The Second Quest - Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
By Brian • 12 May 2025
- Year
- 2002
- Platform
- Game Boy Advance
- Notes
- Known as Castlevania: Concerto of Midnight Sun in Japan, a much cooler title
I was 17 going on 18 the first time I played a Game Boy Advance. It happened in the summer of 2001. A long time ago. But only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock—wait, no, that last part is Stand By Me. The rest is true.
Like any aspirational 17-year-old, I needed money. Money for gas, money for college, money for girls. In addition to mowing my grandparents’ lawn once a week, I helped Dad landscape around the house that summer, moving stones and dirt to build flower beds. I was weak, out of shape, and struggled to stay motivated, so, maybe not the ideal task for me. I don’t know if I was any good or not, but even if I wasn’t, Dad was still gracious enough to pay me. And, if nothing else, I’m at least able to take some of my experiences that summer, compare them to today, and know I’ve come a long way in terms of things like work ethic, energy level, and tenacity, so I’m grateful he managed to get me out there and get my hands dirty.
But anyway, my pay! With that, the world was mine. Not in the supervillain sense, just that I could do things and go places. It allowed me to eventually enroll in the seventh best university in the country, take my future wife on our first date, and even buy a drink at a gas station of my choice! Financial independence was mine, and the possibilities endless. I became, at long last, a man.
No, no no no. Forget all that. Don’t let me fool you—that money didn’t go to any of those things, except maybe the drink at a gas station. No, I used a good chunk of that pay to buy a Game Boy Advance at launch with Super Mario Advance and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. So much for your mistaken belief that I was going places and doing something not nerd-centric with my life. Am I not a bad enough dude? You should have known better.
That all brings me to Circle of the Moon, a formative game in my teenage years. In its most basic form, it was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on a handheld, and it made me feel like life couldn’t get any better. Sure, the color palette was dark, and given that backlit screens were not yet standard on handhelds in 2001, I had to sit in exactly the right light to have any sense of what I was doing. Nevertheless, Circle of the Moon captured my attention that summer. I dug into every dark corner and alcove of that castle to unearth its secrets and give Dracula the fight of his life, all set to an energetic and mesmerizing soundtrack we’ve all come to expect from a Castlevania game. To be fair, Super Mario Advance also excelled, but as a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2, it didn’t hit in quite the same way as Circle of the Moon.
When a sequel was announced, I readied myself to spring upon it like a fleaman on an unsuspecting vampire hunter. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance released in September of 2002. Considering all the fun I had playing Circle of the Moon, I anticipated more of the same. With my first semester of college on the line, I knew I’d have to limit the hours I put into Harmony. Could I manage my time with another huge hit in my Game Boy Advance library?
Well, if you’re curious as to why I got a D in German 100 that semester, I can assure you it wasn’t because of Harmony of Dissonance. My disappointment shocked me. A bad Castlevania game? Say it isn’t so. Remember, I loved Circle of the Moon, but I felt like Harmony of Dissonance lacked all of the qualities that made Circle of the Moon good. The music underwhelmed, movement felt stiff and awkward, and the dual-castle design and exploration thereof introduced tedium and confusion to the formula, especially before Juste Belmont gains access to fast-travel. Man, what happened here? I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority—it’s possible I’m not enough of an intellectual or a powergamer to appreciate the nuances of Harmony of Dissonance, but my overwhelming memory is of a game that didn’t speak to me.
Nevertheless, I guess I beat it? The game file on my cartridge, untouched since 2002, looks complete. I never went back—this game didn’t do it for me, and I’ve been quick to criticize it ever since. Nevertheless, when it comes to curiosity mixed with my beloved Castlevania franchise, even a discarded, subpar entry deserves a second look. A second quest, if you will. Let’s talk about Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and see if it can’t redeem itself in my older, wiser, still-bad-at-German years.
Here’s your brief plot synopsis to get us going. Juste “Grandson of Simon” Belmont and his friend Maxim explore a castle where they suspect their friend, Lydie, is held captive. Juste encounters the Grim Reaper, who reveals that it’s Dracula’s castle, which means it’s time for Juste to face his destiny and engage in traditional Belmont-versus-vampire combat with the life of Lydie on the line, and perhaps the sanity of his buddy Maxim, too.
Starting out, I got a feel for Juste and his controls. Juste’s sprite got a size up from Nathan Graves in Circle of the Moon, and always emits a bright blue aura. Circle of the Moon takes a fair amount of criticism for how dark it is, so I guess Harmony of Dissonance producer Koji Igarashi decided to make certain I’d never lose track of Juste. It’s the Castlevania equivalent of the other characters asking “Where’s Poochie?” whenever Poochie’s not on screen.
Juste’s jumping animation looks and feels oddly stiff, too, like his legs can’t bend at the knees. He needs significantly more recovery time between whip lashes than the average Belmont, so I struggled with the weight and unresponsiveness of the whip until I got into a rhythm, and got my Belmont butt handed to me by Victory Armors and Feather Demons on a number of occasions in the early-going. Honestly, none of these were a dealbreaker to continuing the game—they just took some time to get used to. Movement would improve drastically in the third GBA installment, Aria of Sorrow.
