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Dissappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Alright let me start by saying that this is by no means a bad game it simply does not hold up against the brilliance of circle of the moon or aria of sorrow. They did a much better of a job on the graphics(they are bright and easy to see) Controlling Juste is also a pleasure, you use the shoulder buttons to make him dash in that direction making the game feel very smooth. The old-school whip-flail is back too! Unfortunatly they lost some of the challenge that made the last game so great. I feel like i can just breeze through this game. The bosses while numerous are unmemorable. only a few actual create the tension that a boss should. They are just scattered about detracting from the feeling that they are "gaurdians" of a certain level of the catle. This also has one of the weakest magic systems. while i admit it was an interesting idea that had potential it fails miserably. you collect five books throughtout the game which you combine with you subweapon giving you a special attack. personally i like to stick with only one or two sub weapons depending on the situatio Finding the books is usually an inconvinience possing a challenge that lacks any sort of enjoyment. This just makes the magic system feel like it was tacked on at the last minute.

With all that said i still enjoy this game, the boss rush mode is cool but is poorly implemented and given that most of the bosses suck it takes away from the fun. if you have already played circle of the moon and aria of sorrow and need more castlevania joy this is a great game, but ultimatly i must recommend those two games before i recommend this one as it just lacks some of the things that made castlevania so great.

Good game but terrible replay value

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is probably my least favorite Castlevania in the RPG series (this title, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, and Portrait of Ruin). The gameplay is just about as good as the other 5 games but due to the lack of new-game-plus (which means extras when you beat the game) this game is not easy to pick up once you beat it. the other problem (which is related to the lack of replay value) is that the game is hard and it is tough to figure out where to go next (which leaves players frustrated and want to throw out their GBA or DS out the window). this is why I give the overall rating of 3 stars. Each of the other ones have great replay values (like Circle of the moon has certain names you can choose so that you can have higher strength or magic or whater than when you first played the game without any secrets or Aria and Dawn of Sorrow have you keep your most powerful weapons even when you beat the game, Portait of Ruin had more weapons than just a whip, and even though Symphony of the Night didn't have the best secrets, it has great replay value and it's just that great of a game overall)

Even though it's still a good game, just think twice before you purchase this game. If you get the 2 in 1 game (this game and Aria of Sorrow), I guess that's a little different because there are 2 games in one cartridge and even if this game isn't played often, at least the cart gets a little more attention.

Globally well made, but revisiting the same places over and over again can get tedious

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the second Game boy advance castlevania game.

For those unfamiliar with the series, you play as a member of the Belmont family, which for some obscure reason is cursed and must fight Dracula each time the famous vampire reincarnates (which, given the number of episodes, must be pretty often). But Dracula is not readily accessible, and you'll first have to navigate his maze-like castle before you reach the place where you'll finally have an opportunity to teach the old gothic freak a lesson.

You move around like you do in your typical action/adventure, jumping on platforms, fighting a whole lot of different enemies, mostly of the undead or mythological kind. Your weapon, a whip, is really a trademark of the Castlevania games. But you also get these so-called sub-weapons, which are actually more classical weapons for bashing living deads, such as holy water, a bible or crucifix. There's even a magical system implemented, in which you combine these subweapons with magical tomes to create about 20 different effects.

The game is not purely action/adventure though: some role-playing elements have been added. By defeating monsters, your character gains experience and, when he has accumulated enough, will gain a level. Each time this happens, you become slightly stronger. There is also quite an extensive inventory of things you can equip, so much so that it becomes slightly difficult to manage once you reach the middle of the game.

The wide variety of monsters (over 100) is definitely one of the most attractive features of the game, even if their behaviour is for the most part very predictable. Bosses are also very predictable and overall, they're just very stupid and a breeze to beat. That's quite a major problem of the game: actually, the challenge lies more in determining where to go next than in fighting some tough baddies.

