Many fans of the series swear that PlayStation’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the best of the series. The game was a huge departure from the series tradition, with a game design lifted directly from Super Metroid, various RPG elements like magic and experience points, and a vampire main character: Alucard, son of Dracula, who fought with swords and a shield rather than a whip.

Konami’s first Castlevania for GBA, Circle of the Moon, followed in some of the footsteps of Symphony of the Night, but many players were put off by the game’s very dark, hard-to-see graphics and extreme difficulty. Now Harmony of Dissonance, the second GBA Castlevania, is on the way from Konami, and the company looks to both meet and exceed its previous offering.

First and foremost, Harmony of Dissonance is being developed by the same team who created Symphony of the Night, so many consider it to be that game’s true sequel. The main character is Juste Belmont, a vampire-killer who wields the family whip. HoD even adds back some of the advanced whip moves that we haven’t really seen since Super Castlevania IV. Most of the game, however, is an evolution of SotN’s game design and style. You’ll be charged with exploring a huge castle, buying weapons and armor, using magic spells, and fighting really fricking huge bosses.

One major, immediately noticeable change from Circle of the Moon is that the graphics are much brighter and easier to see in low light conditions. To amplify this effect, Juste’s character sprite is surrounded by a sort of halo so that he stands out from the backgrounds even more. In general, Harmony of Dissonance looks very much like SotN; the development team has pioneered some new graphical techniques that supposedly push the GBA right to its limits. Juste is constantly followed by tracer-like shadow images, like Alucard was in his game. The bosses are bigger and more animated than ever. Dissonance even adopts a few of the (very limited) 3D effects from SotN, like polygonal doors opening up towards the screen as Juste walks through them. It’s a subtle but very impressive touch.

One big gameplay addition is the pair of dashes Juste can perform. The L-trigger will dash left and R to the right, regardless of which direction you’re facing. Apparently these dedicated dashes are very critical to fighting even the common enemies, much less bosses.

Harmony of Dissonance also introduces the “Spell Fusion” system, which lets you combine special items with the small set of sub-weapons that have become such a staple of the franchise. In other words, you can enhance the axe or holy water, giving them new properties and likely more destructive power. It remains to be seen whether Spell Fusion will add as much customization as the Dual Card system from Circle of the Moon.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance is set for release in US in September 2002. Look for more info as that date approaches.