User Rating: 9.2 | Castlevania: Akatsuki no Minuet GBA
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is the latest chapter in the long-running Castlevania series from Konami. When the series began back in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, it was a case of simple side scrolling. Move forward and kill any enemies in your way. In 1997, with the launch of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Playstation, fans saw Castlevania take a different approach to the series’ well-known formula. From that point on, the Castlevania packed a large amount of adventure and role-playing elements, such as exploration, backtracking, leveling up, experience points, etc… From that point on, Konami has stuck with that successful formula, and the latest result, Aria of Sorrow, is arguably one of the best games in the series. In 1999, war was waged in Castlevania, bringing about the untimely end of Vlad Tepes de Luc, AKA Dracula. Sealed in an eclipse, Dracula’s castle has disappeared until the year 2035, when yet another eclipse has occurred. You take on the role of Soma Cruz, a foreign exchange student from Spain. Soma was on his way to the Hakuba shrine, a shrine owned by the father of Mina Hakuba, Soma’s longtime childhood friend. On his way to witness the eclipse, a mysterious force has struck Soma. When he wakes up, he finds himself in Castlevania, Dracula’s famed castle. Little does Soma know about the reasoning behind his being there, but as he meets new characters throughout his adventure, his mission becomes clearer. Unlike most Castlevania games, Soma does not wield the famous Vampire Killer whip. Instead, he will be able to use a variety of different weapons, such as swords, dragon slayers, daggers, guns, and more. This aspect of the game play is very similar to 1997’s Symphony of the Night. The largest attraction in Aria of Sorrow though, is the new “soul system”. Some can absorb the soul of just about any enemy in the game, to give him many different abilities. The soul system replaces the secondary weapon system used in past Castlevania games. It adds an extremely large variety to the game play and makes it feel somewhat fresh. Surprisingly, this system also adds quite a bit to the game’s replay value. The end result is an extremely deep and rewarding system not found in any previous Castlevania game. Many people complained that the last game in the series, Harmony of Dissonance, was far too easy. Those people will be glad to know that Aria of Sorrow packs a significant amount of challenge compared to HOD. While the difficulty isn’t quite on the level of Symphony of the Night or Circle of the Moon, it’s still quite satisfying. The graphics in Aria of Sorrow are gorgeous, maintaining a high level of detail with some beautiful animation. The visuals are very consistent all throughout. Another aspect, which many people complained about in Harmony of Dissonance, was the sound. Well, those people will be glad to know that the sound in AOS is in a league of it’s own. The quality is quite high, and the tunes are catchy. It will make some people wonder how they fit all that stuff into one little cartridge. All in all, even if you were not a fan of the series, I would still highly recommend Aria of Sorrow. While the game isn’t particularly long, it more than makes up for that with lots of replay value (4 different endings, over 100 souls to absorb, boss rush, etc…), and fun, quality game play, and fans of the series will be crazy to pass on this one, as it might just be their favorite vampire-killing Castlevania game to date.
