| Castlevania Harmony of Dissosence…sigh… Well I figured that it has been a long time since I last updated this page. And since I have played and beaten the new game (I found a rom of it by accident and couldn’t resist) I decided to make a review on it. I really don’t want to give the “score” of how I feel the game is. Since I am “one sided” and that is I like Castlevania as the “old school” being the origial ones for the NES and SNES. The story…well I can’t read Japanese so that saves me much typing :p. Anyway I ‘think’ it is similar to Cycle of the Moon. Two warriors go into the castle. You remain healthy while a deamon possesses the other guy and you have two fight scenes with him. Also there is some girl that nearly dies in the end. She was to be some sort of sacrifice I believe to aid in the return of Dracula. You must find all of Dracula’s body parts and resurrect him for I think he has some kind of curse and that is why your there in the first place. Some where along the story I missed how the girl came in… oh wait! It was because the story was in Japanese! That is how I messed that part! LoL anyway it boils down to where you fight the other warrior and he gives you his bracelet. That allows for some locked doors to be open. To really express how I feel of the success of this game most vets will understand when I say Castlevania 2 was a disappointment compared to the original release and Castlevania III made up for it. I hope they have a third one. There are two castles in different dimensions. One in the “real time” and one if “Dracula’s time I guess… sorry I STILL can’t read Japanese L. Doing one thing in one castle can and will affect things in the other castle. Such as there is a collapsible wall in “Castle B”, if you destroy it then a solid wall in “Castle A” will also be destroyed allowing you to gain access to a previously inaccessible area in the castle. There are a few disappointments that I found. Lack of hidden areas. There were a lot in Cycle of the Moon. There is only a handful here. Lack of weapons. Compared to the cards that affected your whip, heh…there isn’t much here. And there are no “familiars” either. There is very little of everything in this game weapon wise. Although there are spell books which change how your sub weapons can be used. It gives you an “item crash” like how Richter can do in Castlevania Symphony of the Night and in Castlevania Dracula X for the SNES. I used this a lot when I was low on hearts. And are far more powerful then the weapons used alone. There are also save spots that are similar to Symphony of the Night. The boss fights were often a pain in Cycle of the Moon and I would have to level up a few times before I can beat them. Not in this game! The boss fights were too easy, way to easy! And this I found the most annoying of them all. When you look at the map if flashes which gives me a headache. Fortunately with the rom I was able to pause the game in map mode and figure where I am and where I want to go and how to get there. If you think that leveling up is boring and have the $30 then I’d say go and get it. I don’t want to totally scare anyone out of this game but it does fall very short compared to Cycle of the Moon. If you want to get the rom just look for it on something like KaZaa or iMesh. Also I strongly suggest getting those programs from http://www.cleanclients.tk for it will not have the ad’s, pop up ad’s, ad ware and most importantly NO spy ware! I believe gator.com is both ad and spy ware. Even though they claim it isn’t spy ware. Although if you read threw the user agreement for Gator.com it will say some how that it is spy ware such as storing internet links on their servers or computer or something. Meaning they know where you go. They try and “hide” what they do by using many words to confuse you Or else I can give you the rom if you catch me on AIM: LightningLockey and you can find GBA emulators at http://www.zophar.net I don’t suggest getting them from something like KaZaA or iMesh. They are not as reliable and the download speeds can be pretty slow there too. For some more info you can go to www.classicgameing.com/castlevania which has alot of screen shots. I'll add some of my own here later. For now I just have the review. Also you can get some pretty good help at www.gamefaq's.com. |