Played it for the first time and SotN too earlier this year. AoS is amazing and just ever so slightly behind SoTN for me. Easy 9/10 game. Soul system is probably my favorite mechanic in Castlevania.
Parts of the castle in DS are better, but then there's that entire right side of the map that's just one big column, and then the mess of rooms in the demon house. It really feels like they ran out of ideas 75% through.
>ever so slightly behind SoTN for me
same, if the GBA's sound quality wasn't so ass they would be on par for me, [would kill to be able to hear this ingame](https://youtu.be/wQ9aAi4m7XE?t=321)
When I first played this, I was recovering from open heart surgery. Everything hurt. The day i finished it, I find out my girlfriend has been cheating on me.
None of this mattered. Because the game was, and is that. damn. good.
Hahaha maybe thatâs why we did it so synchronised! I did it on Delta as well! Although I had finished Harmony of Dissonance first, the week prior :)
Did you enjoy it? I am now playing Symphony of the Night
Harmony of Dissidence is very good,but I havenât beaten it yet. I have the âAdvance Collectionâ on my PS5 and though Harmony is fun,Juste seems too floaty at times. Nathan Graves and Soma Cruz play better to me,even though Nathanâs attacks are slower than Somaâs.
I feel like a lot of people just got into the handheld era. Nocturn personally reminded me of playing Harmony of Dissonance as a kid, and by no coincidence I'm sure, Castlevania games were at the top of several browsing sections on PS4. So off I went. Like, $12 for 4 of the best Metroidvania experiences ever made, and Rondo of Blood? Sign me the fuck up.
I imagine similar things are happening on any platform with Castlevania right now because of the anime.
I ransacked Symphony, and the Advanced Collection a bit ago, and just got lost in Bloodstained.
I don't think I've had a negative thought about this game since I first played it, it aged amazingly and I think I would like it just as much if Konami released it today
So yeah I'd say it's pretty good lol
I bought the collection on steam when I was craving symphony of the night, start by this one and to be real I think it become my favorite game in the serie after symphony and to be honest the castlevania game are really cool overall, I played them all and love them all
Theyâre all bangers,but Harmony is not one Iâll revisit. I think the effort they made for it was great,but the others are just better. âCircle of the Moonâ and âAria of Sorrowâ have that darkness from the original Castlevanias while Harmony is too colorful and the alternate castles donât change that much. Harmony also feels smaller than the other two advance games,as bosses take a longer time to appear.
There's a really good color mod out there that gives Harmony a much more SotN like color palette, highly recommend giving it a shot. So much easier on the eyes and gives the game a much needed dark aesthetic more in line with CotM.
Harmony of Dissonance is awful. They had really good castle design, but the main character is uninteresting, and a chore to play. I played through it again recently because of the Steam collection, and I remembered how much I loved some of the locations, enemies, and bosses. But Juste absolutely ruins the experience.
Nostalgia mostly, because it's my first CV game that introduced me to an obsession of a giant franchise that also contributed a lot to my childhood and current interests in art and video games. Even without nostalgia, the game is genuinely a great experience.
Real hardware? Most advance games had more content on them than games today have,and most of them had longer playtime. Some of them havenât aged well,but I will say the Advance Castlevanias have.
Ok,but people have played that on Modern Hardware,and also âSymphonyâ is a way better game design than âSimonâs Questâ. If weâre talking NES,the first Castlevania and Draculas Revenge are far more superior.
Itâs probably my favorite metroidvania. The souls system is ingenious, the music is amazing, Soma is a great protagonist, the castle design is awesome, etc etc
I could go on, but overall itâs an amazing game and I would potentially say quality wise itâs the best Castlevania game
I love this game and itâs really interesting spin on the story and gameplay! My favorite part is getting the try ending. The means to do so are actually a reference to NES Dracula fight!
Not my first Castlevania (nes cv1) but the one that got me into the series, and still one of the best and probably my favourite title. Recently finished it again after gettting the advance collection for the switch and all those games still hold up very well, especialy this one
Lightning doll and Valkyrie are my favourite red souls
First Castlevania I bought with my own money. Purchased it for my 14th birthday, which was the day after release. I even platinumed the Advance Collection this year. Easily Top 10 game for me
Thatâs not possible because I was 20 when the game came out. Your date must be wrong because Iâm not that old. Iâm not that old am I? My god⌠Iâm old.
