Aria of Sorrow is a huge step up over its two immediate predecessors - Harmony of Dissonance and Circle of the Moon - with the soul system being decently compelling, a variety of weapons to mix up the gameplay experience as you explore the castle, and for the first time since Symphony of the Night the castle and bosses actually have some personality here. The only really clear step back is that Aria is sorely lacking in regards to secret items scattered around the castle for you to collect, with what would previously have been permanent health upgrades or such being replaced instead with myriad potions. Truly nothing will make you feel so slighted for fighting your way to the end of a hidden hallway just to add another super potion to your inventory that you could have just bought from the store instead.

That said, even at its very peak I can't help but find the wave of GBA Igavanias to be weirdly lacking, and perhaps more broadly I find the Metroid half of Metroidvania to be more appealing than the Castlevania half? These portable Igavanias just feature a whole lot of fighting your way through hallways of identical enemies, lots of tedious backtracking through said hallways that leaves me wishing even a single warp point could please just be placed near a save point, using money almost exclusively to buy potions so that you can brute force your way through any boss in your path. If the Metroid side of this split read as tense, atmospheric games that ask that you pay attention to your environment, then the Castlevania side of it are power fantasies where you make the number go as high as possible and heal-tank your way through anything in your path. Aria of Sorrow is easily the best of the trio of Igavanias found on the GBA, but even then stands as a not-particularly-nourishing experience for me, sadly.

Reviewed on Sep 06, 2022


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