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OPINION: Castlevania Harmony of DIssonance has the worst soundtrack in the series

A

Alex_Mexico

Member
And I'm not just talking about the execution but also the composition! This 2002 GBA Castlevania by Koji Igarashi has two or three passable pieces but then there's shit like Beloved Person
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dy_kcPLRUc&index=13&list=PL713F890B7C7018C0

Or Aqueduct of Dragons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_O7aBWbmyo&list=PL713F890B7C7018C0&index=8

How about this shit right here in Approach to Despair:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjb4R7hjCfA&index=6&list=PL713F890B7C7018C0

Was it amateur hour for Dark Covenant? It also sucks ass!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dSjwmYSk0&index=14&list=PL713F890B7C7018C0

They slacked off with the Merchant Theme too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk358xkrygI&index=20&list=PL713F890B7C7018C0

Or the Yamane-was-feeling-lazy-that-one-day Luminous Caverns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOyjXssr4Uk&list=PL713F890B7C7018C0&index=7

I know the GBA had severe limitations in the audio department but having played and listened to Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow's amazing soundtrack I can't shake the feeling HoD was just an out of the ordinary fuck up. And I didnt posted every horrible piece from that game!

The worst soundtrack in the entire series and also, by the way, the worst game of the six portable Igavanias... God I hated the dual interwoven castles but thats a topic for another day.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
I quite like the compositions and find them a breath of fresh air. You don't hear that kind of stuff very often in the realm of video games, and I think we're better off for having it. This seems to be a case where actual musicians are more inclined to like it compared to more casual listeners.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I don't think it's a controversial opinion? I haven't played that game in like a decade, but I do remember the soundtrack being subpar. That said, I'd say LoS's is worse. :p
 
S

Stone Ocean

Member
Isn't that basically a consensus?

Harmony sounds like they recorded a bunch of cats being killed by a trash compactor and then converted it to midi.
 
A

Alex_Mexico

Member
Morrigan Stark said:
I don't think it's a controversial opinion? I haven't played that game in like a decade, but I do remember the soundtrack being subpar. That said, I'd say LoS's is worse. :p
Click to expand...

You I'm triggered!

LoS' soundtrack was very different from what we were accostumed to but for what it is it was superb! I really like LoS' OST in its own way but HoD is just horrible to listen to. Not just the composition but the GBA's ear piercing audio quality they went with. And its not an excuse since I love CotM and AoS' soundtracks!
 
T

Tookay

Member
This isn't really controversial. Even on release, the common consensus was that HoD's soundtrack was trash.
 
The Hermit

The Hermit

Member
More like a fact actually.

Only Metroidvania I've never played, it felt like a big step backward from Circle of Moon, which is amazing.
 
S

Saikyo

Member
Haunted Mansion I guess it is worse, there are only two good tracks and on is for the high score list...
 
M

Mega

Banned
All I remember is hearing screeching that was bad enough to make me want to stop playing. Pure awfulness coming from Circle of the Moon.

I also think the game is hideous and worse-looking than its predecessor in its botched attempt at the SotN style.... I think garish is the right word.
 
A

Alex_Mexico

Member
Stone Ocean said:
Isn't that basically a consensus?

Harmony sounds like they recorded a bunch of cats being killed by a trash compactor and then converted it to midi.
Click to expand...

This game was composed by Michiru Yamane was it not? I mean what the hell happened!?

I knew the consensus was it had the worst soundtrack of the Igavanias but I'm arguing its actually the worst of the entire series! Including NES, GEN, SNES, N64, GB, etc!
 
S

SporeCrawler

Member
Juste Belmont was badass though (I know he is basically just alucard)

juste-belmont-and-white-ghost-spirit.jpg
 
A

Alex_Mexico

Member
Mega said:
All I remember is hearing screeching that was bad enough to make me want to stop playing. Pure awfulness coming from Circle of the Moon.

I also think the game is hideous and worse-looking than its predecessor in its botched attempt at the SotN style.... I think garish is the right word.
Click to expand...

Agreed 200%. HoD is the only Igavania that I never finished. One part was the soundtrack, other part was its bullshit castle design and one smaller part was indeed the garish looking graphics.

I came from replaying CotM five times before playing HoD so I was amazed how much did I hate this game after loving the ever crap out of the previous one. It soured me so much that I skipped buying Aria of Sorrow. It was only thanks to a friend who lent it to me that I realized just how much better than HoD it was!
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
Opinion?= More like FACT.
And it's not even because of the audio quality, there are some official orchestral versions and they're still shit.
There's still one or two good ones though.

