(Played via Advance Collection)
It sure looks pretty, and the soundtrack has a very memorable style to it and sure bangs with a few new great songs and also some of the best versions of iconic Castlevania tunes. But take those elements out and you have one of the dullest entries in the series, with really monotonous exploration and a castle that never does anything interesting or different to become remarkable amongst others in the series and is filled with some of the most boring and blatantly copied and pasted level design I've ever seen in a Metroidvania. And it becomes even more frustrating when the difficulty gets cranked up vastly by the last few hours of the game and becomes more artificial than ever with tanky enemies that do way too much damage and boss battles that are located a tad too far away from save rooms, making the process of dying and getting better to overcome them genuinely insufferable.
I didn't entirely hate my time with this game, the sense of progression was decent enough to keep me playing, there were moments where I was having a little fun, and despite the loads of negative aspects it has, I didn't find the game awful by any means. But I don't feel like ever coming back to this game, even with the post-game unlockable modes, and I think another factor that plays a big role in my lack of interest for this game is just how obsolete it feels compared to other games in the franchise. Even if you disregard any of the games that came after it and take into account that this is only the second game in the series to try this style, it is inferior to Symphony of the Night in every way and the fact that you play as a vampire hunter doesn't really matter all that much or adds anything new since the Richter campaign in Symphony is far more interesting with a much better game feel, a much more memorable and creative castle, and the fact that in the context of Symphony itself it's a really unique way to experience the game compared to the main campaign with Alucard given how Richter has moves that allow him to go through paths that Alucard wouldn't be able to go until later in the game, giving him even more options and ways to beat the game and adding a ton of replay value. And if you DO consider the later Castlevania games then I would say that Castlevania experimented with customizable mechanics in games like Aria of Sorrow that were way better executed, offered much more content and options of gameplay styles, and just felt like superior versions of Circle of the Moon's DSS system, making this game barely feel worthwhile nowadays, especially considering how poorly Circle of the Moon executed its concept. A concept that is cool on paper, but was properly ruined by way too low card drop rate, no indications of what enemies give you what items (unless you're playing the Advance Collection), and especially by depending on luck and grinding.
Thankfully a lot of the problems are made less worse by the Advance Collection, which not only has a rewind function and allows the player to use save states, but it also gives you info on the enemies and what cards and items it can drop, making it easily the definitive way to play this game. But don't get wrong, it's still boring and these improvements don't fix the game by any means. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who isn't a diehard fan of Castlevania, but I sure will recommend getting the Advance Collection purely for Aria of Sorrow because that game freaking rules.
It sure looks pretty, and the soundtrack has a very memorable style to it and sure bangs with a few new great songs and also some of the best versions of iconic Castlevania tunes. But take those elements out and you have one of the dullest entries in the series, with really monotonous exploration and a castle that never does anything interesting or different to become remarkable amongst others in the series and is filled with some of the most boring and blatantly copied and pasted level design I've ever seen in a Metroidvania. And it becomes even more frustrating when the difficulty gets cranked up vastly by the last few hours of the game and becomes more artificial than ever with tanky enemies that do way too much damage and boss battles that are located a tad too far away from save rooms, making the process of dying and getting better to overcome them genuinely insufferable.
I didn't entirely hate my time with this game, the sense of progression was decent enough to keep me playing, there were moments where I was having a little fun, and despite the loads of negative aspects it has, I didn't find the game awful by any means. But I don't feel like ever coming back to this game, even with the post-game unlockable modes, and I think another factor that plays a big role in my lack of interest for this game is just how obsolete it feels compared to other games in the franchise. Even if you disregard any of the games that came after it and take into account that this is only the second game in the series to try this style, it is inferior to Symphony of the Night in every way and the fact that you play as a vampire hunter doesn't really matter all that much or adds anything new since the Richter campaign in Symphony is far more interesting with a much better game feel, a much more memorable and creative castle, and the fact that in the context of Symphony itself it's a really unique way to experience the game compared to the main campaign with Alucard given how Richter has moves that allow him to go through paths that Alucard wouldn't be able to go until later in the game, giving him even more options and ways to beat the game and adding a ton of replay value. And if you DO consider the later Castlevania games then I would say that Castlevania experimented with customizable mechanics in games like Aria of Sorrow that were way better executed, offered much more content and options of gameplay styles, and just felt like superior versions of Circle of the Moon's DSS system, making this game barely feel worthwhile nowadays, especially considering how poorly Circle of the Moon executed its concept. A concept that is cool on paper, but was properly ruined by way too low card drop rate, no indications of what enemies give you what items (unless you're playing the Advance Collection), and especially by depending on luck and grinding.
Thankfully a lot of the problems are made less worse by the Advance Collection, which not only has a rewind function and allows the player to use save states, but it also gives you info on the enemies and what cards and items it can drop, making it easily the definitive way to play this game. But don't get wrong, it's still boring and these improvements don't fix the game by any means. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who isn't a diehard fan of Castlevania, but I sure will recommend getting the Advance Collection purely for Aria of Sorrow because that game freaking rules.