Great game, but not perfect.
Harmony of Dissonance is set in 1748, and stars Juste Belmont, a member of the legendary Belmont family. Juste can jump, double jump, use his whip, and much, much more. As Juste you have to make your way through Dracula’s castle and find abilities to reach other castle areas which you couldn’t get to earlier in the game. Just like Symphony Of The Night and Circle Of The Moon, this game is nonlinear, making it possible to go everywhere you want right form the start. You won’t be able to reach every place however, for this you need certain abilities like I said earlier in this review. You will face a ton of enemies in the game, some enemies show up in pretty much every place in the castle, while other enemies only show up in a few rooms. It is nice to see much variety in enemies, you will fight skeletons, bats, knights, zombies and much, much more. You will also collect magic books, to perform magic attacks, artifacts, a wide variety of items and other stuff. Juste’s main weapon is his whip and his other sub weapons are daggers, crosses, holy water and some other small weapons.
The graphics department brings bright colors and special enemy attacks, and also more detail in the areas of the castle. The characters also have more frames of animation, when compared to CotM. Overall, the graphics are great, the sound on the other hand… The sound in this game is… terrible. The CotM soundtrack was top class, the HoD soundtrack is garbage. The tinny music and weak sound effects sound very similar to Game Boy or NES soundtracks, which is a bad thing. CotM was also noted for being a hard game, HoD goes in the opposite direction making the game very easy. The bosses are fun, but are no challenge at all. You will probably rush through this game in a few hours, and you will get some nice unlockable modes, but still, there is not much of a challenge in this game.
Conclusion - Despite a few problems, like the soundtrack and the difficulty, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance is a quality adventure and a good attempt at miniaturizing the brilliance of Symphony of the Night. If you want a good game for your GBA, or can’t decide which GBA Castlevania you want, get this one first, it offers a nice adventure and is fun enough to keep you entertained, even after you finished the game.