It’s sad to see you get your main account banned(by a self-request) then not even 24 hours later you start posting on an alt.
Make up your mind, man. All jokes aside, Harmony of Dissonance over all other Metroidvania’s is a disgusting opinion.
I actually prefer Dissonance over the other adventure Castlevanias. It’s fast paced, has tons of fun boss battles, and can be really challenging to beat with only sub-weapons and no armor or whip upgrades. Plus, you actually played as a fucking Belmont and not some sword wielding powdered wig turd. Only problem it had was being released on the GameBoy Advance. If it had been a full PSX or PS2 title, it would have been better than Symphony. It’s my favorite adventure Castlevania next to Symphony, and the one thing Symphony has over it is the much faster paced Richter mode. I love Richter mode, no Castlevania was ever as good as Richter mode in Symphony after the game came out 
People seriously under rate that game, while praising shit like Dawn. At least Dissonance had a decent story and Simon’s grandchild, with a nice hint of Sypha’s blood in him.
Nah, they’ll make it a super buff dude, but he’ll have all female side kicks.
Speaking of Team Ninja earlier, maybe they’ll pull a Razor’s Edge.
Harmony of Dissonance was awesome, and Simon’s quest was too. People don’t like Simon’s Quest because of AVGN. It’s quite simple. Game was pretty ahead of its time back then. Don’t look into the Death Star or you will die.
Simon’s Quest does get undeserved hate. Only real problem with the game is the “What a horrible night to have a curse” Shit because of how frequent it is.
Yeah the night and day cycle could have been handled a lot better. Also, I think Hell froze over, because I just agreed with Rugal about something!
simons quest town music so godlike. blood tears while great doesn’t need to be looped the whole game though.
mansion music even more godlike, and gets no love from konami/remix fanboys
Yeah, as cool as the mansion music is though, it’s a very short loop that gets repeated. My favorite is the music that plays in the castle when you go to resurrect Dracula. So godlike. The whole game has cool music, but sadly, what’s there is too short and gets repeated a bit too much especially over lengthy play for what was, at the time, a long adventure game.
I’m on my first playthrough of Order of Ecclesia about 14 hours in officially, but including my deaths I’m sure it’s more than double that I can’t begin to praise it enough, I’m blown away by how much better it is in every aspect than any other CV, this game is damn near flawless you can clearly tell Iga and his team put more thought and care into it than anything else they’ve worked on meaning for it to be the pinnacle of the franchise which I think it clearly is.
I don’t even know where to start, the first thing I noticed was instead of spending the majority of the game dungeon crawling OoE does the opposite, there’s still a lot of castle to vania through, but the majority of the game is spent going through forests, swamps, caves, tombs, coastal reefs, deserts, etc it has a lot more variety and instead of lazily reusing art assets most of the art in OoE is brand new and makes it the most beautiful CV by far. All the new environments and enemies are things we’ve seen in millions of other games, but they have that CV charm to them, everything looks vibrant and detailed, but still has the decaying rotted aesthetic CV is known for it’s just a lot more eye catching and colorful than other CV’s. I noticed it’s not quite a true metroidvania nor is it strictly a linear stage based game, it’s a very tightly constructed hybrid, it gives you a bunch of varied bite sized metroidvanias to explore which have a ton of secrets many of which I’m sure almost no one would find without a guide so you can bounce around between all of the stages at any time similar to a Mega Man game. When you start a stage it still feels like classic SOTN layout, in fact I’d say the level design is even better than other metroidvanias because there’s an actual focus on precise platforming especially towards the end in Dracula’s castle, speaking of which the way in which Dracula’s castle is unlocked is very clever and going through it makes it truly feel like what you imagine it would be like.