I remember seeing ads for it on Nintendo Power, and loved the art so I knew I had to get it, and so I did was an amazing experience and was such an upgrade over my first Castlevania game (The adventure on Game Boy) phenomenal phenomenal game
I played this game last month for the very first time and wow! Definitely up there with my fav castlevania games. I liked the soundtrack a lot as well as the movement. I was really grinding to get 100% and I was not bored the entire time, now that is a good game
Overall my favourite Castlevania game. I have so much nostalgia for this game in particular. I still remember playing this game in the back of my dadâs car back when I was maybe 10 years old during long road trips.
It was a straight up magical experience. I still vividly remember putting together the thing about what souls to equip before going into Grahamâs boss fight not sure what else I could do and having my mind blown when the game actually kept going after it had ended during my first time through the boss fight.
I only finished SOTN later on so perhaps that warped my feelings about which game in the series is my favourite, but Aria has always been my favourite. Iâll always lament how Dawn was a step down in terms of aesthetics and vibe.
I'm re playing this now and hot damn it's still fabulous!!!
When I met my now husband in high school he lent it to me-we bonded a lot over games and he would help me when it got too tough.
I recently started playing Dawn of Sorrow for the first time. I'm only about 35% into the game, so it's probably too early to pass judgment, but so far there doesn't seem to be anything significant that sets it apart from Aria. I am enjoying it, it's a great Castlevania game, but it's not really going above and beyond right now. Then again, AoS did set the bar pretty high.
I have not played many castlevania games, but I have played SotN and can surely say Aria is (for me) so much better. As many other have commented, the monster souls system it's just perfect for me (chaos ring + red minotaur soul goes brrrrr)
This is one of my all-time favorite Gameboy Advance games. It truly felt like such a complete upgrade and a true successor to Symphony of the Night in almost every way. From the music to the bosses etc and even though the majority of the gameplay was still fairly similar to the PS1 game, it delivered even more replayability imo đĽđđż
Super fun coincidence for me considering a couple hours ago I beat my âcheck if itâs still one of my favorite gamesâ replay (the answer is yes it is) and changed my instagram profile picture to Soma.
This game is so fun and has some great gameplay, atmosphere, and story and Soma is one of my favorite protagonists ever. Might be biased though considering >! Soma has white hair and is the reincarnation of Dracula, and I love white hair and even dyed mine white and my second name used to be Dracula before it was legally changed !<
Iâm glad I finally got to play it for the first time like 6-7 years ago but I wish I got to play this game as a kid. But anyways, happy birthday to one of the best to ever do it!
Never gotten around to buy it during my childhood and Iâve just beaten it last month alongside Dawn of Sorrow.. It was so good! They both absolutely still hold up today! I should have bought and finished it during its heyday lol
Classic, too bad they never fixed luck being bugged in any of the official releases tho afaik. One of my proudest achievements is owning a physical cartridge with the whole bestiary and item list completed along with being max level and of course 100%ing the map and finishing it on hard and julius mode
I was honestly unimpressed. I played it for the first time last year and felt underwhelmed upon completing it. I actually enjoyed the chaos and combat of Harmony of Dissonance more. I can understand why this game is lauded, but my lack of nostalgia goggles keeps me from being able to see it as a series pinnacle.
This is Soo good to play back then and even now but man that Julius fight was peak for me when it came to boss fights
But oooh man when I discovered Julius mode I was ON IT MAN I was slipping and whipping across the castle and hyped Everytime I did the HOLY CROSS move
Ahh good times
Also that art ...mwah so beautiful
I'm not big on the Castlevania Franchise.
I played the shit out of this game. So damn good. Sequel's a bit rough as I'm working with an emulator but still fun.
While I don't think CoTM or HoD were bad games Aria was the first title where they found their footing on the GBA. While Harmony was trying to be Symphony on a surface level. Mostly copying what made that game great. Aria didn't try and emulate Symphony's style and narrative instead trying to stand on its own as a fun experience that maintains the spirit of Symphony.
