Konami has brought us the new Castlevania in the form of Xbox Live Aracde title Harmony of Despair. This game takes every element I loved in the different parts of the series and piles them into a time-attack style single or multi-player experience. You begin the game by checking out the slew of characters including: Alucard from Symphony, Jonathan or Charlotte from Portrait of Ruin, Shanoa from Order of Ecclesia, and my favorite Soma Cruz from Dawn of Sorrow.

When you drop first drop into gameplay, the first thing I found noticeable is the usual strong soundtrack proving that Konami still cares about this franchise, a remix of the original theme done with midi-guitars helps to push gameplay as you’re solving this cleverly designed puzzle within the time limit. Another key feature that added an interesting twist was the replacement of the normal castle map system with a simple zoom feature. By clicking the right thumb stick in aka (R3 ) you simple zoom the camera in or out, this gives you the ability to figure out where you’re going on the fly. This camera system to me is the best addition made to the game. It makes planning your route on the fly easier, and with the limited time and puzzle nature of the game flows perfectly. The online multiplayer also adds a great twist to the game, having other characters to help you solve puzzles makes many parts easier, and in a Little Big Planet kinda way unlocks other pieces of the map faster. Combining that with the Dead Souls style emotes and voice chat and you have a great experience for your XBOX Live crew.You can only equip one health restoring item, and it can only be equipped at the banks distributed throughout each level, this same rule applies to weapons, armor, and abilities as well, raising the challenge for each level.

Being a huge Castlevania fan myself my view may be mildly warped, I found the game to be extremely fun, and satisfying. My favorite system that I’ve come across in any of the Castlevania titles was collecting souls in Dawn of Sorrow, and they seamlessly integrated that into the gameplay for this title with Soma. Every character brings with them their main abilities from the title they were in, this includes of course the characters you can unlock further on in the game as well. That being said I was hoping for more of a straight forward adventure more closely linked to Symphony or any of the recent hand-held titles Konami has offered. Going into the game wanting a standard adventure will definitely taint the experience of H.O.D. That fanboy complaint aside I love this new Castlevania and think its definitely worth a purchase for any fan of the series.

Loved:

• Solidly composed soundtrack showing that even downloadable titles can have solid production value.
• A fun multi-player experience complete with Dead Souls style emotes as well as voice chat.
• Clever level design forcing you to think your way through levels.

Hated:

• Maybe the correct word for this would be irritated by… but I thought it made the game a little frustrating to not be able to change weapons or use health items on the fly, the items barely heal your character as it is, I don’t think utilizing them anytime would have made it too much easier.
• damn time limits…ugh they were frustrating.. I consistently found my friends laughing at me while my time expired just before reaching the boss.

Score: 7.5/10