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Castlevania has taken a dramatic approach at the series with the addition of
Aria of Sorrow to the GBA lineup of Castlevania games. The series is changed
dramatically with the addition of RPG elements within the game such as
experience levels, inventory, and more!
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Continuing in the 'musical' theme of the recent Castlevania games (Harmony
of Dissonance, Symphony of Night), Aria of Sorrow is a colorful new
RPG-style Castlevania. The game takes place in the year 2035, but don't
start envisioning laser-wielding skeletons or cyborg demons, Aria has stayed
true to the old theme of Castlevania games. You're still wandering through
the dark halls of Dracula's castle...only this time, the old bat is dead.
That's right, he's truly dead. You are Soma Cruz, an ordinary guy who gets
sucked into an eclipse of the sun, where you discover Dracula's castle. Now,
it seems that in the year 1999, Dracula was destroyed, and to make sure he
stays dead, the slayers put his castle in the solar eclipse, where, for some
reason, Dracula has no power. However, there is still evil in the castle...
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What I like about this Castlevania is that the story develops as you play
the game. As the extremely feminine Soma explores the castle, he will talk
to a number of people, many who will help him out, some who will not. While
the story is not edge-of-your-seat, it added flavour to what might've been a
pretty bland action-RPG. The conversation, however, is extremely poor. It
seems directly translated from the Japanese version of the game, and it's
very odd to read some of the things that these characters say. I'm not
saying it's poorly translated, I just say that just because the literal
translation is "I will be the person that will destroy you!", it wouldn't be a
bad choice to change it to "I'll kill you!". To add more to the game, there
are three different endings, two good and one bad. It all depends on how you
fight the final boss, who *gasp* isn't Dracula! Well...he kind of
isn't...but I won't give away any more. And while you aren't part of the
Belmont family, you do encounter the line of vampire hunters somewhere
within the game...
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Apparently this Soma has some pretty nifty powers. Within the game, you have
the ability to steal the souls of nearly all of the enemies, even bosses.
Each time you steal a soul, it grants you a power. There are three different
kinds of souls: yellow, blue, and red. The red souls are basically special
attacks that you execute by pressing up and attack. The yellow souls are
continuous and are often bonuses to your statistics. The blue souls are
called "Guardian" souls, and are used by pressing the R button. These souls
can do things such as turn you into a bat, give you an ability to fall
slowly, and more. There are also souls that grant you special abilities.
These souls are not found in enemies, but are often rewarded after defeating
a boss or exploring a large area. There are a total of six ability souls to
collect, and most of them aren't even required to beat the game, they just
add some fun (like the ability which allows you to skyrocket about six
screens straight up).
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The inventory system is also well implemented. Soma can equip one weapon,
one piece of armor, and one accessory. There are basically three kinds of
weapons, the kind that stab straight out, the kind that make a cutting arc,
and the close-range kind. The game designers decided to back away from the
conventional whip-weapons, and instead you use swords, daggers, and since
this is the future, guns. Yes, if you look hard enough, you can
find a 9mm pistol and a plasma rifle. The rest of the weapons are pretty
standard fare, increasing your attack, while some weapons increase other
stats as well. It's the player's choice of whether he wants a quick-attack
weapon that sacrifices strength or a slower weapon that is harder to use but
raises defense as well. The armor is much like armor in any game, raising
defense while some armor raises other stats as well. The accessories are
interesting because you can get accessories that range from a ring that
allows you to collect more souls to a cape which raises every stat by one.
The only problem is the lack of a paper-doll system. For those who don't
know, that means that when the character equips a cape, you should see a
cape trailing behind him onscreen. It's kind of disappointing to see Soma in
the same feathery jacket, black shirt, and jeans all the time. Well, I guess
even the GBA has its limits.
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The graphics in this game, like many GBA games, shine. Despite the
gloominess of Dracula's castle, the colors are bright, and objects are
distinct from the background (i.e. they don't disappear into the background).
The enemies are also quite distinct. Instead of facing a blob here and an
oddly shaped humanoid there, you can tell that this is a zombie, this is a
bat. The GBA's capabilities are used fully here, as I remember the
background for when you are atop the castle, because it's a gray, swirling
sky that almost looks three dimensional. The folks at Konami have really
done well in this department.
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This game was pretty fun. I kept playing and playing, if not to beat the
game, then to see what extra goodies I could find in every nook and cranny
of Dracula's castle. There is a map that displays how much of the entire
castle you have explored. I played a good 25+ hours and I still only
explored about 90% of it. Now, maybe that's because I played a lot of areas
over, trying to get every soul, which is another goal that someone can meet.
There is a dossier of every enemy in the game, its weaknesses, strengths,
and whether or not you have taken its soul. I just couldn't get them all.
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One of the greatest problems with the game is that it's just too easy. Maybe
that's just me, maybe I was lucky, but I couldn't find very much of the
challenge that existed in previous Castlevania games. I don't want to blame
the leveling-up feature of the game, but it's part of the reason. The game
is fun, like I said, but I wanted more. I blazed through area after area,
being defeated only by extra-strong enemies and bosses. Speaking of bosses,
they are well designed and present quite a challenge, unlike most of the
enemies in the game. Some of the enemies are just really, really, really
annoying, like the harpies that are just out of reach of your weapons. At
least there is a lot of replay value. Even when you're done with the game,
you can link up with someone else to trade souls that the two of you might
have missed.
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Well, it's a bold new step where no Castlevania has gone before. It's
succeeded. The controls are simple, the gameplay enjoyable. I will be
looking forward to more games like this.
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