if metroid is the brains of the search action genre, castlevania is certainly the brawn. build up your level, find cool new weapons, and slaughter your way through hundreds of the undead and the macabre. these are empowering games that let you turn the tables on enemies that hastened your demise in the retro castlevania titles. it's a formula the developers were happy to roll with for seven odd titles, adding new systems to each but generally keeping the same pacing between them. every traversal powerup seems to open up the world in all directions with new areas lurking around each corner compared to metroid's tightly-constrained progression and focused exploration. it's the turn-off-your-brain metroidvania, perfect for when you wanna have youtube on in the background or are couchlocked with your friends.
having only played symphony of the night in the past, aria of sorrow refines the experience that game presents with fewer extraneous systems and expanded combat options. protagonist soma cruz can equip three "soul" abilities at any given time: one subweapon attack, one traversal option/familiar, and one passive. these are gained randomly from the various mobs strewn throughout the hallways of dracula's castle, and every single mob has a unique one more or less. the simplicity of this design is freeing in how it lets you choose your loadout without restrictions or incentives otherwise. experimenting with each new soul feels natural as you slowly accrue a collection of increasing quality. it fits in so naturally for a handheld game and works perfectly for those looking to simply try new ones as they go along as well as those insisting on grinding for each individual soul.
other than that, it's business as usual. interesting boss fights galore (though not quite as many as sotn), meat-and-potatoes combat that forgives the player more often than not, and lots of canceling attacks with the backdash. the overall palette of the castle leaves something to be desired with its light hues and heavy reliance on blue shades, no doubt predicated on the game boy advance's notoriously poorly-lit screen. many microdesign issues I had with sotn rear their head here as well, specifically in terms of hallways of repeating enemies one after another, although I feel like this occurred less often in this game. I also don't necessarily feel like the early game areas feel significantly differentiated from each other; it wasn't until I hit more fascinating locales such as the floating gardens or the clock tower that I could really tell the individual areas apart. these aren't deal-breakers, but rather more a reflection of how staid the formula likely was at this point in the series chronology.
as a bite-sized metroidvania it hit the spot no questions asked. I rather enjoyed the cluttered and projectile-heavy final boss and the truncated true ending area that didn't take quite as much time as sotn's full second castle - though I must admit going on a killing spree powerful as fuck through a whole second castle really did have its appeal. not all metroidvanias can claim to have the same breezy, welcoming style as the castlevania series, and this entry really pulled me back into the series after not touching these games much for the past five-odd years.
having only played symphony of the night in the past, aria of sorrow refines the experience that game presents with fewer extraneous systems and expanded combat options. protagonist soma cruz can equip three "soul" abilities at any given time: one subweapon attack, one traversal option/familiar, and one passive. these are gained randomly from the various mobs strewn throughout the hallways of dracula's castle, and every single mob has a unique one more or less. the simplicity of this design is freeing in how it lets you choose your loadout without restrictions or incentives otherwise. experimenting with each new soul feels natural as you slowly accrue a collection of increasing quality. it fits in so naturally for a handheld game and works perfectly for those looking to simply try new ones as they go along as well as those insisting on grinding for each individual soul.
other than that, it's business as usual. interesting boss fights galore (though not quite as many as sotn), meat-and-potatoes combat that forgives the player more often than not, and lots of canceling attacks with the backdash. the overall palette of the castle leaves something to be desired with its light hues and heavy reliance on blue shades, no doubt predicated on the game boy advance's notoriously poorly-lit screen. many microdesign issues I had with sotn rear their head here as well, specifically in terms of hallways of repeating enemies one after another, although I feel like this occurred less often in this game. I also don't necessarily feel like the early game areas feel significantly differentiated from each other; it wasn't until I hit more fascinating locales such as the floating gardens or the clock tower that I could really tell the individual areas apart. these aren't deal-breakers, but rather more a reflection of how staid the formula likely was at this point in the series chronology.
as a bite-sized metroidvania it hit the spot no questions asked. I rather enjoyed the cluttered and projectile-heavy final boss and the truncated true ending area that didn't take quite as much time as sotn's full second castle - though I must admit going on a killing spree powerful as fuck through a whole second castle really did have its appeal. not all metroidvanias can claim to have the same breezy, welcoming style as the castlevania series, and this entry really pulled me back into the series after not touching these games much for the past five-odd years.