Castlevania

Review by Eurogamer 4/10

The two-faced mansion from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night endures in players’ memories because it’s the perfect venue for adventure. You never stop pushing into new realms, yet there always remains another locked door or an unreachable ledge – something more to discover. And, most famously, at the moment you think the journey is over, you learn it’s not even close. Symphony of the Night is a romantic’s idealisation of life: a cycle of mystery and discovery with no end in sight.

That must be a frustrating irony for Koji Igarashi. As the producer of most Castlevania games since Symphony of the Night – including the latest, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair – the series has offered him scant opportunity for discovery.

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Review by IGN 7.5/10 (Good)

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is an interesting experiment. While it looks just like the 2D Castlevania games we’ve grown accustomed to since Symphony of the Night, it’s actually very different than any previous entry in the series. This is a multiplayer adventure designed for up to six vampire hunters to jump into the game together. In six maps, they must find and defeat the boss before time runs out. When you get a group of people together and finally figure out how the game works, it’s definitely fun. But it’s not very enjoyable to play on your own, it fails to explain its mechanics to the player, and most of the assets look like they’re pulled straight from existing Castlevania games. This one is for the hardcore Castlevania fans only, but I do think they will enjoy it.

There are six recognizable characters from the series to choose from and each behaves the way you would expect them to. For instance, Shanoa, from Order of Ecclesia, can use her Magnes ability to attach herself to magnets and use them to slingshot to hard-to-reach areas.

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Review by Destructoid 6.0/10 — Alright

On paper, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair sounds like a dream. A Castlevania game with six-player co-op, bringing together an all-star cast from the “Metroidvania” style titles, all rendered in glorious high-definition sprites. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? What could go wrong?

A surprising amount, apparently.

Castlevania HD is by no means a bad game, but it is one of the most contradictory, unintuitive and downright confusing XBLA games ever made. Even as I write this introduction, I am struggling to recall how much of the game was fun, and how much was a repetitive, grinding chore. Once I’ve worked that out, I still won’t know if the fun parts were worth the absurdly demanding work that has to be put into it.

Harmony of Despair appears to have no story whatsoever. It’s never explained how the six playable characters meet, and the game’s six chapters (based on previous Castlevania games) seem to have no relation to each other. Castlevania HD has a very arcade feel to it, and makes no attempt to be cohesive or structured in any way. If you’re looking for plot, you won’t find it here. If you just want to be dropped into the action with no questions asked, then this game certainly does the trick.

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