Characters / Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

Starting Characters

Alucard

From Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Wields several different kinds of weapons, but mainly swords and is the only character who can use shields (although their use is questionable in the long run). Can use Dark Magic by finding spell scrolls, although he no longer has subweapons or familiars. The only remnants of his alternative forms are a temporary Mist form and his Wolf Charge, which has been reduced to a mere slide. His Dark Magic gets stronger the more you collect.

Voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu and Yuri Lowenthal.

• Black Magic: Instead of subweapons, he can use his spells as skills. Fortunately, they're way easier to use here.
• Boring, but Practical: Plays out this way. His abilities and weapons make him one of the less exciting to use characters in the game. His general playstyle and method of leveling is also simpler than most of the others. Despite this, however, he still has a fair share of use online.
• Flash Step: If you use the Alucard Sword's special attack, he still retains his usual flash step from Symphony of the Night/Dawn of Sorrow.
• Intangibility: Thanks to his Mist Form ability, he can dodge all attacks for a half second.
• Leitmotif: His theme music is "Pitiful Scion", better known as "The Tragic Prince" from Symphony of the Night, and is available as DLC in the first Music Pack.
• Homing Projectile: His Summon Spirit and Tetra Soul spells, summoning one and four respectively.
• Life Drain: Soul Steal and Dark Metamorphosis, which can recover his health by stealing the enemy's own via magic or contact with their blood.
• Multi-Melee Master: Of note, he and Soma share some of the biggest weapon pools in the game. Alucard's reportoire of weapons includes but isn't limited to Cool Swords and Katanas, tonfas, shields, and Power Fists.
• Playing with Fire: His Hellfire spell, which if held down becomes Dark Inferno instead.
• Summon Magic: If you use his special attack with Daybreak equipped, it will still have its effect of summoning minions to aid you.
• Unholy Nuke: If he does a Soul Crush with Soma, he will use "Demonic Meggido". Yup, the same that Dracula uses.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Downplayed compared to his original game. His slide is him turning into wolf form, and he can use mist form for a moment.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: If he performs a Dual Crush with any of the Belmonts or Jonathan, they'll use the Blood Cross Dual Crush, which deals Darkness/Light Damage to enemies and heals both of the users.

Soma Cruz

From Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Like Alucard, he wields several kinds of weapons but mainly swords. Unlike Alucard, his weapon catalog is more diverse, ranging from axes to cudgels and even guns. Can use the Power of Dominance to absorb enemy souls and gain more attacks. Souls become enhanced the more they are collected.

Voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa and Erik Davies.

• Blue Is Heroic: Any monsters you summon come in a blue variety so you can tell what's a enemy and what's not.
• Level Grinding: All but two enemies in the game drop souls, and the souls form the bosses are rare drops. Naturally those souls are quite powerful. You can increase their drop rates to around 5% at most, so enjoy your grinding.
• Leitmotif: His theme music is "Pitch-Black Intrusion" from Dawn of Sorrow, and is available as DLC in the first Music Pack.
• Multi-Melee Master: Of note, he and Alucard share some of the biggest weapon pools in the game. Soma's reportoire of weapons includes but isn't limited to swords, axes, spears, and scythes.
• Obvious Rule Patch: While you can get boss souls on either difficulty, all of his rare weapons have to be obtained on Hard mode. Since grinding them out on Hard can still get you boss souls, you're better off obtaining them on Hard anyways.
• Power Copying: Not always. Sometimes the soul he absorbs gives him an equivalent to an enemy's attack, not a duplicate of it.
• Unholy Nuke: If he does a Soul Crush with Alucard, it will become "Demonic Meggido". Yes, the same attack Dracula uses.
• Weak, but Skilled: How he's supposed to play as. Most of his souls have very specific uses, and even the skills he copies from others aren't as strong as the others. But he's the only one that can change his Special Skill with blue souls and the yellow souls can patch up weak spots in his build or allow him to focus on a particular skill.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: If he uses a Dual Crush with the Belmonts or Jonathan, they'll use the Blood Cross Dual Crush, which deals Darkness/Light damage and heals the users.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: His main draw. Has a chance to steal the soul of any enemy, and can use their powers as a result of this.

Jonathan Morris

From Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Wields the Vampire Killer only, losing his extensive library of weapons from his debut game. Also has access to various Martial Arts and Subweapons. Most of these subweapons are shared between him and the DLC whip users (see below), but he does have some exclusive ones that make him more versatile in his own right. His Vampire Killer becomes stronger when his subweapons increase in level, and increasing all of them to 9 unlocks the full-powered Vampire Killer, which deals Holy damage. In addition, the subweapons themselves have noticeable changes as they level up, such as different graphics, higher damage, and larger hitboxes.

Voiced by Takahiro Sakurai and Liam O'Brien.