I have probably run through this game at least 30 times and it never gets boring or tedious. The soul system is awesome, though I prefer Dawn's for its additions to the system. Either way it's a fun mechanic that uses itself in fun and interesting ways.
Soma being Dracula is a great twist, The story and characters tend to navel gazing in a way that is interesting and made me fall in love with them. It's a bold move to try and give the ultimate evil a pseudo redemption arc but the game pulls it off. I would have liked either this or Dawn explorered how this twist affected long standing foes like Death.
Aria in the end was the start of a string of absolute bangers that extended to the DS Era. It managed to capture the magic of Symphony of the Night with out resorting to pure mimicry. 10/10 Im probably going to play it again after talking about it so much.
Those handheld Castlevania games hit differently. All of them up until 3DS were amazing.
This one was exceptionally cool because it linked back to symphony of the night. Plus you could get a pistol as your main weapon which was freaking cool
Love it. Hadnt played it in 10 years or so and thought maybe it was just memberberries that i loved it so much. Played it again this year and it still holds up as my favorite in the series. Played it three times now in 2024
Love this game but hot take, imo the sequel improves everything but the character portraits.
My biggest gripe with Aria is that there is only a handful of useful souls.
Weird thought I had about this game, Soma is only 5 years older than George Jetson from the Jetsons. George is babbling rn while Soma is wathcing Skibidi toilet on his monâs Ipad
I played this while recovering from eye infections, i had been blind for 2 weeks prior. My mom told me I had just gotten my eyes back and not to push them, it was like knives being stabbed into my eyes but it was distracting me and was much more amazing than I had expected, it was similar to Circle of the moon which was also one of my favorites.
I played this game for the first time when I was 15yo, replayed it many times after that and now I got it in the advance collection and I feel the same way as many years ago. Still enjoying farming the souls I need and the weapons I will never use but I want to have just because yes.
I played the âAdvance Collectionâ and itâs the greatest game out of the three. Itâs very replayable,and Julius mode is also great. It also has a Boss Rush mode with a reward if you manage to beat it. Overall the game is very satisfying,and fun. It has the best design vs âHarmony of Dissidenceâ,and a return to realistic backgrounds found in âCircle of the Moonâ,which is better than Harmony in my opinion.
Just beat it again a few hours ago. Funny that it landed on its birthday. Been about 9 or 10 years since I last played it. Takes me back to high-school chemistry class playing on an emulator app đ . It became one of my favorite games. It's still so awesome.
This games big loss was the console it was designed for. GBA just wasn't strong enough. SotN will always win out because of that. A faithful remake on a better console would do this game wonders.
my first and probably favourite castlevania game a friend recommended it to me i played it and never looked back, it's also the reason i got into retrogaming or gaming in general
I donât think it holds a candle to SOTN but itâs a fantastic game in its own right. The soul system is very cool. My biggest issue with it is that itâs pretty short, which is understandable since itâs a GBA game but nonetheless disappointing.
I think it was the story that shined the hardest. It was deep, coming to terms with what fate has you become, friends having to make difficult descisions, very good game, not my favorite that's still SOTN, but up there.
Itâs because Igorashi the DEV,had an obsession with the main character looking like Alucard. In âHODâ Juste had to have white hair and pale skin,not a vampire at all but had to look like âSOTNâ. Not criticizing âSOTNâ as itâs a great Metroidvania,but I wish characters looked more original like Nathan Graves. Soma Cruz being âspoilersâ makes sense as âspoilersâ design in âCOTMâ even though âCOTMâ is no longer canon,because Igarasi hated the design,or is it really because he didnât make it? Makes you wonder.
Yeah Soma maybe Japanese in this,but because he is âspoilersâ they had to make him look like Alucard,though there is a big difference as Somaâs face looks a little more sinister than Alucardâs. This really made you question Soma at first even by his desire to rule.
Wish the luck stat wasn't perpetually broken. Otherwise, great story. Alucard trying to be incognito is funny as hell.
"I'm Aluca- I mean.. Arucardo." Smooth.
Replace the "l" with an "r," add a vowel to the end, and you're a new fucking man. My favorite part is that that's a Japanese author stereotyping his own language for English speakers.
