I might have spoiled myself by playing Aria of Sorrow before any of the other GBA Castlevanias. To be fair, I did try Circle of the Moon for an hour before I backed out like a coward. My first few hours of playing this, I kept thinking to myself" Man, I can't wait to replay Aria of Sorrow". That thought soon dissipated after unlocking a few of Juste's abilities, and I was able to enjoy myself a bit more. Even the music, which I wasn't really into initially, grew on me.
I brought up Aria of Sorrow a few times, but really the game I should be bringing up is Symphony of the Night. I was reminded of Symphony a lot, like how you just accumulate a bunch of crap in your inventory that you can't get rid of (not as much as Symphony, mind you). If there's one aspect of this game I'll say is better here than in Aria, it's your dash ability. In Aria, Soma only has a backdash, which has a significant amount of cooldown. Meanwhile, in Harmony, Juste has no cooldown on his backdash (just like Alucard in Symphony) while also having a forward dash. But by far the biggest comparison I can make to Symphony is the second castle.
I had no idea this was in the game, so it came as a nice surprise, but this is also where the game started to lose its steam for me. I just don't think "Castle B" is nearly as interesting as the inverted castle in Symphony. Another castle means more ground to cover, and while I think dashing feels great, all your other movement options feel a bit lacking, especially compared to Aria. I know comparing this to a game that came out afterwards is unfair, but I can't help it. Exploring both castles felt arduous towards the end, so much so that I beelined to the end even though I was around 190% map completion. I also found it quite easy to get lost, but I'm also dumb as rocks, so take that point with a grain of salt.
Despite growing a bit tired of this game towards the end, I still came away enjoying it. With how mixed the reviews are for this game, I went in expecting nothing more than a slight improvement over Circle of the Moon, but it's more than that. I will show Circle of the Moon some respect and finish it, but not now. Instead, I'll say this: don't skip this so you can jump right into Aria like I did. You might appreciate it more.
I brought up Aria of Sorrow a few times, but really the game I should be bringing up is Symphony of the Night. I was reminded of Symphony a lot, like how you just accumulate a bunch of crap in your inventory that you can't get rid of (not as much as Symphony, mind you). If there's one aspect of this game I'll say is better here than in Aria, it's your dash ability. In Aria, Soma only has a backdash, which has a significant amount of cooldown. Meanwhile, in Harmony, Juste has no cooldown on his backdash (just like Alucard in Symphony) while also having a forward dash. But by far the biggest comparison I can make to Symphony is the second castle.
I had no idea this was in the game, so it came as a nice surprise, but this is also where the game started to lose its steam for me. I just don't think "Castle B" is nearly as interesting as the inverted castle in Symphony. Another castle means more ground to cover, and while I think dashing feels great, all your other movement options feel a bit lacking, especially compared to Aria. I know comparing this to a game that came out afterwards is unfair, but I can't help it. Exploring both castles felt arduous towards the end, so much so that I beelined to the end even though I was around 190% map completion. I also found it quite easy to get lost, but I'm also dumb as rocks, so take that point with a grain of salt.
Despite growing a bit tired of this game towards the end, I still came away enjoying it. With how mixed the reviews are for this game, I went in expecting nothing more than a slight improvement over Circle of the Moon, but it's more than that. I will show Circle of the Moon some respect and finish it, but not now. Instead, I'll say this: don't skip this so you can jump right into Aria like I did. You might appreciate it more.
Reviewed on Apr 17, 2023
10 Comments
@BlazingWaters - God, I forgot to mention the spell books. It was fun experimenting with them and finding which ones are absolutely busted. Like wind book + cross. A personal favorite was wind + dagger.
@CURS - Thank you! Yea, there are definitely quite a few bits of HoD that feel surreal. Despite it reminding me a lot of SotN, I still think it has a personality all its own.
I fully intend to go back to Circle of the Moon. I was in a Castlevania mood, so I'm basically doing a marathon of just about every game in the series. I'm just playing them in a wacky order.
I fully intend to go back to Circle of the Moon. I was in a Castlevania mood, so I'm basically doing a marathon of just about every game in the series. I'm just playing them in a wacky order.
COTM is worth it for experiencing what are some of the sluggish movement and one of the absolute worst jump arcs in any 2D game ever made
@CURS It filtered me so hard, it suffered the case of "maybe if I press really hard on the d-pad it'll go faster!" and I couldn't go further than the starting area even after getting the ability to run
I have to go back to it and actually start HoD at some point, I missed out on those since I burned myself out immediately by jumping into Dawn... which I felt was a step back of Aria in most ways even if I still classify it as a good game.
I have to go back to it and actually start HoD at some point, I missed out on those since I burned myself out immediately by jumping into Dawn... which I felt was a step back of Aria in most ways even if I still classify it as a good game.
@CURS - The movement is definitely the biggest hurdle for me as well but I'm very willing to go in with an open mind once I start it up again. I was also exhausted the day I played it so maybe that contributed to my distaste for it.
Great review!! I feel like I enjoy any castlevania that has Ayami Kojima's artwork in it, even the ps2 games.
@moschidae - Thanks! I absolutely love Ayami Kojima's art. I would love to get the Aria of Sorrow or Symphony of the Night's art framed and hung up on a wall. I'm curious to see what the PS2 games are about since I really don't know anything about them.
The ps2 games are kind of weird, they're pretty overlooked so I'd like to see what others think of it. I never finished the game with Hector in it but it was still an interesting experience, and the box art is one of my favorite castlevania pieces
I'm playing this right now, and I think I'm mostly enjoying it because I'm a metroidvania whore?
The decision to have two castles with (mostly) the exact same map and only a few poorly placed (imo) rooms in the game to warp between them was... interesting. Juste's dash truly is spectacular and alleviates somewhat the backtracking, but it doesn't feel as rewarding as backtracking normally does in a good metroidvania. This really should have had a Link to the Past Magic Mirror equivalent to warp between castles.
As for Circle, you get over the sluggish movement honestly, what will boggle your mind later is the oddly vertical castle design, in a game with not-nimble vertical movement. That, and the decision to put the cards behind RNG instead of rewards for exploration. Imagine if Harmony's books were random rare drops from specific enemies for example.
The decision to have two castles with (mostly) the exact same map and only a few poorly placed (imo) rooms in the game to warp between them was... interesting. Juste's dash truly is spectacular and alleviates somewhat the backtracking, but it doesn't feel as rewarding as backtracking normally does in a good metroidvania. This really should have had a Link to the Past Magic Mirror equivalent to warp between castles.
As for Circle, you get over the sluggish movement honestly, what will boggle your mind later is the oddly vertical castle design, in a game with not-nimble vertical movement. That, and the decision to put the cards behind RNG instead of rewards for exploration. Imagine if Harmony's books were random rare drops from specific enemies for example.
BlazingWaters
1 year ago
also Lydie Erlanger is very funny