Like other games in the series, Harmony of dissonance gives you a good feeling of freedom in exploring the castle. Of course, at first your progression will be blocked by different obstacles, such as barriers too high to jump over or stone walls, but you later earn new moves or acquire new weapons that enable you to overcome them, opening yet more areas for your exploration. This, coupled with the very little guidance the game throws at you has its downside: you'll find yourself going back and forth the same areas over and over again, up to a point that it becomes a chore, especially when you reach a high enough level that the enemies encountered become too easy to present an interest. The fact that there are actually two parallel castles, sharing the same map, only with different enemies and overall graphical design, makes this problem even more serious. In an attempt to overcome this issue, the developers have introduced rooms where you can teleport to other such rooms, but they are far too scarcely distributed to be an effective cure to the problem.

Graphically, the game packs some nice style, with genuinely gothic and dark backgrounds. The castle does feel creepy, and that's certainly a good thing. Another pleasant recurring feature of the game is the giant bosses you have to fight, and, graphically at least, the game does not disappoint in this respect. The bosses are genuinely huge and really impressive to look at. The rest of the monsters also look decent. What is slightly disappointing, though, is the animation of your character, which is obviously made out of too few a number of frames. Your movements therefore lack smoothness. It only distracts in the first few minutes and you quickly get used to it, but still, it is difficult to understand why the designers would not put more effort into animating a sprite that remains on screen all the time. The monsters, on the other hand, are for the most part flawlessly animated.

The music has been described by a lot of reviewers as lacking, but frankly, it gets the job done decently. It's certainly not very successful at making you forget that it is just video game music (we know the GBA is capable of sounding more like « real music »), but it sets a nice mood and its retro touch will appeal to fans of a series that started on the NES.

The sound effects, on the other hand, are mostly unremarkable, lacking variety. At least they do not distract or irritate, but they remain pretty basic all the way through.

As far as value is concerned, given the overall lack of challenge, it won't take you that long to complete Harmony of Dissonance. And, because so much time is spent revisiting the same places over and over again, you may feel that the total time played has been artificially inflated.

As far as replay value goes, the developers made reasonable efforts to incite you to come back to the game. First, there are 3 different endings, and of course, the better ones are also the most challenging reach. Then, once the game is beaten, you gain access to a « boss rush mode », where you'll fight boss after boss, trying to complete the challenge in the shortest time possible. And finally, the game can be played again with an entirely different character when you enter special codes, but you'll have to read a gameguide to get knowledge of that fact because there is absolutely no hint at that feature in the game or manual. The question is: will you want to revisit the places you've already been through such a huge number of times ? My opinion if that you will not, at least not right away, but maybe after a couple of months have gone by.

Overall, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance looks really good and is certainly not bad value for money, but there are a couple of gameplay issues too serious to ignore. It's certainly worth playing, but those coming with the high expectations they have for anything bearing the name « castlevania » are in for some mild disappointment.

Graphics : 17/20
Sound/music : 13/20
Gameplay : 12/20
Lastability : 15/20
Subjective score : 13/20
Total : 70%

Harmony of Dissonance

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The ever lasting Castlevania series hit incredibly high on the GBA with the release of Circle of the Moon. Circle of the Moon being one of the best Castlevania games ever made (though, once again, nothing compares to Symphony of the Night). Harmony of Dissonance, the second of the GBA games, is also a fantastic game.

Castlevania almost never tells a different story. This time it's Juste Belmont out to defeat the evil count. Castlevania hasn't been about story so much as it's been about gameplay. Harmony of Dissonance certainly does have good gameplay.

Once again, Castlevania takes on a Metroid feel as you explore through the castle. Some areas can't be reached until you've got certain abilities and have defeated certain bosses, but for the most part, the game is highly non-linear. You can tackle the game in almost any order you feel.

Juste arms himself with a whip. It's the only weapon he uses. You can press and hold B and it'll dangle and you can control it, but you'll almost never need or use this move throughout the game. Juste can also use secondary weapons such as the Cross, Axe, Holy Water and Dagger. There are a few more than this, but these are the basics that have been in just about every Castlevania game. Now, however, you can combine them with different kinds of special magic books. While Juste can only carry one sub-weapon at a time, the results of combinging it with an elemental magic book is different. There aren't nearly as many combinations as the Circle of the Moon's DSS Card System, but it gives the game enough variety to the point where it isn't stale.