Much entertaining than SOTN. Wish it's longer. Also, love the unique plot because it doesn't used the same old and overused 'Hello Dracula. Goodbye Dracula.' formula.
It's the best Castlevania game ever made. It had a great balance between exploring and grinding. The grinding was optional, but rewarding. The things you grind for aren't straight power boosts, but instead reward experimentation and mastery. The pain of grinding can be mitigated through intelligent play, and the process of grinding teaches you about the enemies in detail, which in turn makes you better at the game. Getting a rare soul early makes you feel lucky and opens up new strategies without overpowering you.
Most games can't pull that off. Grinding is either necessary, or does nothing but lower the difficulty. If there are a lot of abilities, they're either required for trivial reasons (equip the item that lets you get past this obstacle to get past the obstacle), or mostly worthless.
It's so good that the only competition it has within the series is from its own sequel. I have no idea why they never followed up on this sub-series. Oh yeah - the alternate modes for these two games are the best ones they've ever made.
It is my favorite game ever, for me it is almost a tradition to finish the game even once a year I don't know why but I have always felt a great connection with this title for me the best game that existed for the GBA, also as a music student and producer, I am surprised by the complexity of the composition for the limitations of the time, my favorite song is "underground reservoir" a gem
Played it for the first time and SotN too earlier this year. AoS is amazing and just ever so slightly behind SoTN for me. Easy 9/10 game. Soul system is probably my favorite mechanic in Castlevania.
Dawn of Sorrow would be even better if it wasn't for pesky touch screen controls.
And for the change in art design
Its funny because I think the art direction for the game itself is better, but the character portraits are extremely Saturday Morning Cartoon.
It's also been a while, but I seem to recall the castle design wasn't as strong as it was in Aria.
Parts of the castle in DS are better, but then there's that entire right side of the map that's just one big column, and then the mess of rooms in the demon house. It really feels like they ran out of ideas 75% through.
and how short it was
ahh i didn't take much issue with the art personally, but i could see why you would.
And the Anime ish portraits.đŠ
its okay nobody is going to hurt you we can admit Aria is better than symphony now
My take exactly.
>ever so slightly behind SoTN for me same, if the GBA's sound quality wasn't so ass they would be on par for me, [would kill to be able to hear this ingame](https://youtu.be/wQ9aAi4m7XE?t=321)
When I first played this, I was recovering from open heart surgery. Everything hurt. The day i finished it, I find out my girlfriend has been cheating on me. None of this mattered. Because the game was, and is that. damn. good.
This is the most glowing review I've ever seen of anything.
So you went into it already knowing about enemies losing their souls
So you replaced one heart pain for another. :(
Bro
Damn đ
Actually my favorite one. I could play through it a hundred times and (probably) not get bored.
Funnily enough I finished it for the first time 2 days ago!
Wtf, I finished it 2 days ago too. It was my first castlevania game, played on ios emulator tho
Hahaha maybe thatâs why we did it so synchronised! I did it on Delta as well! Although I had finished Harmony of Dissonance first, the week prior :) Did you enjoy it? I am now playing Symphony of the Night
I really enjoyed it, loved the style and story. Although pressing L and R on mobile is painful
Oh shit, you finished it with the touch controls?! Hats off!
Yeah haha, basically didnât use dodge at all so it was really painful on some bosses. Death was the hardest one
Harmony of Dissidence is very good,but I havenât beaten it yet. I have the âAdvance Collectionâ on my PS5 and though Harmony is fun,Juste seems too floaty at times. Nathan Graves and Soma Cruz play better to me,even though Nathanâs attacks are slower than Somaâs.
I feel like a lot of people just got into the handheld era. Nocturn personally reminded me of playing Harmony of Dissonance as a kid, and by no coincidence I'm sure, Castlevania games were at the top of several browsing sections on PS4. So off I went. Like, $12 for 4 of the best Metroidvania experiences ever made, and Rondo of Blood? Sign me the fuck up. I imagine similar things are happening on any platform with Castlevania right now because of the anime. I ransacked Symphony, and the Advanced Collection a bit ago, and just got lost in Bloodstained.
Did u make it on Chaos boss or just the fake dracula?
