After half playing through this about three times, I've finally seen it through.
Much like other Igavanias, there are sudden wild difficulty spikes that can be fairly offputting. However, I feel like there's a subtle flow to the design of Aria that even SOTN lacks - you always feel effortlessly pushed in the correct direction to progress.
There are some tedious elements regarding getting the correct enemy souls for story reasons, and some puzzles feel very esoteric and unclear. I'd honestly love to see Aria remade with Saturn/PS1 visuals and a better sound chip behind it.
The visuals and crunchy GBA audio are the only major things that let this even slightly down in 2024. Remake this with the luxury of SOTNs visuals, sound, and throw in some hammy voice acting and this would rank even higher among the best.
Much like other Igavanias, there are sudden wild difficulty spikes that can be fairly offputting. However, I feel like there's a subtle flow to the design of Aria that even SOTN lacks - you always feel effortlessly pushed in the correct direction to progress.
There are some tedious elements regarding getting the correct enemy souls for story reasons, and some puzzles feel very esoteric and unclear. I'd honestly love to see Aria remade with Saturn/PS1 visuals and a better sound chip behind it.
The visuals and crunchy GBA audio are the only major things that let this even slightly down in 2024. Remake this with the luxury of SOTNs visuals, sound, and throw in some hammy voice acting and this would rank even higher among the best.