Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

GameBoy Advance (Konami 2003)

The big G-S-G-S-G

General opinion: Quality Castlevania
Story: It actually has a little bit of story
Graphics: Not bad, considering it's GBA
Sound: As above
Gameplay: Good

The Review

First, a quote from my review of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: 'Castlevania is one of the greatest classics of video game history. I've never been a huge fan of the early games of the series, though. The controls were rather stiff, and the games rather too tough for my taste. However, when the series reached the PlayStation, it had evolved into one of the greatest platform games ever made.'

After Symphony of the Night, the series was continued on the GameBoy Advance. Aria of Sorrow is the third title to be released on this platform, and most likely the best. The main thing to be said about the GBA Castlevanias is that, having found a great format with Symphony of the Night, Konami stuck with it. There is really nothing much new here to offer. However, Aria of Sorrow is a great platformer/RPG hybrid that is (almost) as fun to play as Symphony of the Night and a must for fans of the series.

The story of Aria of Sorrow is one of the more unusual among Castlevania titles. In 1999, Dracula was once again resurrected, and defeated. His dark castle was then, believe it or not, sealed inside a solar eclipse. In 2035, Soma Cruz, an exchange student living in Japan, is visiting a shrine during an eclipse, and suddenly finds himself, and his friend Mina, inside Dracula's castle... There are more NPC encounters in the game than in most former titles of the series, and a few more twists to the story. Soma learns that someone is to inherit Dracula's powers, which must of course be stopped. The story is still quite simple though, and the emphasis is still on exploring the castle and hacking up monsters. The fact that the game is set in the future hasn't changed it much. Apart from Soma's somewhat more modern clothes, Dracula's castle looks the same as ever...

As for gameplay, anyone who has played Symphony of the Night will be instantly at home. You can explore the castle more or less freely, hacking up monsters (many of which that are familiar from most, if not all, the previous games). Killing monsters raises your level, and you'll find (or buy) lots of new and better equipment. You'll need certain special abilities to gain access to new areas etc. The traditional special weapons are gone, though, and have been replaced by souls that you get from monsters you've killed, which can be equipped for special attacks and other effects. A pretty neat system, which works well enough.

Being a GameBoy Advance title, the graphics are naturally inferior to Symphony of the Night. They aren't half shabby, though. Same goes for sound, and the music's not half bad either. Bosses are fun enough, though not quite as impressive as on the PlayStation. The level of challenge seemed just right to me (although it's probably fairly easy for a Castlevania veteran), and the game is decently long, too, some ten hours perhaps. Like in Symphony of the Night, there is a "fake" ending you'll get if you get to Dracula's chamber without filling certain prerequisites. I don't quite understand why they keep doing this. I might have missed a whole new area and an interesting part of the story if I had not read about this in a walkthrough. I don't regard this as very good game design, and is one of my biggest complaints about both this game and Symphony of the Night...

In the end, there's very little to say about this game. If you liked Symphony of the Night, you'll probably like Aria of Sorrow as well. Even though it has very little new to other, it's a quality action/RPG title, and quite possibly one of the best games for the GBA.

Ben B. Bainton, 22 June 2006