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: Concerto of Midnight Sun (キャッスルヴァニア白夜の協奏曲 Castlevania: Hakuya no Kyōsōkyoku), and is part of the Castlevania series. Harmony of Dissonance is set in 1748, and stars Juste Belmont, a member of the legendary Belmont family of vampire hunters.
| Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Konami/KCET |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release | June 6, 2002 (JP) September 16, 2002 (NA) October 11, 2002 (EU) |
| Genre(s) | Action adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
The Story
Two years prior to the game's beginning, Maxim Kischine left on a training expedition in order to cope with his self doubt after Juste Belmont was chosen over him to receive the legendary whip of the Belmont Clan, the Vampire Killer. Two years later, Maxim returned from his training expedition, badly wounded and with startling news: a childhood friend of Juste and Maxim by the name of Lydie Erlanger had been kidnapped. Maxim had also lost a great deal of his memory of the events of the past 2 years. Even so, he was able to lead Juste to the site of the disappearance, where they encountered a castle that hadn't been there previously. Juste hurried into the castle as Maxim recuperated in the entry way, promising to join Juste later.
As the story unfolds, Juste discovers that Maxim, in his eagerness to prove himself, had attempted to emulate the actions of Simon Belmont; he had gathered Dracula's remains in an attempt to resurrect the Dark Count, so that he could defeat Dracula himself. Something went wrong, and Maxim himself was possessed by the spirit of Dracula. Knowing this, Juste set out to collect the remains himself so that he could destroy them in order to save both Maxim and Lydie.
After locating Lydie and the remains, Juste once again confronts Maxim, who has once again been overcome by Dracula's spirit. After Juste defeats Maxim, Dracula seizes the opportunity to escape Maxim's body and reform himself. Juste manages to defeat the Count in battle, but without Dracula's dark pressence, the castle begins to crumble. Juste, Lydie and Maxim escape with their lives.
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-RPG 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, in traditional RPG fashion, when the statistical requirements are met. 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.
The player will also gain the use of whip add-ons, such as the Charge Whip, which releases a blast of energy when the attack button is held down for an extended period of time, and then released.
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 4." 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, the sub-weapon may no longer be used.
HoD 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).
Unique to "Harmony," also, is the addition of the dash move. By pressing either of the shoulder buttons on the Game Boy Advance, Juste will either dash forward or backward with a short burst of speed. The move is mostly intended for the player to use when encountering enemies who employ speedy attacks.
Juste will also, like "Symphony of the Night," gain certain Relics through exploration of the Castle's areas, which will help them to reach previously inaccessible areas, and also gain new moves to add to their repertoire; an example of these is the Slyph's Wing, which allows Juste to utilize the super-jump that Alucard used in "Symphony of the Night," thus allowing the player to scale high cliffs and ledges.
Graphics
“Harmony of Dissonance” maintains its controversial nature in nearly all areas; however, the visual element is perhaps the only area that is not consistently disputed by players.
The game employs a wider range of techniques that most players noted being non-apparent in its predecessor, “Circle of the Moon.” Whereas critics hammered “CotM” for being too dark to see on the screen of the handheld, “HoD” has been respected for not only presenting brighter colors and special enemy attacks, but also for its wider variety in architecture, and greater distinction in between areas.
“HoD” also ups the ante by employing effects such as multi-jointed creatures and rotating sprites. The animations of all characters have been changed to include more frames of animation, and the special effects for things, such as Juste’s spells, also have had an increase in their diversity of effects.
The castle areas also showcase more effects and oddities in the backgrounds; arcane details, such as a skeleton trapped in a wall in the Chapel area, or strange paintings in the Clock Tower, contribute to a more horror-based game, a departure from the majestic feel of previous efforts. Multi-scrolling makes more of an appearance, and occurrences like lightning and luminescence also make themselves known.
Despite all of this, “HoD”’s graphics still have been criticized by the occasional player for employing too much gray and red colors in the areas, and also for the main characters' sprites generally being unrefined (rumors have circulated claiming this could be due to the game being resized, after possibly being developed for a home console originally).
