Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Image: Konami

A popular hack for the GBA game Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has just received an incredible new update (v2.2.47), adding five new playable characters to the game's roster, as well as a bunch of quality-of-life changes.

The hacker Sorrow published the update (called Findesiecle Deluxe+ Simons Update) earlier this month. It allows you to play through the game as characters from the Castlevania series, other than Harmony of Dissonance's protagonist Juste Belmont. This includes two color variants of Simon Belmont from Super Castlevania IV, versions of Simon from Haunted Castle and Castlevania NES, as well as the common Axe Armor enemy. Sorrow has also added additional songs and sound effects from the respective games, for a more authentic experience while playing.

It's worth highlighting that this is an update to Sorrow's 2021 hack Findesiecle Deluxe+, which itself was an enhanced USA port of PUNKEMNX & TonyJih's Japan-only Revenge of the Findesiecle from 2007. This recent update takes the total number of characters up to 14.

Here's the complete list from the RHDN page (along with the codes required to unlock them from the name entry screen):

  • SIMON.IV: SNES Style Simon Belmont from Super Castlevania IV. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for this character.
  • SIMON.II: SNES Style Simon Belmont with colors inspired by Castlevania 2. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for this character.
  • SIMON.HC: Arcade Style Simon Belmont from Haunted Castle. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for this character.
  • SIMON.JG: NES Style Simon Belmont Recolor by JonataGuitar. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for this character.
  • AXEARMOR: Axe Armor from various Castlevania games. Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for this character.
  • J.MORRIS: John Morris from Castlevania - Bloodlines. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for John Morris.
  • ELECARDE: Eric Lecarde from Castlevania - Bloodlines. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for Eric Lecarde.
  • SIMON: Classic Simon Belmont. The same seen in the boss rush mode.
  • JULIUS: Julius Belmont from Castlevania - Aria Of Sorrow. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons, and items are also available for Julius.
  • MAXIM: Maxim Kischine from Castlevania - Harmony of Dissonance. Theme Song, Menu, Level-Up, Sub-Weapons and items are also available for Maxim.
  • SIMONX: Enhanced Classic Simon. This one has a higher jump and can gain abilities.
  • JUSTEX: Devil Juste. A special version of Juste with super speed. A remade sword substitutes his original whip.
  • MEGAMAN: Megaman from the Megaman games.
  • MARIO: Mario from the Super Mario games.

If you want to give the hack a try, you can download it now from romhacking.net. You will currently need the USA version of the game in order to apply the patch successfully. However, in the future, Sorrow aims to add compatibility for the European versions of the game, along with more characters.

Are you going to give it a go? Let us know in the comments!

[source romhacking.net]