Aria of Sorrow... 🌒🧛

[andubandu]

out of the three castlevania releases for the gameboy advance i find Aria of Sorrow to be the most soulful, solemn yet comfortable and warm entry.
definitely my top comfort game and what i would consider to be the best GBA title.

the fact that Michiru Yamane's musical prowess was missing from the first two GBA titles poses one major personal reason why the other two games fell below my liking. however that does not mean I consider Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance to be utter failures, they were decent games but also mere stepping stones for what Aria of Sorrow would become. what a synergy of a team these three. wish i would go deeper on the subject but i cant spare much time and would also like to hear your input regarding your experience with this game.
i'm not trying to throw any hyperboles out of excitement from talking about it or sugarcoating it too much but i consider it to contain the lifeblood of the Castlevania series as a whole and a true successor to Symphony of the Night. unfortunately limited by its hardware but relatively making the most out of it with a one of a kind blend of eerie gothic visuals, sublime ambiental music and an engaging and full of variety gameplay. a balance which the first two titles kind of messed it up, especially the music part. really want to talk more about it and will probably do a more intricate review of it sometime.

developer interview from Nintendo Dream 2003

IGA: There was actually a total solar eclipse in Eastern Europe in 1999. There were even rumors then that Dracula would come back. There’s something sacred and mysterious about eclipses, right? But most Westerners don’t feel that way about eclipses—to them, it’s nothing mysterious, just a shadow, you know? For the Japanese, on the other hand, eclipses appear in our myths (like Ama no Iwato), and they inspire a kind of awe in us. So I combined those ideas: in 1999, the same year there was an eclipse in Eastern Europe, Dracula is destroyed… and in 2035, there’s an eclipse in Japan, and something is awakening.

Post automatically merged: Today at 8:57 AM

also Michiru Yamane wished me happy birthday on facebook like three years ago B)

 

[Aziamuth]

Aria of Sorrow... so good...

 

[Stingy Perry]

out of the three castlevania releases for the gameboy advance i find Aria of Sorrow to be the most soulful, solemn yet comfortable and warm entry.
definitely my top comfort game and what i would consider to be the best GBA title.
View attachment 64584
the fact that Michiru Yamane's musical prowess was missing from the first two GBA titles poses one major personal reason why the other two games fell below my liking. however that does not mean I consider Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance to be utter failures, they were decent games but also mere stepping stones for what Aria of Sorrow would become. what a synergy of a team these three. wish i would go deeper on the subject but i cant spare much time and would also like to hear your input regarding your experience with this game.
i'm not trying to throw any hyperboles out of excitement from talking about it or sugarcoating it too much but i consider it to contain the lifeblood of the Castlevania series as a whole and a true successor to Symphony of the Night. unfortunately limited by its hardware but relatively making the most out of it with a one of a kind blend of eerie gothic visuals, sublime ambiental music and an engaging and full of variety gameplay. a balance which the first two titles kind of messed it up, especially the music part. really want to talk more about it and will probably do a more intricate review of it sometime. View attachment 64587

developer interview from Nintendo Dream 2003

IGA: There was actually a total solar eclipse in Eastern Europe in 1999. There were even rumors then that Dracula would come back. There’s something sacred and mysterious about eclipses, right? But most Westerners don’t feel that way about eclipses—to them, it’s nothing mysterious, just a shadow, you know? For the Japanese, on the other hand, eclipses appear in our myths (like Ama no Iwato), and they inspire a kind of awe in us. So I combined those ideas: in 1999, the same year there was an eclipse in Eastern Europe, Dracula is destroyed… and in 2035, there’s an eclipse in Japan, and something is awakening.

Post automatically merged: Today at 8:57 AM

also Michiru Yamane wished me happy birthday on facebook like three years ago B)

You’re right Castlevania AoS is the peak on the GBA. If it would’ve been to hardware limitations it could’ve been on par with SotN.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

I have good memories with this one. It's one of the very first games I played by the time I learned about emulation. I loved it.

