[Greng]

Carrying on from the Circle of the Moon topic...

First impressions compared to Circle of the Moon...

Its a lot brighter, Juste and some of the enemies have an aura around them to make them stand out. This isn't so much an overreaction to the response CotM's gloomy look got as an acceptrance that perhaps the GBA isn't the easiest screen to look at under any conditions.

More whip, only different mechanics to CotM. More like Super Castlevania 4 with the jerky post whip directional thing going on. Also, if you jump whip in a direction you are committing yourself to going that way.

Movement is different. There is option to run but you can speed around using the dash. This looks a little ridiculous but is effective. I have to say this is even more irksome than a double tap to run as you have to keep jamming the shoulder buttons to continue running, anyway, this was a concern raised by someone else, not me.

The castle is a lot more open ended. I got lost a little very early on by missing an obvious exit (entrance to the wailing city) then backtracking all the way across the areas I'd already seen. There were still some little rooms here and there to enter while I was doing the rounds so I quite liked the impression that exploration actually requires going off the beaten path.

Abilities are more like those from SotN, where the first one you get tells you the damage inflicted to enemies and another early one is the encyclopedia (yaay).

Also, the general shoddiness of menus is akin to SotN!

Graphics are...? I don't really know that I like them more than CotM. Theyre more colourful, have a deeper pallete and more detail, but still seem a bit boring (so far). The enemies are clearly larger and more detailed and this is a good thing.
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[Moogs]

Harmony of Dissonance is awesome because the castle design is such a damn mess, yet it sort of makes sense within the context of the story.

[spinach]

I like this one a lot more than I should probably.

[Greng]

yeah the starting areas are quite a sprawl and that's good with me. Since finishing AoS (and that was some time ago) I remember filing this one under disappointing. On replay so far, I'm rather enjoying it. The bosses are a nice element. Adding more minor ones amongst the big challenging bastards.

I've not felt the need to do any levelling yet but I'm surprised at the lack of item drops I'm getting so far. I'm at level 10, one hour play or something like that so far.
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[diplo]

[Maztorre]

Count me as another who loves the soundtrack. Also, playing it on a GB micro with the clicky metal triggers makes the dashing much more pleasant.

Anyone looking to pick this up, by the way, should get the Castlevania Double Pack that includes Aria of Sorrow. They complement each other very well; Aria having extremely tight game design and a compact, intuitive castle layout, whereas Harmony is sprawling, with much looser character control and a tendency to let you wander freely without any overt guidance.

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

For a while I was working on a project where I went through Harmony of Dissonance and took screens of pretty much every visually distinct piece of architecture. Most of it actually isn't that pleasant to look at it, but occasionally there's stuff like the hanging corpse in Diplo's pic and these two background details:

-->

-->

I should probably finish the "survey" someday, but I lost some interest after I realized the hacked rom I was using (with Megaman and Mario and devil Juste and a few other pointless character edits) didn't fully enable all Juste mode quirks for Maxim mode (which I was playing because of his spinjump which is like Sonic meets Samus), so I think I have to hexedit some character equipment slots to get into the last area.

Guys, did you ever notice that when a Mimic kills you, it dies too - in the Castlevania hero manner?
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[Greng]

Here is the state of the map after just under an hour and a half of playthrough.



The last part I opened up had three clear areas extending off from it which I assume covers at least four distinct segments of the castle. The bottom left hand segment was also unexplored. That's a good level of openness even if I do feel myself crying out for a save room now and again. It adds to the sense of danger. Perhaps where CotM brings about tension through the unpredictable power of the enemies, HoD adds in a sense of overwhelming sprawl. [EDIT]<-- I agree Maz :)[/EDIT].

The graphics are both a technical improvement, what with parallax layering and an increased colour pallet, and at the same time, some of the graphics are just terrible. diplo, that room you show just looks plain ugly technically, yet the subtlety and detail of items such as the hanged body in the background are what stand out to me so far. DAIS: that first picture you linked, that stands out for me when playing through. The colours are a gaudy mess but it sets the dank underground tone of the area perfectly. Removing the graphics layers like that for the second shot is very interesting.

