OoE is a bad game. It has the same exact story as the last 5 handhelds before it. You play a good guy. Good guy has a friend/meets a friend who is/becomes a rival. You play through the game, at the end the rival is the 3rd to the last boss, then you kill the supposed “mastermind” bad guy who Dracula/Dracula’s Power uses to revive/possess and then you fight Drac/Manifestation of Power. What makes it good? Nothing. Anyone who has played the last 10 Cv games will tell you, nothing is new. Even Curse of Darkness followed this same formula, and to some extent, Lament.
OoE had the same combat as the last 5 handheld games. Use swords, spears, back dash, and magic just like every other character. What makes her different from Alucard, Jonathan, and Soma? Nothing. Even Soma’s sprite was built on top of Alucard’s, and if you don’t believe me look at the way his “coat” flaps exactly like Alucard’s cape and how his arms chugga chugga like Alucard’s. Attack animations are exactly the same. So she got a new sprite, but she still plays exactly the same when you strip her of powers, and with powers, she’s basically a female Soma. What did it do new? Nothing.
The music was typical DS sub par quality sound with like 5 instruments to compose, really simplistic, loops in about a minute, and not very catchy. In fact, I can’t even recall any music (I really can’t, I’m not lying) from the game except the boring bass line from the first water area with the 3D waves, and I don’t even remember much of the track other than the stupid bass. Compare that to the great games of the past, which had more limitations but melodies we all remember. The NES games by comparison blow it out of the water. On top of that, compare that to the 100 piece orchestra you get from LoS. Have you actually taken time to listen to the music? It’s far better, not just generic “epic” music. The tracks aren’t looping in 1 minute and are well composed. It reminds me a bit of the Conan score written by Basil Poledouris, heavy, brassy, and intimate when it needs to be, which is a good chunk of the score. I frequently listen to the score that came with the LE, along with the re-recorded Conan: The Barbarian and Conan: The Destroyer soundtracks. Also, your mention of the “Castlevania gets concerts,” which concerts? VGL? They use a medley based off the older games, and previously before incorporating Curse of Darkness music, was basically using slight arrangements of Dracula New Classic. I don’t recall OoE music being included, and google finds nothing about it.
I can name off several things unique to Harmony that none of the other games did. Back dashing was used, but also forward dashing, completely changing how the game played. You played a Belmont, and you used your whip. None of the other games did that, though to some extent you could utilize whips in the very awful Portrait (so bad I never bothered to finish it) of Ruin. The main sprite wasn’t an Alucard sprite edit. The game used sprites unique to it, while the color palette wasn’t perfect since it was tweaked for non-backlit handhelds, the monsters were pretty unique and not copy pasta. The magic system was pretty refreshing since it wasn’t just “hay, magic” but relied on your sub-weapons for powerful combinations, which has been a staple of the series for years. None of the other games did that. The duality of the levels was unique too. The story, sadly, was the same old fight your rival before Dracula makes a “surprise” appearance, yawn. But besides that, it was a very good game that could have benefited from not being on a damn handheld. It’s probably the second most fun Cv game to play as a Belmont in aside from SotN Richter mode, both games giving you a fast, nimble character to cause havoc with.
And I’ll just leave this here, the best Minotaur sprite in Castlevania existence. Of course, from HoD.
It got so much right and was a nice mix old and “new.”