But anyway, the boss…While the bosses in Harmony of Dissonance didn’t have much onhand to deal with a guy who can quick dash in either direction, I really liked that it had new takes on a few of Castlevania III’s old bosses when it wasn’t making you fight giant versions of monsters. The Skull Knight was one of them, first attacking with his sword then shifting to dash attacks and defense when only with his shield and giant laser beams from his chest when he had neither.

I didn’t get into the series until the Playstation edition, and subsequently went back through the Super Famicom, Mega Drive, and PC Engine until finally conquering the Famicom originals. Since I’d been primed by fighting through the first game, I don’t think I realized just what a step up in complexity and difficulty the third entry was until this wonderful write-up. It stands to reason, though, since in going back to attempt to help a stranded friend playing it on Virtual Console, I was taken down in spite of having felt the game to be simple enough when I first played it.