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Greatness

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 13, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I loved this game. Beautiful Graphics. A multitude of weapons and over a hundred magic abilitie to choose from. The gameplay for this title is very similar to Symphony of the Night, but this is the only Castlevania game i wanted to play again right after beating it. My only complaint is that it was too short.

my favorite of them all...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

ok... I've been playing castlevania games for a long time now, and in my personal opinion, there has yet to be a "bad" castlevania game released. There are good castlevanias, better castlevanias, and fantastic ones. This game falls into the last catagory. Game play is fantastic, and very fluid, with simple controlls that anyone can learn. graphics are amazing (especially for a handheld) and the game offers TONS of replay value. I beat the game for the first time in about 4 hours (I'm a little on the experienced side when it comes to castlevania puzzles...) but I have logged over 48 hours into the game unlocking everything.... all 112 souls, 100% map, all 3 endings, compleate monster encylopedia, all "hard mode items",all weapons and armor/accessory, both difficulties with both characters, and all bosh rush items. While the casual player will find plenty to do and play in the game, castlevania fans will pull even more out of the game. wheather you have a few hours to kill on a road trip, or just want some old school, gothic, vampire slaying fun at home, I would recomend this game to anyone and everyone. If you are new to the series, this is the place to start, if you are a vetren, this is one to add to the collection. In my opinion, this is not the best castlevania game ever made, but it is my favorite...for 30 dollars, there are few games that will give you as much fun and enjoyment as Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

One of the best GBA games ever made.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is one of the better Castlevania games to hit the GBA. Fans of the all time best "Symphony of the Night" will absolutely LOVE this title.

Aria of Sorrow does the best it can to mix in the best of the old with the best of the new. Aria of Sorrow borrows TONS of elements from Symphony of the Night and anyone who enjoyed that one will love this.

Aria of Sorrow begins in the year 2035 with Soma Cruz and his childhood friend Mina in Japan. Suddenly an eclipse opens up and they find themselves in Dracula's castle. Surprisingly enough, it really looks no different than it did in say... 1797 (Symphony of the Night). It bears a strong resemblence and any Castlevania fan will notice all the different places (Libraries, Catacombs and the like).

Gameplay in Aria of Sorrow is very close to SOTN in several ways. Your character resembles Alucard in the way he looks and walks. Perhaps what separates this from the past two GBA releases is that your main character doesn't use the whip as his primary weapon. Actually, you don't really have a primary weapon. You can use, Swords, Daggers, Axes, Javelins, whip swords and more! Its fun to experiment with all the different weapons to see what fits you best. The strongest weapon may not always be the best.

Since, Symphony of the Night, Castlevania has gone into an RPG style character building stage. This is for the better and Aria of Sorrow is no different than the past games. As you kill enemies you'll eventually level up. It doesn't require too much to level up (at least not as much as it takes in Circle of the Moon).

Aria of Sorrow also has well balanced difficulty. It's harder than Harmony of Dissonance but easier than Circle of the Moon. Aria also throws in a unique twist. You can now absorb enemies souls at random. When you kill an enemy you may or may not get their ability. There are over 100 enemies meaning that the game even has more abilities to unearth than the DSS System allowed you to in Circle of the Moon! Most souls cost MP and that brings me to my first con. The game has a lot of souls but for whatever reason they cost A TON OF MP to use. Granted your MP regenerates but it regenerates REALLY slowly.

The game also presents lots of bonuses. You can unlock a sound test and a hidden character to play through the game as. There's also a boss rush mode and perhaps whats best is that you can link up with a friend and trade souls! Perhaps one bonus I would've really enjoyed would've been if they'd brought back the ability to play as different "Jobs" like in Circle of the Moon. But its still a really cool experience and the game has lots of replay value.

Visually, Aria of Sorrow is BEAUTIFUL! Your protagonist stands out in a crowd and the screen isn't so dark. One of the better looking GBA games that truly stands up to what the GBA is capable of.

