Catlevania: Harmony of Despair Review
Join Alucard and friends in a fun but extremely repetitive romp through Castlevania!
Count Vlad Tepes Dracula has had it bad for years now. Every time he manages to get back to his feet after unwanted sleep, he is always slain by a vampire hunter of some sort. He probably got fed up with more than twenty years of games featuring his demise, since he got a few of his evil pals and decided to star in a multiplayer version of Castlevania, dubbed Harmony of Despair.
While ol’ Drac’s plan might seem like a sound one, rounding up some of the more powerful bosses from the series, but its execution might backfire on him. The side of good has also put together quite a team of heroes to counter the forces of evil, with characters from a number of Castlevania games, like Alucard, Shanoa and Soma, each armed with their own set of unique skills and abilities.
Levels are based of some of best segments of series, as are the bosses. Each of the six stages take a huge span, which is blatantly zoomed out at the beginning of each session. If you have the slighest of interest in Castlevania, you’ll love the graphical treatment given to each of these levels. Sadly, the game does little to make each of your runs through these any different from the last and thanks to a grind heavy loot system, you’ll practically memorize everything by the time you are through with the game.
Up to six players can join forces online, taking their persistently leveled characters through both normal and hard modes of each of the six levels in the game. Items, weapons and armor can be bought through the in-game store, but most of the better equipment comes from chests and boss ‘drops’. These fall under something MMO players have come to dread over the years, a random drop rate. Each time you run through a stage, you have a certain chance to get rare items, which can be slightly improved by equipping certain items that boost your luck stat, but are generally random.
That means that if you are after that certain sword for your Alucard, you might never see it or get it in your first try. The random nature of obtaining equipment makes for much of Castlevania HD’s replayability but also is its weakest feature. There are just so many times you can kill Dracula in hard mode before you just want to downright quit the game. Sure, there’s plenty of characters you can dedicate in leveling and getting items for, but due to the nature of the game and the lack of variety, I can only see the most hardcore of Castlevania fans playing this game in the long run.
The multiplayer lobby system is also a source of some of my frustration with ‘Despair. Quite simply, out of the thirty attempts I made to join a game, only a third was successful and thanks to an extremely slow and cumbersome interface, finding a game online proves to be more trouble than its worth. Once you find a working game, however, Castlevania HD is at its best and most fun form. Sure, it might seem weird to see three Jonathan Morrises running around whipping skeletons.
On the other hand, for newcomers to Castlevania, some of the characters’ unique moves might pass them right by thanks to how little there is in form of tutorials in the game. Shanoa for instance, a character introduced in the DS game Order of Ecclesia, sports a special power that helps her cling to gold buttons in the levels, helping her reach otherwise inaccessible spots, or her ability to absorb enemy spells and use them as her own. Unless a new fan has enough interest to actually research what little there is to be read about unique character abilities in the game’s meager how to play screen, he or she will just treat all the characters as the same hack ‘n slash grunt, which might work with a few of these heroes but certainly not all.
The degree of difficulty at the start is also another strike against the game. While playing it online with friends or strangers is by far the recommended way of playing Harmony of Despair, there is a single player mode which proves to be incredibly tough to play through in the beginning, with an underpowered and undergeared character. Boss encounters for the most part have the nack to completely destroy you if you are not prepared, which can add to the frustration of playing alone, even in the normal difficulty setting. HD’s main focus is obviously the multiplayer, and if you aren’t much of a team player, you’re bound to be annoyed at how unfriendly the game is right off the bat.
There is promise of new levels and characters in form of DLC, but I’m afraid most of the player base will have already dwindled by the time it hits. You are still bound to find little pockets of the more dedicated of players, though, who are after the rarest of items playing online, but thanks to the repetitive nature of the game, there won’t be that much to be after in the long run.
The game’s achievements are also extremely reliant on grinding, so even the most hungry of achievement junkies will have to work overtime in order to secure the maximum amount of points out of Castlevania HD. For me, though, there’s only a number of times I can finish off the friendly but incredibly pale Count. You’re probably sick of seeing me, right?! I’ll put out the candles on my way out of your castle, Vlad!
manages to get back to his feet after unwanted sleep, he is always
slain by a vampire hunter of some sort. He probably got fed up with
more than twenty years of games featuring his demise, since he got a
few of his evil pals and decided to star in a multiplayer version of
Castlevania, dubbed Harmony of Despair.
