Castlevania is back for the 3rd time on the GBA and it delivers the old-school feel with a new slick style.
Soma has the ability to absorb the souls of defeated enemies; these souls grant you abilities and powers. They come in 3 different types, being of offensive, special abilities and status improving souls. UP+B makes you use the "red" souls which are the offensive ability, R is the special ability and is "blue" and "yellow" ones are constantly on. (The colors are how they appear in the menu, the soul system is confusing to hear it being explained but in the game it makes sense and has a lot of depth). Souls are basically your customization and abilities; they are a great new addition to the Castlevania formula. Traditionally you will have the same 5 or so abilities (example: boomerang, holy water etc.) for the whole game, the sub-weapon switching system or some other extra element, but the souls system is awesome. Although it can be tedious to get some enemies souls, and "soul hunting" can be extremely frustrating at times, but there is an item later in the game that you can buy and some LUCK enhancing souls that can make it easier. Overall souls are cool in AOS, but may take a while to get used to.
Besides souls, Soma can wield many different weapons; he ditches the traditional whip for swords, daggers, spears, hammers, magnums and other weapons. You can only use one weapon at a time as well as equip one piece of armor and one accessory. The limiting equipment options goes well with the soul system, you have to learn what souls are good, and when to use certain weapons. Weapons have 4 different attack patterns, most swords go in a straight line in front of you, most spears have a down to front swing or your feet area then your front, some go from slightly behind your head to a 45 degree angle facing downwards (this is the prime swing pattern as it covers a huge area) and lastly guns... well you know how those work. Each weapon has different stats, swing time and attributes, finding the perfect weapon is tricky but there is a weapon in here for everyone. Armor is usually just a matter of what ever has the best stats and your accessory should be beneficial to you at all times, if your looking for a quick buck put the gold ring on to increase the chance of getting enemies to drop cash for example. I use the rune ring, which increases your magic replenishing rate, when facing bosses and there are many other accessory’s in the game.
With the semi-steep learning curve of the soul system and bountiful equipment, AOS may start off really confusing but gradually Castlevania newbies can ease into it. Veterans will have little problems jumping right in, I played quite a lot of Castlevanias before AOS and I got tripped up a little with the soul system at first as well, but I grew to love it.
Your health and magic meters are always present on the screen and that’s the whole HUD. The pause menu is easily navigable and well organized. Also Dracs castle is very large and your map, shown by pressing select, shows your current position, and what rooms you have explored, or rooms in grey that you have a map to but have not entered yet. There are teleport areas strewn around the castle so getting to specific places isn’t that tough, also save points are strewn around as well, they heal you completely when you enter them, so use them often. Both teleport spots and save points are shown on the map as well.
There is a character that will sell you items; he is the only source for potions and such, besides the few that you find laying around. He sells many weapons as well and other items. It’s your typical merchant basically. There are special souls called “ability souls” these give Soma special moves. They are “grey” and there are only six of them and have there own menu. You can turn them off, but there is no point in doing so. They essentially give you navigating abilities like sliding, double-jumping, extra super high jumps etc.. AOS still has the sleep function where you can save your game any time, but if you start it up again from that point, that data is lost. AOS has a different style than other Castlevanias, it is set in the future and actually manages to deliver a futuristic feel in addition to the classic gothic and dank feeling. There are Romanesque architecture examples and medieval wall mounted candles, but it feels futuristic overall, more like Draculas retro castle got a small facelift. The sprites in the game animate beautifully and have some cool attacks. Soma has some cool details, like if you stop short his cloak swirls around and such and when you land from a high height he goes on one knee and uses his hand to support himself among many others. The castle looks great as well and there is good use of foreground and background leveling. AOS sounds awesome as well, your weapons have nice swooshes and sounds great, the music is top-notch and you may find yourself going to places just to hear the music. The soundtrack cannot be complained about, Soma’s grunts and screams as well as other characters voices sound pretty decent as well. Unfortunately the GBA speakers aren't very good, but using headphones make the game sound a gazillion times better, in fact any handheld game sounds much better with headphones. Also if you play this on your DS the game looks much better thanks to the screen and any GBA game looks better on the DS.
The game is short, but it should last a good amount of time and for a GBA game it is a good length. After you beat it you unlock a sound mode and a boss rush mode. The former is where you can listen to the music and the latter is like a time trial mode facing all the bosses in a row. You can get a lot of cool items from boss rush mode. Also you can trade souls with other people through the GBA link system, so if you can’t get that one soul no matter what you try, you may be able to trade for it. Also you can replay the game with all your souls, money and items but your back to level one, this is great for completing it 100% as you can get any items that you may of sold or explore areas that you missed. If you enter your name as “JULIUS” you can play as Julius throughout the game, he can’t use souls nor items and has the classic whip and subweapons, also he can do all the actions granted from the ability souls.
Overall AOS delivers, great gameplay, audio and visuals are nice and the game lasts a good amount of time. This one of 3 Castlevanis for the GBA and if you missed the other two (Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance) definitely pick this one up, also this is the prequel to Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the DS. In my opinion AOS and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the DS are the best handheld Castlvanias out of the five. If you want a polished top-notch side-scrolling action RPG for the GBA, the AOS is you best choice.