Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

aka: CV: AoS, Castlevania: Akatsuki no Minuet
Moby ID: 9237
Game Boy Advance Specs
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Description official descriptions

Normally a solar eclipse isn't a dangerous event, but for Soma Cruz, being sucked through a portal and into Dracula's castle during one will turn his day into a total nightmare. As Soma, you must venture through the castle and find a way out. As you do so, you will discover the true meaning behind the event, and why Dracula has risen yet again.

Although set in the future, all of the weapons and hazards are the same or similar to those seen in past Castlevania titles. Soma can find or buy weapons of all types such as swords, spears, and axes. Through his mysterious power of Dominance Soma can take the souls of his enemies and use their powers as his own, providing passive stat boosts, powerful magic, or even summoning them forth to fight on his behalf. Dracula's castle is a single continuous building, and as Soma's power of Dominance grows and he acquires more monster souls to power abilities he can bypass obstacles that were previously insurmountable. Players can link up with a friend's copy of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow to trade souls between them.

Spellings

  • キャッスルヴァニア ~暁月の円舞曲~ - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Game Boy Advance version)

94 People (57 developers, 37 thanks) · View all

Producer
Director
Chief Programmer
System & Player Programmer
Enemy Programmer
Map Programmer
Demo & Event Programmer
Chief Designer
Player & Weapon Designer
Enemy Designer
Map Designer
Scenario Writer
Character Design & Illustrations
Sound Director
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Sound Effects
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 53 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 85 ratings with 5 reviews)

The definitive Castlevania for the GBA

The Good
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is the best Castlevania game for the Game Boy Advance system. Harmony of Dissonance, the second of the series for the GBA, was worse than Circle of the Moon, but it had some good features that this game keeps. So, we can define Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as the game that has the best thing from the two previous games released for the GBA.

Castlevania has nothing new on its gameplay. Now we can move our character in the air as we did before in Circle of the Moon. The essence of the game is still the same, explore the whole castle looking for secret areas (now the breakable walls are back!), collect valuable objects, complete your monster encyclopedia and rise up some levels before fighting the big bosses (as big as always).

For the first time you have no sub-weapons on your side. Those sub-weapons have been replaced by red souls (most of the classic sub-weapons of the series like the axe or knife are available as souls too), so, hearts will give you just some mana points and nothing more. In Harmony of Dissonance, hearts were useless but here they are really important.

Talking about souls, you have three types of them, the red souls that could be used as sub-weapons/special moves, the blue souls which are like special moves that will use a lot of mana (things like flying as a bat or become a monster to make more damage) and the yellow ones, which are special powers that will be always active and they don't need mana (strength up, lucky up...). This soul system really suits the game, and soon you'll start collecting all the souls, really far from the annoying DSS of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and the "strange" book system of Harmony of Dissonance.

Here we don't have two castles, just one big castle and (that's a new thing) many different characters. There are many save points during the game, much more than in the previous Castlevania games but it's not easy to progress. As in the previous games, different endings are available according to what you do during your adventure and it's recommend to reach both of them (at least, the good one).

Many different weapons are available, you have handy knifes, spears, swords, hammers... each weapon has different effects and some of them are perfect for certain moments. You'll see your equipped weapon when you use it against your enemies, that means that we don't have generic graphics for weapons, every weapon has a different one.

Harmony of Dissonance had bigger sprites, but graphics were worse than the graphics for Aria of Sorrow. Now the graphics are well-balanced and we don't have that strange blue aura on our main character. Something's similar with the sound, the music for Aria of Sorrow is perfect, as a game with this name deserves.

The Bad
The L button is useless. Harmony of Dissonance featured a new gameplay system in which you need to master your skill using the L and the R button to evade attacks, but in this game only the L Button remains and it's really useless. You don't need to use it to finish the game.

