Friday, August 27, 2010

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Review for the Xbox 360

    When it comes to this new release in the Castlevania family, I've never been more disappointed with gamers' reactions to it. A lot of it actually seems to stem from playing the game like a ****ing noob. I'm extremely opinionated on this topic thanks to things like previews and reviews from "gamers" on Youtube, the majority of which only played the demo or chose to play this as their first Castlevania game. Mainstream reviews haven't helped it along either as they slashed the game's score to bits. In fact, it seems hard to get a true opinion from someone who actually TRIED the game. Well here we go, I played the game for 40 hours strong, and I'm still going. I got both the Castlevania noobie and fan in mind, so here we go!


+ Tell me how it feels! - Imagine an arcade version of Castlevania and that's just what Harmony of Despair is. It's Castlevania without the story and giant castle maps. It introduces you to the boss at the beginning of each level and it's up to you to discover how to reach the boss and figure out the other nuances inbetween. 
     Compared to the other games in the series, the gameplay is a bit more sluggish. It's similar to going from Devil May Cry 3 to Ninja Gaiden; You feel sort of cemented in your animations compared to what feels like a free-flowing ballet of attacks. Attacks feel slower as does just walking around the castle. You get used to it pretty quick though and there's never even a second thought about the sluggish feel after that. For the new player, it helps them focus on the smaller details of battle and platforming, introducing complicated mechanics that have been series staples in a slower, simpler fashion. It's a good idea since it doesn't pull down the vets and helps the new ones move along together.
     And finally just some odds and ends: You don't gain levels, you obtain new equipment and perform actions with each respectable character to make them stronger. How to do that exactly, you'll need to play each one and find out for yourself. In Multiplayer, Loot is given to every player (given that they haven't died and been turned into a skeleton) and every character is given equipment specific to the item set of that character i.e. If Charlotte and Jonathan are working together and they open a chest, Charlotte will get an item belonging to her and Jonathan will get an item belonging to him. 

+ Our heroes come together to battle evil! - Jonathan! Charlotte! Soma! Shanoa! Alucard! They're working together and combining their skills in ways that, surprisingly, work! Honestly, you gotta wonder if they had this game in the works since the release of Dawn of Sorrow. All of the characters work so differently from one another yet work together in perfect harmony. Also, breaking down one character and their specific set of mechanics to build them up to an unstoppable force can take hours upon hours! It's a bit more addictive and fun than it sounds, I promise. Every character gains potential in a different way and playing with others online will make you want to burn the midnight oil to get them all performing at 100% perfection. There's talks of DLC to bring Maria Renard and Julius Belmont which tickles my desire to master more characters. Be warned: You will be addicted.



+ Six heads are better than one - In multiplayer, up to 6 players can traverse through the castle maps at a time. The difficulty of those maps are scaled depending on the number of players present in the map. I gotta say, when you have a full party and the character selection is diverse between you, the game feels like the ultimate crossover of heroes pulling together to destroy evil. There's a constant desire to pull through for the rest of the group and make your hero shine and become their best. And no worries about lag, it's basically non-existent.

