Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance is a 2002 action role-playing game developed and published by Konami for the Game Boy Advance. The second installment of the Castlevania series on the Game Boy Advance, the game was released in Japan in June 2002 and in North America and PAL regions later that same year. Harmony of Dissonance is set in the year 1748, fifty years after Simon Belmont vanquished Dracula's curse in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Harmony of Dissonance focuses on Simon's grandson, Juste Belmont, and his quest to rescue a kidnapped childhood friend.
Similarly to previous Castlevania titles, the game employs role-playing game features alongside more traditional action adventure game elements. Progression is split between two versions of the titular castle, requiring Juste to traverse both maps in search of abilities, armor and weapons to combat an assortment of enemies, including various bosses. In addition to his whip and subweapons found around each castle's grounds, Juste can perform more powerful magic attacks by finding spell books that can imbue sub weapons he finds in each castle with elemental properties, as well as augmentations for his whip that can destroy certain obstacles blocking progression to certain areas of each map.
Koji Igarashi produced Harmony of Dissonance with the intent of "creat[ing] a game that was similar to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night", the critically acclaimed PlayStation game that he had worked on. Critics praised its graphics which was considered an improvement over its predecessor, gameplay, and return to elements from Symphony of the Night, while criticism was directed towards its confusing map design, story, and music.
Gameplay
thumb|left|The [[HUD (video games)|HUD on the top left of the screen shows the player's current health (red), magic (blue), and what sub-weapon they are currently holding. At the center of the screen, the player character, Juste, is casting a magic attack. |233x233px]]
Harmony of Dissonance makes use of a 2D side-scrolling style of gameplay, similar to many of the previous Castlevania video games. Harmony of Dissonance makes use of the forward dash move, which causes Juste to move forward with a short burst of speed.
Juste primarily attacks at close quarters using the series' traditional whip weapon, the Vampire Killer. It can be brandished to deflect projectile attacks, reminiscent of Simon Belmont's usage of the weapon in Super Castlevania IV. A variety of ranged sub-weapons—holy water, a dagger, a holy book, a cross, an axe, and a thunder gauntlet—are available, one of which can be carried at any given time and combined with one of the five spell books—Fire Book, Ice Book, Bolt Book, Wind Book, and the Summoning Tome—hidden throughout the castle to create a magical attack. Casting a spell renders the player character invincible for a moment. Equipment in the form of weapon modifications, armor and accessories can be found scattered about the castle and contribute to his statistics. Maxim Mode requires the player to finish the game with the best ending and allows the player to take control of Maxim. Unlike Juste, Maxim cannot equip items and can only use his sword and giant shuriken (sub-weapon) as weapons. Maxim has the ability to triple jump and cast certain spells by inputting certain button combinations. Finishing with the best ending also unlocks an option to listen to the music of the game.
The protagonist and primary player character is Juste Belmont, the grandson of Simon Belmont and descendant of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, Together with his amnesiac and injured best friend Maxim Kischine, he sets off to rescue his kidnapped childhood friend, Lydie Erlanger. While exploring the castle, he encounters a merchant who stumbled upon the castle and Death, Dracula's servant.
Story
Juste meets Maxim at a castle where Lydie is being held captive; after a brief talk, he leaves Maxim outside and begins to explore the castle. Within the castle, Juste encounters Death, who confirms that the castle is Dracula's. He meets up with a dazed Maxim, whose memory is slowly returning to him, and they split up to cover more ground. While trekking through the castle, Juste notices that the castle sometimes has different atmospheres. He continues to encounter Maxim, but is baffled by how his friend seems to change personalities periodically. In one of their meetings, Maxim reveals that he went on a journey to find and destroy the remains of Dracula, something Simon Belmont had previously done, but when he collected all six, his memory went blank.
Juste encounters Death again, who explains that the castle has been split in two "layers" to accommodate the two spirits living in Maxim's body: his original spirit and an evil one created from Dracula's remains and his suppressed jealousy of Juste. Maxim later confirms this and admits to being Lydie's kidnapper. Juste meets his friend again in the other layer of the castle where he reveals that he lost his memory to protect Lydie. He gives Juste his bracelet to help him locate her in the castle. However, when Juste finds her, Death kidnaps her to use her blood as a means to unite the two castles by destroying Maxim's spirit. Juste defeats Death, and proceeds to search for Maxim. Along the way, he accumulates Dracula's remains, which are scattered throughout the castle. In the center of the castle, he finds Maxim with an unconscious Lydie.
There are three endings to the game. In the first, Maxim, possessed, has already bitten Lydie. With Maxim's defeat, Juste escapes the collapsing castle alone and curses his inability to save either friend. In the second, Maxim struggles against the possession and urges Juste to kill him. In his final moments, he thanks Juste for killing him and reveals that he had wished to save him from his fate as a Belmont. Outside the castle, Lydie awakens, unharmed, and tells Juste not to blame himself for Maxim's death. The third ending begins the same as the first, except that, during the fight, Maxim notices that Juste wore his bracelet and resists the possession. Dracula flees into a weakened form using the gathered remains and fights Juste, planning to use his blood to return himself to full power. Vanquishing him, Juste escapes the castle together with Maxim and Lydie, whose bite marks disappear by the time she regains consciousness. Outside the castle, the three resolve to return home.
Development
Produced by Koji Igarashi and developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance is the second installment of Konami's Castlevania video game series for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). Its predecessor Castlevania: Circle of the Moon had been developed by a different studio, Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe.
Harmony of Dissonance incorporates other changes: a fusion-spell system replaced the dual-card system introduced in Circle of the Moon, and the graphics were brightened and controls improved.
Audio
On June 26, 2002, Konami published Castlevania: Circle of the Moon & Castlevania: Concerto of Midnight Sun Original Soundtrack (KMCA-162). Soshiro Hokkai composed the soundtrack for Harmony of Dissonance with Michiru Yamane creating the additional stage music. Igarashi later noted that the quality of the music had been "sacrifice[d]" for the graphics of the game.
Release
Originally slated for a mid-June release, It was released in Japan on June 6, 2002, in North America on September 17, 2002, and in Europe on October 11, 2002. In the United States, about 126,000 units of Harmony of Dissonance were sold, It was published on the Wii U Virtual Console on October 16, 2014, in North America.
The game was re-released as part of the Castlevania Advance Collection on September 23, 2021, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One alongside Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and Castlevania: Dracula X.
Reception
Metacritic assigned it a score of 87 of 100 During the 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Harmony of Dissonance for "Handheld Game of the Year", which was ultimately awarded to Metroid Fusion.
The soundtrack of the game was less well received. Critics panned the music as "easily the worst Castlevania soundtrack" PALGNs David Low criticized the inclusion of the "possessed ally" element from previous Castlevania titles along with the game's easier gameplay, the player character's badly animated sprite, and the occasionally gaudy environments.