• Deadly Lunge: His Danger Knee Martial Art skill as well as his Sonic Strike Martial Art.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Out of all the Whip Users in game, Jonathan stands out as taking the longest to master out of any of them. In order to fully utilize him and power him up, you need to master no less than 12 Subweapons with more than a few being unorthodox in usage. But once that's out of the way, he can be one of the best characters with the biggest reportoire of martial arts and subweapons amongst the whip users.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Zigzagged. Improving any of the subweapons gives them flashier sprites and better damage. It also improves the strength of the whip itself, but the whip doesn't change appearance.
• Leitmotif: His theme music is "Invitation of a Crazed Moon" from Portrait of Ruin, and is available as DLC in the first Music Pack.
• Multi-Melee Master: Despite not having the same range of weapons he had access to in Portrait of Ruin, he makes up for it with his reportoire of subweapons.
• Shoryuken: His Uppercut Martial Art, which looks the closest to the Trope Namer.
• Stone Wall: His special skill is Guard, which cuts all damage coming towards him.
• Super-Reflexes: His Forwards Roll allows him to evade forwards and not be damaged at all.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: If he uses a Dual Crush with Soma or Alucard, it creates the Blood Cross Dual Crush, which deals Darkness/Light Damage and heals it's users.

Charlotte Aulin

From Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Wields the Book of Binding. She can use the book to bind monsters attacks and use them as spells. Her main attack will produce more weapons out of the tome the more spells are collected.

Voiced by Yumi Kakazu and Stephanie Sheh.

• Anti Poop-Socking: Due to the way she gains her abilities, she needs an unique mechanic to her to prevent players maxing out her abilities too quickly; she can only absorb one attack per enemy in the level, meaning in order to level an attack to its max (level 9), she has to absorb it 9 times from 9 different enemies (or the same enemy on 9 different runs of the same level).
  • Level Grinding: Has the unfortunate side-effect of this, especially for any boss that has an unique learnable attack, and doubly so for Dracula (who has 2 unique learnable abilities, meaning a minimum of 18 runs to learn both to max level).
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Zig-zagged, though inversely to the whip-using characters. Absorbing attacks doesn't make them more flashy, but it does add more damage and flair to her standard attack.
• Guide Dang It!: You'd be surprised what can and can't be absorbed by the shield.
• Leitmotif: Her theme music is "The Hidden Curse" from Portrait of Ruin, and is available as DLC in the first Music Pack.
• Player Nudge: When an attack hits the shield that can be absorbed, there is a distinctive sound effect. If you can't absorb it (either because it's not a valid attack, or you've already learnt an attack off of that enemy), said sound will not occur.
• Playing with Fire: If she initiates a Dual Crush with anyone but Jonathan (or Soma, Maria and/or Alucard initiate one with her), she causes the Phlegethon Dual Crush which causes the floors and walls to be covered with fire.
• Power Copying: Absorbs attacks with her shield in order to use them herself. These include...
  • Casting a Shadow: Nightmare, Ghost Chaser and Dark Inferno spells.
  • Feather Flechettes: The Featherblades spell.
  • Heal Thyself: The Heal Spell.
  • An Ice Person: Splash Needle, Ice Needle and Ice Fang spells.
  • Light 'em Up: Piercing Beam and Energy Flow Spells.
  • Playing with Fire: Fireball, Raging Fire, Hellfire, Flame Shot and the DLC Exclusive R. Fireball.
  • Poisonous Person: The Poison Spores, Demonseed and Acidic Bubbles spells.
  • Razor Wind: Sickle Moon.
  • Shock and Awe: Thunderbolt and the DLC exclusive Delta Spark.
  • Storm of Blades: Deathscythe and R. Deathscythe spells.
  • Summon Magic: Summon Skeleton, Summon Gunman and the DLC exclusive R. Summon Skeleton.
• Throw the Book at Them: Her weapon is the Book of Binding. At first, Charlotte's attack is to open it and make a sword come out to hurt her foes, but as she learns more spells, the book will eventually add in two axes with the sword and when maxed, two maces and a more elaborate sword alongside increased damage.

Shanoa

From Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Wields weapons and magic from Glyphs. She can find more weapon Glyphs through boss chests, and more magic Glyphs by absorbing attacks from enemy monsters. She also has Magnes, a key Glyph for exploring. Spells can be leveled up, but otherwise there are no aesthetic or notable changes.

Voiced by Houko Kuwashima and Michelle Ruff.

