Boss Keys Mini - Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow (Patreon)

Hello again!

So, as I discussed before - I’m currently playing the handheld Castlevania games as part of research for a (potential?) episode of Boss Keys. 

Here's what I found out when I played through the last two GBA games.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002)

Last time I talked about Castlevania Circle of the Moon. That game was made by Konami Kobe (makes of the iffy N64 Castlevania games). For the sequel, 2002’s Harmony of Dissonance, Konami got some of the talent from the PS1’s Symphony of the Night - notably co-director Koji Igarashi (now producer) and artist Ayami Kojima.

Their goal was to make something similar to Symphony of the Night. And that certainly happened - it’s easier than Circle, has more stuff to find, and is more inventive with its level design. But they actually tried to make something even more ambitious, and that’s where things went a tad wrong.

A and B

So early on, the game feels like a traditional Metroidvania. You’re in a castle, blocked by insurmountable obstacles like gaps too small to squeeze under and ledges too high to grab. Then you grab items - a slide move and a double jump move - which lets you bypass those blocked paths.

So far, so Metroid. But then you fight Death up in the Clock Tower and he lets you in on a secret: the castle’s spirit is actually split in two. There’s Castle A and Castle B - they have the exact same layout, but different items, different bosses, and subtly different looks. 

Two castles, three maps. Eek!

From then on, you’ll need to bounce back and forth between these two castles. Perhaps grabbing an item in Castle A, to open a door in Castle B. Or perhaps making some change in Castle B, which will then have an effect on Castle A.

This sort of split world design is not completely new. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past did it on SNES, of course. And Metroid Prime 2 would be doing it in a couple years time. But boy, it’s really important to get this stuff right or else you run the risk of confusing and overwhelming the player. And that is, sadly, what happens in Harmony of Dissonance.

For one, this just massively adds to your mental map and navigational overhead. The castle has about 200 rooms to explore - not an impossible task. But add in Castle B and now we have over 400 rooms. Memorising dead ends and whatnot becomes a humongous challenge.

Smashing the wall on the right (Castle B) will also smash the one on the left (Castle A). How you're supposed to know this, I don't know.

For two, there’s no clear indication of how one castle will affect the other. You might break down a huge wall in Castle B, and this will open a path in Castle A. Great, except there’s no way of knowing that this happened. There’s no universal visual language for “this object exists simultaneously in both castles”, and no cutscene or sound cue or anything to suggest that, hey, something just changed elsewhere in the castle.

It’s also pretty tedious to move between the two. Remember how you could use the mirror to instantly dart between the Light World and Dark World in Zelda? Well in Harmony, you have to go find a specific room which will teleport you between the two castles. And while most of these rooms will take you to the exact same place in the opposite castle, some don’t - acting as both A-B swapper and fast travel! Maddening. Plus, you have to wait until the end of the game (when you get the rainbow key) to unlock many of these portals.

Vlad’s Stuff

The actual goal of the game is very similar to the ending of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Six bits of Vlad are scattered all over the castle (it was five in Symphony) and you’ve got to find the lot, in any order you like, and then open the big boss door in the middle.

This is cool because it makes the game open and non-linear. You’ve still got to get the key items (slide, double jump, the crushing stone, a bracelet, the floodgate key, the wing, and the crushing boots) in a straightforward order, but the bits of Vlad can be found just as you explore. 

But it’s also a pain in the tuckus because many of these pieces of Vlad are put in extremely annoying locations.

The Ring of Vlad and the Eye of Vlad can be discovered early on - but you can’t get them until you have the double jump and wing, respectively. However, the rooms that they are in will be marked as “explored” on your map. This means you’ll need to remember to come back to these rooms later. You can’t rely on the “map poking” technique (i.e. “I’m stuck, so I’m just going to try to get to every non-explored tile on the map”) to get these.

The Heart of Vlad is behind a crumbling wall in a save room. It’s not very easy to see and can be easily missed. And the Nail of Vlad asks you to simply walk through a wall. I mean what the hell. 

Overall, you can quite easily find yourself at the end of the game with not enough bits of Vlad, and then faced with the choice of A) re-exploring the entire castle, twice or B) just going to GameFAQs.com because seriously I just want to finish now please.