I wish I could say the sound surpasses all else. Castlevania is known for having good soundtracks. The music is WAY better than the godawful soundtrack of Harmony of Dissonance, but it can't hold a candle up to the far superior soundtrack presented in Circle of the Moon. The sound effects are incredible and fun to listen too.

But Aria of Sorrow is not without fault. The most noteworthy con in Aria of Sorrow is that this game is short! It'll only take you 5-6 hours your first time through. The second is that while its harder than Harmony of Dissonance, its still rather easy for any Castlevania veteran.

Overall, Aria of Sorrow is an INCREDIBLE game. I still think "Circle of the Moon" is the best GBA release and its no contest that "Symphony of the Night" is the all time best but Aria of Sorrow comes AWFULLY close to being as good as those two.

The Good
+AWESOME Gameplay, collecting Souls is creative
+Good Soundtrack
+Large Castle to explore
+Much more "free" than other Castlevania games (you're not limited to one type of weapon)
+Lots of Secrets
+Konami is smart to model this game after "Symphony of the Night". If you liked that game then you OWE it to yourself to pick this up.

The Bad
-Still a little too easy
-Souls cost a little too much MP
-Too Short

Unlike vampires, this game doesnýt ...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I should warn parents that this is one of the only GBA games that really deserves the Teen rating. Kids under the age of 12 may get scared by some of the creepier monsters, and there is quite a bit of blood and gore (although you can barely see it on the small GBA screen).
If you can deal with those two things, however, I highly recommend that you get this game. I played the other two GBA Castlevania games, and this seems to be the best so far. It has a good plot (for a video game), it has over 300 special abilities to collect and trade with your fiends, er, friends using the GBA link cable, and it is a rare action/adventure/RPG/platformer game, which tends to add up to a good game. The gameplay is fun and action-packed, the RPG elements include multiple weapons, from pocket knives to lances to the traditional Castlevania rope to even a hammer for some reason, as well as various types of armor to increase your defense and power. It even has an element system (water beats fire monsters, etc.) It is a truly great game.

The best GBA installment of the series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

In making the last few Castlevanias more like Symphony of the Night (arguably the best game in the series) Konami had hoped to repeat the magic that made the Playstation installment so great. Something had been missing, despite Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance being great they just weren't as great as Symphony of the Night. I've come to the conclusion that I like swords better than whips. In Aria of Sorrow you play as Soma, a young man summoned inside of a solar eclipse where Dracula's Castle is being kept. He finds that he has the ability to absorb souls, but he doesn't understand why he has this power, all he knows is that he wants to find a way to escape the castle. It's the first Castlevania to take place in the future, rather than the past, and nearly sates my insatiable thirst for a modern times Castlevania. Aria of Sorrow plays much more like Symphony of the Night as the main character uses swords rather than a whip, which is nice. I never thought that killing monsters with a whip was possible anyway.
The story could use a little work, as with all Castlevania there's only enough to keep you playing, not much more, but what's there is interesting. This game has spectacular graphics, looking pretty close to Metroid Fusion in quality.
In all honesty though the music is still lacking. While better than Harmony of dissonance its not quite on par with Symphony of the Night or even Circle of the moon. Most of the tunes are forgettable, which is sad because Castlevania has always been, in part, about the music. The good news is that the music isn't unbearable like HOD was. Konami once again has found a way to keep the general style of Castlevania going without letting it get stale or boring. I can't wait for the next one! Especially since I can finally sell those excess weapons I don't use in the shop!