Harmony of Dissonance isn't a hard game. In fact, in comparison to Circle of the Moon, it's incredibly easy. Even the games bosses are not much of a challenge at all. It's a fun trip, but it's a lot easier than your standard Castlevania.

However, despite it's ease, the game looks absolutely fantastic. The GBA's power really shines with this game. The environments are decorative, and they're not quite as dark as Circle of the Moon's. The bosses and castle design also look refreshingly fantastic.

Then we get to the music. The music really should've been better, but to clear a couple of things up, I'll tell you why the music isn't a fault of this game. For one, if you disliked the music... good. You're NOT supposed to like this music. The subtitle of the game is, after all, Harmony of Dissonance. The music does a great job of giving the feeling of dissonance. It's easily demonstrated in how people negatively feel about the music. So the music IS horrible, but it isn't meant to be good. It's meant to give the feeling of dissonance and it succeeds simply because most people don't like it. So no, you're not supposed to like the music in this game. In fact, you're supposed to hate it. So the reviewers saying the music is terrible are absolutely right. But it's not supposed to be good.

Harmony of Dissonance is a great addition to the Castlevania series, but it really doesn't do much to separate it from others in the series.

The Good
+Fantastic visuals
+The music gives the feeling of dissonance
+A lot of variety to the gameplay
+Great bosses and exploration

The bad
-The music, as many have said... isn't good, but it's not supposed to be likeable
-It's way too easy

Fun but falls flat on its face.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Sure the graphics are much more colorful than the last GBA Castlevania but the graphics and enemies look downright like cartoons in most parts.

Plus whats the deal with your main characters blue shadow?
I think that was a bit of a overkill.
And the magic system has been severely, and badly, toned down from the Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

And the two identical castle system really lacks imagination and makes the game very very tedius near its end.
Exploring every area of the game TWICE does make the game longer but it definitely doesnt make it funner...

A great adventure at times obscured by myriad blemishes.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Harmony of Dissonance (HoD, for the contraction) begs to be compared with any and every Castlevania game that has appeared since the series began in 1986, but despite the large number of cameos and overall classic feel it is best to ultimately judge this title on its own merits, providing comparisons merely for reference. It accomplishes what it sets out to in providing a gameplay experience that has some incredibly strong points and a variety of goals, but tastes as though it has had some artifical extenders added into the mix.

The GBA's shoulder buttons allow you to dash left or right at nearly any time, setting an emphasis early in the game on making an attack quickly and dashing away. Tellingly, there aren't any poisoned waters you will be collecting a necklace to treat; while many upgrades will be familiar from Circle of the Moon (CotM, Konami's 2001 GBA Castlevania), Harmony of Dissonance adds some of these essential items as whip upgrades and effectively integrates them into the game. In place of CotM's DSS card system is a new Spell Fusion system which allows the player to use only the classic subweapons (a dash of holy water or a thrown axe in your enemy's face) or to pair a subweapon with a particular type of elemental magic to great effect. Inscrutable enemy tolerance/weakness come into play once again, but an Encyclopedia of fallen enemies will help you figure out what's helpful - though the trouble of changing your whip upgrade or Spell Fusion combo is usually greater than simply whipping away at the enemy would be. As a bit of a spoiler, at least one combination allows you to rotate your d-pad to get something extra out of the attack, and it's also possible to use one type of music by itself (though you must lose the subweapon first - can you figure that one out?)

The magic and item systems are responsible for the wealth of "bosses are easy" comments. Played in a traditional fashion without magic or using healing items during battle, Harmony of Dissonance is indeed challenging. Even with some use of the Spell Fusion system against bosses, they absorb many hits before you can finally vanquish them and their attacks often deplete a fourth of your life meter or more.

HoD also differs from Circle of the Moon in that characters are is much larger than in CotM, while areas are smaller in scale and don't feature the same panoramic vistas of that other title. HoD provides, pixel for pixel, more variety and actual content in all areas despite this.

