So conflicted about this. Act 1 only being a fraction of the game annoyed me, but the narrative was so much fun to discover and get involved in. I basically shelved this game for a while during Act 2 but decided to finish it for the sake of completionism, and I'm kinda glad I did.

Part of me wishes we got a more straightforward game instead of a meta-breaking one that kept changing things up, but after all is said and done I think I can walk away from this with the narrative being worth the price of admission. It's a game with high peaks and low valleys.

I know they're just digital nazis but idc most of my family tree is missing cause of them and their ideology

AM YISRAEL CHAI GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH

on a more serious note, this is a great old-school flavored shooter with some modern tendencies still baked in (not as independent from the formula as doom 2016 but still great). my only issues are that the bj fucking anya scenes are so out of place its funny, especially when bj is doing some inner monologue stuff at the same time.

the more glaring issue is that this game's visuals and textures have not aged the best. the megatexture technology was probably really impressive at the time, but there were lots of times where lots of textures and environments would look pretty crusty. i actually love the artstyle itself, my issues with the visuals are purely technical.

bundle this and old blood together as an hd remaster in a few years or so when it starts looking REALLY shitty and i'll probably pick it up

A really good time, but shorter and simpler than SotN. This actually can end up working in AoS's favor due to trimming out a lot of the annoying stuff SotN had, but if you're a big fan of the series and are familiar with the gameplay loop, you'll find yourself really just blowing through it in around 5 hours and not getting as immersed as in SotN. I also need to say that I loved everything with Julius as a big classicvania fan, especially that last fight. I really liked Julius Mode too.

This and SotN both complete each other, but because of that there ends up not being a definitive best Igavania. SotN is dripping with atmosphere while suffering from a few gameplay snags, while Aria's gameplay is pretty much razor-sharp. Aria can struggle with atmosphere due to both the GBA's limitations in terms of screen real estate and sound processing, which sacrificed visual and auditory details that really polished up SotN's engaging gothic world.

It was fun when it came out, but I quickly lost interest when I realized that there wasn't actually much to do in the game past catching Pokemon. Even after all the updates, this game still doesn't really appeal to me because of why I love the series. I love the music, the wide range of characters you face along your journey to become the best, the new Pokemon to discover, the diverse worlds and environments that draw me in, etc. None of that is here, and if it is, it doesn't really serve a purpose that's engaging to me.

There is so much fucking content here, so I'm writing my review after finishing the Kinoko courses. I know that's bad practice, but I know it's just gonna be more of the same but harder that I'll get to eventually. I understand the game well enough by this point.

Being a successful puzzle game on a portable seems like a cheat code for developers and publishers. Tetris is Tetris on every platform, Sudoku is Sudoku on every platform, and Picross is Picross on every platform. It was always gonna be good because Picross is always good.

The only nitpick I have with the game is one QoL aspect that's missing. I wish there was an option to mark or fill in an entire row/column instead of doing it one by one, though I'm sure that's addressed in newer versions of the game. There also could've been more Mario characters, but that's really nothing. Otherwise, I can't think of much bad to say.

You'll enjoy this game as much as you enjoy Picross. I happen to really like it.