Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance was the second Castlevania game I played, and I enjoyed this story much more than some of the other games. The plot follows Juste Belmont as he goes through Dracula’s castle with his friend, Maxim Kischine, to save the kidnapped maid Lydie Erlanger. While Juste Belmont was very cool with his abilities, such as being able to dash, which no other Belmont in the Belmont clan can do, I was more intrigued by Maxim’s growth. Throughout the story, Maxim attempts to become stronger to protect Juste while fighting off possession from Dracula. This isn’t to say Juste’s story was boring, but he had less character development than Maxim, who I found to be more interesting.

This game wasn’t nearly as hard as Castlevania Circle of The Moon, the controls and movement felt smoother, and there was also a shop to buy potions and such. However, a part of this game I didn’t find pleasing was the difficulty in progressing. To be able to get to Dracula and beat him, you have to collect his relics. His relics consist of: Eye of Vlad, Nail of Vlad, Rib of Vlad, Fang of Vlad, Vlad’s ring, and Heart of Vlad, which also appeared in other games in the series. To get the Heart of Vlad, you have to find a wall in a save room in Castle B, which is slightly discolored compared to the walls in the other save rooms. In every Castlevania game, a save room has only been used as a place to save and nothing else.

I mentioned that there’s a Castle B, which means there’s also a Castle A. This game takes a lot from a different game in the series, Castlevania Symphony of The Night, which also has two castles. While I was playing Harmony of Dissonance, I didn’t know that game took a lot of inspiration from Symphony of The Night, so when I played Castlevania Symphony of The Night I was disappointed that the games were so similar. The difference between the two castles is that the second castle in Symphony of The Night is unlocked by beating all the bosses in the first castle. That other castle is also upside down, and it spawned right above the first castle. The two castles in Harmony of Dissonance are incomplete versions of the castle, causing the same castle to be split into two and spawn right on top of each other. To go from one castle to the other, you have to go through a portal. The stories are kind of similar, where Juste and Maxim are going into the castle to save Lydie, and in Symphony of The Night, Alucard is going through the castle to kill Dracula while also saving Richter Belmont, along with Maria Renard. There are some other mechanics that are similar between the games, but they’re small enough not to bother me too much.

I managed to beat the final fight against Dracula on the first try, since it was easy to get money to buy potions. Before the Dracula fight, I had to fight Maxim, who I mentioned earlier was getting possessed by Dracula. In order for Juste to beat him without him dying, he had to wear his bracelet and Maxim’s bracelet. Doing this allows for both Maxim and Lydie to live. After beating him, Dracula’s relics will form the Dracula Wraith, which is a ghost version of Dracula. The second form has his relics come together once again, but to create a monster version of him, where he is a giant skull with one eye and a mouth that will jump out at you.
Lastly, this game has multiple endings. The worst ending is that you don’t wear Maxim’s bracelet and fight Dracula in Castle A, where both Maxim and Lydie die. The bad ending is that you wear Maxim’s bracelet to fight Dracula in Castle A, where Maxim dies, but you save Lydie. The good ending is that you wear Maxim’s bracelet to fight Dracula in Castle B, where you save both Maxim and Lydie. The best ending is a slightly altered version of the good ending, where you do the same process but collect all the furniture around the two castles before fighting Dracula. In the best ending, while Maxim and Juste are talking to each other outside of where the castle disappeared, Lydie will lean into Juste.

I give this game a 7/10; the similarities between Symphony of The Night and Harmony of Dissonance threw me off, and the exploration was hard, but I had fun.