(Or mouths rather, I can't really decide.)Castlevania: Harmony of Despair's main draw is the fact that it's the first inclusion of multiplayer in a Castlevania game. Since it's also released on a popular platform, that being the Xbox Live Arcade, it's also very easy to access to everyone on the system.
The game itself, works out to be a very run-of-the-mill Castlevania. You fight, you collect items, you beat bosses, you advance, Etc. This being a new venture, there are some things different. For example, you can't reequip on the fly, which makes things difficult for those accustomed to switching spells and weapons to deal with different situations. You also can't take more than 1 type of consumable item with you at a time and the re-equip stations/'save points' won't actually heal you completely like they would in any other Castlevania title. This leaves clumsy Castlevania players kind of at a loss here because without the ability to heal properly, you'll find yourself dying multiple times.
Being a co-operative title, you have your choice between 5 characters from a wide selection of Castlevania games, with different color palettes available for each character. Those characters are:
Alucard, who made an appearance in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, but is more recognized from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Soma Cruz, main character of the Castlevania: Aria/Dawn of Sorrow games on the Gameboy Advance/Nintendo DS.
Jonathan Morris, co-main protagonist of the DS game, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
Charlotte Aulin, co-main protagonist of the DS game, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
Shanoa, the main character in the most recent game produced by Igarashi, prior to Harmony of Despair, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
(Shanoa and Charlotte aren't the same person, I swear.)
All of the characters included all come from various games and have various stories behind them, so it's very weird to see for example, Soma fighting alongside
Hm.
Anyway, the game Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is meant to be a party title. For those that don't quite get what I mean, you know how weird it is in Super Smash Bros. Brawl to see Snake from Metal Gear Solid shoot Kirby in the face? One of those games. I would file it under a Super Smash Bros. /Jump All-Stars kind of game, except rather then be a fighter; they decided to throw those types of games into a deeper more expansive perspective. So far, having party titles like this, it's always been just beat the other guy.
This time, however, it's more about co-operative play, working to beat Dracula just like any other game, just with a few friends. In many of what have been established Metroidvania titles such as any of the DS Castlevania's, the game has a fair amount of difficulty, but is still very beatable. The difficulty on Harmony of Despair is just weird. As Destructoid points out in their review, and is very noticeable when playing. For example, if it's just you playing Single-player, some bosses will be almost impossible, and if you get a full team of people, lets say, 5-6, it's still at the same as far as difficulty goes. The ideal team to beat the game with is around 2-3, which is true, as far as I've seen.
The stage design is fantastic with various similarities from across the DS games and the Castlevania universe in general. In Stage 1, you fight Gergoth, a boss from Dawn of Sorrow, this huge bipedal grey zombie dinosaur that shoots a laser beam that can hit you from across the entire stage.
(I wasn't lying.)
The map system has been replaced with a zooming out camera. Being able to zoom out to see the entire stage and be able to still navigate your character, is amazing, there are 3 modes for the camera, one seeing the entire stage, another showing your character and the rooms around your characters current room and another just zooming in on your character.
The environment in this stage, and the environment in the stage after, are both influenced from Dawn of Sorrow, the game Soma Cruz stars in. The familiar environments are welcome, although the maps are nowhere near similar since its combine’s elements of various stages into one, so that it's just a huge back of nostalgia. The rest of the stages, or chapters as they're called, all have various elements from either Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia, and some traditional elements (the staircase to fighting Dracula; Some traditional elements in Chapter 6 in general, etc) of Castlevania. If you pay close enough attention to the sound, you'll notice that most of the music is all from previous Castlevania's as well.
As far as the gameplay goes, it is what it is; a traditional Castlevania. You fight monsters, depending on the mechanic of the character your using, you can either absorb the soul, absorb the glyph, absorb the spell, pick up a subweapon or...find it on the ground. (Alucard's isn't as fascinating.) You pick up items, gain equipment from chests, level up your abilities with usage or collecting more of them, uncovering hidden items by doing menial tasks like breaking a wall or ledge, it's all there.
The game isn't without its flaws though. One of the biggest and most noticeable draw backs is that regardless of the number of players, so even if it is just your character and no one else, there is no functional pause. You can hit start and a "pause menu" will appear, but besides that the game goes on in the background. You have a half an hour to beat each level and the timer in the corner will keep going regardless of what came up on your end.
There also isn't local multiplayer, which is very disappointing. Before the game came out this seemed like the kind of game I'd invite a friend over to play and we'd just try split screen and blame each other for our loss or something like that, but sadly, this isn't the case. You can only play with people over xbox live.
One of the most annoying things I would have to say about the game is its very poor lack of documentation. It was fine for me personally, considering that I've had plenty of prior experience with other Castlevania games, although for new players and to convince people that I know that have never played a Castlevania game before to pick this up has been very hard because it isn't very welcome. The menus seem old and outdated and there isn't a very clear explanation or run through of the systems to you. Basically, it makes you feel unwelcome.
Not that I've experienced any, but when doing research for this review, apparently there is a freezing glitch that tends to be happening to a lot of players? I can't be 100% sure on this.
The game also feels a bit rushed, when it was first announced via an ESRB rating, everyone thought it would be some sort of new project for Konami, but the final result winds up just being the same sprites and same backgrounds from the previous games. They could have released it with something new, maybe a new non-canon character but, I guess they had to meet the Summer of Arcade deadline or some other lazy excuse.
If I were to give Castlevania: Harmony of Despair a solid score, I'd probably rank it really high, somewhere around an 8 or a 8.5, but this would be because of how I hold the Castlevania IP/Koji Igarashi in regards to his ability to design games. So, while remaining impartial
Edit: I just realized that's what a reviewer does, give his opinion, so with that in mind:
Overall score: 8.5/10
Personally, I think everyone that's curious about buying the game, to download the demo on the Xbox Live Marketplace, it's not for everyone, I can say that, but it is an experience I'd like everyone to try.
And to those that haven't played a Castlevania game before, I'd actually advise you to first buy Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which is available on many platforms such as the Playstation Network or the Xbox Live Marketplace. It's one of the greatest games in the series, introduces the current metroidvania playstyle, and is very easy to get into.
Screenshot Credits: IGN Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Screenshots
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