Ah, Castlevania on the GBA. I have a very special place for this game in my heart. I didn't grow up with Castlevania as I never had a NES or anything, but I did own both of these games actually. Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance. Never this collection, but independently. I had Aria of Sorrow and beat that, and then a few weeks later I got Harmony of Dissonance. HOD is a little easier than Aria of Sorrow but both games in this package are easily some of my favorite Castlevania games. Because this is a double package I will have two reviews here and then finally my final thoughts on this package and why these are great games.

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Aria of Sorrow

This is easily my favorite GBA Castlevania game. It was what I played first of all the handheld games and while at the time of my original playthrough of it, I did rather poorly, I later came back to it (the version on Vizzed) and had what is often considered my best playthrough ever.

Graphics: This has some great graphics for a Gameboy game and has a cartoonish and gothic aesthetic to it that was really cool. It is a bit bloody which is why it's T, but it has very good graphics. The animations are fluid, and I can easily tell what something is.

Sound: I love the soundtrack for this game and I was never one to care about sound. To me, music makes the game great, not sound. But the tunes fit what is happening, at least to me they do.

Addictiveness: I played this game three times throughout my life. Once in real life, and the other two on emulator. I can easily see myself play again (albeit on a New Game +.. see below on why) in a few months.

Depth: Not counting the fact that this specific game is a 2 in one, this is a very decent length campaign. There are tons of stuff for you to do. To tell what are slight spoilers but the soul mechanic is quite in depth and engaging.

Story: Soma expects to only experience the Solar Eclipse at a shrine, but instead winds up in a mysterious castle together with his childhood friend/love interest with a mysterious man named Genya Arikado and thus the story starts. Along the way he discovers (quite early on) that he has the power to steal the SOULS OF HIS ENEMIES *dramatic* and uses this skill accordingly. I find it kinda cool, but others might find this story laughable. I find it quite epic and engaging and the story of his fight internally is quite a favorite of mine. I love the battle between good and evil and this touches all the right spots. This game comes complete with four endings, Bad, Okay, Good, and Best... but technically only three. More on that later obviously.

Difficulty: Now for the real review of sorts. This game's soul mechanic involves fighting enemies and hoping they drop a soul. What this means is the enemies most basic attack is given to Soma. This is where some might mistakenly believe this game is hard, as this requires two things. Both around the same thing really. The Luck Stat. Depending on how lucky you are, souls can take anywhere up to instantaneous to seemingly forever. There are 112 Souls to collect with a few given to you no matter what. Some are hard to get, but you can get them somewhat fast if you are lucky. For me personally, I collected every single one in the game and only a few souls gave me trouble. This is not hard to do and the game isn't hard to play at all (unless you are on hard mode after beating the game) and collecting souls while tedious and annoying at times, is not hard. Just because something is annoying and can take awhile, doesn't mean it's hard. The luck stat decreases grind time but even still, the game can be annoyingly unforgiving with it's drop rate. This is where the luck stat comes in and a minor fourth wall break at that. YOUR luck also determines whether or not a soul will drop a at a given time. Only a few souls outright gave me nightmares to collect.

There is a benefit to collecting all the souls, if you fulfill certain requirements, then you get a slightly alternate best ending to where Soma is a little more outgoing and gets character development to boot. It's subtle, but you do get a slight reward and the happy cutscene makes it worth it to me!

This is a great game and my favorite of the handheld Castlevanias. Aria of Sorrow received a sequel for the DS called Dawn of Sorrow. It is the only one that features Soma. I don't know of any others, but I remember reading that Soma did reappear. I think in a fighting game or small cameo.

I give this game a 9/10 which is very generous, but like I keep saying. I am very open minded and I had a lot of fun with Aria of Sorrow. It has it's annoyances with the soul system and some souls and equipment can be very game breaking. It isn't a hard game but it can be annoying for newcomers. I rarely rate games as low cause if something keeps my interest, then it is worth playing, and if I return to it, even better.

