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Retro of the Week - Aria of Sorrow
Posted by Swifto
Posted on 26 August, 2012 at 10:57AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0
Retro of the Week - Aria of Sorrow

Aww yeah, now we're talkin'. No more of this mix of good and bad stuff, get ready for a big ol' gush.

After two years of making mixed products with the previous two games, Konami didn't want to fuck around with their next one. They cracked their knuckles, pulled out all the stops, and set out to make somethin' great. Gathering their team leads, they discussed how to make a damn good game. What was it that people liked about the all-time favourite, Symphony of the Night? Magic spells? Fluid motions? Pretty protagonist? Equipping various weapons varying between swords, spears and hammers? Yes to all!

But how to go about all of these things? One problem with Symphony of the Night was the legions of useless expendable items that you accumulated over time. No one ever used them, and they were a pain to equip, use, and re-equip your usual sword. So, let's cut down on those. Only weapons, armour and an accessory to be equipped. Keep it simpler. But how to keep the variety going with the game without giving the player a fuckton of dubious usefulness weapons?

Magic! There's the answer! But how to go about this. The fighting-game direction and button press system with Symphony wasn't all that great. Many found them hard to do, and often forgot about them. A subweapon mixing system like Harmony of Dissonance? Nah.... The card system of Circle of the Moon? No no, let's be more original here folks.

Well, how about we just make the player able to steal abilities from the enemies?

.........

Say what now?

Y'know, how like with the skeletons throwing their bones, or the axe armours throwing axes? Why not just let the player steal those moves?

..........

Bad idea? Okay, never min-

PROMOTIONS AND RAISES FOR YOU GOOD SIR.

Seriously, I fuckin' love the magic system of Aria of Sorrow. I have a soft spot for the experimentation and mixing of Circle of the Moon and its cards, but Aria of Sorrow took a relatively simple idea, used often in many games previously to great effect, and ran with it. They went to town here, adding a ton of fun and useful variety of spells stolen from the enemies you kill. They kept it simple, and yet with an amazing variety. They even did damn good about keeping a lot of them useful.

And, heck, why not make said magic system the central focus of the plot?

Um, this is a Castlevania game... Why do we need a plot?

DID WE NOT SET OUT TO MAKE THE BEST DAMN CASTLEVANIA EVER.

Well, yeah, but who plays Castlevania for the stor-

BEST. DAMN. CASTLEVANIA.

Though that's largely left to opinion, objectively, Aria of Sorrow, I believe, does get the most things 'right' out of all the Castlevania's. Sure, Symphony is a grand masterpiece and all, but it has a kind of clunky (to me, at least) magic system with limited usefulness (short of the game-breaking Soul Steal), plus it's very much on the easy side. The difficulty was cranked up nicely for Circle of the Moon, and Aria keeps that going with creative bosses, enemies and a 'Hard' mode to play with after you've gotten the good ending.

Oh yeah! Another great thing! Multiple endings!

Yeah yeah, Symphony of the Night is kind of the crown king for those, but they kinda fell by the wayside until Aria of Sorrow. (unless Harmony of Dissonance did them too? I don't know.) Without certain kind-of-hard-to-get souls equipped when you come to the 'final' boss, you'll get a standard ending. WITH those three important souls (books scattered through the castle give hints as to what souls they are), you're treated to more areas to play around in, a VERY fun soul that makes exploring a blast, and the TRUE final boss.

It all makes for a great package. There isn't much to fault this game.

And yet.... It's only my second favourite of the GBA Castlevania's.

Which is kinda funny, because my favourite one is based entirely on personal bias. I fully realize the faults had with it. And yet, despite all that...

Circle of the Moon is my favourite one.

Why? Personal bias. I enjoy two things most in video games: Exploration and satisfying movement. All of the Metroidvania's have exploration down very well, but only Circle of the Moon has movement that I truly enjoy. The simple ability to run makes things SO much more engaging for me.

Well, there's that, and I like the DSS card system in Circle of the Moon even more than Aria's excellent magic system. There's more of a feeling of experimentation, trial and error, and all the effects given by the Pluto card. Some are outrageous and silly and outright not useful, but they're fun.

But hey, that's my thoughts. I know that's probably what you come here for, so there ya go. Happy?

Good.

Comments
Gilgamesh
26 August, 2012 at 7:32PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Aria was fucking awesome. I also like COTM the best out of the GBA but I'm in the same boat with that mainly being some sort of personal bias. Aria's got style, it looked good, sounded great (seriously, that arrangement/mix of Don't Wait Until Night and Heart of Fire is fucking awesome) and was a blast to play. I think my main complaint is how early on the battle against Death is. Which really, isn't much of a complaint at all. Oh and well, the realm of chaos and the final boss kinda sucked... but not much.

And yeah, Harmony has 3 different endings. There's the default ending, the bad ending and the good ending. The good ending is the only one where you fight Dracula and well, it's easily the most 'guide dang it' out of the 'do this to continue' in the series.

Billy
29 August, 2012 at 4:31PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

So is this a good entry-level Metroidvania?

Swifto
29 August, 2012 at 4:58PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Define entry-level.
If you mean good for first-time Metroidvania players, then it works pretty good. Especially if you don't mind a bit of difficulty at times. (considering how many platformers you play, that shouldn't be an issue)

Billy
29 August, 2012 at 5:29PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Well I *have* beaten Super Metroid, so I'm just wondering for in general. You answered my question, though.

(There was an issue with the comment system, if you noticed, but I fixed it)

Swifto
29 August, 2012 at 10:42PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Yeah, if Aria doesn't hook your interest, chances are other Metroidvania's may not.

Though Symphony of the Night is always worth your time.

Billy
29 August, 2012 at 10:51PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I actually already have SotN on my Xbox... And yet I've barely played any of it.

Swifto
29 August, 2012 at 11:27PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Well that shit ain't gonna play itself, man.

Billy
30 August, 2012 at 08:40AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Maybe we'll play it while you're here.

Gilgamesh
30 August, 2012 at 02:20AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I don't really think SOTN is a good 'entry-level' one. For beginners (as in, knew to these games, not platforming/RPG in general) I think Aria of Sorrow or Dawn of Sorrow are the best, followed by Harmony of Dissonance. SOTN is worth playing if you enjoy the style for as while opinions may differ on the different games themselves, very few people enjoy any of them and rate SOTN low. Generally, if you like any, you'll like SOTN.

Swifto
30 August, 2012 at 10:09AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

If Billy wasn't very good at video games, I'd say he should play Symphony of the Night first just by virtue that it's the easiest of the Metroidvania's. (unless the Xbox version changes that)

But since Billy has beaten The Lost Levels, I don't think that'll be an issue.

Lazlo Falconi
31 August, 2012 at 11:58AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

wtf is a Metroidvania?

Billy
31 August, 2012 at 12:02AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Metroidvania
=P

Gilgamesh
31 August, 2012 at 8:34PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

Please refrain from using the alternate term 'Castleroid'

Swifto
31 August, 2012 at 10:00PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

ya srsly.

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