Only my second castlevania game and this one is a classic, I beat it in under 7 hours with the true ending and had a total BLAST - above all else, for its massive achievements to its goofy ah moments to its bizarro design decisions, one thing stands above all else in sotn and that is that it is just FUN. Exploration, combat, building up your strength and finding secrets all work tremendously well here and in some ways are actively better than a lot of games imitating its style from the past 25+ years which is insane. But I stress, in ‘some’ ways, I will cut this game a lot of slack because of its age and because it is the first game in the entire series to actually properly utilise new mechanics like the map and equipment menus. But, it did come out 3 years after super metroid, an all time great and the pioneer of the genre and it does fall off in the late game (apparently due to a rushed development), so I am going to hold some things to account.
All things considered I think aria of sorrow is a better game that does what sotn does with more confidence and its a very consistent game where sotn is not. But the thrill of exploration and mapping out the castle and just the general vibe of sotn are untouchable, the melodramatic music, the wacky sound effects and the shitty robotic voice acting (in both versions honestly!) are so charming and silly that I cannot help but love them. Not to detract from the music though, it goes HARD (for most of the game), my favourite track was crystal teardrop for that awesome ambience that makes me feel like im floating and that filthy drum pattern, but there’s plenty more like it. For the large majority of the game, there is a very well defined difficulty curve and sense of steady progression and a real sense of personal discovery. You are constantly rewarded in this game and by being ballsy and going out of your way to explore every inch of the castle, you’re able to level like crazy and get access to lots of great pieces of gear. The rpg elements, despite pertaining to a very clunky menuing system, work surprisingly well and go pretty deep for a game of its time, with elemental weaknesses, hidden spells you have access to from the very beginning of the game, familiars you can summon to help in battle in ways beyond just fighting and a massive range of useful consumables. Its really impressive. Finding what sort of playstyle works for you is absolutely possible here and although its been done a lot better since, you can just see what type of impact this game had. Its even interesting narratively and thematically since this time you are playing as Dracula’s son, recently risen from a 300 year slumber and kitted out with a whole new arsenal and the ability to transform, which is really dope and marks a massive shift for the series.
Not to mention, this is a gorgeous, gorgeous game that is brimming with detail and personality in its pixel art and animations. The castle itself is gothic goodness and I particularly love the creativity in its character animations and pseudo 3D effects that are most noticeable during boss fights and in save rooms. The boss fights in the first half of the game are superb aswell and depending on your path can range from a piece of cake to really quite challenging. I do think the game starts off a little slow where your sluggish movement and limited options remain largely unchanged for the first 1-2 hours, it plays more like a classic vania. But once you get that first upgrade and start mapping out the castle, getting your equipment together and feeling like you’re properly let loose, it hits this rythm that I cannot accurately describe. All I can say is there’s a sweet spot, a couple hours of gameplay right in the middle where this game is utterly fucking addictive, its like crack, the music is at its peak, combat encounters get so satisfying and exploration opens up to a whole new level, 1997 had never seen anything like it, even super metroid never gets THAT good imho.
But its a shame that it doesn’t stay that way, after hitting its stride and peaking with the battle against the possessed richter & shaft the game noticeably declines in quality and the care put into the design starts to subside. Enemies in general feel like they aren’t balanced or as thoughtfully placed, like, at all, infact a majority of enemies in the inverted castle are SIGNIFICANTLY harder than the actual bosses, who are largely pushovers. There are enemies that actively frustrate me and though a cool idea in concept, the idea of flipping the whole castle you’ve just explored on its head and making you do it again does come off kinda lazy, i’d honestly have rather it just be one single, albeit larger new area with a boss rush and then the final boss, but instead it drags things out more than it needs to honestly. There are some cool boss fights to be found like the zombie versions of Trevor, Sypha and Grant, an awesome 3 on 1 fight with 3 bosses that complement each other nicely and don’t go down without a pretty climatic fight. But then you have all of the ‘vlad’ bosses, necessary to get the true ending and face dracula, all of which seemed like total pushovers. I really thought I was in for it when I saw how tough the basic enemies are in their respective areas, but then I hit them like 10 times and they just died, I wasn’t even over-levelled or anything, I used a guide to tunnel vision them and avoid needless exploring in the inverted castle! Though I did suffer for that later with dracula, at that point I did have to start exploring some more.
I do have my minor, personal gripes like I do think the lack of i frames punishes you for random things a bit much, it would be nice if the weapons felt a little more distinct and having to menu and equip items to use them every, single, time, does make me grind my teeth a little. But these aren’t fair assessments, its an old game and devs have learnt from this, still, it would be nice to continue to have area names onscreen after the first time and actual damage numbers that aren’t bound to a relic that I did not find and was only told about when I beat the whole game (fml); at least the vanias that followed do actually do this.
