Why did you love a specific game? It could be because it's very original,
has cool mechanics.
Maybe it has a deep story, or it could be something very simple that doesn't need much explanation.
Like loving a game because it makes you feel like a badass.
*"Simon's Theme* from Castlevania IV plays*
*CLAP*
*CAREER-ENDING SMACK*
Oh, how do I enjoy that feel.
That's why I'm a big fan of Metroidvanias
One moment, I am a bounty hunter saving the galaxy,
then I can be a bug exploring a dying kingdom,
or know how it feels to be a Mexican Luchador in Mexico.
*Spanish* "Espera un segundo."
Castlevania games are no exception.
Putting myself in the shoes of the Belmonts and destroying different horror creatures to put an end to Dracula's plans, it's always great
*Death sound from Castlevania plays*
Well, most of the time...
So I find it rather surprising that despite enjoying the games and genre,
I never give a chance to the Igavania games.
I mean if you want to be too literal, Bloodstain: Ritual of the Night KINDA counts.
Sure, after playing Bloodstained, I moved straight to Symphony of the Night. And what can I say?
It was the game everyone said it was,
right up there with Super Metroid.
So that got me thinking; what about the other Igavanias?
I really don't see people talk about them as much as Symphony of the Night. So why not?
I want to explore more of those titles,
specifically,
Castlevania: Area of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow.
Why these two?
For two reasons:
Together they make a duology, so I think it's better to cover them at the same time
and the other reason is a spoiler...
YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS IF YOU WANT TO AVOID IT!
Okay, so I was playing Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and then this happened...
*Spanish* "Asu..."
So now I want to know what the Hell is going on...
*"Black Sun" from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow plays*
In the year 2035, a young man by the name of Soma Cruz goes to a shrine in Japan to witness a solar eclipse...
And then he's suddenly transported to Dracula's castle and has to get out!
Of course, that is just a brief synopsis
naturally, there are more characters and many other key elements that make for a simple but effective story.
But Metroidvanias aren't exactly known for having heavy story elements thrown into your face.
What we're here to know is how well it does its job in delivering the same excitement the genre is known for.
The answer:
Holy fuck, THIS is how you do it!
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has everything that made Symphony of the Night such a blast to play.
From exploring the entirety of Dracula's castle,
to finding more upgrades to enhance your abilities,
to having a great array of weapons to work with,
and a small dose of RPG elements thrown in and there.
Yep, everything here is checked and accounted for, but what makes Aria of Sorrow a stand out is the Soul system.
By killing enemies in the castle, Soma has a chance of inheriting their powers by absorbing their souls,
which are divided in 4 categories:
Ability Souls are arguably the most useful ones because they boost Soma's abilities, giving him more mobility.
They are absolutely necessary if you want to reach new areas.
What makes them different from the other Souls is that they are always active,
you don't need to have them equipped for them to take effect.
Enchanted Souls are very straightforward. They can change Soma's stats, and alternatively,
give him more passive abilities with some of them also being mandatory for progression.
Guardian Souls can vary between offense, defense, and support.
They can be activated at any given moment and continuously start to drain your magic meter
And finally, you have the Bullet Souls, which to put it simply are your projectiles.
They work exactly as sub-weapons did in past games, and you get much more other than axes and crosses.
From shooting fireballs, throwing spears, summoning giant skulls,
I'm only scratching the surface of the barrel here.
Once you get the gist of it, the Soul system is not complex at all,
but that is what gives the game depth and makes it really fun to play.
The game holds over 110 enemies and every single one of them can give you a different Soul.
This approach is a double-edged sword, because if you want to 100 percent the game as fast as possible,
-which trust me with these kind of games, it's always tempting to do-
luck can either be your ally or your biggest enemy.
Trying to get that very specific Soul you want can admittedly get annoying because,
you guessed it, it involves grinding.
On the other hand,
if you want to play the game casually the random nature of the Souls can potentially make every playthrough develop differently.
It kinda helps that Aria of Sorrow is a short game, but from start to finish it never gets tedious or boring.
This is not only achieved because of how great the Soul system is,
there are so many things worth praising this game for.
The control is excellent!
Soma Cruz handles like a dream and platforming is never annoying, even with Medusa Heads flying around.
Fighting enemies is fluid and it continuously gets better with the more skills you acquire.
I'll also go on to say that I found navigation to be better than in Symphony of the Night.
The castle is structured in a way that minimizes the occasions of revisiting the same areas over and over,
and fast travel is not restrictive at all.
You see, in Symphony of the Night the teleporters were connected,
Point A to Point B, and vice versa.
Aria of Sorrow takes it a step up by simply letting you choose where you want to teleport,
as long as you've already found the respective room.
And THANK GOD NO INVERTED CASTLE BULLSHIT!
The endgame stuff here is fast
and straight to the point.
When I look back at it, there's nothing in this game. I can straight up say is bad,
because the complaints I have are nothing more than simple nitpicks.