While ol’ Drac’s plan might seem like a sound one, rounding up some of
the more powerful bosses from the series, but its execution might
backfire on him. The side of good has also put together quite a team of
heroes to counter the forces of evil, with characters from a number of
Castlevania games, like Alucard, Shanoa and Soma, each armed with their
own set of unique skills and abilities.
Levels are based of some of best segments of series, as are the bosses.
Each of the six stages take a huge span, which is blatantly zoomed out
at the beginning of each session. If you have the slighest of interest
in Castlevania, you’ll love the graphical treatment given to each of
these levels. Sadly, the game does little to make each of your runs
through these any different from the last and thanks to a grind heavy
loot system, you’ll practically memorize everything by the time you are
through with the game.
Up to six players can join forces online, taking their persistently
leveled characters through both normal and hard modes of each of the
six levels in the game. Items, weapons and armor can be bought through
the in-game store, but most of the better equipment comes from chests
and boss ‘drops’. These fall under something MMO players have come to
dread over the years, a random drop rate. Each time you run through a
stage, you have a certain chance to get rare items, which can be
slightly improved by equipping certain items that boost your luck stat,
but are generally random.
That means that if you are after that certain sword for your Alucard,
you might never see it or get it in your first try. The random nature
of obtaining equipment makes for much of Castlevania HD’s replayability
but also is its weakest feature. There are just so many times you can
kill Dracula in hard mode before you just want to downright quit the
game. Sure, there’s plenty of characters you can dedicate in leveling
and getting items for, but due to the nature of the game and the lack
of variety, I can only see the most hardcore of Castlevania fans
playing this game in the long run.
The multiplayer lobby system is also a source of some of my frustration
with ‘Despair. Quite simply, out of the thirty attempts I made to join
a game, only a third was successful and thanks to an extremely slow and
cumbersome interface, finding a game online proves to be more trouble
than its worth. Once you find a working game, however, Castlevania HD
is at its best and most fun form. Sure, it might seem weird to see
three Jonathan Morrises running around whipping skeletons.
On the other hand, for newcomers to Castlevania, some of the
characters’ unique moves might pass them right by thanks to how little
there is in form of tutorials in the game. Shanoa for instance, a
character introduced in the DS game Order of Ecclesia, sports a special
power that helps her cling to gold buttons in the levels, helping her
reach otherwise inaccessible spots, or her ability to absorb enemy
spells and use them as her own. Unless a new fan has enough interest to
actually research what little there is to be read about unique
character abilities in the game’s meager how to play screen, he or she
will just treat all the characters as the same hack ‘n slash grunt,
which might work with a few of these heroes but certainly not all.
The degree of difficulty at the start is also another strike against
the game. While playing it online with friends or strangers is by far
the recommended way of playing Harmony of Despair, there is a single
player mode which proves to be incredibly tough to play through in the
beginning, with an underpowered and undergeared character. Boss
encounters for the most part have the nack to completely destroy you if
you are not prepared, which can add to the frustration of playing
alone, even in the normal difficulty setting. HD’s main focus is
obviously the multiplayer, and if you aren’t much of a team player,
you’re bound to be annoyed at how unfriendly the game is right off the
bat.
There is promise of new levels and characters in form of DLC, but I’m
afraid most of the player base will have already dwindled by the time
it hits. You are still bound to find little pockets of the more
dedicated of players, though, who are after the rarest of items playing
online, but thanks to the repetitive nature of the game, there won’t be
that much to be after in the long run.
The game’s achievements are also extremely reliant of grinding, so even
the most hungry of achievement junkies will have to work overtime in
order to secure the maximum amount of points out of Castlevania HD. For
me, though, there’s only a number of times I can finish off the
friendly but incredibly pale Count. You’re probably sick of seeing me,
right?! I’ll put out the candles on my way out of your castle, Vlad!
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