• An Ice Person: If she initiates a dual crush with anyone (or Soma, Maria and/or Alucard initiate one with her), she causes the Cocytus Dual Crush which creates a wall of ice that throws snowflakes and icy winds wherever the initiator is looking.
• Jack of All Stats: She has the widest selection of equipment in the game, allowing some interesting combinations. You can pretty much build her however you want and she'll be perfectly usable regardless.
• Leitmotif: Her theme music is "An Empty Tome" from Order of Ecclesia, and is available as DLC in the first Music Pack.
• Magic Knight: As per Ecclesia, she wields her Glyphs which grant her both physical and magic powers.
  • Blow You Away: Her Pneuma Glyph as a main weapon creates squalls of wind to hurt enemies.
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Her Lapiste Glyph as a main weapon creates fists of stone to hit enemies.
  • Energy Weapon: Her Nitesco glyph, which fires a beam of holy and burning light.
  • Fire/Ice Duo: Her Dextro and Sinestro Crustos DLC Exclusive weapons deal fire and ice damage respectively.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: Her DLC exclusive Luminatio, which creates two orbs of light that spin like a Bible.
  • Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball: Her DLC exclusive Globus, which creates two purple orbs that bounce across rooms and the stage to hurt enemies.
  • An Ice Person: Her Grando Glyph, which flies forth to impale enemies on a shard of ice.
  • Playing with Fire: Her Ignis Glyph, which creates three fireballs that fly diagonally up and downwards and forwards.
  • Royal Rapier: Her Confedere Glyph, her beginning weapon.
  • Shock and Awe: Her Fulgur Glyph, which creates a bolt of lightning that homes in on opponents.
  • Sphere of Destruction: Her DLC Exclusive Acerbatus Glyph fires a ball of dark magic and electricity.
• Power Copying: Although only from two enemies, but it's still there.
• Sequence Breaking: The Magnes Glyph allows her to take shortcuts put in place for her.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Believe it or not, it's important to gameplay. She absorbs Glyphs through the tattoo on her back, and as such needs to leave it exposed for it to work.

PS3 Starter Characters

In order to compensate for the PS3 version being later than the 360 one, these characters were added to the standard lineup. On the 360, they are paid DLC

Julius Belmont

From Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Wields the Vampire Killer whip much like Simon Belmont did in Super Castlevania IV, with eight-directional whipping and the ability to grab on Magnes points. Unlike Jonathan, he only has access to the traditional Belmont subweapons and only has 2 Martial Arts: Omnia Vanitas, his teleport dash from Aria of Sorrow, and the Uppercut. In addition, his Vampire Killer has the longest range of all the whip users.

Voiced by Tetsu Inada and David Lodge.

• Boring, but Practical: He plays a lot more defensively than the rest of the whip users, having greater mobility and two martial arts, with one being really good for evasion. That said, he's no less stronger than them.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Same as the other whip users. The whip doesn't change appearance, but the subweapons do as they level up.
• Flash Step: He has access to his Omnia Vanitas skill, which teleports him. You can spam it to move faster through the stage.
• Leitmotif: His theme music is "Can't Wait Until Night ~Heart of Fire~" from Aria of Sorrow, and is available as DLC in the second Music Pack.
• Multi-Melee Master: Like Jonathan, Julius also has an array of subweapons he can choose from, though not as wide as Jonathan's.
• Shoryuken: His Uppercut Martial Art.

Yoko Belnades

From Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Wields the Belnades Staff, which no longer gives a life bonus when hitting enemies. Uses her three spells from Dawn of Sorrow: Blue Splash, Holy Flames, and Holy Lightning. She has the strongest spells and the fastest MP regeneration rate of all the magic users, but is one of only two characters who cannot perform jump kicks (the other being Charlotte), the least spells out of any character and the worst physical attacks.

Voiced by Ao Takahashi and Karen Strassman.

• Difficult, but Awesome: Three skills, no divekick and a weak, plain weapon. However, said weapon does blunt damage and has some vertical range to it, while said skills are the best skills in the game. It's all about being very careful and capitalizing on what to use and when.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Holy Lightning and Blue Splash shoot off more projectiles as they level.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Her 3 spells.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: Holy Flames and Holy Lightning have the benefit that they deal holy damage as well as Fire/Lightning Damage.
  • An Ice Person: Blue Splash, which fires icicles in a half circle around her.
  • Playing with Fire: Her Holy Flames, which deal a huge amount of damage from a short burst of flame from her hand.
  • Shock and Awe: Holy Lightning, which summons from three to five lightning bolts to chase and harm her foes.
• Leitmotif: Her theme music is "Aquarius" from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and is available as DLC in the second Music Pack.
• Shock and Awe: If she initiates a Dual Crush with anyone (or Soma, Alucard or Maria initiate one with her), she creates the Thor's Hammer Dual Crush which creates a huge lazer of lightning to go across the screen.