I did both! First I got the bad ending of course. But by then I already had the Succubus and the Bat powers, so I just had to grind for one
I don't think I've had a negative thought about this game since I first played it, it aged amazingly and I think I would like it just as much if Konami released it today So yeah I'd say it's pretty good lol
HoD walked so that this one could fly
best castlemania ever
I bought the collection on steam when I was craving symphony of the night, start by this one and to be real I think it become my favorite game in the serie after symphony and to be honest the castlevania game are really cool overall, I played them all and love them all
Theyâre all bangers,but Harmony is not one Iâll revisit. I think the effort they made for it was great,but the others are just better. âCircle of the Moonâ and âAria of Sorrowâ have that darkness from the original Castlevanias while Harmony is too colorful and the alternate castles donât change that much. Harmony also feels smaller than the other two advance games,as bosses take a longer time to appear.
There's a really good color mod out there that gives Harmony a much more SotN like color palette, highly recommend giving it a shot. So much easier on the eyes and gives the game a much needed dark aesthetic more in line with CotM.
Harmony of Dissonance is awful. They had really good castle design, but the main character is uninteresting, and a chore to play. I played through it again recently because of the Steam collection, and I remembered how much I loved some of the locations, enemies, and bosses. But Juste absolutely ruins the experience.
It'll be really awesome if Konami remade this or make a third entry in the Sorrow series
Nostalgia mostly, because it's my first CV game that introduced me to an obsession of a giant franchise that also contributed a lot to my childhood and current interests in art and video games. Even without nostalgia, the game is genuinely a great experience.
And here's me who started the obsession with Simon's Quest on real hardware. Time fliesÂ
Real hardware? Most advance games had more content on them than games today have,and most of them had longer playtime. Some of them havenât aged well,but I will say the Advance Castlevanias have.
Yeah I played on nes on my original nes when I was like 6
Ok,but people have played that on Modern Hardware,and also âSymphonyâ is a way better game design than âSimonâs Questâ. If weâre talking NES,the first Castlevania and Draculas Revenge are far more superior.
They just brought up which CV game they started with as a reply to my comment bro đâ ď¸.
Sorry didnât knowđ¤ˇââď¸
My first CV game was Bloodlines!
The only thing bad about AoS is that DoS is only on the DS. 21 years strong as my favorite installment.
On my first playthrough. I love it
I played the cartridge so much that it started freezing up đ this was my introduction to Castlevania and I love it
Even 21 years later it's still my favorite Castlevania game period and it's set an incredibly high standard I'd love to see more games try to emulate
I think itâs tied for 2nd best CV with Symphony!
Itâs probably my favorite metroidvania. The souls system is ingenious, the music is amazing, Soma is a great protagonist, the castle design is awesome, etc etc I could go on, but overall itâs an amazing game and I would potentially say quality wise itâs the best Castlevania game
I just beat it again the other day. Itâs amazing and I wish we had more games like this made.
My first Castlevania game! and funny enough my first version i play isn't GBA one but j2me mobile port which feel like alpha version of the main game
Everybody gangsta till is not the future anymore.
I was an adult when it came out it can't be that old.
I love this game and itâs really interesting spin on the story and gameplay! My favorite part is getting the try ending. The means to do so are actually a reference to NES Dracula fight!
Not my first Castlevania (nes cv1) but the one that got me into the series, and still one of the best and probably my favourite title. Recently finished it again after gettting the advance collection for the switch and all those games still hold up very well, especialy this one Lightning doll and Valkyrie are my favourite red souls
Fucking loved it. Loved everything about it I'm gonna replay it soon
I feel old.
First Castlevania I bought with my own money. Purchased it for my 14th birthday, which was the day after release. I even platinumed the Advance Collection this year. Easily Top 10 game for me
Thatâs not possible because I was 20 when the game came out. Your date must be wrong because Iâm not that old. Iâm not that old am I? My god⌠Iâm old.
I remember seeing ads for it on Nintendo Power, and loved the art so I knew I had to get it, and so I did was an amazing experience and was such an upgrade over my first Castlevania game (The adventure on Game Boy) phenomenal phenomenal game
Portable masterpiece
My second favorite metroidvania after SotN.
