Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a 2003 video game developed by Konami. It was the third installment of the Castlevania series for the Game Boy Advance. Producer Koji Igarashi who led the production teams for previous Castlevania titles led the development of this game too. Michiru Yamane returned to compose the music for the game alongside Takashi Yoshida and Soshiro Hokkai. Director Junichi Murakami was new to the Castlevania series.

Plot
Taking place in the year 2035 in Japan, crowds of spectators are gathering around in anticipation of the first full solar eclipse of the twenty-first century. The game tells the story of Soma Cruz who is a high school student studying in Japan. He has a unique ability called the "power of dominance" which allows him to absorb the souls of monsters and use their abilities. One day during the solar eclipse, he visits his friend Mina Hakuba yet both got drawn to the eclipse thus going into a mysterious castle. They meet a government agent named Genya Arikado who tells Soma and Mini that they entered Dracula's castle. After a group of monsters appear and are dispatched by Arikado, one of the monsters' souls is absorbed by Soma. Arikado explains this as the awakening of Soma's "power of dominance". Arikado then directs Soma to enter the castle and seek "the master's chamber".

Why It's Soulful

 * 1) Unlike most Castlevania games, Soma Cruz is not depicted as a typical vampire hunting practitioner. Instead, he's depicted as a simple high school student who gets sucked into all of the events thus being the main character. This can serve as a new breath of fresh air for the franchise.
 * 2) The gameplay here takes a page from Symphony of the Night where it's depicted to be an action role-playing game. You see, Soma's fighting style is reminiscent of that of Alucard only with some differences.
 * 3) Aria manages to introduce a new mechanic called the Tactical Soul System. Each of the 110 enemies in the game may provide a unique soul upon their defeat, depending on the player's luck. Once collected, souls may be equipped, granting new abilities. You would often get new souls randomly and there are only four main types of souls.
 * 4) *Bullet Souls - These souls are basically sub-weapon-like souls that can be used to attack. Some of these souls can give you stuff like throwing bones, firing a water pistol, using enchanted arrows, attacking enemies' underwaters, using hand grenades, throwing boulders, summoning a lethal cat, using a web, slinging hot curry, summoning eagles, etc.
 * 5) *Guardian souls - They provide some defensive abilities. Some include levitation, turning into a bat, creating a wall of flame, summoning a protective barrier, guarding against enemies, stopping in mid-air, absorbing HP, transforming into a demon, etc.
 * 6) *Enchanted souls - These souls often give Soma some new latent abilities like walking on the water surface, diving into the water, deflecting normal attacks, identifying breakable walls, eating some odd things, and buying goods at a cheap price, becoming stronger when poisoned, etc.
 * 7) *Ability souls - This is pretty much like in the Metroid games. You get the always-on abilities like double jumping and sliding. These are generally obtained from bosses.
 * 8) If you were to link a second GBA, you can trade the souls with the other player. Some may want some souls more than you do so pick the souls wisely.
 * 9) Completing the game can unlock some different modes. You would need to input a new name in an empty slot. These names are as follows
 * 10) *Typing in Julius will allow you to play as Julius Belmont who comes equipped with a whip and his own sub-weapons just like your typical Belmont.
 * 11) *NOUSE will let the player play the game with item restriction
 * 12) *NOSOUL will let the player play the game with soul restriction.
 * 13) There are a lot of items to get to add to your inventory. These include magical items and weapons. Some weapons include a handgun, a bamboo sword, a kaiser knuckle, a bastard sword, a whip sword, a trident, a hammer, a sword in the stone, the Death's Sickle, etc. And what about the weapons? Well, the weapons can give you some options to attack your enemies no matter if it's ranged or close combat.
 * 14) *You can also equip yourself with different armors like gym clothes, war fatigues, samurai armor, ninja suits, soldier uniforms, Death's robe, Dracula's tunic, etc. There are also goods to use as well like using rings and capes.
 * 15) For a GBA game, the voice acting may be limited but it's still good in quality. They just appear to be just simple Japanese words but are still effective to listen to. This goes to show you that the GBA can still have some solid voice work.
 * 16) A great premise that puts you in the shoes of Soma Cruz. While the beginning of the game does not have a whole lot of backstory, you get to learn more about the story when you explore the castle and meet several other people. The storyline is a story about self-discovery and combines some major historical revelations for the Castlevania series as a whole.
 * 17) *Some prominent elements have been seen in the world of Castlevania way before this game takes place. You will learn about it through the people you meet. It's a good thing that this game takes place in 2035 thus adding a lot of lore and contemporary attire to the characters. The setting is quite unique to Castlevania because it's not taking place in medieval times.
