This is a great game but it is very flawed, there is far too much backtracking and walking to the point its very tedious, it tries to do what sotn does with two castles except sotn's two castles concept worked because you didnt have to fucking backtrack between the castles to reach different areas, causing (often) tedious and unnecessary walking and backtracking.

The game itself is also much more confusing when compared to other entries, the most confused i ever was in game was in Dawn of Sorrow but i was never stuck for long and it always still flowed really nicely but hod just doesnt feel like that, it can be confusing and not in the way that you have a lot to explore and thats cool and as you explore you open up more to the games story and progress, its just confusing.

The environments arent much to look at either and pale in comparison to previous entries, along with the fact the music while good at times is still lacking, although the game like all castlevanias has amazing art direction with beautiful sprite work on items, portraits, enemies, Juste himself, weapons, spells, etc

This game may have some of the most boring boss fights of any metroidvania possibly even game ive played, so much of the bosses in this game just feel sort of the same or boring, whether it be their simple easy to dodge moveset or the designs themselves the bosses leave a lot to be desired. The bosses' being as lackluster as they are is unfortunate when taken into consideration the one thing about this game that stands out, the combat, the dodges are changed from only having a backdash to a forward and backdash, which in my opinion is pretty good addition since i used to run in the wrong direction and dodge into the boss. The second part of this game's combat which i am a fan of is spell books, elemental types that create different spells for each subweapon (can be toggled on and off) it makes for a pretty good addition and is probably my favourite castlevania subweapon system behind souls. Theres also different types of whips, like elemental whips although i dont think they do much, theres also a weapon that lets you charge an atteck a whip that adds a material on its tip flatly increasing the damage its nothing special.

Unfortunately the story in this game isnt very good, although i've never LOVED these stories (besides Aria of Sorrow and a little bit of Dawn), theyve always had great dialogue and cool interactions (especially sotn) but this game's story is just bland, its pretty predictable and just doesnt leave a good taste in my mouth.

Overall Harmony of Dissonance is a good game albeit very flawed and it brings down the experience a decent chunk

Hmm.... I remember liking this game a lot when back when it came out for the first time, but I guess time has not been kind to this entry.

Still, I like it. It has good gameplay feel, in my opinion. And when you jump from Circle of the Moon (the first Castlevania GBA title) to this, the colors are so very refreshing on the eyes.

I actually adore the music, and I barely realized that it was SO compressed until people brought it up in reviews I've seen/read of this game..... I think the music is really good, so crunchiness aside, its got a good ost.

I couldn't tell you a thing about the story, though. I need to replay this one, and I plan to someday.