Castlevania - Harmony of Despair is a multiplayer metroidvania game for the 360 and PS3's downloadable marketplaces. Though the 360 version has been out for around a year, the PS3 is just getting it this week. In it, you and up to five compatriots (on- or off-line) explore and battle through several different levels based on various Casltevania games.
I got this game a year ago, and am eagerly awaiting buying it again. Why? Because it is absolutely AMAZING. Literally the best downloadable game I've ever played, and I have poured tons of hours into it. This game has 6 (well, 7 for PSN) levels that give a lot of re-play value. Every character plays pretty differently too, so there's always a new way to experience the game. The multiplayer is great fun too, and really the backbone of the game. All in all, HD is an addicting game and there isn't really anything quite like it.
The PS3 version gets the exclusive offline multiplayer mode, as well as some of the DLC (specifically Julius Belmont, Yoko, and Chapter 7). The rest of the DLC will follow and become available... eventually. It's all well worth it IMO, except for maybe the music packs.
The game comes out September 27, 2011 for the PS3.
The Characters:
Soma – The good reincarnation of Dracula who broke the X-Box version. He collects souls like his GBA/DS games that give him spells or stat boosts, and uses a variety of weapons. Soma is pretty flexible with gear set-ups because he can have a Strength or Intelligence build. He can literally break the game.*
*Everyone can do it too to some extent, but Soma gets more flak for glitches.
Alucard – The emo son of Dracula from SoTN. He uses spells that improve with scrolls you’ll find in levels, and wears a variety of shields. Alucard has exclusive weapons from SoTN like the moon rod if you’re a wallflower who likes different builds, and they have special attacks based off SoTN.
Jonathan: The first whip user in the 360 version, and considered the “grindiest” character out of Soma (depending on your luck). He uses martial art moves, and has the most weapons out of the hunters. He’s also the only Hunter who can block an attack to take less damage. You have to put a lot of time to make him good. He’s probably one of the most technical hunters who can do all kinds of crazy stuff.
Charlotte: Jonathan’s partner who gets spells from monsters. Her stats get better as you increase her spell levels. Before the game got patched, she could be made into a healbot with the right equipment. With the right spell set-up, she can take out a lot of monsters/bosses provided you took the time to get everything to level 9. Charlotte's mobility is kinda limited due to no jump kicks, so she sucks for speed runs.
Shanoa: Shanoa is more of a hybrid though you’re going use more of her weapons than spells. She absorbs glyphs from enemies by pressing up, and then has to raise their levels like a hunter. Shanoa can cling onto magnets with her glyph Magnes to travel faster or reach high places.
Yoko: Yoko was a horrible character to use until Konami fixed her and Maria. She has three attacks with the holy element, which kills a lot of monsters quickly. Think of her as an AoE character if you play MMOs. Like Charlotte, Yoko lacks a jump kick, so don’t bother doing speed runs with her.
Julius: The recent Belmont hunter plays like Simon from Super Castlevania 4 in which he can aim his whip in 8 directions, and swing from magnets like Shanoa's Magnes glyph with his whip. He is the most mobile of the hunters.
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
Maria (kid): Uses spirit beasts for her attacks. Probably the least used character despite her abilities, since Yoko and the others can kill things quicker. Still powerful when leveled, and has some mobility with an okay AoE attack (fire bird). Maria can block attacks like Jonathan.
Richter: The hunter of monsters who don’t belong in this world is mostly about martial arts and being aggressive. He has a slide and spin kick that are pretty good when you need to move faster or just add more damage. His martial arts are based off of Dracula X/SoTN.
Simon Belmont: The legendary hunter himself is back in his 8-bit form. The strongest whip user, and 2nd easiest character to max since he only has 5 or 6 weapons. Simon can shoot out a fireball from his whip. As you raise his sub-weapon levels, his whip gets longer like CV1.
Getsu Fuma: He’s from a game that never came to the States called Legend of Fuma. The easiest Hunter to level because he only has 3 skills that can hit monsters multiple times for skill points. He’s a beast when he has his best gear and spells maxed.