I like this (non-linear key finding) as an idea - but you need to help the player out. Guide players to the keys with hints and clues. Put these keys as rewards at the end of clear, distinct parts of the map. Something, anything, to avoid ending the game in an unsatisfying scavenger hunt.

All of the stuff

One of my major complaints about Circle of the Moon was that it simply wasn’t fun to explore because you only ever got heart and mana expansions. Harmony definitely fixes this. There’s so much stuff to find - relics, magic books that unlock powerful spells, new heads for your whip, hint cards that point to more secrets, bits of map, armour, health expansions, and even items of furniture for Juste’s Belmont’s room. 

Even if you keep stumbling upon dead ends, there’s always something interesting to shove into your pocket.

Laying out the world

The layout of the world is not especially conducive to navigation.

Symphony really did a good job of this, with distinct locations that all connected up to a central pathway. Harmony, on the other hand, is a mess - a random hodgepodge of rooms that randomly chunk together. There’s no obvious through-line or hierarchy or anything. It’s really quite difficult to keep this castle organised in your head. 

It’s especially annoying because the game is full of little dead ends that require late-game items to bypass. For example, a room that you can’t get across because you need the wing to fly over a high central pillar. These aren’t actually limiting your path: you can actually get to both sides of this room, if you take the long way round. So they just act as a roadblock, and I’m not sure why.

I’m starting to realise just how important this is to Metroidvania design. The player should be able to conjure up the world map in their head, and know the route from one part to another. It works in Metroid games, it works in Symphony, it works in Resident Evil 1, it works in Dark Souls. These GBA games have, thus far, not made it work.

The graph

This was a difficult game to graph out. So much so, that I’m just gonna give you my hand drawn note for this one - too much of a faff to turn it into a proper image when it’s not a fully representative graph of the game.

Castle A is in blue, Castle B is in green, and Vlad's pieces have a red outline.

Why? Well, for one, the game gives you different routes and options for getting around. There’s a whole section where you need to get some night goggles to see a pitch black room - or you can navigate your way around it. And later in the game, you can use the wing to get to a certain part of the castle - or just use your Skull Key to get there instead. This is cool! I like this.

There are also ways to get things early. The Eye of Vlad is supposed to be collected using the wing, but a judicious use of the kick-jump move and a floating enemy can take you there earlier. Also cool. 

Plus, the game is full of optional goodies as I said before. The graph could be twice, thrice as big if I included all of those.

Ultimately, you can see a pretty clear route with the main items (slide, jump, stone, bracelet, key, wing, boots), but also the bits of Vlad are available at different times - giving the game that non-linearity I spoke about.

Conclusion

So, Harmony of Dissonance is definitely an interesting game. It’s more true to the Symphony of the Night style than Circle of the Moon, and is really quite ambitious. It essentially takes the “Inverted Castle” idea from the latter half of Symphony, and welds it into the base game.

But boy is it a convoluted set-up. It’s a nice idea, but it just makes the game world incredibly overwhelming. And when it’s not well explained, tedious to change between the two, and difficult to navigate the map in general, it comes off as more annoying than interesting. 

Plus, having the game be about finding six pieces of Vlad in no particular order is great! It means the game is non-linear and all about player-driven exploration. But it falls apart because of just how cheeky and hidden these things are. They’re more like secret goodies than essential items.

I liked this game well enough, but I have to admit to seeking out a walkthrough multiple times. It’s just too complicated for it’s own good!

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)

Okay, now Aria of Sorrow is really where it’s at. It’s the best Castlevania game on GBA, and it combines the best stuff of Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance.

Structure

The structure of the game is simple, but good. It’s not trying anything too ambitious - so don’t expect upside-down castles or light world/dark world shenanigans. It’s just a good old fashioned Metroidvania with plenty of obstacles, and the abilities to overcome them.

The path through the game is linear: get the flying armour, then the double jump, then the slide, then undine (walk on water), then skula (swim in water), then the bat. This lets you access the final area in the game and fight the final boss.

With each ability you unlock, there’s usually a few different places you can use it. Some of which will lead to optional goodies like new weapons and items. And one will lead to the next part of the game. 

