Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

It's the closest a GBA Castlevania adventure has come to achieving "Symphony's" level of atmosphere, and it has a crazy power-up system that makes you want to keep playing and playing and playing. [June 2003, p.43]

Even if you’ve never played one of the recent Castlevania titles, and especially if you were bothered by the unbalanced design of the last two games, go out right now and pick up Aria of Sorrow.

Aria of Sorrow totally enraptures me in its world, more so than most environments made up of seemingly obscene numbers and polygons. [June 2003, p.119]

It's more fun that the last two games and the production values have been improved. I find this game has a better balance of gameplay variety and unique level designs that keep it from becoming repetitive.

Another fantastic chapter in the Castlevania saga and warrants a purchase. Be warned, the game is not very long and only clocks in at about 10-15 hours. There are multiple endings which will keep you coming back for more, though!

Just a really great action game in the same vein as classics like "Symphony of the Night" and "Super Metroid" before it, and it stands tall among the GBA's best action games, including "Circle of the Moon" and last year's "Metroid Fusion."

Since Aria Of Sorrow is the third Castlevania in as many years, I'm also concerned that Konami is growing increasingly content to simply rest on their laurels.

Aria of Sorrow es la definición de un sistema: el concepto de metroidvania llevado a su forma final, donde la densidad de diseño se convierte en narrativa y la narrativa en interacción con el medio. No depende de la sorpresa de SoTN ni del refinamiento puro de HoD, y mucho menos de la nostalgia, porque su apartado visual es realmente atemporal y recoge elementos procedentes de diversos imaginarios. Y digo esto sin entrar, obviamente, en lo espléndido de su apartado artístico postmoderno, que imagina un castillo donde cabe el futuro, el presente y el pasado, integrado todo ello en lo mejor que permite la consola a nivel de píxeles. Si todo esto no fuera suficiente, el sistema de almas es un diseño prácticamente perfecto que combina progresión, combate, exploración y narrativa. Cada enemigo importa; el castillo existe como un ecosistema donde todo está conectado y todo retroalimenta al jugador. Los enemigos responden a diferentes maneras de afrontar el desafío y existen espacios y problemas que requieren un uso específico del sistema. Estos acertijos se descubren a través de la atención y el cuidado hacia lo que expresan los personajes, los espacios y la narrativa secundaria. Y ya que hablamos de narrativa, la principal no necesita ser enorme, ni durar una eternidad, ni demostrar nada. Es contención, no exceso. Termina justo cuando se propone hacerlo: te sorprende o, si has entendido de qué va todo lo que el juego te está ofreciendo, puede alargarse un poco (o un mucho) más. Todo depende, una vez más, de tu interacción con el medio. La narrativa es elegante y funciona como arquitectura del pensamiento: un ejercicio retórico intencional en el que Soma —y el jugador— elige su destino.

One of my all time favorites and an underrated classic. Aesthetic, lore, and engaging gameplay all come together like a delicious sandwich.

This game is my fav castlevania game,because i love its artwork and atmosfere,but i acepts the game as very bad parts -senario isnt very felt satisfied because the game has so many missing parts in story. -characters is designed good senarist couldt gave them dialogues and role in story. -combat mechaincs is very poor,game has quite weapon options but it doesnt affect on playing style so much as perks. İn the end i think this game has best character designs in castvania series but it cant be the best castvania game.

It does a lot of what Symphony of the Night does, but worse. The story, characters, music, atmosphere, combat, and enemy variety are inferior to Symphony of the Night on many levels. However, it did do some things differently and some things better. The boss and balancing are better, and the way you get skills by farming for souls is unique. I appreciate the difference, but I didn't like it that much. They implemented something similar to Zelda games, switching gears (souls) to get to an area, which made it kind of tedious since it wasn't implemented well in the game. The way you use your souls to traverse is so minimalistic that it makes me question the point of it; it didn't add anything that makes your experience better. I know it's unfair to compare it to Symphony of the Night, especially since this is a GBA game and Symphony of the Night is a PS1 game. Hence, I gave it an 8. It's still pretty fun and solid.

Not as good as previous installments in terms of story or gameplay. The new gameplay mechanic of using enemies techniques is interesting, music and visuals still appealing.