Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Sorrow Never Fades

NA release: 6th May 2003
JP release: 8th May 2003
EU release: 9th May 2003
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
AKA: Castlevania: Akatsuki no Minuet (JP)
NGC Magazine Review: 86%
Platforms: GBA
Version Played: GBA

The third and final Castlevania on the Game Boy Advance, and this gets even closer to Symphony of the Night in terms of gameplay features. This one is actually set in the future, following Soma Cruz as he gets dragged into a lunar eclipse in the year 2035. There houses the true location of Dracula’s Castle, where it sits when Dracula is not active.

There’s actually quite a few characters in the castle this time, all with seemingly their own agendas and mysteries – even Soma has some fascinating revelations. I found the story in this one to be genuinely interesting and enjoyed encountering someone to reveal more of what was going on – there’s a lot to do with the whole process of resurrection and the workings of Castlevania itself .

Soma plays quite a bit like Alucard, having access to a wide variety of weapons like daggers, swords, lances, hammers and sword whips plus plenty of armour with many different effects. He moves swiftly and is very agile. For core movement, this is the best one of the three GBA games.

His biggest ability is being able to absorb the souls of enemies, which come in three slots: attacks that take the place of sub weapons, various powers like healing and area attacks and finally stat boosts and movement abilities. There’s an immense amount of customisation involved, and some really nice abilities like swinging a giant screen filling axe. These use your magic, which recharges slowly and can be topped up with hearts.

Two of these abilities, walking on water and going underwater, are a bit of a pain with having to swap when you need to use them, but overall it’s a nice system. It depends on random drops and is similar to Circle of the Moon. It doesn’t feel quite as bad, but it does sometimes mean killing some rare enemies again and again until you get a soul from it.

The biggest issue I had with Aria of Sorrow is that exploration didn’t feel rewarding. HP and MP are done solely by levelling up, so other than the occasional unique weapon, there’s not much to look for, and a lot of rooms that are either empty or just have a potion or money. It also feels a lot like just stumbling around rather than working out where to go, and I encountered the first end game boss without even realising I was anywhere near the end of the game.

Like Symphony of the Night, reaching Dracula’s throne room without the right things equipped will result in a “bad” ending after you beat the boss there. The hints towards a true ending are even vaguer than that game. You can find three books hidden throughout the game, each gives a vague hint towards a soul. You need to have these three equipped to trigger the final section of the game – with the books not hinting what the souls are actually for. It makes sense after you complete the game, but that doesn’t help with figuring it out.

Once you do complete the game, you’ll be able to input a name and play as the mysterious character of J. This works much like Richer Mode where you have a mostly powered up main character, are equipped with a whip and can just run to the final boss to beat the game. Always a nice extra, but I wish these were more in depth.

Overall, while the gameplay of Aria of Sorrow is better than the other two GBA games, I just didn’t find exploration as satisfying. The game is still a top tier game, I just wish there was a little bit more to find.

Great

The castle is absolutely huge and it’s one freely roamable area, allowing you to retrace your steps and access areas couldn’t get to before. The only really disappointing thing about this particular Castlevania is the apparent lack of imagination with the game’s stock enemies (the bosses are still frighteningly good) and the lack of depth to the items. The first game’s card-based power-up system was much better, and more involving.
NGC Magazine #82

Remake or remaster?

I’d like a version with more stuff to find in the castle.

Official Ways to get the game

Aria of Sorrow is available in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection.