Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Impressions (Xbox Live)

Konami’s latest 2-D action adventure, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, officially slashes Xbox Live next Wednesday, and while there’s no one online to storm the castle with, we spent some time rampaging through the first chapter, Caught in the Cradle of Decay, to get a feel for it. Multiple lives were lost, hotdogs sold and we messed around with the available characters to see if this latest chapter lives up to the Castlevania name. Here’s what we discovered.

Thirty minutes or less: The first chapter, and possibly subsequent chapters after it, challenge you and/or your buddies to complete it in 30 minutes. What’s especially interesting is what happens whenever you pause the game, as in nothing happens. You cannot, at least in single player, stop the clock once a round begins. Not even the monsters slow down, meaning your character can still take damage. We’re not sure if the community will like that.

There’s someone for everyone: Each of the five available heroes (Soma Cruz, Alucard, Jonathan Morris, Shanoa and Charlotte Aulin) begin the first chapter with different weapons that deal varying levels of damage. Soma, for example, kicks things off brandishing an axe. Although it kills low-level enemies with a single blow, it’s a much slower weapon than Alucard’s short sword, which takes two slashes to kill those same monsters.

In addition, you can unleash a special attack by pressing Y and B at the same time. Charlotte torches bad guys with a fireball, while Alucard summons a white mist that zeroes in on whatever horrible creature’s closest to him. Bottom line, you’ll need to experiment with all of these characters to find one that suits you.

Shop till you drop: Harmony of Despair has a shop full of useful items, including potions that increase HP/MP, weapons, pieces of clothing that boost performance and other cool stuff. You can make purchases using acquired gold that you find in the field and from selling useless junk; we suggest unloading hobo’s clothing and hiking boots. This is a wonderful addition to the game, as it gives us something to look forward to while adding much needed depth.

For a more detailed list, read this feature.

Click for awesome: One of the coolest features is the ability to zoom out the camera to see the entire castle, complete with enemy locations (including the boss) and the whereabouts of teammates. Reminds us of old issues of Nintendo Power, when the staff would display whole levels to NES games across both pages.

Checkpoints, but not in the traditional sense: Yes, checkpoints exist, but only as a means to change weapons and magic. From what we can tell, you cannot save your progress. You’ll just have to beat that castle in one sitting.

Monster Compendium: Like previous Castlevania titles, each monster you encounter will appear in the Monster Compendium, the encyclopedia of bad guys. That way, you can view all those skeletons, mermen and axe knights. 

Overall: It’s classic Castlevania in bite size chunks. Instead of wandering through a huge castle, you experience different forms of the same place, either alone or with friends. It looks wonderful, controls similar to games on the Game Boy Advance/Symphony of the Night and features cheesy rock music.

Whether or not it’ll have the longevity of its predecessors, though, remains to be seen. We love the concept, but what happens when we beat chapters? Sure, we can go back and do it again on a tougher difficulty, but we’d prefer to know that we’re working towards something, rather than barreling through obstacle courses. We’ll have to put the game through its paces and launch a few online sessions to see if Harmony of Despair has what it takes to keep us playing well into September.