 * 18) *Graham Jones is a well-writen antagonist. He was born in 1999 on the same day Dracula was destroyed. He has gone to the point where he believes he's a reincarnation of Dracula. He may not seem like an anybody until you realize his true nature
 * 19) Since this is an action RPG at heart, Soma has some stats that do something. By going on your journey, Soma can level up and become stronger as the game goes on.
 * 20) The graphics are really cool and it's all in GBA glory. The details and character designs are so well done with animations being very smooth.
 * 21) As expected from something out of Castlevania, it does have that soundtrack that is packed with some great tunes like Castle Corridor, Floating Garden, Underground Reservoir, The Arena, Hammer's Shop, Last Battle, and Heart of Fire. Some are quite calming (Study and Inner Quarters) while others are atmospheric (like Underground Reservoir and You're Not Alone).
 * 22) The controls are quite smooth to use. Just using them makes you quite useful and perhaps powerful depending on your upgrades.
 * 23) Boss rush makes a return from Harmony of Dissonance. You can unlock it if you have the best ending just simply by using the Flame Demon, Giant Bat, and Succubus souls when dealing the last blow to Graham's first form and then entering the Chaotic Realm. If you want to play as Julius in this mode, you need to complete Julius mode first. Finishing this mode in less than a certain number of minutes will allow playing to obtain some powerful weapons for Soma's current save the file. They consist of Valmanway, Positron Rifle, Excalibur, and a Potion. For Julius, he would just get a Potion.
 * 24) There is good replay value. You can choose to play new games plus, hard, modes, and modes that disable items or souls as mentioned before. You can still find some new items in hard mode while the new game plus can give you your upgrades on your journey. Heck, each replay value puts a spice of life into the game due to you finding more souls compared to what you would originally get.
 * 25) One of the best moments of the game happens to be a major plot twist near the end which surprised many long-time fans of the series. Many fans have considered the plot twist and the setting to be innovative for the series. You see, if you beat Graham with the Flame Demon, Giant Bat, and Succubus souls, Soma ends up having all of Graham's powers thus becoming an incarnation of Dracula. This unlocks the Black Panther soul and the Chaotic Realm level (you will need the Ancient Books too). And after the Chaotic Realm, you get the final boss called Chaos who represents the root of all chaotic things.
 * 26) Multiple endings depending on your actions. Three are for Soma which ranges from bad to good while one is for Julius.
 * 27) At one point depending on your actions, you might get to fight Julius Belmont due to Soma having Graham's power. This shows a lot of drama between them.
 * 28) Good use of level design. Most of the levels have such challenges and variety to them like some being underwater while others taking place outside.
 * 29) The side characters have been given much more depth this time around. Previous games ignored the development of the supporting characters in exchange for letting the main character get the spotlight most of the time. In this game, the side characters have more depth. Mina Hakuba is the friendly best friend of Soma, Yoko Belnades is the nosy descendant of a long line of witches who were sent to investigate the prophecy of Dracula's resurrection, Genya Arikado is the cold man, Julius is the last known descendant of the Belmont Clan, and Hammer is a soldier who wants to retire from the army and open up his own business. There's a short summary for them.
 * 30) Overall this serves as an improvement to the previous GBA Castlevania games due to their mixed reviews. You see, the gameplay is much more balanced and clean compared to its predecessors.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Though intentional, there are places that are deeply found in the game that can be tough and challenging due to some enemies being aggressive. In fact, you would need some upgrades to get through certain obstacles including the enemies.
 * 2) Getting souls are pretty randomized meaning that you would need to wait until you get the soul to get whatever soul you need. For instance, imagine having to go to a part of the castle where you need to go underwater yet you don't have that soul. If you really want to get all of the souls, it is a nightmare to go through.
 * 3) Saving the game can be quite hectic. Depending on where you at, having to go to a safe room can be tedious especially when you are too far from the room. You would need to find the nearest safe room.
 * 4) The level design can be a bit boring as they are mostly just long hallways and platforming jumping.
 * 5) Even though this game takes place in 2035, the castle itself doesn't feel like it came from that era.
 * 6) It uses little visual contrast in the backgrounds similar to that of Harmony of Dissonance. Despite this, there are some beautiful and colorful backgrounds still.
 * 7) While the music is good atmospheric and quality-wise, it's also a bit forgettable due to certain songs.

