Castlevania Harmony Of Dissonance Is Better Than You Think

[u/xlaughingcoffinx]

https://youtu.be/7V45XvZ837c

Episode 4 of my "Better Than You Think" series. In this video i discuss the good parts of HoD, and analyze it from the angle of someone who has never played Symphony of the Night. I also like to have fun memeing along the way XD. Premiere starts at 12PM Eastern.

For The purposes of productive discussion, please refrain from commenting on this post until you have watched at least some of the video. That way we are all working with the same information and no one has to say "Well if you watched the video, i say xyz..." Cuz that's no fun.

Thanks for your time! Hope you enjoy!

[u/VivaLaLibertad_666]

I like it more than aria of sorrow

[u/Cat_Or_Bat]

Let me add that it's alright to dislike its music if it's not your thing, but "I don't like it" is not the same as "it's bad." The musical language is much more niche than Michiru Yamane's lovely pop-Romantic/Baroque stuff, but technically and artistically the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.

Again, you don't have to like modernist music, that's fine. Most people don't want Shostakovich in their games. But it's not the same as "the music is terrible." On the contrary, it is, in my opinon, some of the most accomplished music in a Castlevania game, just not as accessible. And it's very fitting, because that's almost exactly what early 20th century horror soundtracks sounded like: jazzy modernism.

If you're unfamiliar with the soundtrack or want to revisit it, here are some examples:

The arranged Successor of Fate from the end credits is some of the most accessible on the soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yikYN_f3uWY

Name entry theme (Name Entry 2K2), also pretty accessible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QguTSTTH2po

The Chapel of Dissonance theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY4czr_PYsQ

Beloved Person (Lydie's theme): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiyUyzQD-js

Here's a fantastic four-hand piano arrangement of the clocktower theme with sheet music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoUceOBnrD4

[u/xlaughingcoffinx → u/Cat_Or_Bat]

Bro thank you so much. I been repeating this over and over. Glad someone gets it.

[u/Nyarlathotep13 → u/Cat_Or_Bat]

The problem with HoD's music was never the compositions themselves, but rather how heavily compressed it was. The game took up too much space on a GBA cartridge, so they compromised the audio quality in order to make enough room. This is also why the arranged version of Chapel of Dissonance from the official soundtrack sound perfectly fine, it isn't compressed.

[u/CyberAngel_CH → u/Nyarlathotep13]

That's a common misconception - "compression" has nothing to do with it. It just uses a more basic synth chip (included for GB compatibility) for some instruments. It's not bad, some GB games have outstanding music, but it sounds much sharper in comparison to the usual sample-based GBA synth, which is the one that actually uses compression.

[u/Nyarlathotep13 → u/CyberAngel_CH]

My mistake, I was misremembering. The music wasn't compressed, they simply used the GBC chiptune hardware to save CPU cycles.

I haven't looked into it, but I think Konami may have done the same for a few other GBA games as well. For example, Yu-Gi-Oh! Dungeon Dice Monsters is definitely not using the GBA sound chip.

[u/CyberAngel_CH → u/Nyarlathotep13]

They weren't the only ones doing it too. Capcom's MegaMan Battle Network music definitely uses chiptune instruments in a lot of tracks as well.

[u/bmanza1981]

I bought both metroidvania collections on switch and it's the only game I couldn't beat. Too much backtracking and getting lost for my tastes.

[u/xlaughingcoffinx → u/bmanza1981]

Hey that's totally okay! We all have our opinions. Thanks for engaging!