Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Gamercide

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.
Welcome back to Gamercide!

Castlevania Harmony of Despair

Featured Replies

Let me say this game blows in my opinion. I have been waiting for this game so that my husband and I can play it and it freaking sucks....SUCKS.

That is all.

:Approve:

Even if I did only try the demo. It sucked so bad, I didn't even finish it.

The series has never been one of my favorites, but I've always thought it was well done nonetheless. This one sucks. Period.

I dunno, I've always been a huge Castlevania fan and it's not all bad with this one. I've literally played EVERY Castlevania game ever. Every single one and this doesn't even come close to the worst in the series. What don't you guys like about it?

The main thing that put me off was the size of everything. To make the characters fit right in that great big room, they had to make them so tiny I could barely see them. And I have a 55" tv. The graphics seem dated, as well as the gameplay. This might have been a decent game, circa late eighties/early nineties on a Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo. For fifteen bucks, there are a lot better games available in the Arcade in my opinion.

The main thing that put me off was the size of everything. To make the characters fit right in that great big room, they had to make them so tiny I could barely see them.

Did you know that you can click the right stick in to change the zoom level, and move the right stick to look around a bit?

I think the game seems alright. Not as great as Symphony of the Night, of course, but it looks like it would be fun to play multiplayer. Single player though, is kind of tough. I couldn't beat the demo. The farthest I got was to the boss and damaged it for a good few minutes (not sure how close it was to dying).

Did you know that you can click the right stick in to change the zoom level, and move the right stick to look around a bit?

Uhh...nope. That really could change things. Having the characters so small, and not being able to see much in detail was a dealbreaker for me. I haven't deleted it yet. Maybe I'll give it another try. Fifteen bucks still seems a little steep to me for what it is though.

You know, I got it for review (someone else on sync reviewed it, but anyways) and at first, all I could think was this doesn't seem worth 15. Now after putting hours into it over the last week or so, I am not so sure. The graphics are weak yes, and for the amount of levels 15 seems a bit much, but I'm not tired of them, and having more fun as I gain more awesome weapons, and it is a lot more fun with more than one person. I'll have to try to see if I can manage to write something up myself to explain this better.

  • Author

It was either Eurogamer or Dtoid that stated this perfectly about this game..."It's Castlvania Lite." In that review it got a 4/10.

I wasn't expecting a full blown Castlevania experience but I was at least expecting it to be a Castlevania game regardless of it is an arcade game. Even with the zoomed in camera it still doesn't do it for me. I went back and tried to play it numerous times, but I ended up quitting.

What really put me off was that everything is just re-used from old games, and there is already going to be DLC for it(2 more characters and 7 more levels I believe, which is just kinda BS when you have a SIX player game that only has FIVE characters.

Awwww, what was wrong with Castlevania 64? Don't be knockin, I actually kind of enjoyed that game.

Dud must be using cheats though. What the hell is with all the jumping? LoL

I can't wait for the new Castlevania game, Lords of Shadow. Looks aweeesssooommmeee!!!

952494_20100615_790screen015.jpg

Dud must be using cheats though. What the hell is with all the jumping? LoL

It was a speedrunner. They do strange things just to shave off a few seconds from their completion time.

Lord of Shadows does look pretty cool, and it has Hideo Kojima involved in it. I'm not a huge Castlevania fan, but I've really enjoyed the ones I've played (Symphony of the Night and Curse of Darkness).

Awwww, what was wrong with Castlevania 64? Don't be knockin, I actually kind of enjoyed that game.

Dude, Legacy of Darkness was the worst Castlevania game to-date. Nothing about it was Castlevania. Curse of Darkness on the Xbox was almost as bad honestly.

Point being, at least this is somewhat normal 2D side-scrolling Castlevania and not some half-a$$ed 3D version. I really hope having a decent team director can make Lords of Shadow not suck. <crosses fingers>

Dude, Legacy of Darkness was the worst Castlevania game to-date. Nothing about it was Castlevania. Curse of Darkness on the Xbox was almost as bad honestly.

