Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (commonly abbreviated HoD) was 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 Concerto (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.

Storyline
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance is chronologically set 50 years after Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and 44 years before Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.

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 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, 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 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.

Spell Books

 * Fire Book
 * Ice Book
 * Bolt Book
 * Wind Book
 * Summon Book

Relics

 * Lizard Tail
 * Sylph Feather
 * Griffin's Wing
 * Soul Orb
 * Fairy Journal
 * Monster Tome
 * Eye of Vlad
 * Heart of Vlad
 * Rib of Vlad
 * Nail of Vlad
 * Fang of Vlad
 * Ring of Vlad

Graphics
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.

The castle areas also house 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. Parallactic effects makes more of an appearance, and occurrences like lightning and luminescence also appear occasionally.

Despite all of this, HoD ' s graphics still have been criticized by some players 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
CotM was infamous for bringing back the 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. The overall design of the castle does however present a more open-ended style, allowing users to take paths in a different order each time they play the game.

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 the previous games of similar nature contained so many of them.

HoD presents the idea of the Castle having two spirits; one Chaotic and spiritual, and one that is Earthly and more 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. The use of parallel worlds is comparable to another Konami franchise, Silent Hill.

Most reviewers and players criticized the way this was handled, and claimed it to be needlessly convoluted.

Castle areas
--- ~The Castle Areas: ---

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
 * Entrance - The obligatory first area of Dracula's Castle. Large windows reveal a coniferous forest outside, along with lightning.  Inside, the place is relatively small, and is mainly composed of cobblestone and brick corridors.  One of the rooms is a storage place for Dracula's wine.
 * Marble Corridor - A place quite comparable to an attic. The colors are grim, and most of the rooms seem to be for storing certain items.
 * Room of Illusion - More of a transition place, than a true area, the Room of Illusion provides the teleporter necessary to further Juste's progress. There is a room with rivers of lava, along with a large hallway with psychadelic effects in the background.
 * The Wailing Way - The graveyard/tomb. A dark, cloudy sky shifts in the background, and broken apart, brick structures are scattered about.  Small towers and hills can be seen in the distance.
 * Shrine of the Apostates - A continuation of the Wailing Way, but with more of an architectural feel.
 * Castle Treasury - Long, gray, pillared corridors make up this place, along with some hallways brimming with huge crystals. Ethereal mist is apparent in some rooms.  Juste's room is also located here.
 * Cave of Skeletons - Finally, all the bony denizens of Castlevania get their own haunt! Walls overflowing with skulls are present in some chambers, along with appearances of the skeletons of former Castlevania baddies.  Some rooms feature large skeletons of beasts that Juste must move in order to progress.
 * Castle Top Floor - A continuation of the Castle Treasury. A couple elevator rooms are located here, along with corridors exposing more of the outside forest and clouds.  Dracula's chamber is uninhabited, and the wall inside is broken away, exposing large, tumultuous clouds.  The Clock Tower can, as usual, be viewed from the stairway prior to his room.
 * Luminous Cavern - Very similar to SotN ' s own Underground Caverns. The lower portion is overflowing with water, which Juste must get rid of in order to progress.  In the backgroud, large, rocky formations glow from luminescent water.   In one room, Juste must strike a switch to crush a huge monster, and have its blood fill up a vertical corridor and raise a platform, in order for him to move on.
 * Sky Walkway / Chapel of Dissonance - Again, similar to SotN, mainly due to the background borrowing the scrolling clouds technique, though they are much more active here. Majestic, gothic architecture makes up most of this area, along with a room containing an old, worn organ, and a large room featuring myriads of stained-glass windows.
 * Aqueduct of Dragons - The game's sewer area. Waterfalls pour down in the foreground, and mucky, amphibious enemies inhabit the place's rusty, slimy rooms.
 * Clock Tower - This dark place features myriads of complex cogs and such, along with a few unique interactions, one of them being where Juste can whip an armored knight into a mechanism to obtain its armor. The Marble Gallery's clock room hallway is back, too.

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, 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.


