Castlevania comes back on XBLA

CaptainTARASS
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 | 10:38 AM
18 comments

Press release Xbox 360

After Castlevania: Symphony of the Night XBLA, Konami brings Castlevania Harmony of Despair exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade, on August 4th. Press release and images after the click.

Press release:

Koji Igarashi Brings Beautiful Dot-Art and Exciting Multi-Player Gameplay to His Latest Castlevania Adventure Available Exclusively for XBLA Summer of Arcade

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today revealed the release date for Castlevania Harmony of Despair, the first Castlevania game exclusively for Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Set to release as the third title out of five from the XBLA Summer of Arcade program, Castlevania Harmony of Despair will be available for consumers to download on Wednesday, August 4. Along with the release date, Konami has also revealed five new screenshots to go along with the announcement today.

In Castlevania Harmony of Despair, fan favorite vampire hunters from throughout the series come together in order to return Dracula to his eternal slumber. Joining forces with friends on Xbox LIVE, up to six players can explore massive levels inspired by the worlds of Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia via online co-op play. As players employ their cooperative skills to unleash devastating attacks and fight the forces of darkness, they can discover hidden locations, special items and equipment to help in their quest. Fearless players can even choose to engage in competitive Survival Mode with friends to and determine the best slayer of evil. Featuring detailed 2D art with the ability for players to zoom in and zoom out of the entire map of each level adding in a completely new dimension of gameplay, Castlevania Harmony of Despair will provide players with a thrilling, next generation experience coupled with the classic Castlevania aesthetic. To keep the momentum after initial launch, there are also plans for downloadable content featuring new characters along with new levels.

Castlevania Harmony of Despair will be available for Xbox LIVE Arcade as a part of the Summer of Arcade program on August 4 for 1200 Microsoft Points.

Screenshots

n3xx

Commented on 2010-07-07 11:22:51

Hm, does not look very beautiful to me to say the least. More like a very effortless copy & paste job. Can't believe they used sprites from the handheld titles for an HD game.

In reply to

Megido

Commented on 2010-07-07 11:35:43

While i sort of agree that the absurd amount of recycling is a little disappointing i'm still stoked. I think it will be fun to play and that's the most important bit :)

The price feels a bit high, should be 800 i think. What with all the recycled sprites and stuff.

SimonM7

Commented on 2010-07-07 11:45:18

I find it difficult to see past the sprite recycling too, to be honest, but more importantly I think it sounds terrible as a game.

Portrait of Ruin was easily the most disappointing of the bunch, and it was so precisely because it chose to forgo the fundamental appeal of the "metroidvanias", of feeling like you're expanding the map, exploring and making tangible progress.

Here that's the least of their problems as they've literally just soldered together chunks from Castlevania levels we've already played, populated them with a bucket of recycled sprites, and thrown co-op into the mix. All of which smells of not wanting to make anything resembling an effort to actually *make a new, good, Castlevania* for digital distribution.

Even if you're oblivious to handheld gaming and how brilliant Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia are, this seems a pale not-even-imitation of those games. Kinda like the sad, watered down "Lumines Live".

Until this gets some glowing endorsements and proves to be a fun time, I'm just gonna believe that it's terrible. Even "Harmony of Dispair" sounds bolted together from old CV scraps, lacking in actual meaning. Fitting, really.

I find it difficult to see past the sprite recycling too, to be honest, but more importantly I think it sounds terrible as a game.

Portrait of Ruin was easily the most disappointing of the bunch, and it was so precisely because it chose to forgo the fundamental appeal of the "metroidvanias", of feeling like you're expanding the map, exploring and making tangible progress.

Here that's the least of their problems as they've literally just soldered together chunks from Castlevania levels we've already played, populated them with a bucket of recycled sprites, and thrown co-op into the mix. All of which smells of not wanting to make anything resembling an effort to actually *make a new, good, Castlevania* for digital distribution.

Even if you're oblivious to handheld gaming and how brilliant Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia are, this seems a pale not-even-imitation of those games. Kinda like the sad, watered down "Lumines Live".

Until this gets some glowing endorsements and proves to be a fun time, I'm just gonna believe that it's terrible. Even "Harmony of Dispair" sounds bolted together from old CV scraps, lacking in actual meaning. Fitting, really.

moroboshi

Commented on 2010-07-07 14:11:04

This looks lazy in the extreme. Too bad as an all HD 2D Castlevania could be really special, but this just looks laughable. Hopefully it will either be very cheap (400 points), or won't sell at all and Konami will learn from their mistake.

Isomac

Commented on 2010-07-07 14:43:03

1200 points would be cheap if it was all new Castlevania game (new DS CV games are like 30€ new)... but what the fuck is this multiplayer BS? Bah and I thought this was something interesting. At least its 2D.

With all these metroidvanias I would like to see a new 2D stage based game. Oh and it needs to be hard. So hard that you want to destroy your Xbox, Playstation and burn your house. Maybe next time...

SangHee

Commented on 2010-07-07 19:09:13

I don't know about you guys but this kind of graphics gives me more emotion than the high-end 3D visuals today.

Seth

Commented on 2010-07-07 19:21:31

My ''Winter of arcade'' list:

Castlevania Harmony of Despair
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
DeathSpank

Then all of them will have normal price. :)

No, i'm not some cheap ass. Just didn't like to support overpriced stuff. Limbo is day 1 for me btw.

Commented on 2010-07-07 22:35:35 In reply to SangHee

Posted by SangHee

See, if the sprites were made fresh for the game people would love it, but every single pixel here is recycled from a previous CV game. It feels kind of cheep that way.

GriftGFX

Commented on 2010-07-07 23:53:53

Still sorta interested. Will most likely buy.

jackdoe

Commented on 2010-07-08 00:07:03

They're using DS sprites. Honestly, if you are asking for $15, the least you could do is create new sprites. Like that new Hard Corps game for example.

Commented on 2010-07-08 00:16:17 In reply to jackdoe

Posted by jackdoe

Like that new Hard Corps game for example.

Mmm.. that game looks fuckin good!

iosomewhere

Commented on 2010-07-08 11:58:34 In reply to SangHee

I agree with you,Love the 2D pixel stuff,but just have a look at the last pic,all those trees ...Copy & Paste all the way !

It looks lazy and recycled,like someone wants to cash in with the LOS release !

I know IGA was burned out ,but even this is below his normal Level !
Sad!

60Hz

Commented on 2010-07-08 23:15:43

until you've actually had to push pixels for a living i'd be very wary on pointing the lazy finger at those that do.

Commented on 2010-07-09 00:03:05 In reply to 60Hz

Posted by 60Hz

Did anyone say that making pixel art and animations is not time consuming? Just realize that every single sprite in these images are taken form a library of already finished game assets from old games and used again for this new title. Even the backgrounds and characters are old, recycled things.

Commented on 2010-07-09 02:22:22

Exactly. I appreciate the work those artists did for the DS games, but this is just copy and pasting from the assets that the artists already created. And that kind of work screams laziness as there is no work involved with the creation of assets as they already exist.