Since I've been playing around a little with screenshots... Here is a quick backdrop from one of the early boss rooms.



Also, there's often spots in the game that you cant quite reach, maybe an item just out of reach until you get that double jump, or a room you cant access because there's a door in the way. Often you need to memorise these, or make notes since the map will auto fill itself to show the area has been 'explored'. This happens in all the 'igavanias' but frustratingly for HoD in particular, there's already 4 'barriers' that on the map look exactly the same (just an unexplored door).

This could make flow through the game artificially slow, which is disturbing because I already regarded this as the shortest of the GBA Castlevanias to complete, and to think that much of that could be backtracking / searching. Hmm... we will have to see how this develops.

I was initially apalled by the quality of the music in HoD but grew to like it over time. I think they really pushed the GBA chip and it's more mood music than tuneful. I think everyone is in agreement that the arrangements are frankly bizarre at times.
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[Maztorre]

[sam]

i saw harmony of dissonance's weird graphics as a direct response to circle of the moon, which was really kindof unplayable when it came out. harmony looks bizarre on a backlit screen now, but at the time and in context i remember thinking it looked a lot more like what i expected from a castlevania than circle.

i definitely think the music is way worse, though, which is kindof disappointing; it's not just a quality issue, i don't think the arrangements fit too well at all. the colour palette begs for tuneful castlevania music! it does contribute to the unusual presentation though, i'd be kinder to it if the quality was better.

i'd say right now it's probably the worst game of the GBA entries, but i liked it a lot on release.

and yeah the dashing is nice on a GBA micro.
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[diplo]

[Renfrew]

Guys, I'm still on Magician Mode on CotM.
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[parkbench]

Just a protip, guys: keep up with the pictures! In fact, put more in! Always spices things up, and though I haven't been posting, I've been following the Castlevania threads. Let me live vicariously through you! Go overboard please!
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[diplo]

ok

[bloody heartland]

Ouch. The dodgy hong kong pirate I got off ebay has stopped saving, so I ordered a new Castlevania Double Pack (handy, because I can't fucking find Aria either) off Ebay. If my order ships in time greng we should trade Aria souls.

So yeah, I'd love to contribute to this thread but I can't. Fuck.

[Red_venom]

Seriously this game is so awful. I just don't get how people love the barren GBA castlevanias. The 2nd half of this game is completely empty.

Also I missed this when it came out so it was only a few months ago that i was playing this and i stopped for maybe a few weeks and loaded this up and i find the control so atrocious that I can't finish it(I am at the end).

Whoever on the design team that thinks its fun to dash constantly in all these castlevanias is really an asshole too.

[BIGJ420COOLDUDE]

yeah man i wish more games just had an easy richter-style slide jump to do

[skelethulu]

The main character in Harmony looks like some weird biblical metaphor. Or Uncle Sam.

That said, I'm playing the DS Castlevanias now, albeit very slowly. So, when you guys are done with Aria, I'll have more to contribute.

[parkbench]

<--Still on Castlevania I ITT

When I get to II I'll make a thread about it.
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[Laurel Soup]

The room decorating thing is probably the most cynical side quest in any game ever.

I'd have to fire up this one again to check, but isn't there a couple really awesome tricky monster, spike, and puzzle laden rooms on the upper left edge of the map? Who ever designed those rooms should be responsible for the entirety of the next Castlevania game's map.

[special blend]

i was considering a replay of this, but it's too easy and the second half of the game is retarded

great music, though!
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[Pijaibros]

I am replaying Castlevania III with Grant as my tagalong because he is a God in the Japanese version.

The Doppelganger is so cake with this guy!
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[sam]

[Greng]

I think the whole things very 'carnival'. Gaudy bright art, brash noise and something downright sinister under all that bright makeup.
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Steam ~ Be Preying | Resident Evil.net ~ ElSpank

[extrabastardformula]

I think you'd need to play it on a screen that's not backlit, or at the very least at the lowest possible brightness setting to really get what the graphics were going for. All lit up it's really bad.

