Excelente jogo.
Tem o level-design mais CABULOSO que já experienciei. Juntando isso com a atmosfera muito imersiva, a progressão extremamente satisfatória e as ótimas boss-battles, resultam num jogasso da Nintendo.
Parabéns aos desenvolvedores.

O único defeito dele é ter partes muito confusas, por não ter um indicador de onde ir; forçando muito o uso de guias externos. (Ao mesmo tempo que isso é ruim, agrega muito ao fator replay)

é muito difícil encontrar palavras pra descrever a experiência de terminar esse jogo.

já nas primeiras 2h, tudo grita enigma e novidade. o jogo não te da informações previsíveis logo no começo, muito pelo contrário, te faz criar mil teorias sobre aquele universo e o que aqueles personagens devem enfrentar. é tudo muito misterioso e confuso mas foi justamente o que me prendeu pra querer continuar a história e entender os significados daquilo tudo.

pra mim, acho que o viciante de concluir as entregas é como se fosse a mesma sensação de riscar uma tarefa na sua checklist. ver o que você já fez e sentir que expande cada vez mais a rede quiral e receber recompensas com isso (não só o sisteminha de likes e elo social que achei um super estímulo pra continuar desbravando por aí) é sensacional. também gostei muito da dinâmica dos jogadores te ajudarem e você ajudar eles com construções e itens pelo mapa, realmente estamos todos conectados! obviamente algumas partes são bem chatinhas e infernais (montanhas de neve nem se fala) mas um pouco de paciência valeu a pena no fim!

foi lindo ver a evolução do Sam como personagem, enfrentando os medos dele com a ajuda do BB e renovando sua esperança na humanidade. os personagens principais são interessantes e suas backstories são bem exploradas sem se perder na trama principal. Heartman e Deadman queridos <3 (confesso que ri com alguns nomes..)

terminei de madrugada e não consegui dormir pensando nessa história.. serio, imagina pensar que aquele era o final, depois Aquele era o final e depois AQUELE foi o final. a ultima entrega acompanhada da trilha sonora me fez chorar igual bebê e ver o passado do Cliff como jogador foi triste demais. as aparições dele são todas fodas e era um dos que eu mais queria ver onde ia parar. já sabia que o Mads Mikkelsen era um atorzão mas a performance dele aqui é chef’s kiss.

e pra finalizar, a mensagem que o kojima quis passar é linda, o mestre conseguiu tocar nos temas vida e morte, esperança e caos de uma forma que te pega la na alma. esse jogo tem uma magia que te da vontade de se tornar uma pessoa melhor só por aquela cena antes de rolar os créditos finais. entendo que não é pra todo mundo mas esse jogo realmente mexeu comigo e entrou pra minha lista dos melhores que já joguei. mega ansiosa pra ver como vai ficar a adaptação desse jogo pra filme e pro Death Stranding 2!

Confession: I didn't actually buy the Advance Collection for a history trip with the Castlevania series. Instead, I just wanted an excuse to play Aria of Sorrow again, with some other games as a bonus. Aria was my first contact with the Castlevania series, something that was both a blessing and a curse, because from then on, playing other Castlevanias always gave a feeling of "this is not quite it". Of course, in revisiting an old favorite, there's always the risk of one's memory not holding up and just not remembering the game's flaws.

One thing I definitely didn't remember was that the protagonist, Soma Cruz, is actually an eighteen year-old high-schooler, to which my immediate reaction was "no he's not". Just look at his portrait, beautifully rendered by Ayami Kojima. That piercing gaze? Shining white hair? That black turtleneck with the sleek fur-lined coat? This man is the definition of too cool for school. If he's a high schooler, he probably takes love letters out of his locker on a wheelbarrow. And he ignores them all, because that's how cool he is.

Erm-ahem. Fan fiction aside, the game takes place in Japan in the year of 2035. A solar eclipse is happening on that day, and Soma is headed to Hakuba Shrine to meet his childhood friend Mina and watch the event from there. Upon arriving at the shrine, however, Soma loses consciousness, and the two are transported to a mysterious castle, where they meet the enigmatic Genya Arikado. At first, he doesn't know what to do about the two teenagers, but as the trio are jumped by monsters, something unexpected happens: Soma absorbs the essence of a monster he defeats, obtaining its power. Having witnessed this, Arikado then ushers Soma to reach the top of the castle so the group can escape from it.

Aria was the last Castlevania game made for the Game Boy Advance, and it shows. The mastery over the limited hardware and small screen is displayed in some of the most beautiful spritework on the system. Soma himself is a shining example: the fluidity of his walk cycle, the turning of his body as he puts his strength into a swing, the way his coat gently sways with the wind... the amount of detail crammed into this not even 40 pixels tall character is impressive.

One might say that putting a lot of work into the main character is standard, as that will be the focus of the player's attention most of the time. The idea with such an approach would be to put a lot of work in the main character, and then not push enemies and other characters too far. Which is fine, except that no sprite artist at Konami got that memo, because they flexed all over the place. Enemies look positively gorgeous in Aria, from the first disgustingly goopy zombie met in the Eternal Corridor all the way to Dracula's final form, all of them are carefully designed, colored, shaded and animated.