Level Design
Whereas “CotM” was infamous for bringing back the hair-pulling difficulty of the old games’ platforming, and generally being much more demanding in its structure, its GBA descendant decides to take a more laid back approach.
“HoD” presents a much more corridor-like structure, with most of the platforming occurring in the Clock Tower. This, naturally, leaves much more emphasis of the challenge on enemies.
Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the viewpoint, “HoD” has very little in terms of secret rooms and breakable walls, which is somewhat of an oddity, seeing how “CotM” contained so many of them.
The game also uses a phenomenon, as later explained by Death, to increase the game-time. “HoD” presents the idea of the Castle having two spirits; one Chaotic and spiritual, and one that is Earthly and natural. Juste can only access all areas of the Castle by traversing through multi-dimensional portals to enter the Chaotic Castle’s realm, and open up previously inaccessible places in the Earthly realm in that dimension.
Most reviewers and players criticized the way this was handled, and claimed it to be needlessly convoluted.
Castle Areas
“Harmony of Dissonance” hearkens back to “SotN” in its castle areas, and this is probably due to the same team being present in this creation.
Influences from its Playstation ancestor are very evident in places like the Chapel of Dissonance, with its blazing clouds in the sky, utilizing the scrolling effect similar to “SotN”’s Royal Chapel’s sky background. There is also similar architecture in places like the Marble Corridor and Wailing Way.
“HoD” also houses a cavernous, underground labyrinth, continuing the tradition of a subterranean area in the games, and even a graveyard, which some have called a direct homage to “Castlevania 3.”
The Castle’s environments will also transform to signify which dimension of the castle Juste is in. Most often, the Chaotic realm will display much more grays and reds, broken architecture, and also transition more incongruously from one room to the next.
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 “Castlevania: 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, though in a less gigantic fashion, as does “Castlevania 3”s Skull Knight. The multi-form boss, Shadow, could even be described as being similar to “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening”’s final boss in its concept. Despite the reuse of ideas, “HoD”’s bosses have been praised highly for allegedly displaying some of the best character graphics for the handheld.
Music
Certainly, “HoD”’s most heavily disputed area.
Most of the general outcry against the music in the game is due to the game using a sound quality reminiscent of video games being produced nearly two decades ago, and, thus, ends up sounding very similar to Game Boy or Nintendo Entertainment System video games.
The second component of this controversy is the actual melodic compositions songs themselves. “HoD”’s composer, "Soshiro Hokkai," also known as "Mana" (a member of the generally well-known Japanese band, Malice Mizer), wrote the melodies for the game, and, seeing how the music for the band he belongs to is quite unconventional and gloomy in their songs, the music 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 the melodic over-lappings and complex syncopation throughout give the element of clashing.
Despite the general dislike for the music, players who grew up with the older systems 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,” and the Chapel’s theme, “Chapel of Dissonance.”
Alternative Endings
Like some video games, “HoD” has multiple possible endings, depending on various conditions met by the player:
- Defeat Maxim in Castle A - Juste doesn't fight Dracula and Maxim doesn't escape the castle.
- Defeat Maxim in Castle B - Juste doesn't fight Dracula and neither Lydie nor Maxim escapes.
- Defeat Maxim and Dracula in Castle B with MK's and JB's Bracelets equipped - Juste fights Dracula, all three escape the castle.
Other Modes
Maxim Mode
After beating the game once, the player can enter his name as "MAXIM" in order to play as Maxim in the main game. This mode includes none of the story elements of the main game.
Boss Rush Mode
After beating the game once, the player may play in the Boss Rush Mode. This option allows the player to face the game's bosses in a time trial.
To play as Maxim in the time trial, hold the L and R buttons as you select the difficulty. To play as an Simon Belmont from the first Castlevania for the NES, enter the Konami Code (Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A) on the Konami logo screen.