For example, Aria of Sorrow is without a doubt the easiest Castlevania I've ever played
Consequently, I didn't find some bosses to be too memorable.
It wasn't until I got to the arena where I felt the difficulty became a bit more traditional
To the level of Rondo of Blood, I'll say;
not too easy, but not ball-kicking hard.
Also, I really like the concept that the game takes place in 2035,
that alone felt refreshing for me.
The problem is I don't think it's taken full advantage of.
I mean, I wasn't expecting Dracula's castle to have a spaceship or something,
But every area here, while good looking, is standard Castlevania stuff.
The only modern thing I can think of is the option to use guns.
I don't find that very fun on a game where I can shoot any other projectile I can think of.
The other thing that quite shocked me was that out of all the Castlevania game, I played, by far
I found Aria of Sorrow to have the weakest soundtrack.
For the record, it's not awful.
And with the only exceptions being a small portion of the Best Ending and another track I'll mention in a bit,
every song is original, I can respect that.
But overall not much stuck with me. I can show some highlights though.
The Clock Tower.
The Arena.
AND GOOOOD, HOLY FUCK, YOU PROBABLY ALREADY SAW THIS COMING, BUT HEART OF FIRE,
FUCKING HEART OF FIRE IS NOT ONLY THE BEST SONG IN THIS GAME,
IT'S ONE OF THE BEST CASTLEVANIA SONGS, PERIOD! THE MOMENT WHEN IT PLAYS, THE JULIUS BELMONT FIGHT,
HOLY SHIT!  THE INTENSITY, THE EMOTION, THE CHALLENGE!
FUCK!
I know Heart of Fire debuted in the original Castlevania, but still,
this song is so
OOOOOOOOOOOUUUUGH!~
The Game Boy Advance wasn't known for having a great soundfont,
but look at Fire Emblem, the Pokemon games, or Metroid: Zero Mission:
even with limitations, they could still deliver well in the music department.
Normally, this wouldn't bother me. But come on.
You SAW how I get when Castlevania music hits really hard!
Again, it's not a bad soundtrack,
just kind of forgettable overall.
That was my point!
At the end of the day the negative aspects of this game only come out as personal nitpicks
If you give it some thought,
genuine complaints don't matter much because they are mitigated in one way or another.
Do you ever see how Symphony of the Night tends to be compared to the likes of Super Metroid since both games pioneer a genre?
If I had to do the same here, I believe Aria of Sorrow will be the Metroid: Zero Mission of the Igavanias.
Both games are on the GBA,
they are relatively short even on a casual run,
you don't have to worry about getting lost as long as you have a basic sense of curiosity,
and while both of them fall on the easy side that doesn't matter at all because they are extremely fun and replayable.
I also make this comparison because just like Zero Mission,
Aria of Sorrow is an excellent game for newcomers to the genre.
Sure, you'll be missing on great details and references to past adventures,
which are admittedly very cool, but with that aside, this is a great game that will lead you yearning for more.
And that's a good thing cause it just happens that it got a sequel on the DS:
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
Oh, I see what they did there!
To explain the gameplay here would be redundant.
Dawn of Sorrow knows the meaning of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it", so it stays with that.
Well mostly. but I'll get to that later. That doesn't mean everything is exactly the same.
For once, I'm gonna start with the presentation:
Aria of Sorrow, in my opinion, already looked great.
It was very colorful, but still merged well with the series' gothic style
Dawn of Sorrow sticks to the art direction and adds more detail in everything.
Characters and enemies, while most of them are from the prequel receive a nice new makeover,
and they also added more fluid animations that make the gameplay feel even more responsive.
The backgrounds are beautiful and add that extra life to the castle.
There are however some pseudo 3D effects that look decent enough for the system,
but most of the game is 2D.
And I'm glad they did that because for an early DS game, it looks great even to this day.
My only complaint will be the character art
I don't think it's horrible, I want to make that clear,
but if you go from Ayami Kojima's distinctive art style to
mid-2000s shonen anime,
I think that's a huge downgrade.
If I can say anything positive though, I like how the character portraits change to reflect their emotions,
I find it charming in some way.
But yeah,
Kojima is simply a goddess in what she does and not having her here was underwhelming.
Thankfully graphics weren't the only thing that took a step up.
The DS has better audio quality than the GBA and they took full advantage of it. Do you know what that means?
I can actually VIBE TO THIS SOUNDTRACK!
*"Scarlet Battle Soul" from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow plays*
Oh, it's no exaggeration!
This can be applied to almost any Castlevania game, I know, but Dawn of Sorrow has genuinely great songs.
I love the funkiness from the Wizardly Lab,
the mysterious atmosphere from the Subterranean Hell,
how climatic the Clock Tower feels,
and the rearranged tracks from past games still pump you up for the action!
No Heart of Fire though, but you know, nothing is perfect.
Actually, I think that applies to this game as a whole.
With Aria of Sorrow, there's not much I can find wrong with it.
Dawn of Sorrow improves on so many aspects.
It looks better, sounds better, and I found it to have a more fun challenge.
