Konami recently released Castlevania: Harmony of Despair on Xbox Live Arcade, and it’s an experiment for the franchise. It’s an online multiplayer focused game, with characters, enemies and level elements re-appropriated from several other recent Castlevania titles. With similarities to old school, action-oriented Castlevanias of the past, it’s ironic that Konami’s old school publisher approach with selling the game will probably hold it back from being a bigger hit.

One of the main selling points of the game is the fact that it offers multiplayer for up to six players, who can choose from five different characters and explore six levels. However, the demo is limited to one character (Alucard), one player offline and one level. If this sounds like a weird way to try to sell people on the game, you’re right; it not only gives a bad sampling of what the game contains, but it also gives most people that play it a poor impression of the game.

The demo is a clear example of in the box thinking – it’s so inside the box, there might be another smaller box inside that box that the nascence of the demo came from. For most standard retail games, publishers provide a small sample of the gameplay (usually not multiplayer) and hope that’s enough to hook players. The problem in this case is Castlevania HD is not your standard retail product.

The solution to this is give players more for the free sample – all five characters, four (or maybe the full six) players simultaneously and, say, three levels. This will give players a very good idea of what to expect from the full game. They’ll also be able to get some of the item drops, but all of the cooler weapons will be reserved for those that pay for the later levels. This free version should let players play with those who paid for the full game, letting them see some of the best equipment in action and further enticing them to upgrade to the paid version. When and if they do upgrade, they’ll be able to retain whatever items they picked up or spells they’ve learned – if the game had leveling (another potential missed opportunity), there could also be an appropriate level cap.

As for the price… in my mind, $15 is asking too much for this sort of game. I’d put the full version of the game at between $5 and $10. Down the road, expansions with more levels and more characters will provide more opportunity for sales, at between $2.50 and $5 (I realize the game will likely do this anyway). Other opportunities for sales include micro-transactions, with small items to customize the appearance of players’ sprites – sell them for between $.50 and $1, and they’ll make their money back tenfold in almost no time at all.

I realize that there’s no guarantee that the above ideas would make Castlevania: Harmony of Despair a success – despite its appearance, it’s very different from any recent Castlevania title and the online matchmaking system is apparently less than stellar. The game certainly has its fans, though, and there’s real potential for some of the ideas that Castlevania HD is built on. However, the uninspired demo and high asking price may turn this curious online experiment into a failure.