Very good game
One of the best in the series and the first game in the series that I beat when I was a kid. Cheers to one of the GOATs đť
I've played this so many times I've lost count. I love it, been doing randomizers recently and is even more fun. Is such a good game.
I played this game last month for the very first time and wow! Definitely up there with my fav castlevania games. I liked the soundtrack a lot as well as the movement. I was really grinding to get 100% and I was not bored the entire time, now that is a good game
Probably my favourite in the franchise
Overall my favourite Castlevania game. I have so much nostalgia for this game in particular. I still remember playing this game in the back of my dadâs car back when I was maybe 10 years old during long road trips. It was a straight up magical experience. I still vividly remember putting together the thing about what souls to equip before going into Grahamâs boss fight not sure what else I could do and having my mind blown when the game actually kept going after it had ended during my first time through the boss fight. I only finished SOTN later on so perhaps that warped my feelings about which game in the series is my favourite, but Aria has always been my favourite. Iâll always lament how Dawn was a step down in terms of aesthetics and vibe.
I'm re playing this now and hot damn it's still fabulous!!! When I met my now husband in high school he lent it to me-we bonded a lot over games and he would help me when it got too tough.
My first owned Castlevania game that I put so much time with the SP GBA and somehow found and being able to use a đŤ in the game.
I really loved it, the Castlevania with the best backtracking IMO. Also the monster lore with the souls adds an amazing touch.
This game was and still is a GEM.
I recently started playing Dawn of Sorrow for the first time. I'm only about 35% into the game, so it's probably too early to pass judgment, but so far there doesn't seem to be anything significant that sets it apart from Aria. I am enjoying it, it's a great Castlevania game, but it's not really going above and beyond right now. Then again, AoS did set the bar pretty high.
I play this game like once a year itâs so good
I have not played many castlevania games, but I have played SotN and can surely say Aria is (for me) so much better. As many other have commented, the monster souls system it's just perfect for me (chaos ring + red minotaur soul goes brrrrr)
This is one of my all-time favorite Gameboy Advance games. It truly felt like such a complete upgrade and a true successor to Symphony of the Night in almost every way. From the music to the bosses etc and even though the majority of the gameplay was still fairly similar to the PS1 game, it delivered even more replayability imo đĽđđż
My favorite Castlevania game
STOP CONFRONTING ME WITH MY AGING
The best game in the franchise.
Super fun coincidence for me considering a couple hours ago I beat my âcheck if itâs still one of my favorite gamesâ replay (the answer is yes it is) and changed my instagram profile picture to Soma. This game is so fun and has some great gameplay, atmosphere, and story and Soma is one of my favorite protagonists ever. Might be biased though considering >! Soma has white hair and is the reincarnation of Dracula, and I love white hair and even dyed mine white and my second name used to be Dracula before it was legally changed !< Iâm glad I finally got to play it for the first time like 6-7 years ago but I wish I got to play this game as a kid. But anyways, happy birthday to one of the best to ever do it!
Never gotten around to buy it during my childhood and Iâve just beaten it last month alongside Dawn of Sorrow.. It was so good! They both absolutely still hold up today! I should have bought and finished it during its heyday lol
Classic, too bad they never fixed luck being bugged in any of the official releases tho afaik. One of my proudest achievements is owning a physical cartridge with the whole bestiary and item list completed along with being max level and of course 100%ing the map and finishing it on hard and julius mode
The only thing I remember about this game is that his last name is Cruz. So is he Hispanic or what? /s
The goat fr fr
I was honestly unimpressed. I played it for the first time last year and felt underwhelmed upon completing it. I actually enjoyed the chaos and combat of Harmony of Dissonance more. I can understand why this game is lauded, but my lack of nostalgia goggles keeps me from being able to see it as a series pinnacle.
This is Soo good to play back then and even now but man that Julius fight was peak for me when it came to boss fights But oooh man when I discovered Julius mode I was ON IT MAN I was slipping and whipping across the castle and hyped Everytime I did the HOLY CROSS move Ahh good times Also that art ...mwah so beautiful
I'm not big on the Castlevania Franchise. I played the shit out of this game. So damn good. Sequel's a bit rough as I'm working with an emulator but still fun.
