overdrive's Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow review

Great review! How did you play it?

I went on a DS and GBA Castlevania kick last winter, and AoS was the final one I played (on an SP 001). I did play it when it was new, but it had been awhile. I'm not going to review it because it's so well trodden, but I did have some questions and thoughts.

Is this your first time through AoS and did you play SotN when it was new? Of the six Castlevanias on GBA and DS, Aria is the one I see the most compared to SotN and I think the player's opinion will differ heavily on what order they played it. SotN was groundbreaking and playing it was an awe-inspiring, once-in-a-lifetime experience. There was nothing like it. Now there's lots of stuff like it (especially with all the metroidvania-style indie games, largely inspired by Iggavanias), so Aria can't have the same impact SotN did on the player. I'd imagine someone playing SotN for the first time today after Aria, Hollow Knight, and a few others might shrug and say "cool music; but what's the big deal here?"

I found Aria somewhat devoid of challenge, largely because the breadth of souls leaves so many options. That's not a complaint though. Exploring the soul system was proportional to exploring the castle, since the player can steal a soul from basically every enemy so seeing a new enemy was exciting. I'm not really looking for a challenge in this style of game, I'm looking for something interesting to explore.

I agree that the castle is a bit too small, but that might be a credit to how good the game is--I didn't want it to end. I've never finished the Julius mode, but I appreciated that it was there. There's actually not much about Aria that I would change. The different areas felt connected and cohesive, there's a lot of secrets and variety to the ways you can play, and it's generally fun. It doesn't "captivate the imagination" like SotN does, but I'm not sure any game can really best the platonic ideal of SotN living in my memory of it anyway--probably not even SotN could meet those standards.

Beautiful review, Overdrive. I played AoS when it came out and while I thought it was a step up over Harmony of Dissonance, I definitely didn't think it held a candle to Symphony.

Dagoss, I'm wondering if you've replayed SOTN recently? I play through it or a large portion of it every other year or so and it's always absorbing to me in a way the portable games never were, even though I also quite like them in their own right. I like indie Metroidvanias too, but there's still nothing quite like SOTN. Of course, that could certainly just be nostalgia clouding my judgment each play. I've never given AoS a replay since my first time when it came out, it could be my opinion would change.

Dagoss, I'm wondering if you've replayed SOTN recently? I play through it or a large portion of it every other year or so and it's always absorbing to me in a way the portable games never were, even though I also quite like them in their own right. I like indie Metroidvanias too, but there's still nothing quite like SOTN. Of course, that could certainly just be nostalgia clouding my judgment each play. I've never given AoS a replay since my first time when it came out, it could be my opinion would change.

My last full, 200% playthrough would have been about 10 years ago. I did pick it up a few months ago and tooled around for about an hour. It is amazing how just hearing it transports me to a time 20 years ago, sitting in my bedroom with a tube TV completely unaware that I was about to have a once in a lifetime experience.

Near-legendary games like SotN have a really interesting legacy and it'll be interesting to see what younger generations that go back to it with a clean mind think. My SotN is a horrible amalgamation of memories and love and crap that can't be separated from the game itself. I could see someone born in the early 2000s saying the castle is sparsely populated and its layout lacks branching paths and variety. There's probably a valid argument that Aria is better designed, but I'd never see it hiding in SotN's massive shadow.

Dagoss, my history with this game is complicated.

If you look at my review library, I did Circle of the Moon in '04 and Harmony of Dissonance in '08. Shortly after that, I planned to review this game. Like those two, I used Boycott Advance (main Mac emulator for the GBA at the time, but very spotty on compatibility). With it, I made it up to Headhunter, as which time, one of the most bizarre emulation glitches ever happened. The first head levitates over to Headhunter...and then goes right past the boss, off the screen. The fight never starts because of this and you're trapped in the boss room. Utterly bizarre.

A couple years later, I found another emulator that worked better, but didn't have external controller support. Made it to Death, but the combination of it being tough and me trying to use fingers on a laptap keyboard did not work, so I abandoned it. Then, recently, I found OpenEmu, which both works great and has controller support (and is compatible with a ton of systems, making it a one size fits all emulation deal) and decided I had a score to settle with this game. And now it is settled.

So, this is my third time "playing" Aria, but the first time I made it all the way through. As for SotN, it wasn't THAT long after it was out. Like with most systems, I jumped on the PS a few years after its release, so the game had been out for a bit, but it was new to me, as all I knew about it was a brief snippet or two I'd seen in magazines.