As happened before, to collect every item and every soul is something boring or tedious because sometimes you need to kill the same enemy over 50 times to get the item or soul. If you're one of those players who need to collect and complete the monster encyclopedia you'll need a lot of time and patience. Of course there are some items that will increase your luck, but it's not enough and sometimes is frustrating.

Boss Rush Mode appeared for the first time on Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and it was a nice mode to increase game's length. Here you have the same mode, but it'll take a bit to finish it and the game has no more game modes. That's just because Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has much more big bosses.

Story is boring until you reach the end. The storyline is really depth less. Dialogues are annoying and senseless as well, but once you know how to enter the Chaos Realm it becomes more interesting and the special ending improves this weak point.

The Bottom Line
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has the best things of the previous games and it's the definitive Castlevania game for the Game Boy Advance. It has some weak points, but it's probably the best action-platform game for the GBA. Many different weapons, special powers, enemies, big bosses and hours of gameplay make this game an essential one.

Game Boy Advance · by NeoJ (398) · 2009

Absolutely fantastic game. One of my all-time favorites.

The Good
Where do I start? Okay, a bit of the story...

It's the year 2035. A transfer student by the name of Soma Cruz and his childhood friend Mina Hakuba are, during a solar eclipse, on their way to the Hakuba shrine. Something weird happens; they are drawn into the eclipse, and end up at a mysterious castle, where they meet a man by the name of Genya Arikado (straight-forward, eh?). Genya informs them that the castle they just arrived in is that of Dracula, a vicious vampire who has been the target of several vampire hunters for centuries. Some moments later, a group of monsters appear, and Genya manages to fend them off -- but one of their souls were pulled into Soma, as if by some magnetic force. As explained by Genya, this is the awakening of Soma's "power of dominance", an ability to collect souls in order to gain abilities (essentially permanent power-ups). And that's where our adventure begins. I don't want to spoil anything, so let's move on to gameplay mechanics and the like, shall we? I do want to add that it has some interesting twists, and it's worth playing through to have the whole story unfold in front of you.

This game has the classic "Castlevania adventure"-type gameplay, as pioneered by Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and mastered by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (which apparently will remain the mold for future Castlevania titles). What can I say? I love this type of gameplay. Sidescrolling action-adventure is absolutely awesome, and with the ability to level up, all the customization abilities (souls, equipment, weapons), yeah... It's one of the most complete games I've played. Totally my thing. Have you not played previous Castlevania titles like this, or perhaps not even the Metroid games, then the basic gameplay is as follows: you are limited to a certain area of the castle until you find a new ability to jump higher (and reach high platforms), slide, walk on water, walk under water... or perhaps until you simply find a key. The feeling you get is ever as rewarding, and it motivates you to keep on playing. However, the downside is, of course, that you can hit walls several times throughout your playthrough. I know I did. I know I stopped playing the game for weeks multiple times, before deciding to pick it up again and get past a certain part. (I was unaware of guides, it seems.)

One of the game's biggest features are the souls, which I mentioned earlier (when I talked about customization). The game is more or less centered around this system, and it's, as mentioned earlier, closely tied-in with the story. It adds quite a lot of depth. Here's how it works: When you kill an enemy, you have a chance of obtaining its soul. These souls are equippable. There are 3 different soul types, and you can have one of each equipped at the same time; yellow, blue, and red. The yellow types are sort of passive abilities (always activate, drains no MP), like walking on water, increasing stats, getting stronger when poisoned, etc. The blue type of souls are like skills. They drain a certain amount of MP, and they do things like letting you fly, glide, create a barrier, summon an imp (!) which follows you around and protects you against enemies, etc. The red type is an attack variant. Have you played any of the early Castlevania games? Remember how you had things like axes and crosses, which you consumed hearts to use? Well, it's a bit like that, only these drain MP instead of hearts... and they're permanent, of course. Some souls even let you temporarily transform, which is cool. As I also mentioned, you have armor and weapons, like you do in any RPG. And it works pretty much the same as in all of those games... The types of equipment are divided into Hand, Body, and Accessory; Hand is obviously for weapons, Body is for armor, and Accessory is for... accessories. All do various changes to stats. Some weapons do more damage to certain enemy types, some accessories give you more resistance against magic or elements or so. As you would expect... Nevertheless, there's hundreds of different equipments, hundreds of different souls. There's plenty of depth here... especially considering it's a Castlevania game. :) There's also the Abilities, as they are so simply called. These add zero depth, however. Most only allow you to progress in the game, like the double jump Ability.

