The drastic change in quality from Harmony of Dissonance, in particular, came as a massive shock. Taking what worked and discarding what didn't of the previous GBA titles, Aria of Sorrow presents the leanest, most focused, and frankly best overall Castlevania experience the handled had to offer. The earlier entries had their merits and plenty, and they did well. Yet, there was always some Achilles heel that ultimately crippled the experience, hampering any future feelings to replay those titles.

Aria of Sorrow immediately struts its stuff with a more remarkable presentation than the previous titles. While Circle of the Moon still looks decent when playing on a backlit screen, Harmony of Dissonance was frankly disgusting to look at and listen to. Aria finally balances bright, readable visuals and a soundtrack that is as fantastic as its art direction. Though you no longer have a dash as overpowered as the one Juste had, Soma winds up being the most fluid-to-control protagonist of this series since Alucard in Symphony of the Night. Much of that comparison stems from the extensive leveling and equipment systems that parallel the item drops and build diversity of Symphony. Aria of Sorrow arguably gets one over on Symphony of the Night with the Tactical Soul System: an expansion of Circle of the Moon's Dual Setup System.

The DSS was a neat way to expand the limited combat offered in Circle, with the player solely sticking to a whip the entire game except for any changes the DSS would bring. Aria's systems allow for multiple weapons to switch around, as well as three different enemy souls that can provide a variety of effects. Some are direct replacements of progression upgrades from previous games, others are replicas of what was found in Circle, and others are brand new to this experience. While the DSS was neat, the number of cards that would drop didn't incentivize trying different potential builds due to the limited options. Unless you wanted to spend hours grinding for cards, you couldn't experiment with much on a first playthrough. While Aria's tangible souls are more numerous, many still have rancid drop rates, which means you're likely not seeing every ability on offer in a single playthrough. Thankfully, the sheer number of souls to obtain means there is something for everybody to roll with without considering grinding.

The other main factors of a rich Castlevania experience are map design and enemy variety, which Aria has in spades. Harmony of Dissonance was a frustrating slog through two identical castle areas to find the most essential upgrades to continue. The entire experience was teasing you with areas you couldn't explore until far later, as the pace at which progression items were handed out was miserable. Aria fixes this with a steady stream of upgrades and a structure that is hard to get lost in. In my case, I was seldom stuck and never needed to consult any walkthrough to get the true ending, unlike the ceaseless times I consulted the internet on how to finish Harmony. This is further enhanced by a great assortment of enemies and bosses that vastly differ from one another in appearance and function. The player is almost always on their toes for new and exciting enemies to experiment with and hardly has to backtrack.

Aria of Sorrow is just Symphony of the Night boiled down into a portable Super Nintendo. Complaints are, at a minimum, mainly about a crunchy-sounding soundtrack (which isn't the game's fault, more the hardware it was made for) and the fact that you're spending a lot of time scrolling around menus to test one thing, pause, then test something else. If these are the sacrifices needed to have arguably the best-paced Castleriod in the series, they are sacrifices I'm willing to have.