The castle is completely different, but just like the last time, it doesn't feel like a chore to explore.
I felt this game was less linear, which boosted exploration.
From the get-go, Soma is more versatile than before and the bosses were more engaging
they handed my ass a few times for sure.
But that extra challenge made me analyze their patterns and that in turn made most of them memorable, except the real final boss.
That was a lame fight...
The point i'm trying to make is that Dawn of Sorrow should be better than Aria.
And it JUST HAD TO SHOOT ITSELF IN THE FOOT!
This game released in 2005,
do you know what that means?!
First year DS title,
YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!?!?
Forced touch controls. JUST WHY!?
They are implemented in only two mechanics
One of them is an item that lets you break ice blocks that obstruct your way
to destroy them by touching them in the lower screen.
This process isn't too bad and it doesn't happen that often,
but it's obvious it only exists because they had to shove the touchscreen,
and that is accentuated more with the Magic Seal system,
You see, in Dawn of Sorrow, bosses don't just die when you defeat them.
OH NO, THAT WOULD BE TOO UN-GIMMICKY!
So how about instead of them dying upon depleting their HP,
we force you to draw symbols with a touchscreen?!
What a dumbass mechanic.
I would love to say it's not intrusive, but it is,
and it only gets worse as you progress!
The first Seals are fairly simple, just a small annoyance you have to do.
But the late game ones don't give you any room for error. I'd be fine if you just had to draw them right!
But no, there's an invisible timer thrown in there. Look at how fast Soma draws a seal in the opening cinematic:
That's an accurate representation of how you gotta do it!
But also, add the pressure the boss is most likely inducing you because yeah, they get very challenging.
Death was the worst example of this.
He's easily the hardest boss in the entire game.
So fast, punishing, and unpredictable!
This fucker knows no mercy!
50 percent of the time I died to him because I was still figuring out his patterns,
the other times were because I would always screw up the Magic Seal.
If you do them wrong, the boss recovers some health and you have to deplete it again for another chance to draw the Seal.
By the time I got there, I was already exhausted and I will die as a result.
It just goes to show that just because your console has a gimmick,
doesn't mean you have to force it into your games.
You're already using the top screen to display the map and stats
That's the best use you can give to the DS with these kind of games.
Dawn of Sorrow was perfect without the touch controls.
How do I know that?
Because Julius Mode exists.
*"Beginning" from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow plays*
Here's the thing:
this is a mode that also appears in Aria of Sorrow,
but I purposely didn't mention it because
this was the best part of the game for me.
It's not only the whole campaign as Julius Belmont,
it does more by bringing back the partner system from Castlevania 3.
Yeah, you also take control of more characters at the same time!
Julius works as you will expect, he's a Belmont;
he has the Vampire Killer and different sub-weapons that he can change at any given moment.
And he can also do the whip dangling thingy.
WEEHEE!
Yoko Belnades.
You saw the last name and connect the dots.
She's Sypha's descendant and plays just like her:
weak on the physical side,
but her magic spells really pack a punch and completely demolish giant bosses!
Alucard makes a return and...
He's quite a downgrade when you compare him to Symphony of the Night. His only powers her fireballs and turning into a bat.
He compensates this by being really fast with his sword, and his superhuman abilities make traversing the castle a breeze.
With the combination of these three,
Julius mode is incredible!
I love how it's structured. It doesn't have any Souls or skills to obtain.
What every character has at the beginning is what they'll have at the end.
You have to get very familiar with your strengths and weaknesses in order to reach the final boss,
because this mode is hard for one simple reason:
You can't use items to restore your health like in the main campaign.
This makes both exploration and boss battles constantly keep you on your toes,
and that highlights the importance of every character
Julius is excellent to take out enemies from multiple angles, thanks to his sub-weapons.
Yoko's staff can restore some health with every hit.
That's a risky approach because she is quite fragile,
but if you know your enemies well, she is your best option to keep the party healthy.
And Alucard is fantastic for tricky platforming and avoiding combat
Do you know what's something I really love about a game?
When it makes everything at your disposal matter.
Yeah, this is called Julius Mode,
but Yoko and Alucard are just as important!
By playing this mode, I got freedom, challenge, and fun.
They have peaked for me here, and you know what the best part is?
THERE ARE NO SHITTY TOUCHSCREEN GIMMICKS!
On one hand, it's stupid, because it shows Dawn of Sorrow never needed them. On the other hand...
There are no shitty touchscreen gimmicks! Yeah!
Even with the drawbacks, I really enjoyed Dawn of Sorrow and that includes Aria of Sorrow, too.
If you were to try them out, I'd say play them back-to-back.
Together they make a whole experience worth trying out. The duology of Soma Cruz is a great time.
They make for really solid games.
They have great level design, likable characters, an extremely good mechanic that boosts replay value, and endless fun.
You know,
with the more games I play of this series, the more attached I grow to Castlevania.
And that only reaffirms a specific feeling inside me...
FUCK
KONAMI
*"Heart of Fire" from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow plays*
