CASTLEVANIA MARATHON- 14/22
The Castlevania team go from a shitty game with Circle to a pretty good game with Harmony to an excellent game with Aria. The team showcase a total mastery of the GBA, producing a worthy successor to Symphony of the Night.
Aria's plot is a huge shift from everything else in the series. Dracula, who has been the main villain of the entire series thus far, is killed for good around 35 years before the game takes place. You play as Soma Cruz, a Japanese high-schooler sucked into Dracula's castle, which was sealed inside a solar eclipse. Throughout the course of the game you meet other people similarly trapped in the castle as you race to find out just what happened to Dracula's soul and powers. Spoiler: Cruz is the reincarnation of Dracula and possesses immense dark magic, with another character trying to lay claim to your power. Along the way is a scraggy amnesiac by the name of J, later revealed to be Julius Belmont- the man who killed Dracula for good. The evolution of the story from "Go kill Dracula" to Aria's larger scope is a testament to the growing ambition of the team and deserves to be commended.
Aria has a system where you take the souls of enemies who you kill to utilise as either an active attack, passive effect or summon. The grinding isn't even remotely as bad as Circle's card system and ultimately leads to a huge variety in the ways you can approach a fight.
The bosses in Aria are great- a huge step up from the bad ones in Circle and the middling ones in Harmony. Combat in general has seen an improvement now that the Metroidvanias have moved away from strutting men with whips- aside from the souls there are a ton of weapons to use and Soma feels so fluid to control.
A small mercy the game grants is no second castle. Symphony's second castle was a great twist and gave the player a lot of time to play about with all of Alucard's abilities, but Harmony's two castles felt like diminishing returns. Aria keeps it to one big castle with an excellent interconnected design and plenty of fast-travel points.
There's so much to love about Aria- it's clear at this point that Igarashi and his team get what makes a good Metroidvania, and the following efforts made by him in the same vein are all pretty solid at worst and similarly excellent at best. If it weren't for Rondo being so damn good I would have no problem calling this the second best game in the series- bronze is still a medal, I guess.
Finally, Julius Belmont is the coolest motherfucker ever. Julius Mode is just you shitstomping bosses until you feel powerful enough to go shitstomp the final boss, and fighting him as Soma is the best boss fight in the series. Watching as Julius' Grand Cross attack that opens the second phase of his fight rips apart the castle visible in the background is my single favourite moment in the entire series. It's so fucking cool, especially when paired with a badass cover of some classic music.
Next- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Previous- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
The Castlevania team go from a shitty game with Circle to a pretty good game with Harmony to an excellent game with Aria. The team showcase a total mastery of the GBA, producing a worthy successor to Symphony of the Night.
Aria's plot is a huge shift from everything else in the series. Dracula, who has been the main villain of the entire series thus far, is killed for good around 35 years before the game takes place. You play as Soma Cruz, a Japanese high-schooler sucked into Dracula's castle, which was sealed inside a solar eclipse. Throughout the course of the game you meet other people similarly trapped in the castle as you race to find out just what happened to Dracula's soul and powers. Spoiler: Cruz is the reincarnation of Dracula and possesses immense dark magic, with another character trying to lay claim to your power. Along the way is a scraggy amnesiac by the name of J, later revealed to be Julius Belmont- the man who killed Dracula for good. The evolution of the story from "Go kill Dracula" to Aria's larger scope is a testament to the growing ambition of the team and deserves to be commended.
Aria has a system where you take the souls of enemies who you kill to utilise as either an active attack, passive effect or summon. The grinding isn't even remotely as bad as Circle's card system and ultimately leads to a huge variety in the ways you can approach a fight.
The bosses in Aria are great- a huge step up from the bad ones in Circle and the middling ones in Harmony. Combat in general has seen an improvement now that the Metroidvanias have moved away from strutting men with whips- aside from the souls there are a ton of weapons to use and Soma feels so fluid to control.
A small mercy the game grants is no second castle. Symphony's second castle was a great twist and gave the player a lot of time to play about with all of Alucard's abilities, but Harmony's two castles felt like diminishing returns. Aria keeps it to one big castle with an excellent interconnected design and plenty of fast-travel points.
There's so much to love about Aria- it's clear at this point that Igarashi and his team get what makes a good Metroidvania, and the following efforts made by him in the same vein are all pretty solid at worst and similarly excellent at best. If it weren't for Rondo being so damn good I would have no problem calling this the second best game in the series- bronze is still a medal, I guess.
Finally, Julius Belmont is the coolest motherfucker ever. Julius Mode is just you shitstomping bosses until you feel powerful enough to go shitstomp the final boss, and fighting him as Soma is the best boss fight in the series. Watching as Julius' Grand Cross attack that opens the second phase of his fight rips apart the castle visible in the background is my single favourite moment in the entire series. It's so fucking cool, especially when paired with a badass cover of some classic music.
Next- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Previous- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance