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Review : Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow For Gameboy Advance
Castlevania is a fine wine. It only gets better with time.
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow is the latest installment in one of the most enjoyable series in all of gamedom. This time it is once gain given flesh again on the Gameboy Advance.
Since I got my hands on it this evening one thing is made abundantly clear to me in the hours that I have been playing it. It is the best Castlevania ever made after Symphony of the Night for PSOne. It might be better than Dracula X : Rondo of Blood for the PC-Engine CD but it is too early to make that call with out playing it to end first.
In this 2d platform game you play Soma Cruz a westerner goth high schooler who is living in Japan. He is animated just like Alucard but can cast a lot of spells. You end up getting sucked into Castlevania the castle of Dracula in a rift opened during a solar eclipse. But enough plot there is vampire hunting to talk about. The character art is in the same watercolor illustration style that has been with the series since Symphony.
Yes it does take place in the future but it is set at Castlevania so it is really timeless. No pun intended.
This game sports almost as good graphics and animation as Symphony of the Night. The GBA hardware is no mystery to the animators and programmers at Konami they can squeeze all the fun out of the tiny amount of ram and the small cartridge. There is a lot of animation and vampire hunting in that two inch long GBA cartridge.
The game play really take more after Alucard in Symphony than the whip wielding hunters from GBA Castlevania games that took after Richter and Simon Belmont. But in this game they added the soul capture system.
The soul captures are basically the same as the spells in Symphony and they are learned when you kill a new monster that has the skill. It is not like Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh but it has the same feeling of collection as you add spells to your arsenal. It will be fun to link with BBQ's GBA and trade monster souls with him. Damn even that sounds cooler than Pokemon. Demon Bat Blade I chose you!
If you have never played a Castlevania this would be a very good place to start.
Even if the PS2 game sucks ( and I seriously doubt that it will) Castlevania is are alive and well. I am glad to see that the new games are opening up Castlevania to a whole new generation.
Jake at May 8, 2003 
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Comments
I just got this today from Konami. What's the deal with Castlevania and longhaired albinos, anyway? Are they just easier to see in small sprites? Every Castlevania hero since Symphony — with the exception of what's-his-face from Circle of the Moon — has been a chalk-white girly-man.
While I'm all for albinos being in the lead roles of video games, it is a little weird that three unrelated vampire hunters would look exactly alike.
Posted by: Evilninja at May 8, 2003 9:04 PM
I have three words for you "Bi Shonen Ai"
http://www.phenixsol.com/Miko/Misc/bishonen.html
Posted by: Jake at May 8, 2003 9:40 PM
I know about bishonen. We were both big anime geeks in high school, remember? Even Richter and Simon Belmont got the ridiculous bishonen treatment. What I'm wondering about is why they're albino bishonen.
Posted by: Evilninja at May 8, 2003 10:00 PM
Well, after finishing the game, I can state without doubt that it's not better then Rondo of Blood. It's great mind you, but I don't think it surpasses that game. Aria of Sarrow brings some great innovations to the table, such as the soul system, but the game itself is incredibly short. I was able to complete it and get the best ending in a bit over five hours. Suffice to say I was left a bit underwhelmed with the games length once I was done with it.
What really made the game for me was the incredible storyline. It's full of twists and turns, and though Konami messes up in parts, giving away important plot points too early for instance, it's a story that you will thoroughly enjoy. At any rate, I reccomend this game to any Castlevania fan, and Hell, even to fans of gaming in general. It's a great game indeed, and one that should be experienced by everyone at least once. That said, I stand by my earlier statement. I don't believe that it is better then Rondo...
Posted by: Cyberxion... at May 11, 2003 2:01 AM
I just purchased this game and as other people stated, I think this one is the next best thing since Symphony. And the answer why the main characters look like albino girls since symphony is because the artest for the castlevania games from symphony and up were drawn by a girl. She does an awesome job don't get me wrong. She just likes to draw guys a little fem. The reason? I think it's a little fetish that the Japanese have
Haven't finished the game yet but great so far. Have fun everyone.
Posted by: Dorian at May 27, 2003 11:16 AM
Well it is Bishonen style manga illustration. It is just a cliche of the art style. I like it.
Fighting Death was pretty hard but once you start trading souls with your pals it is alot of fun.
Posted by: Jake at May 27, 2003 11:35 AM
how do you get a cool sword by beating boss rush mode and if you do it in 4 mins
Posted by: jose blancas at April 8, 2006 11:08 AM