 * The Enemy List:

Bat, Tiny Slime, Slime, Medusa Head, Zombie, Skeleton, Fleaman, Bone Soldier, Armor Knight, Ghost, Bone Pillar, Large Ghost, White Dragon, Rock Armor, White Dragon Lv2, Lizard Man, Ectoplasm, Skeleton Blaze, Big Skeleton, Flying Bone, Peeping Eye, Skeleton Flail, Skeleton Spear, Red Skeleton, Skeleton Rib, Bone Thrower, Skeleton Ape, Gate Guarder, Tiny Devil, Scarecrow, Skeleton Spider, Man-Eater, Axe Armor, Witch, Siren, Bomber Armor, Balloon, Big Balloon, Bone Archer, Ruler Sword, Disc Armor, Merman, Fishman, Arabaki, Ruler Sword Lv2, Father Demon, Guardian Armor, Boomerang Armor, Fleaman Armor, Gold Medusa, Mimic, White Dragon Lv3, Skeleton Mirror, 0, Harpy, Axe Armor Lv2, Specter, Bronze Guarder, Melty Zombie, Bone Liquid, Ruler Sword Lv3, Poison Lizard, Spriggan, Gorgon, Blaze Master, Anthro Skeleton, Rare Ghost, Skeleton Glass, Victory Armor, Hammer-Hammer, Disc Armor Lv2, Pixie, Sylph, Master Lizard, Owl, Clear Bone, Jp Bonepillar, Simon Wraith and Pike Master


 * The Boss List:

Giant Bat, Living Armor, Golem, Skull Knight, Minotaur, Devil, Giant Merman, Max Slimer, Peeping Big, Legion (Saint), Shadow, Pazuzu, Minotaur Lv2, Legion (Corpse), Talos, Death, Death 2, Cyclops, Maxim, Dracula Wraith, and Dracula's Final Form

Characters

 * Juste Belmont
 * Maxim Kischine
 * Lydie Erlanger
 * Death
 * The Merchant
 * Dracula

Music
The music written by Soshiro Hokkai is 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 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.

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" and the Chapel's theme, "Chapel of Dissonance."

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.

Odds and ends

 * In the Cave of Skeletons, several background details make references to other games in the series; most notably, the large statue, reminiscent of Dracula's final form in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, another statue which is clearly intended to resemble Camilla's mask (Vampira) from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and the skeletons of the dynamic duo from Super Castlevania 4, Slogra and Gaibon.


 * There is a monster later in the game called the Simon Wraith. It's dressed as the original Castlevania hero and wields a whip. However, in Japanese, its name was "Shimon," which is how you write "Simon" in Japanese. The kanji literally means "Gates of Death."  This is a type of pun unique to the Japanese language. You'll also see the whip-wielding skeletons referred to as the "Gates of Death" in the English Castlevania 3 manual.


 * There are a few items that refer to characters from older Castlevania games. Sypha's Crystal will increase your MP recovery rate, while Christopher's Soul is a whip attachment that will let you thrown fireballs when you're at full health (like the old Game Boy games). Unfortunately, these names were changed for the American release.


 * The menu screen music is a remix of the name entry screen in the Famicom disk version of Castlevania. The Game Over music is also from the first two Game Boy games.


 * The Thunder and Bible Spell Fusion will create two glowing energy orbs which float in front of you and block enemy attacks. You can also run them into enemies to directly damage them, but the shields only last until hit about 16 times, and they shrink to reflect how much energy is left. The orbs are a direct reference to the early form of the Shield power-up from Gradius, Konami's prolific shooter series. It even uses two sound effects from the first Gradius game; the power-up confirm sound is heard upon activating the spell, and the shot impact sound is heard when something hits the shields.


 * When Juste halts on a sloping surface, or lands from a fall, he'll strike the pose displayed in the older games' protagonists (Simon Belmont, Trevor Belmont, etc.).

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.

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.

Re-release
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance was re-released in the United States in January of 2006, along with Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, as the Castlevania Double Pack. Both games are contained on a single GBA Game Pak.