Reception
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has gotten critical acclaim from both critics and players. Many reviewers have considered the game to be the best game of the series next to Symphony of the Night. Metacritic gave the game universal acclaim thus having a 91/100, 1Up.com gave the game a B+, RPGFan gave the game a 90/100, RPGamer gave the game 4.5/5 stars, and Famitsu gave the game a 36/40. It was rated by Nintendo Power as the 22nd best game made on a Nintendo System in their Top 200 Games list. Believe it or not, this game was sold much more successfully in the United States and reviewers called the game the most definitive Castlevania game for the Game Boy Advance.

Trivia

 * This is the only GBA game where Death does not have an alternate form for his second phase (not counting the Classic NES Series port for the original Castlevania).
 * On a similar note, it is also the only GBA game to actually take place at Dracula's Castle (again, not counting the Classic NES Series port for the original game), as the prior games dealt with similar castles owned by the main antagonists.
 * The game's intro states that people were gathering around to see the world's first total solar eclipse of the 21st Century when that statement is actually false. The first total solar eclipse of the 21st Century occurred on June 21, 2001, as it began off the coast of Uruguay and across the Southern Atlantic Ocean, and through Southern Africa and Madagascar. The people in Africa would be the first people to see the 21st Century's first total solar eclipse.
 * Though the game is correct about a Total Solar Eclipse occurring in Japan (which will be on September 1-2, 2035) the Eclipse itself will come from the Northwest, not from the Southeast as depicted in the game.
 * The name Soma means "body" in Greek, which may refer to the fact that he can be considered as a receptacle for the souls he absorbs, and thus justify the fact that he holds the Power of Dominance. ​Soma also means "The nectar of immortality" in Sanskrit, which can be a hint to the fact that the soul of Dracula inside him is immortal. It is also worth mentioning that the name Soma is sometimes connected with Chandra, the Hindu moon god. His last name is somewhat of a pun, Cruz is the Spanish and Portuguese word for "cross", which is commonly used against vampires in fiction.
 * His Japanese name is Kurusu Sōma (来須蒼真); Sōma is his given name. The kanji that compose his name mean, in order:
 * "come/next" (kuru)
 * "by all means" (su)
 * "pale/blue" (sō)
 * "truth/reality" (ma)
 * According to an interview made to Koji Igarashi by Nintendo Dream magazine, the name "Soma" was taken from an Indian ritual drink called soma, as well as director Junichi Murakami's son, whose name is Soma.
 * Likewise, the surname "Cruz" was chosen in part in reference to Spanish actress Penélope Cruz, who at the time had recently visited Japan.
 * Mina's full name, Mina Hakuba, seems to be patterned after Mina Harker, a character from the original 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
 * Given Mina's relationship with Soma Cruz, it is implied that she could be the reincarnation of either Elisabetha Cronqvist or Lisa, Dracula's two former wives
 * Hammer could be named after Hammer Film Productions, a British film production company best known for a series of Gothic horror films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s, many of these involving classic horror characters such as Count Dracula, Baron Frankenstein and the Mummy.
 * Graham is named after both Billy Graham (an American televangelist) and Jim Jones (a leader of the religious organization known as the People's Temple who led his followers to a mass suicide within the jungles of Guyana in 1978). Graham shares the charismatic side of Billy Graham while also sharing the dark side of Jim.

Reviews
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