*Doraemon’s time machine opens a portal, returning Bakuma to the present, with all the info he collected, he prepares for the finale of the trilogy’s reviews*
Now it’s time of the final installment of the trilogy, first it was Circle of the Moon, a Vindicated by time entry, next was Harmony of Dissonance, that refined lots of stuff, but still had lots of room from improvement, now this time to se how the great Gameboy Advance sealed the trilogy, with a formula that not only the DS trilogy, but most of the entire genre will drink from, now it’s time the we see what the unanimous best game of the console, if not the ENTIRE SERIES OVERALL, has took the test of time, gentlemen… enter the Aria of Sorrow
Released in May 6 of 2003, Aria of Sorrow came as a seeming reboot of the series, no mention of the Belmont, and this time the story is set in Japan, however as the plot advance we may see stuff that aren’t what they looked, for starters this won’t be the final installment of the games in the console, but also of the Franchise, being the last one on the chronology, so this is the farewell to the Belmont Myth (But since they still cared for the saga in those times, they still pumped lots of games) received as better tan its sequels (In fact, some deems it as better than friggin SYMPHONY) today we shall discloses the game, and specially the twist that made the plot the best of the series IMHO
HISTORY
The year is 2035, our main character is a student called Soma Crus, an Exchange student in the expert versions and logically an domestic student in the original Japan version, who goes with his gi…ahem, childhood friend called Mina Hakuba, wanting to see the Eclipse on Japan, however the Ladder to the shrine is…off, keeping going on for a while, while they finally reach both of them notice they aren’t in Kansas Osaka anymore, a black haired suited man called Genya Arikado warns them that they are in fact in Castlevania… something really odd since apparently it was sealed in the (Yet to be shown in a game) Battle of 1999, where Dracula’s butt was finally kicked for real, however, Nostradamus predicted that in the first Eclipse of the 21th century Dracula’s evil will come back by his resurrection…yeah
Nostradamus, change your Astrolabious’ batteries, or at least turn off Save time
Meanwhile, a creepy but seemingly kind man named Graham Jones has appeared to guide Soma and Mina out of this mess, however, Soma’s power and the game’s gimmick may hint that absolutely NO ONE HERE IS WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE
THE TWIST
Yeah, I commented a twist in the intro blurb, and while most people nowadays knows about it, I will respect those who haven’t played or knows the story, is the twist shall be double layered censored, I will just say that when is the time to reach the final battle in the Top floor, be sure to has Flame Demon (Red soul) Giant Bat (Blue Soul) And Succubus (Yellow Soul) and keep them for the entire battle, the battle is easy, son they aren’t that limiting
Graham Jones reveals that he was born in the year Dracula was killed for the last time, in fact he is looked for Genya’s group of cops, as well as for the latest Belmont, a curious name called J and Yoko Belnades, the latest Belnades, believing himself to be Dracula’s reincarnation, he goes ballistic when Soma reveals the Dominance is with him, goes Kira and declares he is Dracula, facing you in the Top floor, the usual tower heralded by a huge ladder, beat him with the indicated souls, however and the reason why Soma can casually capture enemy souls like Pokémon is revealed…
SOMA
IS
DRACULA
Genya knew about this, making clear why he insisted in he cleansing himself of Dracula’s hatred and urging him to defeat Chaos, the reason why Dracula kept coming back, in the core of Castlevania itself, Soma, surprisingly taking it light (Obvious initial shock aside) while asking J to kill him after besting him in the BEST BATTLE OF THE GAME if he fails to defeat Chaos and the cycle restarts
I was flabbergasted, I played for the first time the game in a PC, something good because if I played it in hardware, I would drop the GBA in the floor frozen in shock, granted, that makes some plot beats feel wasted, and you may wonder why they never foreshadow it better, but kudos on Konami on giving the usual Castlevania plot a nice reinvention, making the plot itself the best part of the game
GAMEPLAY
Eat your heart out Kirby, another power copier is in town POYO just kidding
Well, the Elephant in the room, I mentioned it like three time yet I refused to elaborate, ¿What the heck is Dominance?