The boss battles are also amazing, but can occasionally get frustrating. Although, here's the thing; the game has RPG elements (to the point where it has leveling up, at least), so grinding does wonders. If not that, buy some potions... ;) The music is wonderful, and the soundtrack includes several catchy tunes. It's hard to explain how music sounds, though, so think I'll leave that to you... But in a nutshell, it's typical Castlevania-ish; sort of a midi symphony thing. And it's awesome. Sound effects aren't bad, either. As for the graphics, they are far, far better than those of Circle of the Moon, and they look a bit more realistic (as if that's important) than the graphics in Harmony of Icantspellitsname. They are what they need to be. They fit perfectly. Not cheap, not half-arsed. Just perfect. Like previous Castlevania titles of the same "type", this one also has a comprehensive... lexicon of enemies. You can display weaknesses, you can, obviously, look at the enemies. It lists their levels, etc...the stats you need to know. That is, provided you have battled them once already. As for characters, the game doesn't really include many, but they're all interesting. I really like the game's protagonist, Soma Cruz (even though he's a bit "emo"). Very memorable.

Hm, I guess I've covered most of it already, hm? Oh! You can actually get GUNS in this one. That encourages exploration. Farming lead is awesome, and you know it.

The Bad
Other than the fact that I probably tried beating the last boss like 20 times before I finally got him, which got really frustrating to say the least (I solved the issue by buying potions. Heh.), I didn't REALLY dislike anything about this game. However, there were a few things I could do without.

One of the lines before the last boss were cheesy as hell. Another thing that I feel I need to address, is that this one lacks one of the neat features of the last installment (Harmony of Icantspellitsname); that one decorable room, which encourages the player to explore more than they already had to find more decorations, like chairs and statues. But that's not a huge problem, exactly.

It's also pretty short. I finished it in about 10 hours, though it felt like longer. Well, it probably WAS longer. I often did die and had to replay parts (especially bosses)... Still, one can surely finish it in one sitting, provided you know what to do. Definitely.

The Bottom Line
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a wonderful title, more-than-worthy of the Castlevania name. It's the best of the series, in my opinion, counting games before and after it (that I have played). A real gem. I can't really say a single bad thing about it. It's near-perfection, and my fascination hasn't worn off since I got it like 3-4 years ago (even if I, admittedly, do not play it often).

The fact that I got this and Harmony of Icantspellitsname (Castlevania Double Pack) for about 30 bucks was, to say the least, a real bargain. I had no idea such an epic adventure would await me. And I still have yet to beat Harmony of Dissonance (I could spell it, after all).

This also marks my longest review ever written. That alone should show how much I love this game.

If you get a chance of getting it, do not hesitate! It's a very fun game and might just have the most depth of any Castlevania game to date.

Game Boy Advance · by Simoneer (29) · 2017

Just as good as Castlevania games gets

The Good
I haven't played any Castlevania games that came out after Super Castlevania IV, so I really didn't know how they were at all. I found a used copy of Castlevania : Aria of Sorrow, and a friend told me that it was very good, so I picked it up. I was quite surprised that this game is really not much like Castlevania games I've played on the NES and Super NES, except that's it's a platformer and that it's a very good game.

