The most violent man of gaming has you covered. (NWS, extreme gore and graphic beast sex)Marc wrote:Is it not? Genuine question, I don't really follow critical opinion, so have no idea on how the various games are rated.Blinge wrote:Fuck. He really just said Harmony of Dissonance is as good as SoTN.Marc wrote:It's been years since I played them, but of the GBA games, Circle was the only one I remember as being a step down in quality, the other two were just as good as Symphony.
HOD is the messiest of the GBA three, unsurprisingly with it being IGA's first time at the series' helm (following estimable Konami veterans Toru Hagihara and Shigeharu "Umechan" Umezaki). COTM and AOS are safe attempts at rejigging SOTN's lovable ARPG toybox - for deadlier action and streamlined progression, respectively. HOD tries to outright surpass the leisurely grandeur of SOTN, and falls flat on its ass. It's too garish and shrill, too bloatedly mapped, and too mechanically awkward for that. It does have its successes (unpicking the dual-layered map is uniquely engaging; some spells are ruinously satisfying to connect; midsized enemies are fierce footsie partners; its scenery can be disarmingly beautiful and/or twisted), but they inevitably require caveats unheard of in the other games (the map is tiresomely padded and pocked by dead space; the air handling is astonishingly shitty; the boss roster is 95% tech demo; much of its humanoid spriting is execrably bad).
I don't hate it or anything - paid a decent bit for my JP copy. I like a good damage case. I concur with my ninja gaming colleague, the brashly impetuous Volteccer_Jack: fugly yet alluring.
Mainstream critical consensus of HOD, certainly at release, could have you believe it's truly a miniaturised SOTN. EGM's rimmingly effusive review extinguished my heart's remaining goodwill towards gaming media. A favour for which I am forever grateful.