Point being, at least this is somewhat normal 2D side-scrolling Castlevania and not some half-a$$ed 3D version. I really hope having a decent team director can make Lords of Shadow not suck. <crosses fingers>

Negative. Legacy of Darkness was NOT the worst Castlevania game. That honor goes to Judgement.

252px-Castlevania_Judgement.jpg

That game sucks so bad that I can't describe it. I'd rather play Castlevania64 for eternity that be subjected to Judgement again.

I have high hopes for Lords of Shadow though. *crosses fingers with Spawn*

And also, Curse of Darkness was pretty deep and engaging once you got into it. It had pretty good graphics, and the gameplay was MUCH improved over Castlevania64. In fact, I kind of miss CoD so much that I may fire up the OBox since you reminded me of it!

I guess it boils down to me being a purist when it comes to older franchises. When I first play Symphony of the Night I hated certain parts of it honestly. Sure it has grown on me and I realize it was the inevitable evolution of the franchise, but we haven't gotten that really good game that has evolved it in to 3D. With Zelda, it was Ocarina of Time. With Mario, it was Super Mario 64. With Metroid, it was Metroid Prime.

Castlevania just hasn't found it's good foray in to the 3D realm that doesn't make fans look back and say, "Wow, how did we ever NOT play these games this way?" Just an opinion from an old jaded gamer. :lol:

I got Harmony of Despair and am enjoying it. It's basically a grinding game like World of Warcraft, where you grind for loot and need big parties to take down the harder dungeons. The leveling is almost entirely based on loot, with the rest of your character development being from getting and upgrading spells and abilities (the methods of which vary per character). I think it got so many bad reviews because they reviewed it as a single player game, and it's really not designed for single player. It can be really fun cooperatively with 6 people.

I dunno Em.

Personally, I prefer some of the "old school" Castlevania games. My personal favorites are Bloodlines (The only Genesis Castlevania ever, and the story lent heavily to the newer "Portrait of Ruin' Nintendo DS game), and also Castlevania 3 (NES).

However, Castlevania 2 was amazing as well. Hella hard and very intricate. I loved all the secrets and collecting bits of Dracula throughout the game. Definitely one of the toughest.

That's not to say I don't love the newer ones which are spiritual successors to the runaway smash hit of Symphony of the Night (PS1), but some of the originals were certainly better in my opinion.

That being said, I CAN'T WAIT FOR LORDS OF SHADOW!!!! LOOKS AMAZING!!!

Top 3 Castlevania games for me, in no particular order:

Castlevania (NES)

Akumaj? Dracula X Chi no Rondo (PC Engine Super CD)

Super Castlevania IV (SNES)

If I'm forced to pick a favorite, it would be the one I spent $180 to get, which is Rondo of Blood. I had an english translation printed for each cutscene and I'll say the experience was really awesome. If you've never tried it, seek it out. It's really awesome. A remake on the PSP was made, but it just wasn't the same.

As with most games though, different strokes.

I never played a Castlevania game until the original game boy came out and I got the one on that. I never had a NES, I was a Sega MS guy, that was my first and only 8 bit console, and there were no Castlevania games on that. I also had a Genesis, but I was so anti-Nintendo back then (you think the console wars are bad now, think back in those days!) that I associated everything Castlevania to be Nintendo's domain, and I never touched the series. What I know of the original Castlevanias is what I've seen on AVGN.

Top 3 Castlevania games for me, in no particular order:

Castlevania (NES)

Akumaj? Dracula X Chi no Rondo (PC Engine Super CD)

Super Castlevania IV (SNES)

If I'm forced to pick a favorite, it would be the one I spent $180 to get, which is Rondo of Blood. I had an english translation printed for each cutscene and I'll say the experience was really awesome. If you've never tried it, seek it out. It's really awesome. A remake on the PSP was made, but it just wasn't the same.

As with most games though, different strokes.

I have to admit, Super Castlevania IV was epic, and almost makes my top 3.

*high-fives*

I'mm ago hide now though. Spooked to hell by that Marble Hornets shenanigans

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in

Sign In Now

Recently Browsing 0

  • No registered users viewing this page.

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.