Do you know what game has a surprisingly fantastic soundtrack? Belmont's Revenge. It fired all cylinders in the old game boy, and when played with normal isntruments the great compositions shine through.
 
1

13ruce

Banned
It kinda reminds me of Zelda and Mario CDI soundtrack lol. But even that sounds better.

Lords of Shadow was awesome btw well the first one ofcourse. Second one was meh.
 
R

RoryDropkick

Member
I actually liked it. It was very disjointed and chaotic. Sounded like parts of it were generated with the SCC sound chip almost. Im also one of the minority that likes the Bare Knuckle 3 OST so..
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
lazygecko said:
I quite like the compositions and find them a breath of fresh air. You don't hear that kind of stuff very often in the realm of video games, and I think we're better off for having it. This seems to be a case where actual musicians are more inclined to like it compared to more casual listeners.
Click to expand...
The whole Castlevania series, traditional and LoS have musician proof soundtracks, they're not only "catchy" at all.
 
S

ShadowgeistX

Member
Ahasverus said:
Opinion?= More like FACT.
And it's not even because of the audio quality, there are some official orchestral versions and they're still shit.
There's still one or two good ones though.

Do you know what game has a surprisingly fantastic soundtrack? Belmont's Revenge. It fired all cylinders in the old game boy, and when played with normal isntruments the great compositions shine through.
Click to expand...

My castlevania opinions all summed up into this one post. =)
 
H

Human Trashcan

Banned
I like the compositions, I think the problem with it is the sound samples used. They just sound super rough. If someone rearranged the whole thing faithfully with, say, Bloodlines' sound patches I think it'd be pretty awesome.

edit: lo and behold, someone did something similar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-A1NWI5Y1U&list=PLB7CB0812256D012F

Not my favorite sound patches but it gives a better indication of the quality of the arrangements themselves since it seems very faithful at first blush
 
A

Alex_Mexico

Member
The Silverlord said:
I believe Soshiro Hokkai was composer (who was also involved with Aria of Sorrow). Yamane contributed the boss rush music.
Click to expand...

That would actually explain a lot!

I was flabbergasted when I heard Retronaut's latest Podcast and hear how they basically shat all over Circle of the Moon and talked about how superior HoD was. Granted they still said it wasn't the best one but in comparison to CotM they made it sound so superior I couldnt believe it.
 
G

Graphics Horse

Member
Alex_Mexico said:
I know the GBA had severe limitations in the audio department but having played and listened to Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow's amazing soundtrack I can't shake the feeling HoD was just an out of the ordinary fuck up. And I didnt posted every horrible piece from that game!.
Click to expand...

The only audio tech in the GBA is what the GB had, this is the only game of the three that uses the Game Boy's legacy synth hardware for music instead of mixing samples on the CPU like the generally better sounding GBA games do.*

*Edit: ok after listening properly it's a mix of samples and the synth, you can disregard the rest.

This was presumably to free up CPU time, so it could be used either on better quality/more simultaneous sample based SFX, or something not sound related.


I guess either they didn't have great chiptune software or they didn't have a musician well experienced with it, some combination of the two or some ridiculous deadline that affected quality.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
Alex_Mexico said:
I know the GBA had severe limitations in the audio department but having played and listened to Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow's amazing soundtrack I can't shake the feeling HoD was just an out of the ordinary fuck up. And I didnt posted every horrible piece from that game!
Click to expand...
HoD ate up all resources on its graphics. It had really big sprites and lots of graphical effects not included even in AoS. However, all that tech was not that well used as the art direction was.. not good. It was like there was a total of zero art designers.
 
Danny Dudekisser

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Yeah, it's awful. The compositions are alright-ish... but the sound quality/instrumentation is just ghastly. The only song I'm kinda okay with is the song in the first area of the castle.
 
A

Alex_Mexico

Member
F0rneus said:
I'm pretty sure....everyone agrees to that. Seriously.
Click to expand...

Jeremy Parish and company from the latest Retronauts episode where they talk about the six portable Igavanias triggered me. They shat all over Circle of the Moon saying it was "easily the worst one" and in comparison talked about how superior was Harmony. It was what pushed me to make this thread.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
Alex_Mexico said:
Jeremy Parish and company from the latest Retronauts episode where they talk about the six portable Igavanias triggered me. They shat all over Circle of the Moon saying it was "easily the worst one" and in comparison talked about how superior was Harmony. It was what pushed me to make this thread.
Click to expand...
Poor fool. It's easily the best designed GBA vania. KOBE >> IGA's team.
 
