I'm very mixed on this title as it does some things I absolutely cannot stand such as the awful amount of grinding, yet I can't put the game down.

It's arguably the most unique game in Castlevania yet its the last title where the metroidvania gameplay still exists.

The combat loop is fun but the tedious amount of grinding to get decent gear or to level up specific skills is arduous.

I'm mixed, and I guess my words are as empty as my soul.

I lovr castlevania

1) remake Jonathan so he has multiple weapons
2) buff Alucard's spells and abilities
3) buff Shanoa
4) fix the Symphony of the Night level so its not half a stage
5) PORT TO STEAM PLEEEAAAAASSSEEE

I've been on my Vania kick as of late and this is genuinely the first of them that I have not felt at all. I know loot is important in the more, well, Igavania adventures but I never have felt a sense of bored repetition in say Circle of the Moon like I have here. It just feels half baked and while I don't mind getting to play as a John Morris or whatnot, I do mind if I'm kinda just staring at nonsense with music (which is still damn good, by the way!) that is not designed at all for 30 minute bouts of getting lost, getting loot, and getting bored.

Un Castlevania un poco diferente. Tomando todo lo anterior visto en la saga 2D, Harmony of Despair nos propone completar pequeños escenarios laberínticos llenos de enemigos y un jefe final en 30 minutos de tiempo. No son muchos escenarios, pero el punto fuerte del videojuego es la posibilidad de jugarlo en cooperativo online y local de hasta 4 jugadores. Tendremos un elenco de personajes vistos antes en la saga, Alucard, Ritcher, Julius, Soma, Shanoa, entre otros, cada uno con sus armas y habilidades características y que, con su repetido uso, irán subiendo de nivel, lo cual lo convierte en una opción muy interesante a la hora de jugar con alguien ya que apenas hay juegos de este tipo y de esta calidad con función cooperativa, pero puedes jugarlo solo perfectamente. Aunque es un videojuego corto, basado en partidas rápidas, está hecho para jugarlo mucho, es muy rejugable y nunca aburre. Recomendado si te gusta el género y, sobre todo, si buscas jugar con alguien.
*Nota: Algunos personajes, escenarios extra y melodías clásicas de la saga son de pago

-JUEGO EN MI CANAL DE YOUTUBE-
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk_gzdzc7EsKGy1qPvXmYwVjSiskRPbiZ

PLEASE just put this on Steam already, Konami. All you're doing with Castlevania lately is porting collections anyway, what's one more game? Give it to M2! Let em bring it to PC! You don't even have to add anything, just let us play this!

My brother and I were OBSSESSED with this game back in the day. I'm not kidding when I say that I used to go hungry at school just so I could keep my lunch money and buy the DLCs instead. We turned this shit upside down, did absolutely EVERYTHING there was to do.

That was like, 7 years ago though. Picking it up for this marathon, I was kind of hoping to get RPCS3 running and bring some friends along for the ride through RPCN. It worked!
... For about 20 minutes, then the game crashed for everyone. So we tried changing hosts, fiddling with network settings in the Emu, but nothing worked. After completing one stage, the next one would surely crash. So I went ahead and finished the game by myself.

And it's such a shame because we were having a BLAST when it was working! This game is dumb, dumb fun. It looks kind of crusty, with wildly different styles of sprites roaming around a chaotic mess of past Castlevania assets, but MAN it brings a smile to my face, especially after playing through every single game up to this point.

Tying everything together is probably the best soundtrack in the series. Sure, it's 95% music from other games, but every single one of these arrangements wipe the floor with the originals, 0 exceptions. Not that the OGs were bad, far from it, but these tracks are transcendental. They were INSPIRED in that recording studio, I'll tell you that.

That said, I only finished the base game, no DLC chapters. It just feels... Cold and lonely without other players. If RPCS3 multiplayer ever gets stable, or if by some miracle HoD gets ported to PC, I'll be there to 100% this all over again in a heartbeat, you can bet on it.

when I first started playing this game with my friend I was like "this is neat, but like, I think it will get old". we finished the game and one of us asked "want to do it again?" and then we started playing the game from the beginning again, and are now reaching the end of our third(?) playthrough. I also bought and played all of the dlc levels which range from mildly disappointing to great. This game just feels so nice to play! If you like Castlevania, this is like the junk food equivalent of Castlevania. It is lovely.

[For the sake of logging a game as "done", I finished the main (non-DLC) 6 stages with a group of three.]

At this game's ABSOLUTE worst, you're playing some pretty true-to-form Castlevania with an arcadey twist. Truly timeless gameplay with a KILLER arranged soundtrack. I'm honestly surprised it held up so well for being some off-genre release from the old Xbox Live days. It's rich with replayability, with a number of characters to choose from, some solid DLC choices, and loot drops galore.

I can't recommend playing this game enough, but ONLY if you have at least a couple people around to play it with. It's cross-compatible between every Xbox console it's playable on, so if you only have a 360 and your buddy has a Series S/X, you're still good to go.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go start a little prayer circle for some kind of updated port...

man i fucking love this game. i remember playing this on the xbox 360 with my school pals, none of whom were 'vaniaheads (that's the official Castlevania fan name by the way, Vaniahead) and we just had a blast. i love multiplayer co-op stuff and this was just fun. every character has a pretty solid identity and the stages have a good amount of variety in too. if you're familiar with castlevania, specifically the DS titles, you will probably enjoy the gameplay too. god knows i did hyuck hyuck!!! it's just a very neat time, micro castles with loot, some light puzzles, and a challening boss at the end, that you can do with your pals, is just a good time.

it is ever so slightly light on the content side, with the base game only have 6 stages. i would've rounded it to a nice even 10 and then done 5 DLC stages but... what can you do? with the exception of maybe stage 3 they're all good fun, and genuinely difficult. the characters could also do with some balancing. soma is just the best character in the game with unprecedented levels of utility that makes every character look pitiful by comparison. jonathon should've been a mix between soma and the belmonts, in that instead of being a level-up whip user he should've had the weapon variety soma has, but instead of katanas, he has whips! like in portrait of ruin! shanoa should have had infinitely more glyphs also.

the real thing letting this game down these days is the fact it's been lost to the generations of yesteryears. i believe you can still play it on newer Xboxes but its never been actually ported to anything since Xbox 360 and PS3. because it's konami (who are famously fucking useless, especially at PC releases) there's no PC version.

if you have a PS3 or 360 still that you play i would really recommend picking this up, especially if you have some buddies you can play it with. i will always, ALWAYS be down to play this with my fellow vaniaheads out there. hmu.