I enjoyed my time with Harmony of Dissonance. More than the other mostly uninspiring retreads of Symphony of the Night that came later anyway. Superficially, it may just seem to be yet another inferior take on SOTN, and yet...
HOD's minimalist soundtrack, subdued graphics, and often extraneous but suggestive level design are all clearly meant to invoke the same atmosphere that permeates the NES titles. In this regard I would say the game is successful. On the other hand there are elements which manage to support this feeling while simultaneously working against HOD as a "game". Many of the castle's rooms are completely devoid of life. Room layouts are copied and pasted multiple times. Some areas lead to actual dead ends with nothing or almost nothing of interest, not unprecedented for this type of game but still rather unusual.
More in HOD than in any other game in the series does Dracula's castle feels like a "creature of chaos". There are areas which can only be accessed late in the game, and sometimes the rooms of these areas will be populated by enemies from much earlier on which were scarcely challenging two or three hours ago. Oftentimes, I felt lost in the castle with no sense of where I should go next. Compared to later portable entries like Aria or Dawn of Sorrow, HOD's level layouts are definitely lacking in polish. At the same time, these flaws manage to contribute to the game's discordant feeling and raw atmosphere. The game's big twist a bit over half way through manages to build upon this sensation as well.
HOD is one of those cases where I feel like the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I felt more immersed in this game's environment than in any other Castlevania I've played in a long time, not only in spite of but in part because of its flaws. It is actually very similar to Castlevania II in that aspect (though personally, I find that game to be a bit more of a chore to plow through). I can think of few games whose title is as appropriate as this one from both a thematic and a design standpoint.