At release, HoD was considered to be a significant step up from CotM in terms of graphics with many highly detailed backgrounds taking the place of CotM's usually repetitive ones (in addition both games have paralax scrolling in many areas). Visibility is now less of an issue with the introduction of the GBA SP and the GB Player, but at the time the "neon castle" approach was very appropriate (it reminds one of the original Rastan arcade game in a way), and fans were relieved for the reprieve against visits to the eye doctor and purchasing Afterburner kits. Harmony goes overboard with tons of large artwork pieces to be found that fill a good section of the screen and many large details filling in parts of the environment - it actually manages to compete with the third GBA Castlevania, Aria of Sorrow. Unfortunately, this game also contains some amazingly ugly and repetitive areas; a few of the game's tallest shafts are nothing but a series of floors to jump onto over and over, with a slow elevator in the middle. Harmony would have been served better to have some of these less interesting areas spruced up a bit; a few superfluous elements to the game should've been axed to make it happen. The save rooms in particular simply look pathetic, with a silly bouncing ball in the middle. The sprites for the three main characters also aren't anything to look at; your hero's running animation is comical. Overall, though, many of the trippy graphical ideas come off excellently.

HoD has taken a severe pounding for its music. Notably lower in quality than Circle of the Moon's neat music which at times sounded on par with the SNES; the reasoning here is that to provide the (usually) incredible graphics they had to fall back to PGM sound - basically back to programming sound for the Game Boy Color. Given this, the music sounds very good, with some incredibly strong tracks such as Successor of Fate (the Entrance theme), Offense and Defense (the next area BGM), and Chapel of Dissonance (the Sky Walkway area BGM) is rather nice as well. That said, some of it might be favorably described as a strange attempt to set the mood (the Luminous Caverns track)...or simply unpleasant to listen to and even depressing. This is a mixed bag, but Juste's Theme (the Entrance Theme again) has become a personal favorite from not only the game but the series.

There are some other minor quirks, and the game employs a trick to allow more of the same castle to be visited (along the lines of SotN). I felt that this idea was executed brilliantly overall; sometimes the changes are quite stunning and unexpected. On the down side, some interesting references to previous Castlevania games in the item list were botched for the English translation - Sypha (the female magician from Castlevania III) became Cipher, and a curious item that allows you to fling fireballs from your whip when at full health is no longer called Christoper's Soul. There's also a bit of (humorous!) unedited translation in the script that should keep you chuckling. The "true endgame" is very hard to find and figure out, but the pieces are all within your reach early on.

This is a great game - not great enough to make one a fan of bangles and room decoration, but it's a solid game overall with some incredible moments that few other games have.

good... but there are better...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Being a long time castlevania fan, I was really excited about this game. I however was somewhat disapointed with it. What the game gets right is great play controll, cool areas, some neat items and a neat gothic-vampire-esque story. But this game has almost no difficulty (except for collecting ALL of the relics... that is a chalenge)... To be honest, the only time I died was while playing the final boss, and even then, that death could have been easily avoided if I had used one of my 13 potions. The magic system in the game is ok, using spell books with weapons to create powerful magic, but these spell books are too easilly obtained (except for the last book, the summoning tome, which reqires a little bit of searching)and just a little too powerful. The bosses are also VERY uninspired and boaring compared to previous castlevania bosses. The game is a great time killer and is fun, but if you are looking for some gothic, vampire slaying action, You should probably look at Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, or Castlevania lament of Innocence. If you're a fan, then pick it up ..... but if not, you might want to consider another castlevania game.

Castlevania continues it's reign of quality

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The Castlevania series are my favorites, for sure, and this one's another gem for the collection.This one's about Juste Belmont, blood descendant of Simon Belmont,a master vampire hunter who has slayed the Count on multiple occassions. The plot is different than just slaying Drac though. Juste's friend Lydie has disappeared within the walls of Castlevania, and Juste and
his childhood friend Maxim Kischne set out to find her, yet everything ends up going awry somehow...Just to boot, Maxim's body is invaded by Dracula's spirit...BUT...The real aim of this game is to find all of Dracula's Remains (Fang, Tooth, Nail, Ring, Eye, Heart) though most players will not realize this without help from a strategy guide of sorts...

