Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
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| Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance | |
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 PAL boxart |
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| Developer(s) | Konami TYO |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Designer(s) | Koji Igarashi (producer) |
| Series | Castlevania |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release date | JP June 6, 2002 NA September 16, 2002 EU October 11, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) CERO: 12+ ELSPA: 11+ PEGI: 12+ (Double Pack) |
| Media | 64-megabit cartridge |
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (commonly abbreviated HoD) is a video game created by Konami for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance system. It was originally released in Japan in 2002 under the title Castlevania Byakuya no Concerto (キャッスルヴァニア 白夜の協奏曲 Kyassuruvania Byakuya no Koncheruto?, lit. "Castlevania: White Night Concerto" or "Concerto of the Midnight Sun"), and is part of the Castlevania series. Harmony of Dissonance is set in 1748, and stars Juste Belmont, the grandson of Simon Belmont and member of the legendary Belmont family of vampire hunters.
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[edit] Gameplay
Gameplay in Harmony of Dissonance follows the model established in the series' "reinvention" with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. At heart the game is a 2D action-adventure with level design based on similar principles to the Metroid series. The player collects new equipment and skills by exploring the game's castle setting and fighting increasingly powerful enemies and bosses, leading up to a climactic encounter with the castle's master.
Defeating minor enemies and bosses will procure experience points for Juste and he will level up when statistical requirements are met (similar to most RPGs). Occasionally, Juste will kill an enemy, and they will produce a set of armor for Juste's chest, arms, legs, or face. Equipment can also be found scattered about in corners of the castle. These items will contribute to the main character's stats, such as his attack power, and magic power.
Juste primarily attacks at close quarters using the series' traditional whip weapon, the Vampire Killer, which can be brandished to deflect projectile attacks, reminiscent of Simon Belmont's usage of the weapon in the Super Nintendo game, Super Castlevania IV.
A variety of ranged sub-weapons are available, one of which can be carried at any given time. Using a sub-weapon drains the player's supply of "Hearts", available by smashing lamps and candlabras found in the castle. Once no hearts are left or required number of hearts to use the sub-weapon are not available, the sub-weapon may no longer be used.
Harmony of Dissonance distinguishes its gameplay from that of its predecessors through a new magic system, which is displayed very similarly in the 2003 release of the PlayStation 2 game, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Various spell books are hidden throughout the castle, and combining any of these with any of the sub-weapons will provide the player with a new magic attack far more potent than the sub-weapon itself. This drains a separate stock of Magic Points (MP), instead of hearts.
Unique to Harmony of Dissonance is the forward dash move. By pressing one of the shoulder buttons (depending on which side the player is facing), Juste will dash forward with a short burst of speed. Symphony of the Night had the backward dash move, but Harmony of Dissonance adds a forward variation as well, which is also gained in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow as the soul of an enemy.
Juste will also, like Symphony of the Night, gain certain Relics through exploration of the Castle's areas, which will help him to reach previously inaccessible areas, and also gain new moves to add to his repertoire; an example of these is the Griffin's Wing, which allows Juste to utilize the super-jump that Alucard uses in Symphony of the Night, thus allowing the player to scale high cliffs and ledges. Other items include the Crushing Stone, which allows Juste to charge energy into the whip (if the player holds down B), and release a powerful shockwave that can destroy stone barriers. However, since the attack requires the player to hold B to charge it up, it precludes the use of the whip-brandishing move.
The castle in Harmony of Dissonance is actually made up of two castles, one that is in the physical world, and one in the spiritual world. The use of parallel worlds is comparable to another Konami franchise, Silent Hill, but is most similar to the Light and Dark Worlds of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Structurally, each side the castle has the mostly the same room layout, but monster types, items, and other aspects vary between the two versions, with the difficulty of the spirit world castle typically being harder than that for the physical world. Initially, the player can use special warp rooms that connect one part of one version of the castle to a different part of the other castle, but later unlocks rooms that warp to the same location in either version of the castle.
Harmony of Dissonance has a much more corridor-like structure than its GBA predecessor (Castlevania: Circle of the Moon): the spaces the player has to work their way through are tight and maze-like. Zig-zagging is a common motif - almost an encouragement to use the dash mechanic. As it is also focused very much on action, many straight hallways are incorporated. The overall design of the castle is an open-ended style, allowing users to take paths in a different order each time they play the game. HoD has very little in terms of secret rooms and breakable walls, which is somewhat of an oddity, seeing how the previous games of similar nature contained so many of them. There are also stores throughout the castle for the player to acquire potions, armor, and other useful items in play, though some stores require that the player has met certain conditions for them to be available.
