Aria of Sorrow: A Review by Wing of Faith

Wing of Faith

Aria of Sorrow is the last game in the triad of GBA Castlevanias. Taking place in 2035, it's already somewhat of a departure from the traditional settings. Sadly, little is done with this, aside from three ranged weapons that Soma can equip, the most powerful one being the positron Rifle. It would have been interesting to have the game start out in a city or something, just to see what IGA's take on the future might have been.

The story revolves around Soma Cruz, a Japanese High School student. In the English version, he's a foreign exchange student studying in Japan. I will go with the English localization, since "Cruz" (Cross in Spanish) is obviously not a Japanese name. When Soma visits his girlfriend's family shrine to watch the first Solar Eclipse of the 21st century, he blacks out, and awakens in Dracula's Castle.

The starting plot is unusual to say the least. But, it passes the test. After a brief conversation with Genya Arikado, a mysterious man in a black suit, Soma learns that he must journey through Dracula's castle (which is sealed inside the eclipse) and gain the power to send himself and his girlfriend, Mina, back to the human world. He has the ability to absorb the souls of slain monsters, which grant him additional abilities and attacks.

Soma controls a good deal like Alucard did in Symphony, being able to collect many different kinds of weapons, and his souls enable him to have transformations (such as a Devil, Bat, etc.), Familiars (like Imps and floating swords), Spells (such as summoning a giant ax to destroy everything on screen), as well as increase his stats.

Soma has his differences though, and they lie in his character. He is VERY different from Alucard in how he behaves. There's the occasional spot of childishness one might expect from a young man like him, there's heroism, and on a whole much more emotion than Alucard displayed.

The cast of characters is diverse, echoing Symphony of the Night's expanded cast, and the cast includes Julius Belmont, Yoko Belnades, Genya Arikado (who is revealed to be Alucard himself when Yoko slips up), Hammer, Mina Hakuba, and Graham Jones. Interestingly enough, with the exception of Mina (who just stays at the front gate) and Hammer (the shopkeeper), every main character appears in 3 different dialog scenes if you play for the best ending (Graham saying "Damn! I hate to be Interrupted!" and teleporting away does not count as dialog). 3 appearances is enough to develop Soma's relationship with each character enough for the player to have some sort of emotional response.

The graphics are beautiful. Soma and Julius have an excellent amount of fluidity and motion in their sprites. The environments are gorgeous, with a few exceptions. The Chaotic Realm was pointlessly stupid (a bleached out version of random bits from elsewhere in the game), the Dance Hall was too creamy in its colors, the Chapel didn't look very Cathedral-y (Stained glass looked more like a painting), and the Sacred Cave (Forbidden Area in English) was just as bad as every cave stage before it.

The Music was mostly good. Michiru Yamane teamed up with Soshiro Hokkai (the guy who did Harmony of Dissonance's music) and came up with some great music. "Ruined Castle Corridor" is great, "Can't Wait Until Night/ Heart of Fire" is awesome, and "Dracula's Fate" is simply superb. The boss themes on the other hand could use some work. The primary boss themes are just horrible. "Battle for the Throne", while it is frequently bashed, is actually okay, but that is the core of the problem: "Okay" does not cut it. "Struggle Against Chaos" had a great opening segment, but failed later on. It's a fairly well composed OST, but is awfully rough in some spots.

Platforming is dreadfully easy, and lacks challenge. It's a shame this happened, as Castlevania used to require excellent platforming skills to beat.

As for difficulty... this is an IGA game, which means, "Difficulty? There was difficulty? When? Where?"
The game had decent enough difficulty, and some segments present a challenge, but too many times that challenge simply comes from having more enemies thrown at you at once. This isn't even much of a challenge. Most of the sprites came from Rondo of Blood, so the enemies have no way of keeping up with Soma and Julius' advanced movements and high power spells and attacks, which pretty much makes them cannon-fodder.
The bosses are okay, but mostly for show. Death and Julius were the only bosses that gave me real problems.
There is a "hard mode", but don't let that fool you. It doesn't change anything, except you do less damage.

On a whole, this game is a "win some, lose some" scenario. While it features great gameplay, an interesting story, and lovable characters, some of the music drags it down some, the lack of difficulty means this game can be beaten quickly and easily, and the unimaginative enemy set in the game drags it down further.

I'd give this game a 6 out of 10, because some of the faults are just inexcusable, but it remains a fun game to play regardless.

If you own a GBA or a DS, you might want to consider getting this, but only if you are a loyal fan of Castlevania to begin with.

Alec · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:45 pm Post subject:

It's a fair review to be sure. Aria had its ups and downs, definitely, but I found Julius Mode to be rather hard the first time I played it, particularly on the Graham boss fight, but that was probably because Julius plays so differently from Soma.

One thing I wanted was to be able to play as Genya Arikado. That would have been awesome.

Creeping shadow · Lair Staff/ Lookout Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 542

Nice review, I acctually was unaware of what hard mode changed other than some new items laying around the castle. Nice job I look forward to seeing more.

Warrior of the Dark Moon · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:41 pm Post subject:

Azmodan · Stitched Mouth Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 15

Lovely Mai · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:13 pm Post subject:

Master Hero · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:57 am Post subject:

A decent review. I think I can see some of the appeal in this series from it. Maybe I'll try emulating it sometime, and I'll buy it if I like it enough.
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Butterfly Spirit · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:11 pm Post subject:

I liked it, but there really should have been more done with it. Julius mode was okay, I lost interest quickly though.

My second favorite GBA game, after CotM.
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Esperenza Grace · Chieftain Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 166

Aria was the closest thing to what I could call IGA's handheld masterpiece. It took the gameplay of Symphony and spruced it up with features refined from COTM's DSS and Harmony's Spell Fusion, and that made for awesome gameplay. The story line was a bit drab, but looking at it from gameplay only, it almost beats Symphony in my book.
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Nightmare · Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:40 am Post subject:

Oh come on you were a bit too harsh. Six out of ten?

Nice review otherwise.

Xian83 · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:54 am Post subject:

Huh. Where can I get this game? Is it still available?

Wing of Faith · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:51 am Post subject:

Xian83 · Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:45 pm Post subject: