Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

The sequel has arrived on the Wii U virtual console and I finished it in 3-4 days. It took me like a year the first time. And that was just to get the middle ending. Anyway, this game didn't mash with me when it was out. I thought the music was awful, the colorful graphics missed out on the spooky dreaded feeling and so on. Basically, it wasn't Circle of the Moon. Playing again though, I find it rather enjoying. Probably cause they fixed the gameplay problems I had with the first game. I have a monster encyclopedia making it easier keeping tracks on where to farm for stuff and such if need be. The magic is a bit simplified and is tied to your sub-weapon so depending on which weapon you have and which magic book you have equipped it causes different attacks and such. The complexity of the original is missed, but here you can easily discover what each combo does. Another great thing that held the magic system back in the former game was that you could only equip one magic ability and when you have to choose between poison or curse resistance it takes away some of the fun. Here they solved it by finding certain relics that gave you the permanent effect, rewarding discovering them. Also, they have stores all around the castle giving you much relief if you, like me, suck at the game and need some extra potion. Also, I apparently misremember the amount you could carry, since I could buy 99 of the things on sale. Great!

The story then. You play as Juste Belmont who meet his best friend Maxim that have been away for a while, telling you that Dracula's Castle has returned and your girlfriend (?) Lydia has been kidnapped so you set out looking for her while searching for the evil in this castle. The spoiler here is that it is actually 2 castles and Maxim, due to exposure to Dracula's remains, have a split personality. The evil one being possessed by Dracula kidnapped Lydia and prepares a resurrection. To stop this (and get the best ending) you need to gather Dracula's five remains and his ring. Then take everything to Castle B, equip Maxim and Juste's bracelets and defeat evil Maxim so that he can expel Dracula's evil spirit and being reanimated by his remains and then you put him to rest... again. Really, Castlevania is worse than Legend of Zelda with Ganon being the final boss. Castlevania always ends with Dracula as the final boss (well, maybe with exception of Lords of Shadow since, well, spoiler, you become Dracula). Had I played Castlevania II: Simon's Quest I might have appreciated the nods to that game at the time... or even played Symphony of the Night with the two castle system.

So all in all, I liked the game. It was more fun than I remember (or maybe forgot how fun it was). The music while definitely lowered quality had some nice tunes (not as good as the previous game, but anyway). The castle itself looked amazing and the psychedelic backgrounds was amazing to look at and that you could use the environment to solve certain puzzles was really fun. You have the guardian you push into a meat grinder, the pinball machine and so on. A more lively castle that is. Less hidden rooms, but more puzzles works fine. Also, after beating the game you can play a boss rush mode or even play the game as Maxim. A bit better than Circle of the Moon when you just replayed the game with a code changing stats and how you played the game like a magician, shooter or thief. Sadly the only time you played as a Belmont as the main character in the portable Castlevania games for GBA or DS.