Basically, a MASSIVE update on the DSS, letting you to get a soul of EVERY enemy, reducing guesswork to if you already have the soul or not, these are divided in four groups (Conveniently grouped in colors)
BULLET: The game’s take on Sub weapons, sadly that mean you no longer get hearts as separate ammo, forcing you to decide how you use your bullet soul, used as the sub weapons in the franchise
GUARDIAN: As the name implies, those are either shields or a secondary kind or sub weapon, heck, you get Familiars, used by pressing R (By default) be holding it or just pressing it depending of the weapon
ENCHANTED
ABILITIES: The equivalent to the charms in most Metroidvanias, those are scarce, only being six, and with the exception on one dropped from an enemy, all are found in fixed spots
Those are, as you expected, dropped by killing enemies, alas LUCK is broken (As in bugged useless) so you may want to kill more than you want, fortunately they are patches that fixes it, but for the sake of review, I have to eat the vanilla versions,
Speaking of arsenal, Soma isn’t a Belmont, so no Vampire Killer for you, fortunately being a Shonen protagonist he come preprogrammed with the capacity of using weapons, here the weapons are far more varied, swords, grand swords, hammers, punches, spears, heck you get GUNS, actual guns, sadly they are far too weak to make them work, but hey, challenge runs are always a thing if you want Soma to turn into Dante
We have FINALLY a store, a consistent one at all, one that updates with progress instead of making you scramble all over the castle to find the specific thing you need, ALLELUYAH, he is even charming enough to not be a simple “Buy my crap or get lost” dialogue, here is Hammer, a soldier sent to investigate what the heck is going on, but he got lost, remembered he isn’t a protag and decided to move to the safe spot of the castle, its entrance, before speaking he tends to get to speak, showing him as a rude looking but doofus friendly man, justifying selling a store because, well I have them but I don’t want to die, so I may as well sell them, even Mina and Soma finds this weird, but gifted horse
Unfortunately, forward dash was axed, F
DIFFICULTY
Real photo of me finding they finally balanced it properly
The game’s challenge is the definition of sweet spot, not too hard that makes you want to throw the GBA onto the nearest window, not too boring and winnable merely mashing A, enemy patters and obstacles are for the most part fairer, some of them has no chill like the clock tower, but I never had problems, even a beginner in the franchise in general may not have too much of a problem dealing with the challenges, as someone that grew with Simon’s Quest, these are a cakewalk
As said before, the game has an unintentional hinderance in the form of INT and LUCK, Intelligence is the speed and power of your bullet souls, while Luck… is luck, the game didn’t did a good job tuning them, and thus they seem too low, I was at the endgame of the true ending and yet my Mana bar filled SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYY, regarding luck ironically the Bat soul was the latest one I got since the luck was that busted, and checking an online guide it has a relatively high drop chance, like WTAF, another thing where Luck hinders you is that money is handed in low quantities, so you have to rely on selling outdated equipment, making you have to chose what weapon you need to drop, making potions really too cool to use
GRAPHICS
La creme de la creme, absolute beauty
By the time the game was released, the SP model of the Game Boy Advance was out by 3 months, which means ZERO LAMPS, ZERO GRAPHICLA OVERSATURATION AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL ZERO GETTING FUCKED BY DARING TO PLAY IN SUNNY DAYS, that benefited the game in the fact that they were able to pick graphics that were actual mixes of SNEs graphics and SoTN’s designs, the castle looks intimidating and uncanny valley welcoming, as if the castle knew something about Soma, the Floating Gardens (pictured) has a giant moon that glares at you, the first rooms of the Top floor are in fire, giving you a sense the Castle itself is saying “TURN BACK”, and the monsters look far more unique, only two bosses are recycled, and the rest are a delight to see, the humans aren’t slouches, the mugshots are drawing in the gothic style popularized by SoTN, while the Sprite of Soma has lots of personality
MUSIC
Oh boy they ever cooked, they didn’t burn a piano, they set fire into the entire Orchestra house,, fitting for the setting, instead of the Melancholic medieval tunes of past games, here instead more modern music is priorized, some music even having Rock riffs, once again, considering the game is set in the future, you get the idea Soma won’t be a teen that listens to Mozart, if you really want some tunes to listen while cleaning your house and wiping demons in the process, look no further than these
But the one that will make your socks fly (even if you don’t wear them, the track will make some spawn in your feet and send them flying) is this gem, the X vs Zero of the Franchise
REPLAY VALUE
The game has three endings:
Meh ending: beat the Top floor boss “Normally”
True ending: Beat the Top Floor Boss with specific souls equipped, go to an obscure-to-find room and face the best boss on the entire series, then deal with a final dungeon and win
Secret bad ending: Lose the final boss on the True ending
If the game’s challenge was reasonable but still crave more, try your luck in the series’ first Hard Mode, it counts too as a New Game+, I warn you, even if you get the overpowered stuff from a past run, the game will be merciless
Also, you get to play as J, or actually Julius Belmont, the Belmont that put an end to Dracula’s Shenanigans for good, you remember all the pain he made you go through his boss battle? You are now the one dishing to the Demon Castle, is as satisfying as it sounds
Boss Rush is also available, you can now test your knowledge of the game
CONCLUSION
Having finally learned how to properly translate the Metroidvania Formula to a portable system obviously weaker than a PSX, the GBA says farewell to the sag with a great way to chronologically cap the saga of the Belmont VS Dracula, not only it inspired the Sequel Trilogy in DS, but also with the formula set, if Simon’s Quest or Symphony aren’t the inspirations for lots of Indievanias, you can bet they drink of this one, with this trilogy capped with a golden brooch and me wanting to take a break for the DS trilogy, I can only say farewell and happy gaming, See you next review
Bakuma out
Pros
- + Balanced difficulty
- + Weapons are far more varied
- + Soul System is far more flexible
- + Soundtrack of the gods
- + First three or four bosses aside, bosses are memorable and challenging
- + Greatest story on the trilogy, if not entire saga
- + MC you could have a snack or have a chat with
Cons
- - Every enemy having a soul means some feel shoehorned
- - Translation is a wreck in some areas (An enemy called Curly is meant to be called Kaly)
- - INT and LUCK are bugged and kinda useless
- - The grand twist could be better foreshadowed
- - Some weapons are just reskins of weaker ones
9
Gameplay
Domination System is the greatest thing the game offers, but some mobility weapons that are restricted to being Bullet or Enchanted Souls could be easly Abilities and break the game's flow less
10
Graphics
*Chef kiss* Wonderful, returning and new enemies are refreshed, and the light is perfect, considering they tough on it being played in SP's retrolighted screen
10
Story
Cast is distinguishible from each other, and the beats leading to the grand reveal are organically put in front of you, that said the big reveal could get some tweaks in the forewarn department
10
Sound
Legendary songs, and the voices are in Japanese, sounded far from the crispiness you expected
9
Replayability
New Game Plus, fishing all souls, Julius Mode and Boss Rush will kepp the cart smoking for a while
9
out of 10
Overall
No game is perfect, but this one is the closest we have to that (In the GBA at least), easly a worthy Grand Finale for the Game Boy outings of the franchise and the stepping stone for the rest of games