 

[bigstinkie]

i am going to play this game, aria of sorrow, for the first time very soonzors
a friend gave me the castlevania advance collection and circle of the moon has become one of my favourite games in the series, with harmoney of cashspares being quite good too
so my hopes are high for this fan favourite aria of sorrow

 

[_-_AceDragon_-_]

out of the three castlevania releases for the gameboy advance i find Aria of Sorrow to be the most soulful, solemn yet comfortable and warm entry.
definitely my top comfort game and what i would consider to be the best GBA title.
View attachment 64584
the fact that Michiru Yamane's musical prowess was missing from the first two GBA titles poses one major personal reason why the other two games fell below my liking. however that does not mean I consider Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance to be utter failures, they were decent games but also mere stepping stones for what Aria of Sorrow would become. what a synergy of a team these three. wish i would go deeper on the subject but i cant spare much time and would also like to hear your input regarding your experience with this game.
i'm not trying to throw any hyperboles out of excitement from talking about it or sugarcoating it too much but i consider it to contain the lifeblood of the Castlevania series as a whole and a true successor to Symphony of the Night. unfortunately limited by its hardware but relatively making the most out of it with a one of a kind blend of eerie gothic visuals, sublime ambiental music and an engaging and full of variety gameplay. a balance which the first two titles kind of messed it up, especially the music part. really want to talk more about it and will probably do a more intricate review of it sometime. View attachment 64587

developer interview from Nintendo Dream 2003

IGA: There was actually a total solar eclipse in Eastern Europe in 1999. There were even rumors then that Dracula would come back. There’s something sacred and mysterious about eclipses, right? But most Westerners don’t feel that way about eclipses—to them, it’s nothing mysterious, just a shadow, you know? For the Japanese, on the other hand, eclipses appear in our myths (like Ama no Iwato), and they inspire a kind of awe in us. So I combined those ideas: in 1999, the same year there was an eclipse in Eastern Europe, Dracula is destroyed… and in 2035, there’s an eclipse in Japan, and something is awakening.

Post automatically merged: Today at 8:57 AM

also Michiru Yamane wished me happy birthday on facebook like three years ago B)

It was a true successor as you say, both in gameplay, as well as story. Definitely the best of the castlevania GBA titles, and contender for best GBA game ever (Megaman Zero and Metroid Fusion are up there too). AOS is also much better than all three DS titles, despite being hugely inferior in terms of hardware. I didn't enjoy the DS titles at all. I could go into why but it'll be long. I felt as though they were just soulless... We didn't need another Soma Cruz game in DOS, and POR/OOE were just average/boring and very forgettable.

 

[Graw]

You’re right Castlevania AoS is the peak on the GBA. If it would’ve been to hardware limitations it could’ve been on par with SotN.

I prefer AoS to SotN. I like the gameplay systems and level design more in AoS.

 

[hazelHyphen]

I felt like Aria of Sorrow deserved to be on something like a home console than the GBA, the game was way too good to just be for the GBA. I loved playing it on Playstation Portable through emulation, but I felt it played really well in the Advanced Collection !!

 

[Rocket2049]

I've played SOTN so many times, on Saturn, on PS1, PSP, PS4,
my recent replay of SOTN (on PS4 collection) i kept finding things i never saw before.
Maria on Saturn plays very different from maria on PSP/PS4 port which is interesting, even her boss fight changes. give the saturn version a try if you haven't already. there's other changes too like the boss rush mode.
but end of the day, about 12 hours ish to 200.6% SOTN. (well i had about 300% going out of bounds by complete accident, i swear) it's great but not longer than a single day to do absolutely everything
except max level (because that'll take roughly a straight week nonstop at best)

I spent easily 100 hours on Aria of sorrow trying to 100% it out.
absolutely love the enemy soul system, see in SOTN just put on your best weapons armor and go, you rarely change gear in SOTN i think in a full playthrough i changed gear like 3 times
but AoS gives you a lot of options, especially across the run
if konami got their heads out of their wallets maybe we'd get a remake SOTN

poor IGA had no choice but to make bloodstained the closest we'd get to a new metroidvania.
bloodstained is pretty great though, like a mix of AoS and SOTNs best parts.
just don't play it on switch lol

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Ari-
KINO
GEM ALERT
GEM ALERT

But I will say that while most of CoTM is take it or leave it, Clockwork, The Sinking Old Sanctuary, and Clockwork Mansion remixes are the most notable in the game not named Awake

 

[MemeAlert]

The coldest take ever made. No one would say that Aria of Sorrow is the worst outta of the GBA trilogy.

