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 Harmony of Despair (HD) was a multiplayer Castlevania game for 1-6 players released on the 360 and PS3. It's based around playing through stages repeatedly with various characters to get new gear and skills and improve your score. The original game has shut down, but it is now playable through emulation with RPCS3, with functional netplay.
 
 
 Contents:
 Installation
 Online set-up
 Current issues
 Game notes
 Game mechanics
 Characters
 Luck
 Using your own RPCS3 installation
 
 
 
 Installation:
 
 Here is a pre-packaged version of RPCS3 with Castlevania HD already set up in it. It should work without issue, but you should still read the below notes before playing.
 THERE WILL BE A LONG DELAY THE FIRST TIME YOU GET TO THE TITLE SCREEN. (~10 minutes)
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lml25zvzXPIZUrxMK29HNeB6TwdlkDHx/view?usp=sharing
 
 Before playing, check the config and make sure these settings are enabled:
 1. Configuration -> CPU -> SPU Decoder -> select the "Recompiler (LLVM)" option. Without this the game may hang when compiling shaders on launch. If the game still hangs anyway, right-click the game in the list, click Remove, and remove the PPU cache.
 2. Configuration -> GPU -> Additional Settings -> check the "Write Color Buffers" box. Without this the menus won't display.
 
 The first time you launch the game, when you get to the title screen and press start, it will ask you to create save data. Immediately after this, the game will seem to hang. It is not actually stuck. It's processing the DLC authentication which happens very slowly due to what seems to be an emulation issue.
 
 --- This is expected to take around ten minutes on the first launch, one anon said it took an hour. ---
 
 This only happens the first time, on subsequent launches it will only take a few seconds to load past this point.
 
 You can look at the RPCS3 main window to verify that the game is still operating. The log window at the bottom should still be updating with text about DRM ERRORs as it does this, while the game window will very briefly animate with each step. If you get a message about a lethal exception instead, then something has gone wrong.
 
 
 
 To set up online play, do the following:
 
 First, check the network settings menu. It's not listed in the drop-down menu, so just open the CPU settings, and then select it from the top bar. The following fields should be:
 Network Status: Connected
 PSN Status: RPCN
 IP/Hosts switches: This should be blank.
 
 After this, go to Configuration -> RPCN -> Account
 The Host should be "np.rpcs3.net".
 In the NPID box, enter the username you want to use. Then set a password using that button.
 Click the Create Account button, and enter an email to receive an account token. A disposable email works fine for this.
 Enter the token into the Token field, and click Save.
 
 When launching the game you should now get a notice in the corner of the game window saying you signed into RPCN.
 
 When playing online, you shouldn't use the matchmaking option. Use the custom game option instead to get a list of currently available rooms and join one that way.
 
 
 
 Current issues:
 
 1. Normally, joining a multiplayer lobby only takes a few seconds. Sometimes, when trying to join a multiplayer game, the menu's pages will flip endlessly, requiring you to close and restart the game. We don't know what causes this yet, but it appears to be consistent in regards to joining a game hosted by a certain person. Best thing you can do for now is just note down which players you can and can't connect to.
 2. The first time you load any stage there will be a brief hang while the emulator caches it. This is significantly longer for the DLC stages (8-11). This doesn't seem to cause problems with multiplayer, but to keep things smooth you should at least load each DLC stage in single-player at least once before playing them in multiplayer.
 3. The leaderboards are non-functional. You'll just need to compete for score in the threads.
 
 
 
 Game notes
 
 HD is at its core a multiplayer game. While every stage can be completed solo with any character, some chests are impossible to reach while playing alone, and others can only be reached with the skills of certain characters. In multiplayer, one character opening a chest gives loot to every player, and loot dropped on the field is independent for each player (so you don't have to worry about stealing someone else's stuff).
 Stages are generally designed around working together to open paths for other players going down different paths, and reaching the boss from multiple different routes. Additionally, several stages have specific gimmicks, so you should think about how you can work together with other players to succeed.
 
 
 
 Game mechanics
 
 If a player dies, they come back as a skeleton. When a skeleton is killed again, 3 minutes are deducted from the remaining stage timer. For this reason, skeletons want to try and stay alive as much as possible. As a skeleton you can still slide, which is a useful mobility tool.
 Skeletons can be revived using the potions acquired from blue chests. A player can only hold one of these at a time, and you can see in the HUD at the upper left if any player has one at any given time.
 The camera is useful in this game. You can use different zoom levels to get a good grasp of your surroundings and the map by using the right stick. You can change the zoom settings in the options.
 You can change the music for any stage and boss fight in the settings, but you need to have beaten the stage first to do this.
 If you hold R2 while selecting your character's colour, you'll use Japanese voices instead of English ones.
 Equipment / skills / etc. will only drop for the character you're playing. You won't get weapons for Alucard when playing as Jonathan, and you won't get subweapons for the Belmonts when playing as Soma. You need to play as an applicable character to get their stuff.
 Hard mode is unlocked by beating stage 6.
 Chests have different loot tables according to their type. The rarity goes brown -> green -> purple. Red chests will always contain money. In single-player, blue chests will double as green chests.
 
 
 
 Characters
 
 HD has multiple different characters with different mechanics. This isn't obvious, but every character's base stats can be raised by some means.
 