As for the actual review, there are a variety of things right and wrong with this game. To boot, we have superb graphics, boasting some of the most vivid, easy-on-the-eyes background scenery on the Game Boy Advance, but the blue aura surrounding Juste makes him seem somewhat out of place. Not to mention when he walks and jumps, he seems like he's magnetically attracted to the ground-but that's a completely seperate problem!

The castle is huge. There's so much to explore, and I'm glad they brought back the teleporter system, which predecessor Circle of the Moon sloppily butchered. There are two castles, one being a harder version of the other (a Symphony of the Night element.) with greater puzzles and challenges. Everything's easy to adjust to, and it never seems like you have to guess where you're going, which is another thing Circle of the Moon did wrong. Also brought back is the currency system with the Merchant's Shop though the items are a little cheap...which can add or take away challenge depending on what the player wants...even though the game is challenging without being strenuous as it is.

The music is well orchestrated, but the sound quality is a throwback to the days of NES. A select few compositions are simply superb, while the rest are mediocre. Listen closely for the one in the Sky Walkway, which is haunting. Moving on...

The bosses are redundant and often pointless (Getting a jewel that inreases MP restoration rate for getting rid of one of the game's harder bosses for example...and MP is not important) but some are unique and well-thought of (the Devil, for example.) Death (Grim Reaper) also makes a lovely appearance (or four) One thing they stole from Symphony, however, that they shouldn't have is the cheesy dialouge. Yes, it's back. Misplaced curse words and utterly stupid scriptwriting at some points add a flavor of kiddy gameplay to the game- not that the game is, however, a kiddy game. My biggest qualm, however, is that the game is simply a pain (...) few points, if that tells you anything. Some enemies have no pattern to them, hence, they're so unpredictable that it makes the game frustrating. But you'll adjust over time, and the good far outweighs the bad. The best of the three Castlevania GBA games, by far, if simply for the replay value (very, very high...) and the overall quality. It would have made a successful Playstation game. The 2nd best in the series, in my opinion, even with the negative points.

BOTTOM LINE: Harmony of Fun
GRADE: A

hot damn

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

the game really isn't that bad, only complaint is it's difficulty. i don't think i died at all when against the bosses, no strategy was needed either...just threw crosses wildly and the thing will find it's way to death. and another thing is that you start off with the dash move. now those are the only flaws of the game. an interesting thing about the game is having to find the remains of dracula like in simon's quest. finding these is actually one of the things that they make challenging. another thing that adds value is that there are two castles within the game, castle a and castle b. they have seperate enemies and different items. map completing has become one of the things i like about recent castlevanias. this game is good for anyone that has grown to love the series, but new players should consider aria of sorrow. aria of sorrow stands as the best gameboy game of the series.

The best Castlevania game yet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I don't know why, but people are underestimating Harmony of Dissonance. I'ts up there with the best of 'em, and this is why:

Story: 810 At the beginning, its a little slow. You are Juste Belmont, and your friend Liddy is missing. You and your friend Maxim enter Castlevania in search of their missing buddy. Maxim is suffering from amnesia, and cant remember where he last saw Liddy, so you have to search the castle and finnally deck it out with Drac himself.

Graphics: 10/10 What an improvement! Circle of the Moon's graphics were so dark, you would have to be outside to see the screen. The graphics are much brighter, and the animation is improved, too.

Music: 7/10 Allright, I have to admit it. The music isnt as good as it could be, but the graphics and overall gameplay more than make up for it. Plus, theres an extra Music selection mode after you defeat dracula.

Characters: 10/10 The characters are very original. The main character is Juste Belmont, son, or perhaps grandson, or Simon. He also has inhereted magic abilities from another ancestor, which is probably why he is able to do magic weapon combos. He bears a slight resemblence to Alucard (from Sotn), but thats a good thing(Alucard rox).

Gameplay: 10/10 The best part of the game is actually playing it! Theres always something new coming at you from around the corner, and its impossible to stop playing one you start. Get ready for an adventure!

Overall Score: 45/50 A perfect game for a Castlevania fan, or any fan of video games!

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