These obstacles are usually highlighted pretty well. For example, at the start of the game you can try to climb up a big tower - only to find that you can’t make the final jump at the top. So you have to then climb all the way back down. This (somewhat annoying!) process was memorable to me, meaning that when I got the flying armour I knew exactly where to look. 

Another cool design choice was to sometimes have multiple entrances to the next part of the game. When you get the skula (which lets you walk underwater), there are three places to use it. One nets you some cool items, and the other two take you to the same underground area in the game - just via different entrances. That massively improves your chance of finding the next bit of the game. 

The Proper Ending

It wouldn’t be a proper Castlevania game without some extra endings, would it? Killing Graham at the top of the castle will give you a rather anticlimactic ending - encouraging you to go back into the game and see if you can discover more. 

Throughout the castle are three ancient books, which can be discovered out of order and at different parts of the game (one after getting the slide, another after getting the skula, and the final after getting an ability that stops an enemy from warping you out of a room. These books give you clues on how to get the proper ending.

(Specifically: equip three specific souls before attempting the boss). This then opens up a bit more of the game, the true final boss, and the true ending.

This is a good idea. Finding these books is difficult and - kind of like the pieces of Vlad in Harmony of Dissonance - can create this sort of overwhelming scavenger hunt. But by making it an optional ending - you can fight the “final” boss and see the credits roll without doing this - it gives obsessive CV fans something extra to do, really rewards exploration, and adds mystery to the game, without overwhelming more casual players.

Stuff to Find

Aria of Sorrow gives you lots of cool stuff to find when exploring the castle. There are loads of weapons, armour sets, and special items, castle maps, optional abilities like the high jump, money to spend in the shop, health and mana potions, and those all-important ancient books. This means that exploring and even hitting dead ends is always a treat because there’s gonna be something fun to find.

This game also tried to emulate one of the fun things about Circle of the Moon, which is the focus on random drops. In this game, enemies sometimes drop souls which can then be used by you as weapons, defensive tools, and more. Kill a stone gargoyle, for example, and you might get a new soul which makes you resistant to being turned into stone. Handy! You can only use three at once, so you have to be picky about which you carry with you.

Luckily, the drop rates on these things are much, much better than Circle of the Moon, making it way easier to get loads of fun souls to play with.

Laying out the world

The world of Aria of Sorrow isn’t bad - but it’s still a bit messy. It’s better than Harmony, but it’s still quite hard to organise the whole thing in your mind. Especially because it often makes no sense. 

There are floating gardens that have no logic to how they connect (you can come through a door, and then go back through it and end up somewhere new entirely!). There are bits where you go underwater and then swim down enough and you’ll be on dry land again. 

I know Dracula's castle doesn't exactly need to fit real-world logic, but this is just bonkers!

This is something I need to explore more, because of how important it is to Metroidvania design - so I’ll keep an eye on it in future games.

Something else I like is that there's an entire area - the "Forbidden Area" which is completely optional. It's hidden behind a waterfall and has cool goodies in it. Having the courage to make this area a proper secret that many people will never find is cool. 

The Graph

Okay, I made a proper graph for this one. This is the game in its most simple form - and only covers the first ending. It’s pretty simply, but it shows that we’ll need to constantly be backtracking and re-exploring the castle to get around.

Now here’s the graph with the proper ending stuff put in. Okay, technically, you don’t need the books to get the ending - you just need the souls that the books tell you about. But these are the collectibles - the souls can be found in lots of places through the castle.

And now finally here’s the graph, showing the proper ending and all of the collectibles you can find when chasing down obstacles with your new power-up. As in, once you get the double jump you can now jump up high places: some of which will give you swords, armour, rings, and one of which will lead you to the next part of the game.

Conclusion

Aria of Sorrow is a really enjoyable Metroidvania because it doesn't try to be too ambitious. It focuses on the basics and gets them right - making for a game that is really solid and fun. 

It might be a tad simple and easy at times. It's probably the shortest game to finish. And that lack of ambition does mean it doesn't really stick out as a particularly memorable Metroidvania.

But this is a good place to start. Hopefully the DS games build on this game's solid foundations. I'm looking forward to checking them out. But first - I gotta get cracking on Metroid Prime!

Mark