Been replaying Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance this week. These two were my only real forays into the GBA back in the day, respectively beginning and ending my brief time with the format. So it's been interesting revisiting them now that I've rustled up a little GBA library.
My enduring memory of COTM was compact sprites, sharp controls and tight collision in service of speedy, unforgiving SOTN Richter-esque action. And yeah, pretty much. Quite delighted with this one, snapped it up after it devoured an afternoon like it was 2001. I'm "replaying," really - in all these years I never bothered with the bonus character classes. Allowing for some balance issues (Magician's summon spam, Fighter's unassailable ATK+DEF cockslap), they're good fun and more than distinct enough from the default Vampire Killer. Really digging the fragile, subweapon-dependent Shooter. Map design and progression is pedestrian but combat is constant and mistakes hurt like hell. Solid action game. Huge bonus boner for the rugged as hell Battle Arena, as well as peppering explored areas with nastier enemies later on.
And now, aww shit, it's time for the next gripping episode of
2ND OPINON, featuring
Concerto of Midnight Sun (which is
not an Akumajou Dracula! Or even an Akumajou Dracula X! owned!)
HOD actually made me sell the launch GBA I'd gotten for COTM. I utterly detested its clunky handling, lame action and interminably inflated map. And it was kinda ugly. It did however do me the service of shattering my faith in mainstream game reviews. "EGM rove SOTN+COTM and they ownz, how can this 10/10 review go wrong MIRITE" ahaha...
BAWWW
I will say HOD benefits from prior experience. The dual-layered map is a neat concept, and knowing of its eventual appearance takes the edge off Castle Treasury and its featureless hallways' torpedoing of the promising opening areas. Much moreso than in the prior two games, picking through the castle feels like the primary attraction. Good thing, as HOD has neither Magical Vacation Dracula's charm nor COTM's sharp action. This is a remarkably ugly game on the whole, with sporadically lovely backgrounds ever blighted by one Juicy Berumondo. Juicy runs like he's shat himself. He jumps like he's shat himself. He even walks like he's shat himself. Whenever he's in motion, farce ensues. It looks like programmer art.
Handling is spoiled by an absolute shit sandwich in the jump attack dept. Whip in the air and lose all control, save "forward" (straight into whatever you're attacking). Going for a small hop to smack something just above? You're getting the max height jump, asshole! No seriously - the game will instantly hijack jump height, sending you flying past your target straight into whatever's above. You'll need to hop, wait until you're descending, then attack as your target escapes. Remarkable.
But yeah, the map's fun to pick through. Maybe it's my playing
glorious nippon ver and not being able to read a damn thing, but I've enjoyed ferreting out the next point of ingress. I suppose in the experience of fumbling through one's surroundings it's not really a sidescrolling action game so much as a sidescrolling dementia simulator, but I'm not entirely hating it.