[edit] Enemies
Like SotN, the game draws heavily from previous games for its enemy selection. Nearly sixty of the castle's inhabitants have been drawn from SotN, and, consequently, the Japanese-only Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.
Due to the game being created on a system with much less of a capacity to handle the myriads of details seen in SotN, HoD's reuse of the characters is noticeably different. Resolutions have been downgraded to fit the requirements of the game's space, and some enemies have lost the use of some of their previous repertoire of attacks. Some have not been so much drawn blatantly from prior creations, as have been upgraded. Castlevania 3's Owls make a return in a much more impressive fashion, coincidentally, only inhabiting the game's graveyard.
HoD's new enemies are possibly the oddest denizens yet seen in a Castlevania game, and contribute further to the horrific influences of the game. Their designs have been described as occult and indefinable at times.
The legion of bosses is also drawn from previous games in most cases. SotN's Legion/Granfalloon beast makes a return, as does Castlevania 3's Skull Knight.
[edit] Development
The game uses a wider range of techniques that most players noted being non-apparent in its predecessor, Circle of the Moon. Critics hammered CotM for being too dark to see on the screen of the handheld, and HoD goes in the opposite direction by presenting brighter colours and special enemy attacks, as well as greater distinction in between areas. Minor details, such as odd paintings in the Clock Tower, contribute to a more horrifying game. Complex parallactic effects are also used, as are occasional flashes of lightning and other graphical effects.
HoD also employs multi-jointed creatures and rotating sprites, and its animations are also significantly more complex than its predecessor's.
Despite all of this, HoD's graphics still have been criticized by some players for employing too many greys and reds, and also for the general murkiness of the main characters' sprites. The character and some enemy sprites appear pixleated and too bright to fit the dark theme of the series. Rumors have circulated claiming this could be due to the game being resized after originally being developed for a home console, although it is more likely that certain sprites (such as Maxim's) were simply taken from SotN, scaled down and recoloured). Many hardcore fans of the series also found this to be be the easiest of the GBA series of games.
[edit] Music
The music written by Soshiro Hokkai is certainly HoD's most heavily disputed area. Most of the outcry against the game's soundtrack is due to the use of the GBA's PSG channels, unlike Circle of the Moon, which uses PCM.[1] (The GBA's PSG channels were originally intended to provide compatibility with older Game Boy games.) It is sometimes stated that the music is "borderline NES quality."
The second component of this controversy is the actual melodic compositions themselves. The music is quite unconventional and gloomy; it ends up being almost depressing at points. The way the instruments are utilized also has provided some source of discomfort for people; the songs are quite heavily layered with multiple melodies, and this sometimes gives a feeling of dissonance (perhaps to go with the game's name).
Despite the general dislike for the music, some players have been known to readily defend the songs, and also to proclaim the soundtrack to contain some of the best the series has yet had, such as Juste's theme, "Successor of Fate,", the Marble Corridor's "Offense and Defense", the Chapel's theme, "Chapel of Dissonance", the Castle's Treasury theme, "To the Center of the Demoniac Castle", and the Secret Boss Rush Mode's "VK2K2 (Vampire Killer 2002)". (the last of which was arranged by "Symphony of the Night" Composer Michiru Yamane, who also composed the normal boss rush mode tracks)
A persistent false rumor is that Mana, guitarist of Moi dix Mois and Malice Mizer, composed the music for this game. In fact, Mana did not write any music that appears in the game itself; he only wrote a promotional cell phone ringtone "La nuit blanche". This ringtone was only released in Japan.
In an interview, Igarashi stated that this was the first time his development team (KCE Tokyo) had made anything for the GBA, and they had no idea of the system's capabilities. (Circle of the Moon was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe, an entirely different team.)
[edit] Reception
[edit] Re-release
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance was re-released in North America in January of 2006, along with Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, as part of Castlevania Double Pack. Both games are contained on a single GBA Game Pak. This pack also appeared in Europe later that year. It was picked as the IGN Gameboy Game of the Month for January 2006.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Craig Harris (September 16th, 2002), Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, IGN, <http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/371/371225p1.html>. Retrieved on 2008-02-09
- ^ Mark Bozon (January 31st, 2006), GBA Game of the Month: January 2006, IGN, <http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/684/684746p1.html>. Retrieved on 2008-02-09
[edit] External links
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