On the whole I do still think I am a lover of the metroid over the vania in ‘metroidvania’, especially now that i’ve played what are widely considered two of the best castlevanias of all time, it makes me think the perfect castlevania is out there, its just yet to exist, its somewhere inbetween aria of sorrow and this one but with a couple quality of life tweaks and boom, 5 stars. Metroidvanias are one of my favourite genres and what im feeling is that its ok for them to copy ideas if they are carried over well and its ok to do more of the same thing if it works well, not every game has to have its unique gimmick or filler, the perfect metroidvania that isn’t called hollow knight is out there! Still, total classic, absolutely undeniable legacy and although I would knock off half a star for the inverted castle alone - with all things considered, it has aged wonderfully.
All things considered I think aria of sorrow is a better game that does what sotn does with more confidence and its a very consistent game where sotn is not. But the thrill of exploration and mapping out the castle and just the general vibe of sotn are untouchable, the melodramatic music, the wacky sound effects and the shitty robotic voice acting (in both versions honestly!) are so charming and silly that I cannot help but love them. Not to detract from the music though, it goes HARD (for most of the game), my favourite track was crystal teardrop for that awesome ambience that makes me feel like im floating and that filthy drum pattern, but there’s plenty more like it. For the large majority of the game, there is a very well defined difficulty curve and sense of steady progression and a real sense of personal discovery. You are constantly rewarded in this game and by being ballsy and going out of your way to explore every inch of the castle, you’re able to level like crazy and get access to lots of great pieces of gear. The rpg elements, despite pertaining to a very clunky menuing system, work surprisingly well and go pretty deep for a game of its time, with elemental weaknesses, hidden spells you have access to from the very beginning of the game, familiars you can summon to help in battle in ways beyond just fighting and a massive range of useful consumables. Its really impressive. Finding what sort of playstyle works for you is absolutely possible here and although its been done a lot better since, you can just see what type of impact this game had. Its even interesting narratively and thematically since this time you are playing as Dracula’s son, recently risen from a 300 year slumber and kitted out with a whole new arsenal and the ability to transform, which is really dope and marks a massive shift for the series.
Not to mention, this is a gorgeous, gorgeous game that is brimming with detail and personality in its pixel art and animations. The castle itself is gothic goodness and I particularly love the creativity in its character animations and pseudo 3D effects that are most noticeable during boss fights and in save rooms. The boss fights in the first half of the game are superb aswell and depending on your path can range from a piece of cake to really quite challenging. I do think the game starts off a little slow where your sluggish movement and limited options remain largely unchanged for the first 1-2 hours, it plays more like a classic vania. But once you get that first upgrade and start mapping out the castle, getting your equipment together and feeling like you’re properly let loose, it hits this rythm that I cannot accurately describe. All I can say is there’s a sweet spot, a couple hours of gameplay right in the middle where this game is utterly fucking addictive, its like crack, the music is at its peak, combat encounters get so satisfying and exploration opens up to a whole new level, 1997 had never seen anything like it, even super metroid never gets THAT good imho.
But its a shame that it doesn’t stay that way, after hitting its stride and peaking with the battle against the possessed richter & shaft the game noticeably declines in quality and the care put into the design starts to subside. Enemies in general feel like they aren’t balanced or as thoughtfully placed, like, at all, infact a majority of enemies in the inverted castle are SIGNIFICANTLY harder than the actual bosses, who are largely pushovers. There are enemies that actively frustrate me and though a cool idea in concept, the idea of flipping the whole castle you’ve just explored on its head and making you do it again does come off kinda lazy, i’d honestly have rather it just be one single, albeit larger new area with a boss rush and then the final boss, but instead it drags things out more than it needs to honestly. There are some cool boss fights to be found like the zombie versions of Trevor, Sypha and Grant, an awesome 3 on 1 fight with 3 bosses that complement each other nicely and don’t go down without a pretty climatic fight. But then you have all of the ‘vlad’ bosses, necessary to get the true ending and face dracula, all of which seemed like total pushovers. I really thought I was in for it when I saw how tough the basic enemies are in their respective areas, but then I hit them like 10 times and they just died, I wasn’t even over-levelled or anything, I used a guide to tunnel vision them and avoid needless exploring in the inverted castle! Though I did suffer for that later with dracula, at that point I did have to start exploring some more.
I do have my minor, personal gripes like I do think the lack of i frames punishes you for random things a bit much, it would be nice if the weapons felt a little more distinct and having to menu and equip items to use them every, single, time, does make me grind my teeth a little. But these aren’t fair assessments, its an old game and devs have learnt from this, still, it would be nice to continue to have area names onscreen after the first time and actual damage numbers that aren’t bound to a relic that I did not find and was only told about when I beat the whole game (fml); at least the vanias that followed do actually do this.
On the whole I do still think I am a lover of the metroid over the vania in ‘metroidvania’, especially now that i’ve played what are widely considered two of the best castlevanias of all time, it makes me think the perfect castlevania is out there, its just yet to exist, its somewhere inbetween aria of sorrow and this one but with a couple quality of life tweaks and boom, 5 stars. Metroidvanias are one of my favourite genres and what im feeling is that its ok for them to copy ideas if they are carried over well and its ok to do more of the same thing if it works well, not every game has to have its unique gimmick or filler, the perfect metroidvania that isn’t called hollow knight is out there! Still, total classic, absolutely undeniable legacy and although I would knock off half a star for the inverted castle alone - with all things considered, it has aged wonderfully.