Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance

Once upon a time, about 23 years ago, Konami released three delightful Metroidvania-style Igavania/beyond-Classicvania Castlevanias—what’s in a name?—on the Game Boy Advance. All three GBA games are well-praised and everyone knows the first two release were just a test for Konami to then release one of the best games ever made: Aria of Sorrow, obviously. The first game, Circle of the Moon, a 2001 launch title, was criticized for its lack of colour and contrast on the non-backlit original GBA. Let’s take a look how the second game, Harmony of Dissonance, tried to mitigate these complaints—and how that resulted in its own problems.

My (third? fourth?) Dissonance run was made possible thanks to the excellent GBA Collection for Switch that offers save scumming and integrated secret hints in case you’re lazy or impatient (at many moments, I am both). The screenshots here display hint icons on the right for collectibles that are absent in the original GBA release.

Not that you’ll frequently have to rely on those save states to get past a particularly difficult boss: Harmony of Dissonance is disappointingly easy. Even the last boss’s second form (Dracula, of course) is a complete joke. Juste Belmont’s Vampire Killer whip inherited from Simon even damages annoying enemies coming from behind—when he’s about to whip enemies in front, Juste throws the thing behind his shoulders first. That trick allowed me to one-shot boss summons pretty easily.

The biggest difference between Juste and Nathan Graves of Circle of the Moon is his agility: repeatedly jamming the shoulder buttons enables Juste to dash in and out of danger without breaking a sweat. You’ll be zipping through the castle faster than you can say “Pazuzu”. This greatly trivializes annoying difficulties you have to deal with in other Castlevania games: irritating Harpy’s or Medusa heads just out of weapon reach, a sudden burst in projectiles, … Due to Juste’s move set and the reach of his whip, the game not feel like its much less forgiving predecessor, which can be a double-edged sword.

The card-based system of Circle is gone and replaced by the classic subweapon + spell book combination that, when triggered, sometimes creates milliseconds of invulnerability. Well-placed shots of ice or wind crosses were easy ways to even dispatch of Death. And if that’s not enough, a semi-secret spell book acts as a Final Fantasy summon spell. Equipment is still there, but weapon equipment and variety will have to wait until Aria of Sorrow. I didn’t really feel the need to regularly swap in and out items to adjust elemental resistance/damage, but the option is there if you want it to be.

Harmony of Dissonance is sold as the handheld version of Symphony of the Night, as becomes apparent as soon as you’re greeted with the deceitful reflection on the title screen. That of course means there’s got to be some form of map-based trinket. Just like Alucard has to traverse a regular and upside-down castle, Juste Belmont has to traverse two versions of the same castle: A and B. Yay for more backtracking and the lack of a proper teleportation system… These two parts emerged as part of Maxim’s—Juste’s friend and troublesome protagonist/secret character—twisted brain: one part is the sane part and the other Dracula’s unholy influence.

Speaking of which, after retrieving six of the Dark Lord’s remains that are scattered throughout both castles, you have the option to go ahead and finish the game in one of three possible endings: kill Maxim, attempt to save him, or really save him and face his dark counterpart.

After fiddling with with the menu system, it becomes clear that Harmony served as the technical base line for Aria of Sorrow: the menu system is re-used, as are some of the menu/item sounds and monster layouts. Harmony stands out as an exceptionally bright game—they certainly tackled those complaints—and Aria will become the best of the three because of it.

The biggest complaints Harmony received by gaming journalists when it was released was… the brightness? Because much of the GBA (V)RAM was occupied by colourful sprite work, there was little cart room and CPU power left for a good soundtrack, resulting in a sub-par track compared to the other two GBA games. The strongest aspects of Igavanias have always been the soundtrack: as soon as you enter the castle gates/walls, you’re greeted with an enticing track that pulls you in.

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Compare Successor of Fate (Juste’s Theme) to Aria’s Ruined Castle Corridor or Circle’s Awake and you’ll immediately understand why Harmony of Dissonance doesn’t come across as very strong in the auditory field. The almost 8-bit-like chiptune tracks cannot be called bad but they don’t exactly evoke exploration and vampire killing excitement either.

I do welcome the lesser difficulty and bright graphics after the brutal and dim Circle of the Moon, but after Aria of Sorrow was released in 2003, both of its predecessors instantly became obsolete. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t explore these two castles at all: at about seven hours, the game doesn’t overstay its welcome, and Juste is a lot of fun to control thanks to the shoulder button zippiness. Just don’t expect a hardcore Castlevania experience: bosses are wimps and uninspired—no three-headed zombie dragons here.

That still gives me plenty of time to collect some furniture, decorate my room, and generally have a good time. If you don’t own the GBA cart, don’t bother: get the GBA Collection for Switch instead.