JBoc924It’s not often we get to experience a multiplayer Castlevania offering, and it’s also not often that we get graced with a 2D ‘vania on a home console. While it wasn’t exactly revered by all (mostly due to its re-used assets and things of that nature), Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was a game that hit both of those aforementioned bullet points; it was a full-blown 2D multiplayer ‘vania for the Xbox 360 (released via XBLA) that proved to be one hell of a good time.
Konami even went on to give owners of the game several DLC packs ranging from gamer pics, characters and maps. The latter two definitely elongated the game’s replay value and you had many players grinding for hours on end trying to max out their subweapons or spells, among other things, of course. The last piece of DLC we received was the “The Legend of Fuma” DLC which gave us a new character– Getsu Fuma– and his corresponding level from the obscure NES Konami title, Getsu Fuma Den. To many this was an odd move: making the final DLC for the game be representative of another series altogether, but it was still a welcome addition nonetheless, and challenging to boot.
So, with a beefy roster of characters and a large selection of levels to choose from, should Konami really call it quits on continued support for the game? Or, with the release of the PSN port, should they reconsider and decide to give us one last piece of DLC (possibly to celebrate the franchise’s anniversary)?
There’s many things fans have been asking for,to see release as DLC for Harmony of Despair. From other fan-favorite characters to the possible inclusion of the the remaining two NES titles (Simon’s Quest and Dracula’s Curse) to be represented as their own respective levels a la the Origins stage which beautifully interconnected all the areas in the original Castlevania’s castle to make one complete map. It would be quite awesome to see a similar treatment for both Simon’s Quest and Castlevania III, but, of course, more work would have to go into that since both of those games weren’t exactly confined exclusively to Dracula’s castle.
Then we have a good amount of characters that have yet to appear in the game’s roster, the most shocking no-show being Juste Belmont who was in this game’s titular prequel, Harmony of Dissonance. Yeah, Despair and Dissonance are two totally different beasts, but hey, with “Harmony” in the title fans are sure to expect some good ol’ Juste. That, unfortunately, didn’t happen, though. Perhaps as future DLC (along with other characters) ?
Simon Belmont made the jump to HD in his classic, and iconic, 8-bit sprite. Wouldn’t it be something to see Trevor Belmont make the same transition into the game? A transition which could include a level meshing together Dracula’s Curse’s stages too. Another popular character that fans have been requesting is Albus of Order of Ecclesia fame. He would bring his mastery of fire-arms into the already varied move-sets offered by the game’s roster. Hell, bring Hammer while you’re at it as well, Konami.
As you can see, there’s still a good amount of content that Konami could add to Harmony of Despair. Now with the game about to be released on PSN, the audience will be expanded. Back before the game initially launched on XBLA, Iga stated how the potential release of a PSN port would heavily rely on how well the original XBLA version sold. Well, judging by recent revelations, it seems as if it sold just fine. So, why not give us a few more DLC packs? It may just be wishful thinking but it certainly could end up happening. As some people have pointed out, the addition of local co-op means that the devs have at least been tinkering with the game’s code, so perhaps they could end up putting together some final pieces of DLC after the game’s PSN launch. We’ll just have to wait and see, ‘vania fans.