DLC characters

Richter Belmont

From Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, playing more like the latter. Like Julius, he can only use traditional Belmont subweapons. He can only whip forward, but to compensate he can use a vast array of Martial Arts, which include his Sliding Kick, Tackle, and Backflip and which he can chain together to perform highly damaging combos. Has the strongest physical attack power of the Belmonts.

Voiced by Kiyoyuki Yanada and David Vincent.

• Combos: He can chain together his Martial Arts to greatly increase his DPS, so much so that attack canceling is pointless.
• Deadly Lunge: His Tackle Martial Art in a nutshell.
• Diving Kick: Alongside a normal dive kick most characters can use, Richter has his Sliding Kick Martial Art which lets him rush with his foot extended after sliding.
• Elaborate Equals Effective: Same as the other whip users. The whip doesn't change appearance, but the subweapons do as they level up.
• Leitmotif: His theme music is "Divine Bloodlines" from Rondo of Blood, with elements from "The Outcasts" / "Strange Bloodlines" from Symphony of the Night and "Bloodlines Bequeathed" from Portrait of Ruin. It is available as DLC in the second Music Pack.
• Multi-Melee Master: Like Jonathan, Richter also has an array of subweapons he can choose from, though not as wide as Jonathan's.
• Roundhouse Kick: Returns as one of his special skills.
• Shoryuken: His Uppercut Martial Art, as with Jonathan and Julius.
• Super-Reflexes: His Somersault Martial Art allows him to dodge all damage and moves sent his way for a single moment.

Maria Renard

From Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, playing more like the former. Fights with the mortal incarnations of The Four Gods of the Chinese Zodiac. She can also use the music book, here known as the Hymn. Instead of singing a dissonant tune, however, she sings "Bloody Tears". One of the smallest characters, her small hitbox allows her to fit inside areas which cannot normally be entered, and sometimes she can avoid attacks entirely. She is considered the most versatile of the magic users, though her damage and defenses are slightly below average, especially on the PS3 where she remains unpatched.

Voiced by Chiwa Saitō and Philece Sampler.

• Elaborate Equals Effective: The spells she casts get larger and more elaborate as they level.
• Fighting Spirit: The Guardian Knuckle, which also deals holy damage too.
• Improbable Weapon User: As per usual, she has her animals as her weapons.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Her DLC is known as the "Maria Rendard Character Pack".
• Leitmotif: Her theme music is "Slash" from Rondo of Blood with elements from the Castlevania: Judgment version, and is available as DLC in the second Music Pack.
• Magic Music: The Hymn Subweapon, which has her sing Bloody Tears and deals holy damage. Subverted in the PS3 version, as it only deals bashing damage.
• Stone Wall: Plays as this. She has a rather low damage output; one of the lowest in the game. However, her skills have the longest range compared to most other characters, her hitbox is the smallest in the game allowing her to dodge attacks very easily and she can guard against attacks she can't avoid.
• The Four Gods: Three of her subweapons and skill.
  • An Ice Person: Qing Long, the Azure Dragon who flies forwards and deals ice damage.
  • Playing with Fire: Zhu Que, the Vermillion Bird that flies upwards and deals fire damage.
  • Shock and Awe: Bai Hu, the White Tiger who runs forth and deals electric damage.
  • Stone Wall: Xuan Wu, the Black Tortoise who protects Maria as her special skill and cuts damage in half.

Simon Belmont

From the 1986 Castlevania, fighting much like his original form in 8-bit glory with the addition of a double jump, jump kick and slide. Wields the Vampire Killer. He also has access to the traditional Belmont subweapons. Upgrading his subweapons turns the Vampire Killer into a metal bladed whip instead of his normal one, and upgrading all of them makes it flash and deal the highest damage of all the whip users. Can throw a fireball out of the whip using a Hadoken motion. His whip has the fastest recovery time of the whip users.

• Leitmotif: His theme music is, obviously, "Simon's Theme" from Super Castlevania IV and Portrait of Ruin, and is available as DLC in the second Music Pack.
• Multi-Melee Master: Like Jonathan, Simon also has an array of subweapons he can choose from, though not as wide as Jonathan's.
• The Voiceless: Subverted. Has no audio clips to go with the in-game voice commands. He does however make an 8-bit grunt ripped from the original game when damaged.

Getsu Fuma (or Fuma Getsu in Western naming order)

From Getsu Fuma Den. Wields the Pulse Blade, which is a katana that shoots waves of energy that increase in number when he levels up his subweapons, which are War Drums, Throwing Stars, and Hexplosives (curse bombs). His double jump can also damage enemies he comes in contact with, as can the pose each character makes when you hold Up.

• Magikarp Power: Using him before you fully level him is a pain, since he doesn't get a "pulse" until you get a third of the way to max, and it's quite weak at that point. Get his three skills to level 9 however, and he suddenly becomes a capable character.
• The Voiceless: Same as Simon.