The best one yet

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow addresses all the complaints leveraged against its predecessors and improves upon them in every single way. It?s 2D porta-gaming at its most refined, even if the song seems a little familiar. Aria of Sorrow is more challenging than Harmony of Dissonance, and the music is 10 times better. The spectacular graphics look appropriately dark while still somehow being visually bright with some really beautiful backgrounds. The levels manage to avoid any of the endlessly repeating stairwells that plagued Circle of the Moon. The bosses are nuttier (Legion, baby, Legion), and the game?s soul-collecting weapon and magic system is one of the best yet in the series. The only strike against Aria, really, is that its lineage contains a few too many similarly great games. Aria is yet another clone of one of the best 2D games ever made (Symphony of the Night), which was an homage to another 2D masterpiece (Super Metroid). Many area motifs (clock towers with medusa heads) and enemies (hawks that drop flea-men) have been repeated repeatedly in Castlevania games before. The law of diminishing returns has to kick in somewhere?right? That Aria is a masterpiece of 2D gaming there?s no denying, and the gamers who will get the most out of Aria of Sorrow are the ones who?ve never played a Castlevania game. Everyone else will recognize the mastery, stand up and applaud the improvements, and silently sigh as they wait for Castlevania to come up with an entirely different kind of magnum opus.

Everything I prayed for! Except for two things.......

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: August 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The Castlevania series of games, which has been around since its Playstation debut in 1997, only recently kicked back into gear by starting again on the Game Boy Advance in 2001. Each game in the Castlevania series takes players on a side-scrolling journey through Dracula's castle, in which the protagonist slays bizarre monstrosities, gains levels, picks up lots of items and abilities, and eventually fights Dracula himself. While short on plot and simple in gameplay, they are remarkably fun, and utterly difficult to put down.

I never owned a Playstation system before, but I was so enticed by "Symphony of the Night" that I bought "Circle of the Moon" as soon as it was released. I did not buy 2002's "Harmony of Dissonance" because I had heard unflattering things about it. "Circle of the Moon" is a largely fun game, but I have beaten it four times in each replay mode, and now that I own "Aria Of Sorrow", I doubt I'll ever play it again.

The game uses the same engine as its predecessors, so many things like control and gameplay are almost exactly the same. But, while the graphics also use the same engine, they are much better than before. "Circle" has well-drawn backgrounds, characters, and spell animations, but they are a little dark and difficult to see without overhead light. The graphics in "Aria" are not only easier to see, but they are much more detailed and artistic than before; along with the dank cellars of the castle, the backgrounds also range from the walls of ice caverns to the ominous stormclouds from outside the castle.

What makes this game so absorbing, however, is the endless array of items, spells, enemies, and secrets. In "Circle", we play as a whip-wielder who uses one primary weapon and a few sub-weapons, and can only use spells after finding cards that are just rarely dropped by a sparse number of enemies. This time we are able to handle masses of weapons, ranging from swords to spears to hammers to even a laser rifle! (if you can find it, that is) Both games have lots of secret walls, but the possibility of a new weapon makes finding such walls a more exciting event in "Aria". Also, weapons vary greatly in reach, element, and the number of times they hit monsters with one swing, so the most powerful weapons are not necessarily the most useful ones depending on your state of affairs.

Furthermore, the spells in this game come from the hero absorbing souls from his enemies; there are over a hundred enemies in this game, and each one carries a soul. Some souls give abilities (e.g. flying, walking on water, swimming), while others provide benefits such as increased speed or attack power, and others allow players to use various magical attacks. Again, these souls vary greatly in attributes, so not only will your abilities to mash buttons and slaughter enemies be put to the challenge, but also your way of deciding which souls to use in certain situations.

I could go on! There are so many things about this game that make it even better than "Circle". Enemies are even more imaginative than before; some are downright hilarious, like a waiter skeleton who throws hot curry at you, and one actually moves too quickly for the naked eye. Recovery items, along with the familiar potions, now include food items with humorous descriptions (e.g. Potato Pancake: "The burnt edges are the best part"). And the regular "go kill Dracula, he's been resurrected" storyline has a startling twist to it, which will allow you to discover the game's true ending. This allows you to unlock a Hard mode with stronger enemies, and a mode where you play as an alternate character.

