Who will win the title of... "Better game on a double-pack"! Harmony of Dissonance or Aria of Sorrows?
Harmony of Dissonance vs. Aria of Sorrows
GAMEPLAY ~
Thought both games have the basic layout of a Vania titles, AoD is far better with a whole new aspect to the franchise as well as better controls an handling. AoS utilizes all of the buttons in a nice juggle which makes moving around an battling out far more easier than other Vania titles, HoD did not. With clunky controls, slow moving pace an boring weapon adaptations that tend to grow tiresome over long uses. Whilst AoS had a new range of battling with a variety of weaponry an spirit powers.
The maps on both were kinda blah, but AoS nudges ahead slightly for it's more simplistic straight forward feeling, whilst HoD had me running in circles for several hours. HoD does move ahead with more bosses to battle, but AoS has the better leveling system.
So in all. Aria of Sorrows wins this round!
STORY ~
Both of these titles had a pretty weak story line, one was a sequel o an late 80's NES game, an the other is a brand new concept in where you are to be bestowed with Dracula's power! AoS also had 3 different official endings, whilst HoD had 2.
Aria of Sorrows wins again!
GRAPHICS ~
Both games were released relatively around the same time. So graphically speaking they should be close to equal... not really. AoS has a much cleaner an smother look, whilst HoD were more sloppy an broken. I will say that HoD had the better idea with the castle lay out splitting your time between two interlocking worlds, whilst AoS was so straight ahead an hardly any missing pieces that you felt like AoS was over before it began. The monsters were bigger an faster in AoS, but HoD gave us less repaints an more bosses than we can shake a stick at!
Harmony of Dissonance wins by a small margin!
SOUND ~
Both were terrible sythn-rock orchestrations that seem to derive from the pleasure of making fans uneasy an resentful...
This one is a double knock-out!
REPLAYABILITY ~
both were around 10 hours long, with HoD being longer due to me getting lost on many occasions. AoS was very straight forward with hardly any replay value after completing the game, whilst HoD had alot to offer after wards, now I’m gonna break something down here, for both games have a similar side-quest... here we go!!!!
MAXIM VS. JULIUS!
Both were extra casts in these series you were able to control once the game was completed. The difference was that Maxim was super-powered, whilst Julius seemed to falter when it came to overall strength an movement (strangely both were faster than the main characters you just spent 10 hours playing as!) True Julius is a Belmont, whip an all, but if these two men met in a dark ally, my money would have been on Maxim! He is just faster, stronger, an overall better sub-character!
This one goes too Maxim from Harmony of Dissonance an the rest of the Harmony of Dissonance cast!
OVERALL ~
Put both of these game together and what would you get?
Symphony of the Night with bad music! Anyway...
After reviewing the score card it seems that both have placed a tie...
2.W / 2.L / 1.T
So if you need a Castlevania fix, an Dracula isn't up to the neck injections this evenings, give him a run for his money with both of these games! They each have their strengths an weaknesses, but together an with an easy-on-the-wallet 30 dollar price tag I suggest owning this title as soon as possible!
ENJOY!