Harmony of Despair can be a very addicting grind, but as a Castlevania game, it is very shallow.
Now mind you, I'm more of a single-player purist, especially when it comes to franchises I have adored over the years. And usually when a developer releases a new game for an old franchise I start to panic when I read about online modes being implemented. Why, you ask? Because most of the time the Single player suffers for it and in Castlevania HD that is no exception, sadly.
Castlevania HD is the first in the series to offer some type of online co-op mode. Harmony of Despair allows up to 6 players to work together to get through a level. Unfortunately, this is the extent of the multiplayer. Castlevania HD uses a different system by allowing you to pick a level, instead of having to explore the whole castle. Each level is a famous setting from past Castlevania games that feature some memorable enemies and bosses such as Puppet Master, Death, and of course Dracula. The game has 5 different characters to play as each with their own equipment sets and skills from different series of the game over the years. The main draw of the game is trying to find all the skills and 5-star equipment for the different characters in the game.
The good thing is that each character plays very differently from each other. Soma, the protagonist from Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, is able to absorb the souls from enemies he defeats to use to help himself or deal damage to his adversaries. Charlotte is mainly a spell caster and has the ability to heal. Jonathan Morris, from Portrait of Ruin, uses the vampire killer and sub-weapons from such as the classic Cross, axe, and Holy water along with some new ones like a wrecking ball and Shurikens. Each character also has Character-specific weapons, armor and accessories that can be equipped which raise stats or make you walk real fast.
Of course being able to obtain these items will require massive amount of dedication and time per character you plan to master, which involves dozens to hundreds of runs of the same levels just to get that precious item to drop for you. Castlevania HD mostly plays as an "item run" of particular items, and that is basically it. Once you have completed Normal, you will struggle on the very first Chapter on Hard due to sheer lack of great items dropped on Normal. All the grinding will be done on Hard from here on out. I have put in about 60 hours total on Soma alone and I still have yet to max him out to his full potential. Be prepared for frustrated runs, and the same items dropping dozens of times. Thankfully the more people in a chapter playing with you increases your chances, ever so slightly of course, of a good item finally dropping, but the more people that are present the more health enemies and bosses have as well as their damage output.
But all that work of mastering one character is mostly for nothing. The game doesn't have a dedicated versus mode where you can fight against people and show off all your dedication you put into your character with your gear. There is a Survival mode where whomever does the most damage to the boss wins, but it's a literal ghost town. No one plays it since I've owned the game(about 3 months) but aside from bragging rights and leader board rankings nothing would be obtained from it. Once you are satisfied with one character you can move on to another. and some equipment is universal(such as sonic boots and Death's robe) so mastering another character will be easier but will more than likely require the same amount of dedication.
Off topic a bit, The reason why I love Castlevania is the fact you start the game with nothing but maybe 1 weapon and no skills and as you obtain different moves and skills you are able to fully explore a castle and uncover it's secrets. Castlevania HD takes away all this for a more direct approach pick-a-level system. The game comes only with 6 levels(5 more can be bought as DLC). Each level is a decent size but two problems arise. One, there aren't many areas to explore because the whole map is revealed from the get-go and two, you have a time limit at all times. You have 30 minutes total to get the level cleared before it's "Game Over" but with the many subsequent runs you will be doing, almost every level can be completed in 5 minutes or less.
This in turn is a problem with me. Konami dropped the ball big time. They took an Old School classic and turned it into a game that will garner to online audiences. The game's single player is the same as its multiplayer: Timed levels on relatively small stages.The complete lack of a dedicated Single-player adventure mode has me shaking my fist and flipping the bird at Konami for their stupidity and greed. I was ecstatic when I finally saw a console Castlevania title coming out that wasn't in 3-D, but to find out how much missed opportunities Konami let slip by, is heart-breaking. It's too much of a common thing nowadays that a game will be stripped from the get-go so you can purchase more DLC for it.
Plus with only 6 stages without buying any of DLC, Harmony of Despair is a tough sell to people who strictly play solo, and I do not recommend it for anyone who intends to play by themselves. The game itself costs 1200 MS points, the additional stages are 1520 ms points and all the additional characters would net you another 1280 for whopping 4000 MS points($50). Even though I got the game when it was on sale for half off and picked up all the DLC stages(since they have some of the best equipment available) it isn't the best money I've spent.
Luckily, I have played games like Phantasy Star Online, Diablo 2, Too Human and many other "item-farm"(dungeon crawlers) in my time to appreciate Castlevania: Harmony of Despair for what it is. It doesn't revolutionize the series and it doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it still has some moments of fun and nostalgia as well as the thrill of finally finding those key items that make your character truly shine. Fans of these type of games will find something to love with Harmony of Despair despite its many faults. But Castlevania diehards looking for a new adventure in the series, should consider replaying Symphony of the Night instead.