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Harmony of Dissonance

This is an easier experience than Aria of Sorrow with little in the way of a tedious mechanic. It has more story than Aria and has a better plotline but not by much. This isn't my favorite game, but I had my fun with it, so I decided to include it as a good game. This time the game swipes out Souls for Furniture. Which has been mocked in some circles and isn't a good collection goal to aim for. There is no grinding for furniture and they are simply item drops found in random out of the way places.


Graphics: This game has darker lightening, music, and Gothic architecture vibe to it. A weird blur kind of effect occurs every time Juste jumps or moves. It can be annoying, but I find it cool. The game has great graphics and is less cartoony than Aria of Sorrow. To some that may be a good thing. I am indifferent to the difference. Juste actually is, from what I read, is Alucard, textured to be a Belmont. Make with that as you will!

Sound: A weaker soundtrack compared to AOS, but some great tunes still abound. I like it enough to say it's good, but not to say it wins any awards for Outstanding Music or anything!

Addictiveness: The game is quite fun. Not to AOS standards, but I played through this game twice. One on an actual Gameboy, and then another time on emulator. I can easily see myself playing through it again in a few months. Your results may vary!

Story: Juste Belmont and his friend Maxium are on their way to a mysterious castle to find their mutual friend (Juste's slight love interest) Lydie who disappeared and somehow this leaves Maxium with Amnesia. Thus begins the adventure. Along the way Maximum slowly pieces together his missing identity. Not the best story, but I enjoyed it. Together with the power of interior decorating Juste must save the day.

Depth: This game is shorter in some way than Aria of Sorrow, but you still have a lot to do and experience. It doesn't have as many features as Aria of Sorrow, but it is a little shorter than AOS as I mentioned. I am not strictly sure how long. I did beat it sooner!

Difficulty: This is not a hard game. The main gimmick as I mentioned already is collecting furniture and this has a slight impact on your ending. With 33 (I counted, but I could be mistaken) pieces of random room art to collect, Juste's abilty to woo Lydie is increased. Now that you have a proper whip instead of random items, this plays out a bit more like Castlevania. Nothing about this game is hard or tedious, but depending on your desire to go out of your way for room art, you may feel the opposite.

This time you have magic spells (Found as a Book collectible) combined with many famous sub weapons for great magic. My favorite combination and easily the most useful is Wind Magic with the cross. It summons a cross barrier around Juste and hits your enemies. Maybe not heavy hitting, but it is useful for sniping enemies from afar or something. It can also protect you against minor annoying enemies. I kept the Cross with me for the entire game with Wind Magic selected. Collecting pieces of Dracula (a callback to Castlevania 2 which I hear EVERYONE liked) has an impact on your ending as well.

This game has three endings, but if you collect all furniture, the good ending is changed a little bit to be a little more romantic in possibility. I guess Lydie likes a man that has good room decorating skills. The bad ending is a little too depressing for my tastes, and slightly melodramatic. All endings except the best ending end on a semi downer ending and not the happiest or coolest to see. At least Aria of Sorrow had variety in the bad end and it was worth it to see with the requirements.

For this, I give Harmony of Dissonance an 8/10
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Final Thoughts: This 2 in 1 package gives you two full length games for one Vizzed price or one price in general if you are playing in the real world and not using an emulator. However you feel about the games as a whole is irreverent. Having two or more games in one game cartridge is always great. If you like the games it features, all the better really. This game gives you Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance together. That means you save Viz and money for two games and just pay one price. For that, it gets an easy 9.9

But in all seriousness, I like these Castlevania games. Castlevania is a series I experienced a lot later as my parents never gave me an NES. I had an N64 growing up, but later I would experience these games.

I didn't even know they had a bundle pack for these two games till Vizzed so I learned something new! Even though I like Aria of Sorrow better, I still think both of these games are great. It just isn't in my nature to think negatively of these kinds of things.