Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, or Vampires Were Cool Before Stephenie Meyer

Jacked from Console-Arcade, but it's not like they sourced their image.

Castlevania was never one of the franchises I got into as a kid; the first time I tried one of the games was on the ZSNES emulator. Super Castlevania IV had that classic-platformer feel, but was too arcade-like in terms of its mechanics. I put the franchise on the shelf for a few years.

It just feels like it belongs in an arcade with the score and the timer. Source - my compy.

Thanks to the X-bawkz Live Arcade, I’ve had the opportunity to dust off the Castlevania saga with Konami’s new release, Harmony of Despair. At its heart, the game is a platformer with an RPG-style item/stats system, in which you scramble through massive 2D levels to destroy Dracula and his minions, either on your own or with friends over Live. HD allows players the choice of six characters collected from the chronicles of Castlevania lore, each replete with his or her own attacks and strategies. Playtime stacks up to be a bit short at only 6 chapters, with exploration of each limited to only 30 minutes.


But wait. There’s more.


Harmony of Despair rests on its strong replay value, a sticking point which continues to surprise me about the titles offered on XBLA. Finished with the 6 levels? Konami throws in Hard Mode, allowing expert players to test their mettle against bats who take out chucks of your health instead of nibbles, and bosses who will empty your life bar in two hits, possibly just one. If you’ve still finished both difficulty modes, you’ll still have 5 other characters to test out, learning their moves and strengths.

Character customization is very well executed. Items collected throughout the six stages can be equipped to your characters to boost their stats and protect them from the dangers of Castlevania. Konami tacked on two nice touches here. First, any item which a character has equipped can be simultaneously equipped on another character. This may sound like a small triviality, but if you’re trying to manage the accessory configurations of six characters, it’s a massive time-saver. Second, you only pick up items which you can put on the character you’re running through a level. Of the over 300 items in the game (I’m guessing that’s the amount, there’s an achievement for that), it would get frustrating to run through a level and get completely random drops. Despite the item customization, there is no official leveling of your character, except for the level of your sub-weapons. However, this is perfectly alright with me: it prevents picky players from immediately kicking newbies right after they made it to the lobby.

I can't stand this boss, but that's what friends are for! Jacked from curvehouse, but they didn't source either! C'mon guys, the IGN logo is right there!

Onto the action! The actual gameplay is bolstered from boring, solitary Metroidvania-(thanks Wikipedia)-style platforming with the multiplayer functionality. Up to 6 players can join the fun of busting down Dracula’s door, and the best part is...(drumroll)…THEY CAN BE ANY CHARACTER THEY WANT!!! I’ve seen so many games fail from the terribly restricting feature that prevents players from choosing a particular role they want to play (the big, bad warrior, hell yeah) and sticks them with a less appealing choice (the healer, yuck) just so that each role is represented. Not Harmony of Despair. Would you like to exorcise Castlevania with six Alucards? No problem! Suppose a sexy sextet of Shanoas? Certainly, sir! (I’ve filled my alliteration quota for the month.) Konami even liked the idea so much they added in 8 color swaps for each character so you can tell which Soma you are on the map…wait…I was the white Soma, right guys?

All six characters in one frame...now all you have to do is get everybody to work together. Jacked from VGTribune.

Goofy character combos aside, there are a few speed-bumps in the game which prevent complete awesomeness. The amount of levels and the short amount of time you spend in each is a serious hamper on the depth of the game. With the main focus on character diversity through items, Konami has set up Harmony of Despair in a position to become nothing but an item grab. Also, from my little experience with Castlevania games—I gave the demo for Symphony of the Night, one of the franchise’s most acclaimed titles, a whirl—I found the controls to be a bit sticky and unresponsive. Lastly, I would’ve loved to see split-screen multiplayer. As much as I know this style of multiplayer is on the way out, I still love to sit down in the same room as my friends and duke it out.


Nevertheless, at 1200 monopoly dolla…I mean, Microsoft points ($15 for real people), Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is a steal. It’s great to be able to pop on the game for a quick session of fragging hell-spawn, and the multiplayer keeps things from getting too redundant (I’ve already made a few friends just from voice-chatting with other players). Joystiq also released some details on DLC coming out soon, with two new characters and possibly more levels! On a final note, it’s a great intro to the mechanics of the Castlevania franchise. Despite the lack of a story, the basic concepts that the game lays out ring true through most of the other Castlevania titles. If you like it, pay attention to the upcoming reboot of the series, Lords of Shadow. It’s damn exciting to see what developers can do with these old franchises on new hardware! Except if we’re talking about Sonic…