To say nothing of the environments, which are a further step up from Harmony of Dissonance and look especially smooth. Parallax and Mode 7-like effects are a given by this point, but Aria takes it further by incorporating animated tilesets for lighting effects. The save room in this game is the most beautiful in the series, with the flickering of the flame on display through the walls and the statue in the center.

And the sound design? There are a surprising amount of voice clips for a GBA game, and enemies make all sorts of noises that give them more personality -- I especially like the intense death screams. It should also be said that the game's original soundtrack is one banger after another. Konami is really bad at this memo thing, because the composer also didn't get the one that said "these are the first and second areas of the game, no need to go all out". To say nothing of the moments where it actually made sense go hard, which... Incredible stuff.

Everything in Aria feels just right, like after a couple of games of trying to iterate on Symphony of the Night, something just clicked. The castle is a perfect mix of maze and proper castle, with the areas that branch and connect unpredictably, but without losing the feeling of distinct zones, which happened in HoD to some extent. Aria even went back to having transition rooms like SotN did, which despite being technically unnecessary in a GBA game, feel extremely natural from a design standpoint, creating some breathing room between areas that emphasize the difference between them.

In addition, the game maintains a consistent level of challenge from beginning to end, with enemies and bosses that are varied and engaging. Plus, with Soma not being a vampire hunter, the player is not locked into a whip for the entirety of the game, and he instead gets access to an arsenal of swords, lances, axes and blunt weapons. The choice between them is not simply about aesthetics: each individual weapon has a different range and hitbox shape, as well as distinct swing and recovery times. It's often advantageous to swap between weapon types for specific encounters, which speaks to how well designed equipment is.

Aria's greatest asset, however, is the Soul System and its monster abilities, through which you-- yes, you -- can now be the little asshat throwing bones from higher ground, living the ultimate Castlevania power fantasy. As established in the opening segment, when defeating enemies, Soma might obtain a soul, which when equipped, enable either a passive, sustained or instant ability related in some way to that monster. Souls are both a means of progression, with key souls obtained in specific rooms allowing access to new areas of the castle, and for combat purposes, replacing the series' traditional subweapons.

At first, this might seem similar to the DSS in that abilities are obtained as random drops from monsters, but it's far superior. For one, there's a direct connection between the monster and what its dropped soul does, which gives the system more personality. Moreover, unlike cards, every monster has a soul. In the face of the low drop rate, while it's unlikely the player will obtain every soul as they travel through the castle (unless your name is TASBot), the law of averages results in them obtaining some set of souls that they can work with. The result is that every playthrough feels slightly different as the player works with a set of tools. Also, completionists have their work cut out for them, hunting exotic monsters with the aid of late game mechanics that boost drop rates.

Souls are also an important metanarrative element that lends credence to Soma's growth. Unlike Juste before him, Soma is a student with no formal combat training, and this is reflected on his initial abilities, which are restricted to jumping and a weak attack. As he explores deeper into the castle, however, he grows stronger and faster, becoming a real powerhouse by the end of the game, and souls make that growth over the course of the story, down to the completely artificial video game notion of levels, seem justified.

Incidentally, Aria of Sorrow features an outstanding central narrative. This is largely owed to its mysterious and layered characters who make frequent appearances throughout the castle, and also to the unusual circumstances surrounding Dracula's castle in the year of 2035 itself. Similarly to HoD, ol' Vlad is nowhere to be found, this time because Aria takes place in an age in which Dracula was permanently destroyed by the Belmonts, and the characters, from church officials to government agents to soldiers to our unlucky duo of teenagers, have different ideas on why the castle reappeared.

There's no feeling quite as refreshing as returning to a childhood classic and realizing it's just as outstanding as it was all those years ago. Aria of Sorrow is the result of years of iteration and passion, and stands amongst the best Castlevanias and the best metroidvanias ever made. It alone justifies buying the Advance Collection.

What I heard was that this game was "fixed" from its original half-baked state, and at the time I didn't have a PS4, so I picked it up when it came out on Xbox expecting a game approximating what I remembered hearing about before it originally came out. Instead, I got a survival game where most of what you do is gather resources and craft stuff for building bases or whatever. I'm not saying I'll never give it another go but it wasn't the game I was hoping for, and ironically I think I would have preferred the vanilla game before they added all that stuff.

Sadly, this game just isn't for me. The movement is smooth and satisfying when traversing the city overall, but I often got frustrated when trying to navigate to a specific part of an enclosed space. The combat is a real highlight, as there are a lot of options for dealing with various enemy types and Spidey really feels super-heroic without being overpowered; however, there are so many options that I often felt overwhelmed by choice.

What killed this game for me is how samey each element becomes. Yes, there are an enormous number of options for combat and movement, but I found myself relying on tried and true tactics too often after attempting some unsatisfying variation. The collectibles and side missions are largely just traversal busywork, but they are mandatory to unlock more powers, gadgets, and suits.

What really saves this game is the impeccable graphics, story, and overall tone. Insomniac really nailed the Spider-Man feel, so if that's your thing you will probably breeze right past my issues and love every second of this immaculately crafted experience. Content junkies will also love ticking off the plethora of open-world checkboxes. To me, so much of the presented content felt so generic it could have been procedurally generated, and the story missions didn't strike me as particularly interesting any more than the superhero blockbusters they are based on.