 1. Soma
 Aria of Sorrow's protagonist. He can use a vast number of different weapons. His gimmick is absorbing the souls of enemies, and almost every enemy in the entire game has a soul that he can use. Bosses can drop their souls from their chests. Soma has a huge variety of abilities including ones that can be used as mobility options from his arsenal of souls. Soma's souls increase in strength by getting more copies.
 Soma's stats are increased as he gathers more souls.
 
 2. Alucard
 Symphony of the Night's protagonist. He can use many different weapons, but not as many as Soma. He can obtain the various spells from SotN from chests, and they level up from getting additional copies.
 Alucard's stats are increased as he levels up his spells.
 
 3. Jonathan Morris
 Portrait of Ruin's protagonist. He is limited to his whip as his only weapon, but he has the widest variety of subweapons of all whip users. He can hold down the attack button to spin his whip around with directional inputs. His subweapons level up by hitting enemies with them. He also has martial arts skills which can be found in chests.
 Jonathan's stats are increased by levelling up his subweapons.
 
 4. Julius Belmont (DLC)
  ̶1̶9̶9̶9̶'̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶t̶a̶g̶o̶n̶i̶s̶t̶.̶ ̶  Some old guy. He is limited to his whip, but he can swing it in different directions. Julius can also whip onto magnets in stages and swing from them. He can hold down the attack button to spin his whip around with directional inputs. His subweapons level up by hitting enemies with them. He also has martial arts skills which can be found in chests.
 Julius' stats are increased by levelling up his subweapons.
 
 5. Richter Belmont (DLC)
 Rondo of Blood / Dracula X's protagonist. He is limited to his whip, but has arguably the most useful martial arts skills of all the whip users. He can hold down the attack button to spin his whip around with directional inputs. His subweapons level up by hitting enemies with them.
 Richter's stats are increased by levelling up his subweapons.
 
 6. Shanoa
 Order of Ecclesia's protagonist. Her weapons and skills are all from glyphs, which are obtained by holding up when an enemy uses a glyph skill (a shining glyph will appear above the enemy before an attack). Some glyphs are also acquired from boss chests. Shanoa can also use Magnes by holding R1, which allows her to tether herself to and launch herself from magnets placed around the stages. Shanoa's glyphs level up by hitting enemies with them.
 Shanoa's stats are increased by levelling her glyphs.
 *Shanoa was incredibly neglected in the base game. Many of her glyphs are only available in the DLC stages and she's very weak until she has them.
 
 7. Charlotte Aulin
 Portrait of Ruin's other protagonist. She's limited to her spell book. Charlotte can learn spells from enemies by absorbing them with R1. You will hear a chime if it's a spell that can be learnt this way. Actually learning the spell is RNG though, and you'll need to try many, many times to get them. Spells are levelled up by absorbing more copies of them. Some enemies have multiple spells that she can learn, but you can only learn one spell from a single enemy.
 Charlotte's stats are increased by obtaining more spells, and this will also make her basic spell book attack change in form.
 *Charlotte was another character neglected in the base game who becomes much stronger with DLC content. She's probably the most frustrating character in the game to level, but she's also very strong once you've done so. She can also learn an AoE healing spell which is incredibly useful in multiplayer.
 
 8. Yoko Belnades (DLC)
 A character from Aria of Sorrow. She has one weapon and comes with all her skills already. She levels her skills by hitting enemies with them.
 Yoko's stats are increased by levelling her skills.
 
 9. Maria Renard (DLC)
 Her child version from Rondo of Blood / Dracula X. She attacks by shooting doves and comes with all her skills already. Unlike every other character, Maria's doves allow her to attack without stopping her movement. She levels her skills by hitting enemies with them.
 Maria's stats are increased by levelling her skills.
 
 10. Simon Belmont (DLC)
 The OG. Literally the OG, he's 8-bit and everything. He has a very limited moveset and unlike the other whip users he can't hold the attack button to spin his whip around, but he is smaller and faster than them to make up for it. He levels his subweapons by hitting enemies with them.
 Simon's stats are increased by levelling his subweapons.
 
 11. Getsu Fuma (DLC)
 The protagonist of Getsu Fuma Den, an NES game that only got an official western release after HD came out. He's another 8-bit character with a limited moveset and some skills he already starts with. He levels his skills by hitting enemies with them.
 Fuma's stats are increased by levelling his skills.
 
 
 
 
 A note on Luck:
-The luck stat has no effect on chest drops. Extensive testing was done on GameFAQs back in the day to establish this. Luck however does impact enemy drops in stages. Things like armour and subweapons that drop from enemies, as well as souls for Soma are impacted by having a higher luck stat.
+
 The luck stat has no effect on chest drops. Extensive testing was done on GameFAQs back in the day to establish this. Luck however does impact enemy drops in stages. Things like armour and subweapons that drop from enemies, as well as souls for Soma are impacted by having a higher luck stat.
 
 
 
 
 Using your own RPCS3 install:
 
 If you don't trust exes posted by /v/ or you otherwise want to put the game in your own install of RPCS3, you can copy over the following files:
 RPCS3\dev_hdd0\game\NPUB30505 - copy the whole folder
 RPCS3\dev_hdd0\home\00000001\exdata - copy all the files here
 That should be all that's needed to set up the game in a different install of RPCS3, but you still need to make sure the settings outlined in the general install notes are used.