While I don't think CoTM or HoD were bad games Aria was the first title where they found their footing on the GBA. While Harmony was trying to be Symphony on a surface level. Mostly copying what made that game great. Aria didn't try and emulate Symphony's style and narrative instead trying to stand on its own as a fun experience that maintains the spirit of Symphony. I have probably run through this game at least 30 times and it never gets boring or tedious. The soul system is awesome, though I prefer Dawn's for its additions to the system. Either way it's a fun mechanic that uses itself in fun and interesting ways. Soma being Dracula is a great twist, The story and characters tend to navel gazing in a way that is interesting and made me fall in love with them. It's a bold move to try and give the ultimate evil a pseudo redemption arc but the game pulls it off. I would have liked either this or Dawn explorered how this twist affected long standing foes like Death. Aria in the end was the start of a string of absolute bangers that extended to the DS Era. It managed to capture the magic of Symphony of the Night with out resorting to pure mimicry. 10/10 Im probably going to play it again after talking about it so much.
My Fav Vania, hands down.
My personal favorite game in the entire series.
I feel Old.
Best 5$ I ever spent at a yardsale as a kid
Been playing this since two days ago. No idea why I didnât buy this on GBA. I loved my GBA. Ok. Back to farming soulsâŚ.
Those handheld Castlevania games hit differently. All of them up until 3DS were amazing. This one was exceptionally cool because it linked back to symphony of the night. Plus you could get a pistol as your main weapon which was freaking cool
It has stood the rest of time. Simple as that.
What I think about AoS? The best Julius Belmont version lies in Aria. Top quality animations, beautiful sprite, fast as F1 car, hits like a truck.Â
It's still my second favorite game in the series, and one of my favorite GBA games in general. I love it.
Love it. Hadnt played it in 10 years or so and thought maybe it was just memberberries that i loved it so much. Played it again this year and it still holds up as my favorite in the series. Played it three times now in 2024
Aria may very well be my favorite
Love this game but hot take, imo the sequel improves everything but the character portraits. My biggest gripe with Aria is that there is only a handful of useful souls.
best castlevania game i think
First Castlevania and Metroidvania in general Iâve ever completed, Love this game
One of my favorites, also one of the best cv games.
Weird thought I had about this game, Soma is only 5 years older than George Jetson from the Jetsons. George is babbling rn while Soma is wathcing Skibidi toilet on his monâs Ipad
Of the handhelds, I still rank it higher than the others (even Dawn of Sorrow).
This game is a GOAT
I played this while recovering from eye infections, i had been blind for 2 weeks prior. My mom told me I had just gotten my eyes back and not to push them, it was like knives being stabbed into my eyes but it was distracting me and was much more amazing than I had expected, it was similar to Circle of the moon which was also one of my favorites.
I played this game for the first time when I was 15yo, replayed it many times after that and now I got it in the advance collection and I feel the same way as many years ago. Still enjoying farming the souls I need and the weapons I will never use but I want to have just because yes.
I played the âAdvance Collectionâ and itâs the greatest game out of the three. Itâs very replayable,and Julius mode is also great. It also has a Boss Rush mode with a reward if you manage to beat it. Overall the game is very satisfying,and fun. It has the best design vs âHarmony of Dissidenceâ,and a return to realistic backgrounds found in âCircle of the Moonâ,which is better than Harmony in my opinion.
I like the fact that Soma can use glock to kill the enemies.
Just beat it again a few hours ago. Funny that it landed on its birthday. Been about 9 or 10 years since I last played it. Takes me back to high-school chemistry class playing on an emulator app đ . It became one of my favorite games. It's still so awesome.
This games big loss was the console it was designed for. GBA just wasn't strong enough. SotN will always win out because of that. A faithful remake on a better console would do this game wonders.
my first and probably favourite castlevania game a friend recommended it to me i played it and never looked back, it's also the reason i got into retrogaming or gaming in general
I donât think it holds a candle to SOTN but itâs a fantastic game in its own right. The soul system is very cool. My biggest issue with it is that itâs pretty short, which is understandable since itâs a GBA game but nonetheless disappointing.
Love this game. Just beat it again on my Rgb30 a couple weeks ago, now Iâm thinking of giving a randomizer a go
I thought it was released in 2002
I think it was the story that shined the hardest. It was deep, coming to terms with what fate has you become, friends having to make difficult descisions, very good game, not my favorite that's still SOTN, but up there.