The Stages:
Chapter 1: Caught In The Cradle of Decay -- amalgamation of the Dark Chapel, Cursed Clock Tower, and Condemned Tower from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Boss: Gergoth
Chapter 2: Lord of Unseen Strings -- amalgamation of the Lost Village, the Demon Guest House, and the Garden of Madness from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Boss: Puppet Master
Chapter 3: The End of Chaos -- comprised of parts of the Abyss from Dawn of Sorrow and the Skeleton Cave from Order of Ecclesia. Boss: Menace
Chapter 4: Esquisse of Violence -- amalgamation of the City of Haze and Nation of Fools from Portrait of Ruin. Boss: Brauner
Chapter 5: Song of the Unslakable Blade -- amalgamation of The Pinnacle and the Clock Tower of Order of Ecclesia, although Death's room is based off of the Skeleton Cave. Boss: Death
Chapter 6: Come, Sweet Hour of Death -- amalgamation of a majority of the castle areas from Order of Ecclesia, as well as one non-castle area: Ecclesia, the Entrance, the Library, and the Final Approach. Boss: Dracula
Chapter 7: Beauty, Desire, Situation Dire -- based off of the Sandy Grave from Portrait of Ruin. Boss: Astarte
-- DLC STAGES --
Chapter 8: The One Who Is Many -- amalgamation of the underground levels of Symphony of the Night. Boss: Legion
Chapter 9: Lord of Flies -- based on the levels Entrance, Alchemy Laboratory, and Marble Gallery levels of Symphony of the Night. Boss: Beelzebub
Chapter 10: Origins -- basically a condensed summary of Castlevania 1. Entire level has an 8-bit retro look. Boss: Retro Dracula
Chapter 11: Legend of Fuma -- condensed summary of Legend of Fuma, a Konami game only released in Japan. Ryukotsuki ("Dragon Bone Demon")
PlayStation 3 owners-- Grab your whip, lace up your Sonic Boots, and mark your calendar: Castlevania Harmony of Despair launches in North America this Tuesday, September 27th! "Like" this if you're ready to take on Dracula's minions on the PlayStation Network!
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
By far and away the best character in the game. He can do everything and do it effectively and even better that the characters that are supposed to specialize in that area (lol Charlotte.) Has has Valmingway which he can boost for crazy damage with Miser Rings and souls, he has the best and most useful spells, yorick and Medusa Head give him the best mobility and shortcuts, Oxectuiner is stupid good and gives him a barrier that blocks so much stuff and can add to Valmingway's damage. Anything that resists Valmingway gets wrecked by Warg or Fish Head or Soma can just boost his attack and strength to break through enemies that resist slash. Soma just overshadows everyone by miles.
A-
Alucard-
He's Soma light. Almost everything he has Soma doesn't is garbage except that he can move while using Yatsuna +1 and mist is decent. That fact that he's still second best show how stupid Valmingway and Yastuna +1 are.
Shanoa-Shanoa is limited but Globus and Acerbatus are really powerful and help secure this spot. Her other spells are mediocre and her weapons are meh. Download chapter 8 and 9 if you plan to use her because she's pretty lousy without those spells.
Richter-The most mobile and damaging Belmont. His martial arts are all good except his uppercut, his whip has great range and he's tied with Simon for highest base strength. He can combo whip into spin kick into tackle and destroy pretty much any common enemy in your way. His has a few flaws like being the slowest subweapon thrower (you can use subweapons in the air or backdash cancel to remedy this) and he has the biggest hitbox tied with Alucard even through it doesn't look like it. The only reason Shanoa and Alucard are above him is that he can't destroy bosses in seconds like they can.
B-
Julius- A pretty good character. His 8 way whip is good for hitting enemies and he doesn't need an Axe as badly as the other Belmonts. His Akuma teleport is the best dodge move in the game and can be canceled into attacks. he doesn't have any other martial arts other than uppercut through and has the second fastest Subweapon throw. That's pretty much it through, he's balanced but not broken like the other 4.
Simon- Simon is simple but effective. He has the fastest subweapon throw and whip with having almost no startup or recovery . And his whip has really great range for his small hitbox. That's it however as his fireball is pretty much useless and he doesn't have any other special skills or martial arts.
Jonathan.-The worst whipper. Slowest, weakest and has the worst range. Third slowest subweapon throwing speed, most of his unique subweapons suck and the ones that were useful are mostly obsolete by the retro weapons or were ruined by the DLC enemies and bosses being resistant to slash. His danger knee is pretty good at least and he can "sonic jump."
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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/Gaiash/KumaVsZangief.jpg LOL!!!! I hope that's a joke....names don't get more n00bish than that
Yoko-Yoko is Shanoa light. She's even more limited since she doesn't have a hunter skill or any other weapons besides the staff (which sucks) She has only 3 spells, while powerful, don't make up for her limited mobility.
Maria-Maria is actually pretty decent, her animals are good room cleaners and she has little to no recovery on her attacks outside of Hymn and she has a small hitbox. However she has the second worst damage output besides Fuma which makes her limited or useless on most bosses. She also has a slow MP regeneration speed so Robe Decollete is essential.
