Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
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| Let my love open the door...to stabbing Dracula's heart. |
It's tough to talk about any one of the Game Boy Advance' three Castlevania games without mentioning the other two. These three games are very often compared against one other, and I can't even pretend like that's something I'm not going to do here.
Harmony of Dissonance is the second of these three games, and was produced by Koji Igarashi, who also developed series favorite, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. For some reason, before Harmony of Dissonance's release, Igarashi felt obligated to throw some serious shade at Circle of the Moon, the first Castlevania game released for Game Boy Advance--and the only one not produced by Igarashi. Circle of the Moon, like most 2D Castlevanias, is a great game, and perhaps Igarahi's bow shot is the reason these games are so furiously compared against one another.
But wait, what the Dracula is a Castlevania game?
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| Whatever it is, this guy blocking my path is only going to be a part of it for about three more seconds. |
Castlevania came to prominence on the NES, as a challenging 2D action/platformer, where the player, generally a member of the vampire-hunting Belmont family, is sent out with a whip and a variety of sub-weapons to destroy Dracula and his monstrous minions. This general idea was further developed in subsequent sequels, until Castlevania: Symphony on the Night for the Sony PS1 completely tweaked the formula. Symphony of the Night took a major element from the SNES game Super Metroid, putting the hero in a closed environment where they acquire new abilities that allow them to then backtrack and access areas of that environment that were previously unreachable. In Metroid games, this is the sub-surface of an alien planet...in Castlevania, it is Dracula's castle. Igarashi also took some elements from the RPG genre and applied them to the Castlevania series. For instance, the protagonist can now level up--gaining experience by killing foes, and getting stronger, tougher, and luckier, etc. when certain amounts of experience are acquired. So not only does the player get to enjoy whipping bats out of the sky (actually, the protagonist in Symphony uses a sword!) and eviscerating zombies on a visceral level, but also reaping material benefits from their slaughtering, as well. Speaking of material benefits, the player can also find upgraded armor and whip improvements by exploring or felling foes.
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| Pictured: A foe about to get felt...er, felled. |
Igarashi insinuated that Circle of the Moon deviated too much from Symphony of the Night's admittedly winning formula, but the truth is, Circle actually adhered to it pretty closely. With that said, Harmony of Dissonance does hew far closer to Symphony of the Night's aesthetic--Circle of the Moon featured a darker, sort of green-tinted graphical bent with a fairly small, and simple-looking protagonist. Harmony of Dissonance, without losing Castlevania's macabre visual appeal, brightens the palette considerably, while also enlarging the sprite (2D image) of the protagonist, who is, in this installment, Juste Belmont. The original Game Boy Advance was not backlit, meaning it could not be played in the dark. Subsequent versions of the GBA took care of this issue, but thankfully, even on a backlit screen, Harmony of Dissonance's mountain of skulls, candles, and grotesque statues ensure the game's look isn't cheery and sunny, despite an abundance of pink and periwinkle. The hero, wielding the classic Castlevania whip, and enemies are animated well enough--I particularly enjoy when witches or possessed suits of armor catch on fire and flame out after I thrash them. The bosses, placed frequently throughout the castle, are large and suitably gruesome. The blue shadow that follows Juste, assumedly added to make his position on screen more clear, is both cool, and like the game's color scheme, a little gaudy.
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| Never gaudy: re-animated skeletons who burst into flames when you de-animate them. |
The control scheme for Harmony of Dissonance is also a bit more intuitive than Circle of the Moon. The D-Pad is perfectly responsive for general movement. The respective GBA shoulder buttons allow the player to dash left and right. Special abilities gained throughout the game, like double-jumping, are incredibly easy to utilize. The sub-weapon system, where the player acquires typical Castlevania items like an axe, holy water, or daggers, can, in a fashion unique to this installment, be combined with found spell books (like a fire book, ice book, etc.), in order to create special attacks. These special attacks deplete a magic meter, which recharges automatically, or can be filled by easily acquirable items. This all works in an incredibly satisfying and intuitive fashion...maybe too intuitive. While Castlevania games were once historically known for their difficulty, I did not hear Harmony of Dissonance's "Game Over" music, until I beat the game and unlocked the sound test mode.
That's right, I played through Harmony of Dissonance, and never died.
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I am good at video games, but I am not that good. The game's perfect controls and incredibly effective weapon system, coupled with mostly under-powered enemies and the ability to easily gain new experience levels, make the overall gaming experience far too easy. Frequent save points, which refill the player's health and magic meter, as well as health-reviving items easily purchased from the always near castle merchant (with money found throughout the game), increase the easiness. Harmony of Dissonance does feature a unique, dual-castle system, where the player must warp between two slightly different versions of the castle in order to complete the game. This does force the player to think laterally at times, but it never caused me to die. Don't get me wrong, I had fun for the entirety of my gameplay experience, but a more difficult challenge would have perhaps prolonged the game's completion time, and made finishing it more fulfilling.
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| My real life would be far more fulfilling if I walked out of a giant monster skeleton's mouth every morning. |
As it is, I beat Harmony of Dissonance in ten hours, and I really take my time. Thankfully, beating it does open up a "Hard Mode," which increases enemy resistance, as well as a "Boss Rush" mode, which is exactly what it sounds to be. Most impressive, though, is the ability to play through the game with a different character who has an entirely different move selection--and who doesn't have the ability to level up, greatly increasing difficulty. These options all increase the value and gameplay time of Harmony of Dissonance by quite a bit, not to mention the presence of a secret room in the castle that Juste can fill with collectible furniture he finds throughout his adventure. Unfortunately, the hard and alternate character modes both require the input of codes to access. They are simple codes (use "Hard" and "Maxim" as your player name, respectively), easily acquired on Google, but I wish they were just offered on the menu screen once the game is completed.
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| Wow, this looks familiar. |
I've saved the most divisive element of the game for last, though.
Circle of the Moon features a soundtrack that is near CD quality. While each track features a slight hint of white noise, and many are reimagined versions of previous themes, the overall sound design is immersive and fantastic. The opening menu even features a choral piece! Harmony of Dissonance's developer's focus on graphics led to a decreased dedication to sound design. Unfortunately, this means that this 2002 release has an aural palette barely more advanced than an NES game. Thankfully, if one can look past the low-quality tones used, most of the game's music is actually quite good on a technical level. In particular, "Offense and Defense" really amps me up to wipe out the armies of darkness.
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| But nothing gets me amped like Rococo architecture. |
Overall, Harmony of Dissonance is a solid title in the Castlevania series. It looks good, it plays well, and it's good fun. It's too short, and far too easy, but it does offer a ton of bonus features for those who finish it. The soundtrack would be a standout for an 8-bit game, but it disappoints in quality compared to its predecessor. I think this is a must play for fans of 2D action games, and a great Castlevania entry for those who have previously been frightened off by the series' once legendary difficulty.
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| It's gonna be difficult for Juste to get all of this crap out of here if he ever decides to move. |
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