It’s a super tough game and the whole time I was thinking…this must be where From Software got their idea for the Souls series, yes their early games like King’s Field and Shadow Tower are basically simplified first person souls games, but really OoE has such a Souls-esque feel to it, not just because it’s difficult otherwise any hard game could be called Souls-esque, but the gothic dark fantasy setting and tone contrasted with colorful environments and enemies and the patience it requires when fighting just screams of the Souls series. I’m really good at video games in general, but this one kicked my ass hard, every enemy encounter is a potential death if you’re not careful even after leveling up, but that is the meat of this game, Iga and co clearly set out to make the most satisfying combat they could, the standout feature of OoE that makes it the ultimate CV is the glyph system, you have access to dozens of really unique and useful powers which you can combine to form badass and even more powerful attacks that look like supers from a MVC game. The enemies give no fucks they will rush that shit down ASAP and mashing attack will get you killed just as fast, even the enemies dying animations are awesome and detailed, when you kill a frankenstein electricity pulses all over his body and he kneels down turning black and crumbles limb by limb and that’s just 1 of the dozens of enemies. The boss fights are even more impressive really testing my reflexes and memorization more than most other 2D games I’ve played, especially Blackmore who’s definitely one of the greatest boss fights of all time, small confined space with giant shadow monster who mixes up his attacks when he’s at half health and then when he gets lower he starts doing multiple attacks at the same time and much faster it’s just a very tough but rewarding fight:
http://gamingmemoirs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Blackmore-Castlevania-Order-of-Eccelsia.jpg
CV has never been known for having incisive, thoughtful and emotionally deep plots, but surprisingly OoE has a damn good story with strong characterization especially compared to other CV’s it’s a clever spin on the “someone went crazy and revived Dracula” plot and the characters have some degree of depth to them, never thought I’d say that about a CV lol. Shanoa starts out as the typical amnesiac protagonist, and there isn’t a whole lot of text, but as the game progresses you learn more about the other character’s motivations and can see Shanoa frustrated that she is an empty shell of a protagonist. It’s not ground breaking intellectually stimulating stuff, but again for a CV game it has more than just the usual shit going on plot wise, and I appreciated it, hell I’d rather play as Shanoa than a Belmont so yeah. And the villager fetch quests even tie into the story somewhat and feel more important than the fetch quests they are, as much as I complain about them in other games, they work seamlessly here, probably because the combat is a joy so I don’t mind grinding for a rare item.
All I have left to do is fight Dracula himself, but I want to get everything first all glyphs, the best equipment, and finish all the villager quests I’m about 88% done according to my file. Oh and the music it’s Michiru Yamane’s best work, walks the line between gothic and up tempo perfectly, it doesn’t sound like other CV’s the music is very off putting, but relaxing at the same time.
Do all the quests, like the villagers and such. I wouldn’t be too keen on getting absolutely every farmable item before dracula though.
Dracula is very satisfying battle. Quite cinematic if you care about the characters, which it seems you do. Some of that charm is lost if you power level too much. It may not feel like it but OoE has some of the most effective cheese tactics available if you look for it.
Do the quests as they do unlock some satisfying story stuff if I remember right. Then try Dracula. If it feels like too much you can go unlock more glyphs and stuff.
@sjohnst2
I’m almost done with villager quests, currently trying to best training hall which is pretty tough it feels like I’m playing Super Meat Boy lol. what equipment would you recommend? Also I read on gamefaqs that justice ring gives me +1 strength for every 3000 enemies I kill and maxed out at like +32 please tell me the stat bonus carries over after I die because if not justice ring is worthless. I really like death ring and plan to get a second one on my next playthrough but dying in 1 hit ughh lol.
Nitesco is the best fucking glyph followed by Lapiste, both don’t have nearly as high damage as other glyphs but the speed of their DPS makes them the most damaging glyphs for sure.
Shut up. Other than Symphony, it IS the best one. Best castle, best protagonist, best subsystems. Other than symphony. And the A Castle/BCastle thing was kind of like the regular/dark worlds in Silent Hill.
But then again, you liked OoE, which would have been 10 times better if all the characters had been whip wielding stick figures. That game had THE worst characters of probably any game I’ve EVER played. I HOPED Shanoa would die at the end because she was such a snooze.