Fuma-Fuma is the weakest character damage wise outside of big enemies that can be hit with all 4 shirukens and don't resist slash, which sucks for him since his chapter made all the non DLC chapters obsolete on the treasure side. He's limited and his subweapons aren't anywhere near as powerful as Shanoa or Yoko to make up for this.
D-
Charlotte- Charlotte is just plain obsolete. Soma has most of her spells (and can even do some of them better like Astarte's) her heal used to be godly, but is garbage now. Deathscyte was her most powerful and useful move but thanks to the slash and multi hit resisting enemies it's trash now. All of the moves she has that Soma doesn't are garbage except for R.Fireball and maybe R.Bone. She's lousy at everything besides offensive magic and she doesn't even have the best magic spells. No dive kick sucks as well. It's too bad and I feel sorry for her, I know they had to nerf SSJ Charlotte but they gave her almost nothing in the DLC chapters and introduced monsters that laugh off her best spells.
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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/Gaiash/KumaVsZangief.jpg LOL!!!! I hope that's a joke....names don't get more n00bish than that
Interesting ranking, though I would put Fuma much higher. It should be noted for new players, however, that every character is fun to use and especially in the beginning it won't matter who's better than whom.
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
I think it's much more than that. Every character and stage was an individual piece of DLC. I think all told you could spend $45 on HD, but that's with the cost of the game. That said, we will get three pieces for free so it's going to be less than that on PS3.
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
This is the DLC list for the 360 version, changing xbox points into real money
Music Pack 1 - $2 Beauty, Desire, Situation Dire stage - Available on the PSN version, $5 Yoko & Julius - Available on the PSN version, $3 Music Pack 2 - $2 Richter & Maria - $3 One of Many stage - $4 Lord of Flies stage - $4 Simon Belmont & Origins stage - $4 for the stage, $2 for Simon Fuma & Legend of Fuma stage - $4 for the stage, $2 for Fuma
So, right $35 for all of this, $27 on the PS3
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
Interesting ranking, though I would put Fuma much higher.
I don't see any reason to put Fuma higher than second worse, the only reason he's above Charlotte is because he can actually do something in the retro chapters where Charlotte is flat out useless in them.
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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/Gaiash/KumaVsZangief.jpg LOL!!!! I hope that's a joke....names don't get more n00bish than that
Yeah, HD had some significant DLC, more than double the cost of the game. I can't remember what I purchased outside of Richter and Simon, maybe it was a level.
I don't think the DLC is going to come out all at once, so no one has to be worried about other stages dying out becoming obsolete. And even if it did all come out at once, the game would be new so a lot of people would still be playing every stage.
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
Oh and I would put Fuma higher actually because he has less subweapons to max out, which means he's easier to level. Each weapon is really useful too, and some do extra damage because they're holy or something? Plus there's the Fuma gear, which makes him really outrageous.
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You beat yourself up with your past. Don't blame yourself, blame the world. Blame God. Blame me.
GANON1025 posted... When do games usually go up on PSN? Would it be up midnight Tuesday?
between 5PM-midnight EST
sometimes though they get uploaded to the servers before that though and you can search for them and purchase them before the official update comes out
Tiers are max potential so being quick to level up means nothing, tiers lists are based off the character at max levels. Fuma's spells are nothing special (Ninja stars are slash element so they're useless against almost everything in DLC chapters, fireball is slow and goes at a bad angle, drum is decent but multihits so it can't be BDC spammed making it a worse cross) and Fuma Gear can also be used by Belmonts.
The only good thing about him is sword wave with Miser Rings, the problem is getting Miser Rings in the first place.
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http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/Gaiash/KumaVsZangief.jpg LOL!!!! I hope that's a joke....names don't get more n00bish than that
For getting off the ground, I'd say Charlotte and Yoko are good candidates. Charlotte levels up by absorbing enemy spells (she has infinite chances to do so with each enemy, as opposed to having to get lucky when they die), and Yoko only has 3 spells.
Use either of them to unlock the stages, then you can just farm chests with whoever else. And be thankful for the offline co-op. It'll make "survival grinding" 100 times easier.
Survival Mode in theory is you and someone else getting thrown into Gergoth's room and having to duel each other, but in practice it's probably the most commonly used way to level up the grind characters (such as the Belmonts and Shanoa) by turning Gergoth into a pin cushion over and over. On 360 you have to do it online with someone else, but PS3 users can just do it by themselves if they have two controllers. At least I assume they can.
And you may find this site useful. It has drop lists for each boss and purple chest.