 

[WesternYokai]

Symphony of the Night is my favorite game ever and I think Aria of Sorrow is worth to be the real sequel of the 1997 classic (which indeed it is).

Being out of the GBA jail in a barebones collection is already a good thing, but I wish it had kind of treatment like Haunted Castle, I recently played a recolor rom hack and oh good, it's definitely another game.

Soon I'll be doing another replay of Dawn of Sorrow, I used to like it even better, but the last time I played (like 10 years ago) I was not in the mood and found it boring lol. Let's see...

 

[Esidemoken]

It's certainly in my top5 Castlevania games and certainly the best of the 3 for GBA, and yet I think the difficulty of CotM is more challenging.

 

[Viviana Santos]

I love Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, definitely the best of the GBA trilogy and one of my favorites in the series. I also like its sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, but I think Aria of Sorrow is superior overall.

 

[andubandu]

I also like its sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, but I think Aria of Sorrow is superior overall.

i also liked Dawn, but i played it with the Dawn of Dignity mod which replaces the new ugly portraits with ayami kojima's artworks. (hope it's ok for the hyperlink since it's from the repo)

 

[MemeAlert]

i also liked Dawn, but i played it with the Dawn of Dignity mod which replaces the new ugly portraits with ayami kojima's artworks. (hope it's ok for the hyperlink since it's from the repo)

Blah, I prefer the original Dawn of Sorrow artwork.

 

[andubandu]

It's certainly in my top5 Castlevania games and certainly the best of the 3 for GBA, and yet I think the difficulty of CotM is more challenging.

yes circle of the moon is a good game in its own right and it really is harder than the rest.
one thing that stood out from Harmony of Dissonance was the weird (but cool) outline around Juste and this banger:

 

[bigstinkie]

you probably are possessing this knowledge already but the outline around juste and the generally brighter colour palette for harmony of dissonance was due to fans saying that circle of the moon was a difficult game to view unless you were under strong lighting

 

[starseeker300]

I Played All three GBA Metroidvania Castlevania's a couple years ago at the time of posting this. I could see a progression in the gameplay throughout all three so I would say Aria of Sorrow is the result a cultivation of that trilogy.


I do also like the gothic aesthetic (even if it does make highschoolers look like they are in there 40s)

What do you all think of the ending of the game (the true ending, not the bad ending that is)

 

[Taukyrie]

I really have to play this at some point, AOS is one of my bf's favorite Castlevania games and he even commissioned me to draw Soma for him.

 

[andubandu]

you probably are possessing this knowledge already but the outline around juste and the generally brighter colour palette for harmony of dissonance was due to fans saying that circle of the moon was a difficult game to view unless you were under strong lighting

yes i know the reasoning behind it. circle of the moon was really lacking in terms of brightness and contrast and would have really sucked to play without frontlight or backlight (the first frontlit gba was the SP AGS-001 in 2003, CotM was released in 2001). game was really bland visually to be honest... plotwise also. but the gameplay was alright.
harmony of disonance had its charm with the bright visuals but felt too happy for a castlevania, it's beautiful tho.

 

[Viviana Santos]

Circle of the Moon is one of my least favorites in the franchise, I think it's a pretty mediocre game.

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On the other hand, I think Harmony of Dissonance is pretty good, It's not amazing, but I like it.

 

[bigstinkie]

what is it you dislike about circle of the moon? i found the card mechanic, difficulty, art direction, and nathan to be superb and beautiful

 

[Viviana Santos]

what is it you dislike about circle of the moon? i found the card mechanic, difficulty, art direction, and nathan to be superb and beautiful

I don't like the game's visuals and the lack of balance, I don't like the card mechanic either, I find the RPG mechanics by far the worst of the series overall, and I hate the game's final boss.

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But at the same time I can admit that the level design of Circle of the Moon is good, even if the backtracking is a bit tedious.