December 2015 – Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Title: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Platforms: Game Boy Advance
Release Date: May 6th, 2003
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo
Publisher: Konami
Genre: Action-adventure

Members Completed: 5
Average Rating: 82.2/100
Member Progress Rating Review and/or Comments
Apple Completed 12/31 85/100
bule Completed 12/31 80/100 I’ve played this one a lot before, so this was not that surprising of an experience. However, I believe that now I have the best view of this game’s pros and cons. This is a very good game. Graphics are ace, music is mostly brilliant, gameplay is responsive and addicting and there’s enough stuff to do. As far as GBA metroidvanias go, this is my favourite of them. Kuro was harsh on the story and the characters, but I thought they were okay, mostly since they are quite different than the series normally has. In short, the game is good stuff. However, from this playthrough I didn’t get that great of an experience as I’ve had before. Maybe it was the combination of playing on hard, which brings some welcome challenge but makes collecting souls annoying and generally amps up the frustration, playing this with little time since last playthrough, and trying to beat this on schedule. Some of the areas felt a bit boring as well and a deal of the weapons and souls were too weak to be interesting. It made me also realise that Symphony of the Night is better and I should replay that one. But for a portable console and for an original game, this is a damn good substitute for SotN. And as for portable metroidvanias, this game’s sequel made everything even better. (Well, everything but the character art, which took a real nosedive.)
gamma Incomplete after first boss
J Completed 12/30 88/100
Kuro Completed 12/20 74/100 Lots of fun. Great mechanics, gives the player a lot of room to play how they want. Nice looking game. Overall the soundtrack is solid, a lot of the tunes are unremarkable but some are great. It’s a metroidvania so it’s hard to hold narrative faults against it, but the plot, characters and dialogue are downright stupid. Fortunately their minimal role make them just an irksome distraction rather than a serious fault, and they don’t detract from everything the game does right. Glad I played it. Clear Screen
Yoshi Completed 12/08 84/100
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