- The noobs... - Noobs are annoying. Noobs approach every situation with a mindless solution regardless of whether there's a more useful one right in front of them. Unfortunately, this generation of gamers have not grown up on platformers and they have NO idea what they're doing and they chose a rather difficult game as their first platformer/Castlevania game. Unfortunately, there are troves of these noobs on the game and you can tell that the reviewers of the game are noobs as well, reporting some bosses as difficult asses. Here are some tips to avoid being a noob:
  • Choose a simple character: Too many people use a character that's no good for their skill level. This is mostly true for girls since they want to choose Charlotte and Shanoa since they're girls. This is a dumb notion and should be snuffed. Charlotte and Shanoa are for advanced players. If you're not doing well with a character or you can't figure out their growth, switch to another. There are five to choose from. Here's a list of the players so you know who to go for when starting out:
  1. Alucard: Simple use. Good for beginners. Medium growth over time, maybe a bit too slow for most.
  2. Soma: Easy use. Also good for beginners. Medium growth over time, introduces different powers and feels rewarding right at the get-go and beyond.
  3. Jonathan: Good for understanding the way the game works. Super slow growth so I wouldn't recommend sticking with him for too long unless you get attached to his style. Making him stronger is for the determined and patient, though.
  4. Charlotte: Advanced. Unless you work on her strength in single player, she will never be worth a dime in a group. Grind, grind, grind.
  5. Shanoa: Advanced. She gets nothing to work with until the later stages. Before then, she's not worth it unless you know what you're doing. If you do, you'll be rewarded early on but there isn't a whole lot of variation with her play, so she'll get stale soon after use.
  • Double Jump: You have two jumps. Learn to use them. You jump once, and at the height of that jump, jump again. Some situations may call for more distance than height so delay the second jump to accrue more distance.
  • Bosses: DO NOT MINDLESSLY ATTACK A BOSS. This is an old-school platforming-action game. Bosses have patterns. Focus on those patterns. Only attack when you know you're out of harm's way. Most of the time, the safe spot is behind the boss. If you get demolished by an attack, learn the signal for the attack and think about how it can be dodged (Can you slide under it? Can you heel-stomp the boss to get behind them?). If you get hit by something, work on figuring it out so that you don't get slammed by the attack again. There is a way to dodge every attack and most of them very easily. If you continue to get pummeled, you're not paying attention.
  • Puppet Master: ATTACK THE PUPPET, NOT THE MASTER. The Puppet Master (Master of Illusions) uses iron maidens with a summoned puppet to transport you into in the iron maiden either killing you or bringing you to the brink of death. These puppets have no health. They are destroyed by a certain number of hits that increases depending on the number of players in the party. The number of hits is based upon the attack speeds of all characters in play so 3 players cannot destroy a puppet for a 5 player team. All 5 must attack. When traversing through the level, push crates in front of iron maidens. When the Master leaves the boss room, stop attacking, look at your map (you have lots of time) and figure out what iron maiden he's headed for. Get there and wait for him. If you don't get there first, he can actually block you from reaching the puppet so really, get there first or you're all dead.
  • Pay attention: Please don't go on autopilot. That's what a bad Castlevania player does. If your whole party is doing something, maybe they're doing something you should be doing too. If you know better than them, don't follow the lemmings off the cliff. By the way, attacking the Puppet Master while everyone is attacking his puppet means you're being an idiot. Play smart, not rushed. If you can't get hit, you can't die and it won't matter how long the boss is alive. 
+ Good times - There's a 30-minute timer on every run in a level. I've heard the complaints and whatnot. They're all completely unfounded. Playing solo you can take your time grabbing every chest, killing every monster, and defeat the boss with time still leftover. If you ever run out of time, it's likely that you really had no sense of how to get around the stage but that really only applies to people who have never played a game like this before, and since the levels are meant to be played again and again, it doesn't really matter if you run out of time. 
     Other than that, it's a great built-in timer for speed-runners, it keeps some form of pressure on players to keep moving, and since it subtracts 3 minutes from the clock if you die as a skeleton, it keeps people from being a hero and making stupid decisions. It's a really small addition to the game that seems like it could make the game worse or not matter at all, but it does serve a purpose to keep the game going whether you know it's there or not.

Story and Presentation

- This is not the story you are looking for... - There's really no story here. It's just an excuse for the action


- I'm so confused! - The menus can be confusing. After you get used to them, it doesn't really affect you but just jumping into the game, you could be confused about where to go to do what. Clarity on these menu options should've been present and I'd make the call to say it was lazy that it was absent.

= Skin and bones - The presentation is nothing flashy but it still manages to feel like Castlevania. More effort would've been nice.

Graphics

= Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! - All sprites and backgrounds are brought over from the DS games. They look fine on the TV though. It just would have been cool if they had remade the sprites with a little extra detail since this is an HD title and high definition is the name of the game. I still enjoy all of the visuals regardless.

Sound

+ REMIX!!! - They took many different Castlevania themes and remixed them into high-quality works of art. Music to my ears so to speak. They even let you customize the game soundtrack with over 30 remixed and reworked Castlevania tunes.
     Adding to that, all of the sound effect samples and voice work are crisp and superbly recorded. 

Should you buy?

     Buy it if you've been a lasting fan of the franchise. Please, if this is your first Castlevania title, don't play this game. At least not yet. Purchase Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Marketplace and use that as your first romp through the franchise.
     There's LOTS of replay value and even some future DLC in the works so it goes way beyond it's $15 asking price. Unless you're a spoiled gamer, it's hard to be disappointed with what Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has to offer.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was developed and published by Konami for the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace. Played over 40 hours and generally mastered each character available aside from Alucard.

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