On the plus side, Juste has a snappy dash to the left or right via the shoulder buttons, and this move proved essential to traversing the castle in a timely fashion and overcoming some of the more tedious bits of exploration. Alucard mentions in Symphony of the Night that the castle is a creature of chaos and assumes many forms. Well, lemme tell you something, my friend. The assumed form in Harmony of Dissonance leans into extreme navigational confusion to annoy and confound intruders. Which, hey, that’s not a bad plan. There are THREE different types of locked doors (four if you count crushable walls), which all require a different type of key or item to open, plus other obstacles demanding the standard Castlevania faire like the double jump, slide, and high-jump. I made a lot of long walks across the castle trying to find my way around gated areas, only to be stymied by another obstacle. Not only that, there was so much ground to cover that, even with a map, I would forget where gates were and what kind of gates they were, so I spent an inordinate amount of time walking in circles. I should have taken notes.
I mentioned the dual castle design earlier, which only exacerbates this navigational nightmare. Certain doorways transport Juste not just to another part of the castle, but another castle entirely. The two castles layer on top of each other—the enemies and backgrounds change, but the layout remains constant. Some actions performed in one castle will often influence something in the other. For example, hitting a switch in one castle might collapse a wall in another, which is clever and fun. It reminds me of the Star Trek: Voyager episode Deadlock, where two Voyagers occupy the same space in different dimensions, and the actions of one ship and crew often influence those in the other dimension. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough instances of these cause-and-effect scenarios to keep the dual castle design interesting throughout. At least in Symphony of the Night, one of the castles was upside down to create obvious visual distinction between the two, but here, it was easy to forget which castle I was in. The one thing that Harmony does better than Symphony is easier movement between castles—there are doorways scattered throughout, whereas Symphony requires either the use of a Library Card item, or a trip to Dracula’s throne room to switch castles. At least the castle designs, in stark contrast to Circle of the Moon, are bright and colorful, although it might be to the game’s detriment in some circumstances where it gets too garish.
While I had my fair share of trouble with Harmony’s standard enemies, the bosses do not qualify as Bad Enough Dudes material. Too many of them just stand in one spot or amble back and forth a bit, occasionally throwing an attack Juste’s way. They don’t show a lot of urgency in trying to stop Juste from wrecking them or their master. Living Armor and Skull Knight, in particular, seemed to just stand there and let me pepper them with whip attacks while thinking hard about trying to stop me. This is not to say some of the bosses weren’t tough, but otherwise, I guess Dracula didn’t see Juste as a threat and called up a bunch of minor leaguers to fill out his boss ranks in this adventure. Subweapons did a lot to mitigate the boss threat, as well.
Speaking of subweapons, Harmony of Dissonance features a spellbook system that allows Juste to augment the traditional Castlevania subweapons (cross, axe, holy water, and so on) with magical enhancements. For example, combining the cross with one of the books (I don’t remember which one) causes a bunch of crosses to rotate around Juste and pile up damage on surrounding enemies. It’s a decent system that adds a lot of variety to the available attacks and encourages experimentation. That being said, I wish there was a more convenient way to switch between the regular subweapon and the spellbook-powered subweapon. You have to hit start, then select “Spellbook” from the menu, and then turn the spellbook on or off. It’s too bad this couldn’t have been assigned to one of the shoulder buttons. I like that you can dash and backdash via the shoulder buttons, but I think I’d be okay with sacrificing one of those for the ability to more easily turn the spellbook on or off. I found myself almost always leaving the spellbook on, so I barely even used hearts throughout the entire game (the spells use a separate MP bar).
Now, normally, these Metroid-esque Castlevania games have either a main corridor or hub area with killer background music to get us all revved up to slay vampires and dig through an entire castle to scrounge up as much loot and gear as we can carry (hear: “Dracula’s Castle” from Symphony of the Night, “Awake” from Circle of the Moon, “Pitch Black Intrusion” from Dawn of Sorrow, et al). Harmony of Dissonance’s “Successor of Fate,” on the other hand, is a bit moodier and subdued, but I found it grew on me over time. While the music doesn’t compare in quality to Circle of the Moon or Aria of Sorrow, I can acknowledge that it has a bleak, sometimes jarring, sometimes subdued quality to it. It’s a melancholy, more introspective quest through the castle, and despite the technical limitations of the music, it can be charming, at times.
So how do I ultimately feel about Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance after replaying it for the first time in 20-plus years? Yikes, 20 years?! We old. Sorry. Anyway, it’s still my least favorite of the GBA trilogy, and pretty far down the list as far as Castlevania games go. Despite all of that, it’s still Castlevania. It’s fun to explore, to try out different equipment and spellbook combinations, and learn the secrets of Dracula’s castle. It’s satisfying to return to earlier parts of the castle with new abilities and better equipment and lay waste to enemies that gave me lots of trouble earlier in the game (looking at you again, Victory Armor), and weed out all the items tucked away in the corners of the castle I couldn’t previously reach. I had fun. There, I said it. I can’t quite put it up there with Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow, but I think I’ll hold on to it. It does also include a Hard mode, Maxim mode, and Boss Rush mode, so there is a lot of replayability, as well. I got past my nitpicky hangups and had a good time. You should, too!
Thanks for reading, and see you next mission!
Screenshot Credits: MobyGames