Also, this game makes me hate the DS Lite shoulder buttons.
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[Greng]

Agreed, this looks much better on the GBASP, although I only have the Japanese cart and part of my motivation to play through again is to play it in English for the first time. That said, I could drop the brightness down on my PSP, didn't really think to try that.
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[wasted potential]

I got lost and gave up two years ago on this day.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

I had a save file on this at 123% and some change. I deleted that save file to start this new one because I figured I'd never be able to make heads nor tails of where I was or what I needed to do without doing some serious FAQ legwork. Now I'm less than 10% into the game and aside from the music, which is quite lovely, it's kind of grating on me. Whoever mentioned those little areas that you can't access right away but the map fills them in an "explored" anyway? Yeah I agree with that, it's annoying. Ive got at least two spots right now that I'm holding in the back of my mind until I can get that double jump, and I wonder how many more I'll have to hold by the time I get that double jump and what else they'll require of me ability-wise.

I know this is more Symphony of the Night-ish than SotN, so I should just relax and go with it and let the game take me to wherever. I think I need to play this on my tv, instead of my ds. I don't know why but I have a feeling I might warm to it more without the possibility of my hands cramping or going numb.
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[Renfrew]

I think I heard once there is a sort of sequence break you can do with one of the magic books that lets you jump higher than you are supposed to.
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[Martial Loh]

did anyone finish this then? I started playing this (on the double pack) 2 weeks or so ago on a GB Micro & have about 10% of the map left to uncover..

I kinda like the fact that you level up constantly..It makes the game a lot easier :)

What happens if you get all the furniture? I've got quite a lot of it..might as well strive to get it all!

This is the first Castlevania that I've played for more than 10 minutes. I always used to die like a moron in the older games - but in this one I realised I could take potions like a weakling to counter my poor dodging skills. Is this also the case in the old CV games? (ie the snes ones? and mebbe Dracula X?) I'm assuming SotN has potions for weaklings..

[wasted potential]

[Laurel Soup]

[The God Of Poverty]

I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago! It's the first Castlevania game I've beat since SOTN (I have a tendency to start games and then abandon them). I spent a lot of time grinding to get item drops as I'm kind of a freak about getting 100% of everything in these games. Didn't bother with getting the Rare Ghost item drops though. I have to admit that I really spammed the Hell out of the boomerang on the bosses. God how I love that Castlevania Boomerang so! Furniture collecting is pretty stupid. I was hoping the mirror was going to be a portal to another area. They could of at least given you a chair weapon or something for collecting all that crap.

[Martial Loh]

OK, finished it yesterday! I got the bad ending - it looks like I still have to collect all of Dracula's body parts to get the "good" ending! After checking GameFAQs it looks like I've missed out on the black summoning spell book & some other cool weapons. Dammit!

The boss rush mode is kinda fun & I think I might be able to do it - despite lack of potions! Maxim mode feels interesting, though I reckon I might leave the game for a few months before I come back to it and finish it fo' realz.

Circle of the Moon arrived in the post yesterday too, so I might start on that one next.. I vaguely recall someone recommending the GBA-SP for that game? If I can't find mine I might just continue with Aria of Sorrow for now.

[zombieman000]

Yeah, you might want to play Circle of the Moon on an SP/micro or a DS because it's pretty dark.

[invisibleyogurt]

Wasn't this game subtitled WHITE NIGHT CONCERTO in Japan? That's pretty awesome, but the contrasting nature of the phrase Harmony of Dissonance is even more so. They're both still musically oriented too.

Actually, most of the Metrovanias have vastly different titles in Japan, which is kinda weird:

(these are from memory)
SOTN = Nocturne In the Moonlight
AOS = Minuet of Eclipse
DOS = Cross of the Blue Moon
POR = Gallery of Labyrinth

COTM's title was the same in JP.

[sam]

i am replaying harmony of dissonance now, too.

i think i was completely wrong about the music! sorry diplo. it definitely fits the phrase 'harmony of dissonance', at least.
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[chevluh]

[diplo]

[wasted potential]

well shit diplo, don't be holding out on us

not even gamefaqs has it
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[Toups]

what does juste wear an earring on his left ear instead of his right or something?
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