Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance – How apt of a title

We, as gamers, should be able to forgive Konami for the misstep that was Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. The game released at the launch of the Game Boy Advance in June 2001, a system still in its infancy, and was another in an attempt to make a palatable portable Castlevania title. Also, the game was developed by Konami’s now-defunct Kobe studios, a subset of the company known for releasing the lower quality titles from Konami – including the two god-awful N64 Castlevania titles. That’s more reason why you should just forget about it.

In case some fans didn’t, though, Konami decided to make a spiritual follow-up in order to appease to the fans. They called it Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, a title developed by Konami’s Tokyo studios. The game was also headed by Koji Igarashi (IGA), and developed by the same team responsible for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Therefore, it should be a great game; the worthy successor that fans had been clamoring since its predecessor graced the PSOne back in 1997. Expectations, however, can only get you so far.

Calling HoD a successor to SotN is only grammatically correct in terms of the game being from the same development team, not in canon. The game’s storyline occurs well before Symphony, starring the grandson of Castlevania II’s Simon Belmont: Juste Belmont (pronounced “Joost”). He’s called into action when his friend, Maxim Kischine, informs him that their friend, Lydie Erlanger, has been kidnapped and taken into Dracula’s Castle. Both Juste and Maxim take off to rescue her from the ominous and monolithic labyrinth.

One of the flaws the team sought to correct in this game was the main character’s walking speed. CotM’s Nathan Graves walked way, way too slow, forcing the player to always tap forward twice to run every time they needed to (more cumbersome than it sounds). HoD’s Juste runs at a brisk pace, but also added to this game is the ability to dash backward and forward across platforms (whereas Symphony only had a back dashing option). This makes the pacing of the game faster, and makes simply running less of a needless chore.

Also fixed by this game are the graphics. CotM wasn’t too hard on the eyes, but its simple sprites and color palette showed its Game Boy Color origins. HoD uses the Game Boy Advance’s graphical abilities to display animation and colors almost rivaling SotN. It still looks nice despite its apparent focus on a rainbow of reds and greens (though that really kind of works against it if you plan on playing the game on one of the newer, backlit GBA SP’s, which bleeds red colors. Keep that in mind), but no one in their right mind was expecting something on par with SotN from a system not capable of that the PSOne could do.

Also new to HoD are elemental sub-weapons. The sub-weapons themselves are nothing new to the Castlevania franchise, but in this game, Juste has the ability to add elements like fire and ice to them, using various effects depending on what elemental book you have equipped (they’re acquired in various places throughout the game). This is a very useful ability for enemies who are weak against a specific effect.

The tragedy here is that while HoD tried to mimic SotN and rectify CotM’s mistakes, it also falters on elements those two titles got right. One is the difficulty; CotM started off OK, but as you progressed through the game, it became a little too challenging, forcing you to level grind in places in order to have a fighting chance against enemies in further sections. HoD makes things easier…too much easier, in fact. You don’t even have to be a seasoned Castlevania veteran to make it through the game with minimal effort.

It’s true that SotN was a pretty easy game, but it was one that displayed a well-balanced form of easy. This means that while mostly every obstacle in that game was climbable without making your palms sweaty, it was still fun because you were an even match against the opposition. But HoD is far too easy, and Juste is always far too powerful for just about every enemy, which makes things boring. SotN certainly didn’t have any bosses that you could defeat without taking a scratch, which is exactly what a good half of the boss encounters in this game will end like. Most of the bosses are easier rehashes of forms from all of the previous games, and the ones that aren’t are just lame in design.

CotM had a problem with its level design, in that while there were different sections of the castle, most of them had the same bland aesthetics to them, making exploring them feel monotonous. HoD makes its levels more distinct, as its backgrounds and aesthetics make every area feel different than one that came before…for a while. That’s until you reach the halfway point of the game and advance into the second castle, only to realize that it’s the same castle in reverse. This is where the monotony begins to set in, where you’re required to go back through the same locations in a maze-like manner, searching to trigger the next plot device or find the next boss. Very little of the “exploration” in the second castle is any fun, it’s just incredibly tedious. An upside-down castle in SotN was clever when it was done back in 1997, but in 2002, a reverse castle just reeks of laziness.

They also completely missed the mark on the music, as HoD has one of the worst, if not the worst, soundtracks to ever grace a Castlevania title. Not because the tunes utilize NES-style sound quality, but because the music tracks are poorly composed. They seem comprised of a cacophony of sounds, strung together in the intent of forming something palatable to listen to. NES-style soundtracks can be done right on the GBA, the Mega Man Battle Network soundtracks are a good example, but if you want an example of them being done horribly wrong, look here.

The experience is over fairly quickly. Like the other Castlevania games on the GBA, HoD can be completed in around 4-5 hours. Its total playtime is an homage to the 16-bit era in every respect in that aspect, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering that game’s overall quality.

The developers attempt to mimic SotN falls flat, as it seems that they forgot what people adore
d about their previous effort in the first place. There’s already the example of the castle design, but fans liked the fact that SotN was unique for a Castlevania game, and took the series into uncharted waters with its design. Sure, SotN may have aped the Metroid-template (establishing the term “Metroidvania”), but presented some new challenges for the franchise. That’s something HoD never, ever does.

These days, Harmony of Dissonance only remains a slightly masochistic curiosity, much like Circle of the Moon. In trying to fix the flaws of CotM, HoD gets some aspects right, and breaks a number of others. If you’re searching for a Metroidvania fix on the GBA, as far as Castlevania goes, Aria of Sorrow remains your only worthwhile option. Well, that and Metroid: Zero Mission.