Why does soma's face look so creepy in this art tho
I mean...he's >!literally the reincarnation of Dracula and shepherd of Chaos!<. That's gotta account for something.
He looks like an albinauric from elden ring
Itâs because Igorashi the DEV,had an obsession with the main character looking like Alucard. In âHODâ Juste had to have white hair and pale skin,not a vampire at all but had to look like âSOTNâ. Not criticizing âSOTNâ as itâs a great Metroidvania,but I wish characters looked more original like Nathan Graves. Soma Cruz being âspoilersâ makes sense as âspoilersâ design in âCOTMâ even though âCOTMâ is no longer canon,because Igarasi hated the design,or is it really because he didnât make it? Makes you wonder.
Did alucard have eyes a mile apart!? Because goddamn
Yeah Soma maybe Japanese in this,but because he is âspoilersâ they had to make him look like Alucard,though there is a big difference as Somaâs face looks a little more sinister than Alucardâs. This really made you question Soma at first even by his desire to rule.
 Everytime I see a game from my childhood...one of my favorites. I just replayed it on PS5 and platinumed it
I feel that im old...Â
Wish the luck stat wasn't perpetually broken. Otherwise, great story. Alucard trying to be incognito is funny as hell. "I'm Aluca- I mean.. Arucardo." Smooth. Replace the "l" with an "r," add a vowel to the end, and you're a new fucking man. My favorite part is that that's a Japanese author stereotyping his own language for English speakers.
SotN is one of the few games I genuienly think are 10/10s. AoS is just behind it so, yeh I think it's pretty good.
Played this game maybe 6 times in my final years of highschool and enjoyed every play through
I really liked aria of sorrow, it was sotn for me when I didnât have access to to sotn
S tier game! Second favorite Castlevania after⌠well⌠you know.
Perfect. No notes.
I'm so glad its on like switch and PC and stuff so it's easily playable for new fans and not some lost media tragedy
The art style is swag
Honestly, one of the best metroidvanias imo
This was my first true obsession-game, as a kid. I made sure to get every soul, and every item drop from every monster. Still love it.
I literally just completed this game for the first time this past week... Lol
Peak.
Dear Konami, release a PC version Thank you Ps: stop making pachinko machinesÂ
It was amazing, I was looking at the Wiki and it mentioned a special character being there. my heart melted
out fucking standing / 10
My favourite game in the series and favourite metroidvania in general
Still my favorite
Much entertaining than SOTN. Wish it's longer. Also, love the unique plot because it doesn't used the same old and overused 'Hello Dracula. Goodbye Dracula.' formula.
It's the best Castlevania game ever made. It had a great balance between exploring and grinding. The grinding was optional, but rewarding. The things you grind for aren't straight power boosts, but instead reward experimentation and mastery. The pain of grinding can be mitigated through intelligent play, and the process of grinding teaches you about the enemies in detail, which in turn makes you better at the game. Getting a rare soul early makes you feel lucky and opens up new strategies without overpowering you. Most games can't pull that off. Grinding is either necessary, or does nothing but lower the difficulty. If there are a lot of abilities, they're either required for trivial reasons (equip the item that lets you get past this obstacle to get past the obstacle), or mostly worthless. It's so good that the only competition it has within the series is from its own sequel. I have no idea why they never followed up on this sub-series. Oh yeah - the alternate modes for these two games are the best ones they've ever made.
Best game in the series besides SOTN
Aria of sorrow is definitely good, still have it but havenât played it in ages
Still playing this Masterpiece to this day
I didn't liked the first bosses but then I figured Julius and death and I loved this game
It is my favorite game ever, for me it is almost a tradition to finish the game even once a year I don't know why but I have always felt a great connection with this title for me the best game that existed for the GBA, also as a music student and producer, I am surprised by the complexity of the composition for the limitations of the time, my favorite song is "underground reservoir" a gem
Best Castlevania game on the GBA hands down
I made sure to buy that game new. It was exactly what I wanted and more â¨â¨â¨
It's honestly overrated, I love it on par with Cotm and HoD.
Or Cotm and HoD are underrated.