aria of sorrow is pretty darn good. I havent finished circle of the moon yet but i feel as though this is still going to end up my favourite GBA vania.

the actual story/writing in castlevania is never particularly good, the characters are always a bit one dimmensional and sometimes their lines arent translated very well, as well as general chessiness, but the concept is always very good. aria's concept is great in fact, featuring the potential reincarnation of dracula as its protagonist. It hits similar interesting beats that symphony of the night hit on. what if, instead of a belmont, you were dracula's son!? its a similar vibe but notably different, as well as the role of the belmont. This time when you fight Julius its as your friend in an incredibly hype cinematic battle. the background detail as the castle collapses during Holy Cross is still memorable to me! and finally the vibe is excellent too. despite its somewhat flat dialogue the gore and gothic flavour makes the whole game, and tbh series, fun to be in. the monster variety and blood and weapon variety is just so good.

i also think this game is the first one to have really solved the castlevania metroidvania gameplay. i like harmony of dissonance and symphony of the night but one of their biggest failings is the use of sub weapons as drops throughout the castle. what works in classicvania doesnt always work here, and Aria understands that. the soul system is great. it makes fightint every single enemy worth it, gives them all an identity and allows for a huge amount of customisation. and its a great flavour detail that the souls you need equipped to get the true ending are the ones most remeniscent of dracula. his iconic fireball attack, turning into a bat, and draining the life force of his enemies. it was cool to be like, wow, i feel like dracula right now!

the only thing really letting the gameplay down is the weapon animations. using katanas or axes or any big handed sword feels so clunky and weird. both too fast and too slow at the same time with weapons that are far too big, and have animations that just dont suit them. getting claimh solas is so easy and makes the game trivial from that point, ludicrous damage as well as a ridiculoualy huge arc on the weapon, and you can get it with a significant chunk of the game to go! bonkers. the sequel tidies this up very nicely at least. also, i love Julius Belmont, but Julius mode in aria is not great. its fun how fast he is and i love his uppercut, but by having him only powerup on killing bosses means that explorint the castle is 100% pointless. i managed to beat Julius mode in maybe under an hour? i just beelined from boss to boss because there was just no reason to do otherwise! still, another thing dawn of sorrow gets right.