In fact, there are so many wonderful things about this game that I feel it is almost disrespectful of me to give it 4 stars simply because of two nagging problems: 1) it is too short even with a Hard mode and lots of secrets, and 2) it is too easy even in the Hard mode. These are the only two ways in which "Circle" is superior to "Aria". I beat the regular mode, Hard mode, and alternate-character mode in a total of about 16 hours, each with 100% souls acquired and map discovered, while the five different modes in "Circle" took me a total of more than 50 hours to beat. Also, "Circle" is always difficult but never frustrating unless you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it took me several tries to beat each boss. I didn't die in "Aria" until about halfway into the game, and I didn't die on any boss until the last one.

Because of this, let your own personal gaming style decide which of these two games to buy. If you prefer exotic gameplay elements and lots of fascinating secrets, but an easy and short game, get "Aria". If you want bigger challenge and lots of replay value, but more like old-school style with a less surprising story and fewer frills, get "Circle". They are both very good games, and will make fine additions to your game library.

different, and in some ways better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I don't know about all you gamers oput there, but when i think of great castlevania, i think of symphony of the night. I am definately not the type to be biased to one game in a series, i own castlevania chronicles, aria of sorrow, circle of the moon, and symphony of the night, and they all rock. There are some things i greatly appreciated in this title, but it does fall a bit short in one area that can really be the ultimate downfall of a game, but first the positive.

What i really did enjoy about this installment is the sheer massivness of the soul system. every recent castlevania has there own power gimmick. Be that souls, cards, or relics, they all have there own thing. Every enemy in aria of sorrow has a soul inside of them that you can attain. the souls can do anything from give you subweapons, to turn you into a giant four armed chick! with all the different enemies, your looking at over 300 different powers to find! Another point that i found to be a nice change is that instead of having to hunt down which subweapon you want, they are all stored in your soul set menu, once you find the enemy with the correct soul of course. Instead of having a seperate MP and heart guage, there is only the MP guage, and the subweapons use MP instead. This also helps the MP situation, since collecting hearts now refills your MP guage a bit.

Another thing that has been fixed since symphony of the night is something ive been praying for for years. In symphony of the night you can only sell certain gems, which makes the more pricey items almost unattainable. In aria of aorrow, anything you collect in the castle can be sold to the merchant for cash. This makes the 300,000 dollar soul eater ring, which makes collecting souls easier, all the easier to get to.

Now for the ultimate downfall. One of the best aspects of Symphony of the night, in my opinion, is the fact that there is two castles (and one is upside down, how cool is that!) In aria of sorrow there is only one castle, and i would venture to say it would take about 4 or 5 hours of your average gamers time to completely explore. More and more GBA games are seeming to have this problem since the cartridges just can't hold as much memory as the discs. I guess that problem will be fixed with the next gen handhelds (which will run on mini-discs) but until then, the handheld market suffers.

In conclusion, Aria of Sorrow is on par with some of the greats of castlevania in most aspects. If it would have been made longer, i feel the expierience would have been much amplified. Thats not to say there is no fun to be had here, while it lasts it is classic castlevania action. Anyone who has played some of the more recent Castlevania games will find something they love here.

breathtakingly amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

my 3 favorite castlevania titles are SOTN,dracula x, and now aria of sorrow. castlevania should stay a 2-D game [forever!!!] i cant see it any other way. ( we proved that with n-64)

AMAZING GAME!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is definately the best Castlevania game (besides Symphony
of the Night)! I truly love it. This game is a little short (I
beat it in 10 hours) but nonetheless this game is terrific.
Gorgeous graphics, spooky backgrounds, a gripping plot that
twists and turns-Aria of Sorrow rocks!
The story is set in the future (2035) when Soma Cruz and his
girl-companion Mina Hakuba are heading to the Hakuba shrine to
see a solar eclipse. When Soma gets to the top of the shrine, he
passes out. He awakens inside the solar eclipse! How weird is
that? He is awakened by Mina and...I won't tell you the rest!
You'll have to go get it. SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
GET IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : )

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