G

Gentleman Jack

Member
Human Trashcan said:
I like the compositions, I think the problem with it is the sound samples used. They just sound super rough. If someone rearranged the whole thing faithfully with, say, Bloodlines' sound patches I think it'd be pretty awesome.

edit: lo and behold, someone did something similar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-A1NWI5Y1U&list=PLB7CB0812256D012F

Not my favorite sound patches but it gives a better indication of the quality of the arrangements themselves since it seems very faithful at first blush
Click to expand...

I've always wondered if it would sound better with higher quality samples and yep, it does. A hundred times better. I really like the compositions but as you mentioned the sample quality really hurts it.
 
S

Stone Ocean

Member
Alex_Mexico said:
Jeremy Parish and company from the latest Retronauts episode where they talk about the six portable Igavanias triggered me. They shat all over Circle of the Moon saying it was "easily the worst one" and in comparison talked about how superior was Harmony. It was what pushed me to make this thread.
Click to expand...
Gross

Circle is amazing and unique. It's the only Metroidvania game that plays and feels like its classic Castlevania.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
Now, it's very important to take in mind that the unusual composition style MIGHT be intentional.

The game is called Harmony of Dissonance. It's, again, a musical term, like Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. For those not versed with musical theory, a dissonant harmony is something like this:
An unstable tone combination is a dissonance; its tension demands an onward motion to a stable chord. Thus dissonant chords are "active"; traditionally they have been considered harsh and have expressed pain, grief, and conflict.
Click to expand...
And guess what, the whole OST is FILLED with dissonance, adding to the uneasy feeling of the whole game (It's about mirrors, wraiths, echoes).

It's conceptually acceptable, it's just.. not pleasant.
 
F0rneus

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Alex_Mexico said:
Jeremy Parish and company from the latest Retronauts episode where they talk about the six portable Igavanias triggered me. They shat all over Circle of the Moon saying it was "easily the worst one" and in comparison talked about how superior was Harmony. It was what pushed me to make this thread.
Click to expand...

Jeremy Parish is the last person I'd go to for Castlevania opinions. Pretty sure he trashes Order of Ecclesia for being "too hard".
 
1

13ruce

Banned
Alex_Mexico said:
Jeremy Parish and company from the latest Retronauts episode where they talk about the six portable Igavanias triggered me. They shat all over Circle of the Moon saying it was "easily the worst one" and in comparison talked about how superior was Harmony. It was what pushed me to make this thread.
Click to expand...

Circle of the Moon was such a great game really felt like a badass vampire hunter in that game as a child. Also was my first Castlevania game:p

My favorites now are SotN, OoE, Aria, CotM, Rondo of Blood, Portrait of Ruin and LoS 1.

I also really liked that arcade game on ps3 Harmony of Despair i probably spent 300 hours on that game and still play it sometimes.

They are crazy for shitting on that masterpiece!
 
S

swit

Member
Alex_Mexico said:
Jeremy Parish and company from the latest Retronauts episode where they talk about the six portable Igavanias triggered me. They shat all over Circle of the Moon saying it was "easily the worst one" and in comparison talked about how superior was Harmony. It was what pushed me to make this thread.
Click to expand...
opinions and all but what the hell. A group of people agreeing on this? This would be an instant unsub if I would follow this channel. Circle of the Moon is the best Castlevania among GBA titles, imo. No nostalgia involved here considering I've played all of them one after another years after release.
 
Davey Cakes

Davey Cakes

Member
Harmony of Dissonance's soundtrack is near offensive to me, minus some standout tracks. It just had the completely wrong "sound" even for a GBA games. CotM and AoS both had great soundtracks in my opinion so there aren't really any excuses.

The game in general isn't great. I think the gameplay is alright but it definitely felt like a transition from the stiffness of CotM to the fluidity of AoS (which resembled Symphony of the Night more than any other Castlevania game up to that point). Thus, it felt "off" where CotM felt refreshingly different and AoS felt right at home. HoD had a very in-between feeling.

I really hated the long horizontal and vertical areas. Constant dashing through ugly environments and hallways.

When you don't find the game itself compelling from a design perspective, and then you get a completely weak soundtrack on top of that, it makes for a wholly mediocre experience. I still enjoy the game in a basic way because I'm just a fan of CV games and Metroidvanias, but it's easily around a 6.5/10 since it excels in no particular area.
 
E

explodet

Member
Easily my most disliked Igavania soundtrack, not helped by the GBA sound hardware. Fart noises everywhere.
andymcc said:
Honestly would rather listen to it than most of the Lords of Shadow's soundtrack.
Click to expand...
Ugh, the Mirror of Fate soundtrack wants me to punch my couch.
 
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