On another note, LoS2 is way disappointing. I mean, it was decent in places, but overall it wasn’t a good game. It was like Castlevania with Metal Gear elements added. I hated the present day scenes. Even the combat was wonky and the camera was borderline worse than the 64 games (which wasn’t as bad as people say it is.)
OoE is nothing special. Same formulaic garbage as always. Dumb main character, no friends, total loser, has a “friend” who decides to be a rival and oh look someone resurrected Dracula again. I mean really, it’s nothing new. The game’s sub-system is simply the Sorrow games all over but instead of actually finding weapons you simply use souls 100%.
The characters are so lifeless in the game. Anakin Skywalker was dumb and Shanoa was characterless. I think the only one with any character was the secondary villain and he was as shallow as it got.
The game is ok from a play persepctive, I guess. I mean, it is definitely better than all the crap since Aria of Sorrow came out but it still has an odd mix of sprites with black outlines and sprites without still recycled from Rondo in 92. Some of the bosses were all right. I guess.
The only thing I really liked about the game was traveling the country side. That was something fans were asking for since SotN came out and it only took 12 years for it to happen.
Harmony was a trash game. Pure garbage. One of the few CV’s that I can’t replay again even after trying to give it another playthrough. It’s just…not a good game. Sacrificing awesome sounding music for bright visuals was, and always will be, a horrible decision. I’d rather play any other GBA/DS CV game than Harmony. The A/B Castles could have been implemented better too.
I didn’t like the PSN/Live game either. It had so much potential, sad to see it turn out the way it did.
OoE was awesome.
The music was pretty good wtf man. Better to hear chip music than extremely low quality samples like Aria.
aow shet ! The Castlevania thread is making a comeback? What’s new people
I have a 100%+ save file in every Metroidvania game. 
Spoiler
Except Harmony of Dookie because that game fucking sucked.
I need to replay a CV game again soon. I want to play a Classicvania then follow it up with a Metroidvania. :tup:
@orochizoolander The Training Hall can fuck you up so easily. I had to prep for that area before I could really tackle it.
Training hall is a fucking breeze now, I can run through it without taking more than 1 maybe 2 hits max in under 5 minutes. I got the robe decollette just now, have to keep running through it until I get the alexandrite to give to Laura so I can get the royal crown which is the best head gear until I beat the game on hard mode and get the heart curias.
When I beat the game does everything carry over? glyphs, gear, level, money, etc. Also moonwalkers are GDLK they make my backdash completely invincible it’s like a better verson of dark wood grain ring, I swear this game is 2D souls…speaking of which the actual 2D Demon’s Souls probably won’t be out for awhile now update from Jasper Byrne since like december =/. Does anyone use death rings? I’m going with justice until I’m confident enough to run it.
OH Harmony of Despair really sucked, I was so hype when it was announced, and then saw it was a lazy rehashed cash grab, the level design was atrocious, I hated the timer, oh and Soma was stupid broken no reason to use anyone else, although it’s been a few years since I played it maybe my opinion will change if I ever try it again.
I will take your shadow.
Hahahahaha
Death rings are stupid broken, in a good way. They let you 2 shot Dracula which really kills the feeling of that battle. Most people that play it that way use regular gear on stages. Then prep outside the boss, walk in, one shot, change back. Seriously, play without it for the first run through.
Also, I remember the villagers quests unlock the true ending ala Symphony. So if you want to see everything beat Dracula without completing the quests.
I really like that the Village gives us a small look at the Belmonts during their 200 year hiatus.
Harmony of Despair has a place in my heart. I managed to grab the top score on Stage 5 Hard for a while until someone squeaked ahead with some lucky points to knock me in 2nd. Stage 5 is the only stage you can’t gimmick a high score from infinite money drop. You do need to use the medusa glitch for points but I maintain that is a very fair gimmick. It forces you to use sup par equipment for the majority of the stage thus upping the difficulty a bunch. Seriously, I’m really proud of my Stage 5 hard replay 
There’s just this one part where I barely miss running through a revolving spike that I hate. Waste like 15 seconds doing nothing.
OoE is pretty godlike, I definitely am in the mood to play it again, this time on hard mode hahaha.