Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Impression.

[Living-In-Clip]

Last year the Gameboy Advance launched with the the spectacular CastleVania: Circle of the Moon, a game that followed in the steps of the previous CastleVania: Sotn (PSone). The game sold plenty and Konami decided to continue the action/rpg series on the GBA, instead of the home systems, like they had previously said they would. Their latest outing is CastleVania: Harmony of Dissonance and it is even more like CastleVania: Sotn, which as any Castlevania fan knows, this isn\'t a bad thing...

Story

Nearly fifty years has passed since Simon Belmont rescued the land from the curse of Dracula.
Now, Simon\'s descendant Juste Belmont , must acquire the relics of Dracula to unravel the disapperance of his childhood friend Lydie. The castle\'s enchanting mysteries and danger await all to those who dare enter.


Straight from the back of the GBA box . As you can see the typical story is here, you as a Belmont, one of the vampire slayers entering Dracula\'s castle to save a female friend. Of course along the way, your friend Maxim will be questioned and a couple of other "surprises" will unravel. Still, the series isn\'t noted for it\'s great story telling, it\'s known for the terrific 2D gameplay and that is where this game excells.

Gameplay
In 1997 Konami released CastleVana: Symphony of the Night for the Playstation. A game that was larely compared to Nintendo\'s excellent Super Metriod. The game featured an open ended castle that encouraged exploring as Dracula\'s son, Alucard. Where the game differed from Super Metriod and the previous CastleVania  installments was it also added rpg elements such as collecting items and leveling up your character\'s HP / MP (health points & magic points). Needless to say the game garned massive commercial and critical success. Oddly enough, we didn\'t hear from Konami and the CastleVania series for quite awhile.
 
Last year, Konami released CastleVania: Cotm , which was  a lot like CastleVania: Sotn, but not quite up to par still. Taking note of this, Konami took everything people complained about in COTM and requested from SOTN and put it all together.

CastleVania:HoD has the perfect blend of action and RPG elements. You\'ll be dropped into a huge castle that seemly expands forever. And just when you think you\'ve gotten further in the map than you thought was possible, you\'ll discover that there is two castle\'s, making for a map percentage of two hundred percent!

Of course you couldn\'t take on this huge castle without your character being a total bad-ass vampire slayer and this is where leveling up Juste comes in hand. As you venture deeper and deeper into the castle, you\'re character will gain experience and then level up, becoming stronger, smarter and luckier. To compliment this, you\'ll also utlize magic.

Unlike CastleVania:Cotm system which was DSS cards , CastleVania: HoD goes with a "fusion system". You gain spell books (five total) and then combine them with your typical Castlevania sub-weapons, thus creating many different magical combinations. I perosnally, wish Konami would of expanded upon the DSS system, as I found it much more full-filling and interesting. The fusion system just seems bland and not quite as  useful.

Either way, CastleVania: HoD offers great gameplay and an expansive castle.

Graphics

First off, a lot of people complained that CastleVania: Cotm was too dark - and it was. I\'ve also read all the impressions from the media on how much "brighter" CastleVania: HoD is and I just can\'t agree. For me, it was just a tad brighter and in some area\'s, not at all . Maybe it was just me, but either way, playing an expansive CastleVania game on the GBA will still make you go blind  or at the very least give you a small headache.

With that complaint out the way, I must say that for the most part the series is looking great. The enviroments look spectacular and there is even some close mode-7 effects (think CastleVania: IV - Super NES). Almost all the animation is top-notch. You\'ll notice I say almost, due to two characters. Juste and Maxim both seem as though their sprites are lacking color and animation.  People who complained about Nathan from CastleVania: Cotm will be sure to have the same complaint this time also.

Sound
Sound is the only place that this game truly took a hit. It seems as though Konami focused on everything else in the game and forgot how great the CastleVania: Cotm sound was. The ocherstrated haunting music that echo\'ed thru your head-phones is no longer there. I can\'t truly explain the difference. Let\'s just say, the sound is more.."weak".

Overall

Not a perfect game by any means. While it tries to mimic Sotn even more so than Cotm did - it fails in a couple places. At times the game seems to open ended and you\'re at loss of as where to go or what to do. You\'ll end up roaming around the castle and leveling up in the process and while this may of been the developers intent, it is sure to frustrate some people.

Another complaint is that the game still seems to dark. In some area\'s you can see and in others you won\'t be able to tell when an arrow is coming. The only thing it makes me do is want to play this game on a TV or install an afterburner.

Still, it\'s a great adventure/ action RPG and a great installment for the CastleVania series. If you like CastleVania or just need a good 2D fix, you could do a lot worse than this game. Just pray Drac\'s next outing is on a home console.

Nice review LIC. Though I don\'t find many problems with the lighting. My gripe is with a super tiny screen. I wish Nintendo would come out with somthing to play gba games on the tv without modding the gba itself.

[Jumpman]

Nice impressions clip. But could ya answer just a few questions?

Better or worse than CATM?

Length?

You going to be writing impressions on the new Megaman game for the GBA? I would love to hear what you think of that game considering I used to be a major MM fan wanted to know if it still holds the magic.

[Living-In-Clip]

When does the new Mega Man game come out? Depending on my cash flow, if possible I will pick it up, as I am a Capcom fiend and also enjoy Mega Man.

Personally, there I think HoD is a much more evoled version of COTM and in a lot of ways that is a good thing. It is almost twice the size of COTM and I\'m over seven hours into it right now, and still it seems as though I\'m nowhere near the end. The only thing I truly miss from COTM is the DSS card system. The spell fusion system just isn\'t as full-filling.

[Living-In-Clip]

Well  - I beat the game around eight hours. That was for the "bad" ending though, as I was missing two relics . I imagine if I would of went for the good ending it would of lasted another thirty mintues or so. So, for a handheld the game is quite long. As for extra\'s, the only thing I see now is that after you beat the game once, you get to unlock "Boss Rush Mode" a time attack Boss mode. I doubt I will even bother with it - as the bosses in CastleVania:HoD are not that great.