Not just any game will do, I'll have this one, thank you very much. I know where my money is going this week.
Posts Tagged ‘castlevania’
I can has game?
Monday, October 20th, 2008Game Review: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Monday, July 14th, 2008I have a couple of topics in mind, but this blog is in dire need of geeky stuff. So here comes a review for a video game!
Harmony of Dissonance (henceforth referred to as HOD) is the second title in the series to be released for the GameBoy Advance, following after Circle of the Moon.
When I first started the game, I wasn't sure what to expect. There are excellent titles in the series, but Circle of the Moon is crap. It is ugly, the characters don't fit anywhere in the overall storyline and it is way too hard, although the card system was interesting.
But this is not a review of that game, of course, so back to HOD! Visually, and in several elements of the gameplay, the game is reminiscent of Symphony of the Night, released 5 years earlier for the PlayStation. SOTN is one of the most critically and fan acclaimed games of the series, with excellent music and whatnot (although the voice acting sucks).
You are back to being a member of the Belmont family, named Juste. Your goal is to retrieve a friend of yours, who has been kidnapped, and understand what is happening to your friend.
This game, overall, is really great. First, let's have a look at the controls, which I believe are one of the best aspects of the game. You see, you are from the Belmont clan, as I said before. You are supposed to be a vampire killer, an awesome dude ready to kill Dracula if he raises. It is only natural that you should be a skilled fighter. Juste can dash at will across the castle. This is truly one of my favorite bits. You can dash forward and backwards, moving fast across the rooms, getting quickly away from an enemy's attack, etc.
The rest of the controls are mostly what you see in other Castlevania games (or in other platform games in general!), so nothing special here.
Next, the battle system. Since Symphony of the Night, pretty much all Castlevania games have had a unique aspect in battle system: souls in the Sorrow games, the cards in Circle of the Moon, etc. HOD is no different. You can collect spell books across the castle. Each book is associated with an element (fire, ice, wind, etc.). The combination of your book plus your subweapon (the classic ones, like the axe or the holy book) makes a series of special attacks that can really help take down bosses and harder enemies. There are also stones you can add to your whip to get special attacks or elements.
The game also has another of my favorite things in Castlevania games: Juste's room. As you move around the castle, you can collect various decorations and elements of furniture, which you then get to place in your room. Really silly, but still fun. I think that getting all of the furniture will give you a bonus of some kind, but don't quote me on that.
As in Symphony of the Night, you can collect Dracula's remains: rib, heart, and so on. Here, however, they aren't only more things to collect, they allow you to do two things. First, they are needed to get the best ending. Second, they can boost your stats or make you immune to various status ailments such as curse or stone.
Overall, I believe this game is a very good one, probably on par with the other good GBA Castlevania game, Aria of Sorrow.
Sadly, the game is rather hard to find today, probably because Aria of Sorrow has a larger fan following. The game is also part of the Double Pack, which includes, you guessed it, Aria of Sorrow.
If you can get your hands on it, though, I really recommend you to do so!
A Lucky Day
Saturday, May 12th, 2007Today is mu lucky day. As I took a walk, I met a man dressed up as a cowboy (hat, boots and gun), two men kissing passionately and a girl dressed up as a yellow bunny.
I also have completed most of Symphony of the Night's first castle, for my third time playing in less than a month.
On the less happy side, I was thinking as I went to take a shower "I'm glad next Monday is the start of my therapy. I've been looking for this Monday, May 17th for so long." And then I realized that we were far too early in May for next Monday to be the 17th. It is the 7th, and the 17th is next week, and is not a Monday. My appointment, however, is indeed on the 17th, so it is much later than I thought it would be. Every day a new burden can come to add itself to my other stupid obsessions and fears.
The other day, I was playing Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, when, in a room full of ghouls and one heavy armor, I suddenly came face to face with a skeleton. I remained in this OMGWTFskeleton mood for some time, as there kept appearing skeletons in this room and my stupid self thought it was a glitch. It was only days later that I discovered that, when dealt fire damage, ghouls and zombies will turn into skeletons.
I have finally taken care of all of my fanlistings, except for the nipples one, for which I really have to make a new layout. Really, very much. The mohawks fanlisting is up for adoptions, you can view the thread at TFL boards.
I'm hoping to go visit my parents some time soon. I miss my sisters, niece and nephew, and there are a few things I left there, most noticeably summer clothes. I quite regret not having brought them here earlier, as there were some pretty hot days this week. I'm also in serious need of some fresh air. Don't try, going in a park is absolutely nothing to just going outside at my parents' home. Trust me, the air is way better over there than in any park of this bloody city. I'd also like to take some pictures so I can sigh while looking at them with much nostalgia in my mind, listening to some old Green Day song and cursing my life.
Website Almost Done
Thursday, March 29th, 2007I have almost completed my new personal website. I have found a new name (yet again) which I am pleased with. I have also tried adding a sidebar and I'm quite pleased with the result. I sometimes have a tendency to forget how handy can a sidebar be on a rather large website. My fanlistings can live without one, but this website needs one.
I have fallen quite deep into the "not feeling well" area this week. I have obtained recently a one-month extension for all of my fanlistings, meaning I can get some rest from taking care of them and from receiving trouble emails. I think, however, that I will get back to them soon.
My throat feels strange. My head aches a little. Feels like I'm catching my boyfriend's cold, which sucks. I'm through with being sick but, at least, when you get a cold, you can just tell it to people without them looking at you weird or getting some ideas on you.
I have a friend who suffers from anorexia, which I find quite sad. She told me yesterday that some girls think she is lucky for it. What the fuck do they think? That it's actually fun to be anorexic? "OMG that's so cool I feel soooo fat and don't eat!!1!!" Haven't they ever heard her saying how weak and cold she feels? How bad she feels about herself, her body? Anorexia isn't fun, girls. It's a disease and there is no bloody disease that is fun. Stuff like that makes me want to throw curry at the media.
I'm not crazy, this is an ubercool reference to an ubercool game known as Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, in which a waiter skeleton throws curry at you when he sees you, before running into a wall and die. If you get to kill him on your own (no running into a wall), you can end up getting his soul which allows you to throw curry too. When you level it up, by getting 9 souls, you throw an enormous plate of curry. It does damage enemies. It's pretty useful against Iron Golems. Whatever you do to these guys removes only 1 HP, and they have 50. When you throw curry at it, the curry remains on the floor for a short amount of time, removing several times 1 HP.
I do use curry against some other enemies, it helps taking them down faster and it sounds cool and, you know, less violent.
There are so many cool things in the Castlevania series, I really have to add a page about them in my coming website.