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If you liked Circle of The Moon

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: September 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Konami has been bringing us Castlevania games for over a decade now. From the first adventure on the NES, which introduced us to the Belmont legacy to the classic Symphony of the Night on the PSX and amazing Circle of the Moon on the GBA, Castlevania has always been one of the best series around and every game showcased something new and grand - upped the ante if you will. Harmony of Dissonance isn't bad in any way. It simply isn't as good as the classics before it.

Don't get me wrong, Harmony of Dissonance is not a bad game, but it's not without it's flaws. Major flaws. After hours of playing this game, these flaws will become obvious to you as well.

Harmony of Dissonance plays much like Circle of the Moon. You run around a huge maze-like castle, beating enemies with your whip and special items like the holy or the axe. When you beat a boss, typically, you can go onto the next level, you gain some new ability that allows you to progress into the castle, be it a double jump, wall jump, etc.

Harmony of Dissonance takes a good deal from SoTN or CoTM and puts a twist on it. There are different weapons you can get, there is now a code book instead of DSS cards, there is an alternate dungeon. All of this is well and good, but there simply isn't enough new about this game to warrant a purchase Unless you're a die-hard Castlevania fan.

The music flat out [stinks]. Anyone telling you anything else is either lying or tone-deaf. And it's not just that the music is low, NES quality, it's that the compositions are dull, some of them are downright annoying. Gives double meaning to the subtitle Harmony of Dissonance.

The graphics are upgraded from CoTM, and all in all it's an improvement. The characters and enemies are now easy to see and there are some neat graphical and rotation effects with the bosses. Some nice stuff.

But graphics and sound aren't what makes a game. Even though I hate the sound and love the graphics, I won't let that alter my score. I'm grading this game on gameplay. The gameplay is where it's all at. And this is where Harmony of Dissonance is lacking. The castle design in Circle of the Moon is far superior. In Harmony of Dissonance you'll find yourself wandering aroung for hours, partly due to poor maps, sometimes having to walk across half the castle to get to where you want to go. And when walking across the castle takes five minutes each time or more, it gets to be annoying.

Okay, so that part's not that bad. The thing that really degrades the game for me is that it's way too easy. In past Castlevania games, you got to a boss, and he was a challenge blocking your way. You had to memorize complex patterns to show him who's boss. In Harmony of Dissonance, most bosses are insanely easy, follow the simplest of patterns, and take off only a smidgen of health when they hit you. [lame]. I don't like frustrating, but I don't like feeling cheated, either. And well, it's a Castlevania game- IT SHOULDN'T BE EASY!!

All in all, this isn't a bad game. If it was the first Castlevania game, it would be brilliant, but most of the game simply seems to be what the game designers loved about previous Castlevania games. One of the problems with the game is that it's a rehash, and it plays way too similar to old Castlevania games. And it's too easy. Way too easy for a Castlevania game. Next thing you know, we're gonna see an easy Contra game...

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...

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.

Harmony not as melodic as Circle

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game 2 days ago and gave it a try last night. Well first of all I'm a little dissapointed.

Music
The music is very simplistic. It's obvious they spent little time on that. I'd compare it to Castlevania for the original NES. Circle of the Moon however has great music and gameplay. It even opens with an opera singer.

Gameplay
Not bad. The controls are simple to figure out. The items, spells menu is a little simple. Circle has a well designed look and feel. I particulary like Harmony's quick save feature. Circle was a little tough becuase you had to battle your way back to a red room to save.

Brightness and characters
They claim the characters are larger than COM. Well that may be true, but the detail is a little lacking. Look at a game like Pinball of the Dead or COM. Now that is some well designed characters. This game is considerably brighter than COM which is better for some. For me the COM was fine when you used the correct lighting.

As a result, I don't see why this game got rated higher than 3 stars. To be fair, I was comparing it to Circle of the Moon which is a phenominal game and doesn't compaare. They did make Harmony brighter than COM which is a ++. Although, I do play both on a TV viewer or use a bright light on the GBA and it's just fine anyway. The music on Harmony is simple like a 8-bit NES game. COM is far better MIDI style.

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.

A decent enough game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I dunno. Four days after buying this game, I'm still not sure if I really liked it. The gameplay's great, and I *think* I like the simplified magical system.
The biggest problem is the "What do I do now?" factor. The bizarre non sequiturs, like jumping through a seemingly solid wall to get an item needed to progress. Going to random, far-away (it's a huge castle!) places looking for a key needed to get to the next section of the game (and then trying to figure out which locked door the key goes to.) It's not a difficult game, just frustrating and a little unfair, since there's very few clues provided by the game. It's like the game makers said, "Hey, just toss em something randomly and let THEM figure it out - it'll increase play time!" Sure, but I don't like spending my play time frustrated.
The graphics are great. Sound's not THAT lame, but it's not CotM. Controls are just as good as the previous games. Ah,it could've been a classic game, had it been better designed.

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.

First Review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: October 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is my first review, but since reviews always help me out I wanted to return the favor. First off if this is your first castlevania game for gameboy, dont by it, get the other castlevania title, circle of the moon, than go from there. If you liked COTM and are thinking of buying this, I suggest it.

The graphics are better to start off with, and the normal walking monsters throughout the map are also more of a challange. On the downside, the bosses are much easier and the sound is much worse. You also only have 3 save files, but there is a new quicksave which comes in really handle if you have to stop playing in a hurry.

The magic system has been changed from cards to spellbooks, your spellbooks go off of which subweapon you use. I'm not sure if I like the change, but its livable.

The RPG system is the same and the game is still fun to play. Considering I'm deployed in Afgainstain right now, I have all the time in the world to play games, so I'm happy to have this one. It's worth the money.

One heck of a good time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have to say I loved it, its a great time, from the moment I got it. The graphics are awesome and it feels like you are playing Symphony of the Night. I bought Circle of the Moon and it was good, but this one is a lot better. The game plays faster thanks to the dash buttons. There are enough extras to keep you entertained with the game for a while. Many people do feel dissapointed cause the game really is on the easy side. But if you are looking for a good time not some hard action game so hard too beat it will get you frustrated. This game has a beautiful look, an fast paced feel and it gets you intrguied enough in it that you wont stop until you beat it. Love it

The music...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: August 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I first heard of this game it was the music that caught my attention. Some of it is supposedly composed by Mana from Malice Mizer (go check 'em out) So I thought AWESOME!! 'cause their music totally rocks. But then it turns out that the music is that ... electronic beep kind. Other than that the game looks great but the music... =(

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