Cacophony of misery

Ironically, I have a ton of crap to post on "closing day." For some bizarre reason, the announcement of Castlevania Harmony Of Despair sparked a Castlevania kick for me. I've stopped buying these games after the PSP Dracula X Chronicles. I was mostly greatly offended by the art tonal shift of the second DS outing, Portrait Of Ruin, and the producers own admission that it directly relates to a shift in the targeted demographic. Kiddy shit is kiddy. The only time I should see a tween in a Catlevania game is when she's getting kidnapped by Dracula, so her older brother can pick up the family heirloom Vampire Killer whip, and kill some shit dead. Never the less, it was a hole in my collection. Ever since Symphony Of the Night's legendarily horrendous dub, I've also tried to pick up the Japanese versions, if for no other reason than their polished presentation. Every bit fit, and felt like it naturally belonged. I've played through Dawn Of Sorrow (DS) and Dracula X Chronicles (PSP) in Japanese without any problems. I suppose that can be attributed to the dumbing down of the franchise in general. But this created a disparity with my older games, which have been US localizations. I decided to fill in the gaps then. What follows is not something I'm necessarily proud of, but it explains what I've been doing over the past month.

Order Of Ecclesia was a game I've previously mentioned here, and even expressed interest in. For some reason, I never bothered picking up either version, despite it looking infinitely more interesting than any previous, recent Castlevania. After finally giving it a go, I'm greatly impressed. The game is a bit of a 'Sorrow clone, but it has enough variety to make it stand out. A very solid effort, which makes me believe that Koji Igarashi, or at least his team, can actually turn out a good game, given enough resources.

Pay no attention to that orangy box on the left. As I mentioned, I have the Japanese Dracula X Chronicles, but wanted to have a uniform collection, so I had to pick up the US version. The feature that sold me is the ability to switch VO languages. A feature the Ecclesia shares as well. We've covered why that's important before.

*Shudder* "Completeness-sake" is my excuse. Move along.

Another make-up assignment. Aria Of Sorrow (GBA) was an excellent game, this is more of the same. However, this is where the tonal changes begin, with the obvious removal of Ayami Kojima as lead concept artist, a Saturday morning cartoon villain and plot, and blatant fan-service in bringing back Symphony Of the Night's protagonist, Alucard as an NPC. All these add up to a sour taste in the mouth of an older fan. Never a smart thing to do.

All of this, leads up to the "main event," Harmony Of Despair (XLA). Which, in an ironic twist of fate, is a horrible piece of shit. The game combines the worst parts of other, mainly PC genres, hack-n-loot, and arena combat, and shoves them down the throat of a console series that's been primarily about action platforming, and exploration. This one makes about as much sense as putting peanut butter on your tuna fish. And yields similar results, vomit all over the floor. I'd only recommend purchasing this, since it would earn Igarashi's team money to make a proper game in the future.

After all that, I dusted off an old SD TV, hooked up my PC Engine DUO, and played some Dracula X Rondo Of Blood. Still to come, Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis), and Super Castlevania IV (Virtual Console).

And in case you're wondering, this is not a Castlevania game.