The first thing you’ll notice about this newest Castlevania, especially if you played last year’s Circle of the Moon, is how bright, colorful, and flashy it is. The main character, Juste Belmont, is constantly projecting several after-images of himself, which looks incredibly nice on the GBA. There are also tons of special effects, including the polygonal door-opening sequences originally seen in Symphony of the Night, and the animation for both Juste and his enemies is exponentially improved over the last handheld Castlevania.

Although we know from Konami’s comments that the music had to be toned way down to allow for all these fancy visuals, I’m finding that the loss is not a great one. The instrument quality is definitely better in Circle of the Moon, but the new game’s compositions are arguably better, and to my untrained ear, they sound more than adequate. One song in particular sounds like an homage to Metroid, which of course was the basis of game design in recent Castlevania titles.

Of course, the control is extremely responsive, so much so that it improves sections of the game that would otherwise be boring, standard 2D combat. My only complaint is that Juste jumps and falls extremely slowly...it doesn’t really affect the gameplay, but it hinders the game’s otherwise swift pacing. The major new control feature is dashing, which can be done to either side by using the shoulder triggers, regardless of what direction you’re facing. Although it seems like a minor addition to the gameplay, many enemies and especially bosses have been designed around the dashing ability.

Some of the great systems found in Symphony of the Night have been revived for Harmony of Dissonance, including the shopkeeper, who adds a very nice RPG touch to the game. Even Super Castlevania IV’s fully prehensile whip makes a return, and the game offers some great opportunities to use it. You can’t whip diagonally, but you can make the whip go limp and then flick it around, much like Sheik’s whip move in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Finally, the difficulty level has gone back down to Symphony of the Night proportions. Fighting a boss twenty times until you found exactly the right card combination to use in Circle of the Moon is over. These new bosses have been challenging and very well designed so far, but none of them have been pull-your-hair-out difficult. Probably as many people will enjoy the easier gameplay as will prefer the last game’s difficulty. Harmony of Dissonance isn’t an easy game by any means, but it’s one of the easier entries into the perennially hardcore Castlevania series.

I have fallen in love with this game after only a few hours of playing. It’s literally everything I could have asked for, both as a follow-up to Circle of the Moon and as a true handheld sequel to Symphony of the Night. Fans of either game should eat it right up.