eager to see repeated in any form whatsoever.  Like others here have said, I want a fully fresh 2D title made for the consoles next time.......and NO attempts made at making a CV fighting game again (unless Namco makes it ). 

[knightmere]

I want to play Harmony of Despair but I only have a PS3 and PSN sucks balls.