The gameplay of this game is fantastic. You can level up and equip different weapons like you can in action RPGs, effectively making this game an platformer-RPG. I've tried many platformer-RPG games on the NES, including Faxanadu, Zelda II : The Adventure of Link, The Battle of Olympus, and of course Castlevania II : Simon's Quest. However all of them make me feel lost after 5-10 minutes of gameplay and as following a walkthrough isn't really fun, I've assumed the platformer-RPG genre was just not a good formula. Fortunately, Castlevania : Aria of Sorrow proved me the exact opposite.

Controls are easy and responsive, playing this game is just as fun as playing any other platformer (as opposed to games mentioned above). You can equip weapons with different response speed and range, allowing you a wide range of strategy against you opponents. Is it better to equip a slow weapon but that is powerful or to equip a weaker and more short-ranger, but much faster weapon ? Also, each enemy in the game has a low probability to release a soul when defeated. You are then able to equip 3 different kind of souls, attack, support and "implicit" souls at a time. Collecting them will allow you to use enemie's attack against other enemies, which is cool, and allow you to perform a very wide range of various moves. In order to progress the story, you must find special abilities which will for example allow you to jump higher in order to access new areas, etc...

You take the control of a guy named Soma Cruz that is the weirdest hero ever. He looks like a girl, have a weird name and looks more like a bad guy than a hero. Although he's the protagonist of this game, he's not a Belmont clan guy by the way. The game happens in September 2035 and you are teleported in the inside of a solar eclipse (in fact a solar eclipse is actually predicted in Japan for that date), inside the castle of Dracula (don't ask me what it does inside of an eclipse). You only goal is to exit. Of course there isn't a story as developed as in true RPGs, but it's definitely a decently developed story for a platformer.

The graphics of the game are really among the best I've seen on the GBA. Sprites are very detailed and animated, you can see the cape of the main character flowing into the wind. There is a lot of transparency effects, and background is very detailed. It basically proof that 2D doesn't mean outdated graphics.

The music of the game is excellent and varied, sometimes upbeat/fast-paced and sometimes slow and melancholic. Each level have a music that suits it well. Unlike the majority of GBA games, sound effects are very well done as well. You get some voice acting (in Japanese) from enemies and you can really hear the bones of your enemies falling apart when you defeat them. The protagonist also randomly hurls when attacking which sounds great. It's one of the rare GBA games that made full use of the sound hardware.

Finally the difficulty is just right, the game really isn't hard but when entering a new harder area you'll probably loose a couple of times before finding the first save point where you can recover. After that you can just level up if you have trouble, so the game isn't really hard, but it's not too easy either. You can carry healing items and use them during boss fight if you want, but sometimes you'll be saying "I'll retry to beat that boss this time conserving healing items for when I'll really need them". You can unlock an "oldscool mode" where you play as another protagonist which this time have the classical whip, cross, axe and holy water as weapons, and where you get rid of the story scenes and RPG elements of the game (levels, items, etc...). You still don't have the crappy jump control of NES Castlevania games, fortunately.



The Bad
The only thing I can possibly think is that the game is a bit short. After beating the game normally you can unlock new modes, but still beating the whole game in all modes adds up to 12-15 hours in total even if you level up a lot and try to discover each tiny corner of the game, which is quite short by modern standards.

The Bottom Line
This game has excellent gameplay, graphics and sound, and proves that the platformer-RPG genre isn't doomed to crap anymore. While a lot different from Castlevania games I've played on my old Nintendo consoles, it's still just as good as it was. Super Castlevania IV is still my favourite of the series tough. So if you have been playing classic Castlevania games and are curious to play a modern Castlevania game for your little GBA you're looking to the right place. If you have missed the classic games of course I still recommend to play this, but you're still missing something.

Game Boy Advance · by Bregalad (937) · 2008

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Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Game Boy Advance version of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – #4 Game Boy Advance Game of the Year

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. J2ME added by chirinea.

Additional contributors: Apogee IV, Guy Chapman, Exodia85, Dae, LordRM, Trypticon, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added May 20, 2003. Last modified March 3, 2024.