I have been a fan of Konami’s Castlevania series ever since the glory days of the NES. My love for the series peaked with the release of Symphony of the Night on the Playstation. When I heard that the newest game in the already great GBA series would again involve swordplay I was thrilled beyond belief. And what else could make me happier than to learn that while I was looking at the first released screenshots, the finished game was only a mere 6 months away!

The graphics in Aria of Sorrow are bright and beautiful like Harmony of Dissonance before it. Nearly every weapon has a unique appearance and animation. The enemies all look great whether they are half your size or fill up half the screen, standing still or trying to kill you. The fire, explosion, death, and special effects look nice and clean. Even when I play the game in my Game Boy Player it looks great. Everything animates nice and smoothly. Nifty stuff. My only graphical gripe is I didn’t like the way Soma looks when he is running. And that is a ridiculously minor gripe.

The gameplay in AOS is similar to the last several Castlevania games with its RPG-like leveling and the ability to equip different weapons and armor. Apparently Konami is a firm believer in the saying “Don’t mess with a good thing” because they didn’t. The controls are tight and responsive. I had no problems making Soma land where I wanted and dodge the futile attempts of the enemies to halt my progress. The castle has many of the usual areas and several new ones. The usual ones are what you would expect and what they should be, and the new ones are impressive as well. I really liked the Floating Gardens and the new “trick” they used that make navigating it interesting.

They seemed to up the difficulty from where it was in HOD and that is a welcome change. I thought the last game was too easy and this one is just about right. You have to take it easy in the new sections and take some time to learn the new enemies or else you will regret it. Don’t expect to come out of all the boss fights alive on your first attempt either. The soul-stealing system is a nifty addition. You can steal the souls of enemies and use their powers to your advantage. You can claim the soul of every enemy in the castle and that is a lot of options to play with. I have to say I was disappointed in this game at first. I think I wanted it to be Symphony of the Night so much that when it wasn’t, it left me wanting more. I didn’t like the new soul system and I missed the classic secondary weapons. I also didn’t know anything about my character and what my purpose in the castle was. After about an hour my doubts were eradicated. I had collected a few souls that let me do some pretty cool stuff and the story elements had started to kick in. After that first hour I was completely hooked. I could not play any other game until this one was finished.

I only have 2 problems in the gameplay department. The first is the length. This game is quite short. I completed the game and took the long route to get the good ending and it only took a little over 6 hours. It would have been nice if it could have been a few hours longer. The second is the hit detection. Everything you hit registers correctly. It’s the enemies that have the abnormalities. There are several enemies whose weapons are clearly embedded well into your head but no hit registers. I guess it’s more of an advantage for the player but it leaves the enemies at a disadvantage. Maybe that’s not a bad thing?

Aria of Sorrow’s sound, like the rest of the game, is very good. Everything sounds the way it should. Several characters and enemies even have speech and it sounds great. The music, while not bad, is for the most part not as good as the music in Harmony of Dissonance. That is a very high standard to be measured against though. Regardless of HOD, the music in AOS is very good. There is definitely much much worse music out there.

As far as replayability is concerned I would say this game has plenty of it. Not because there are things to unlock that add to the game but because it is so much fun. This isn’t a game that you will play constantly. Once you complete it and find everything you will likely put it away for a while. The replayability comes into play a year from now when there is a lull in new quality games (there always is) and you remember “Hey, that Castlevania game was really fun!” and you bust it out and play through it again because it’s so good.

Overall this game has very few faults. The story, while virtually non-existant at the start, turns out to be great and one of the best in the series. If you are a Castlevania fan you have to pick this up. If you are an adventure fan you have to pick this up. If you are a game fan you have to pick this up. I guess what I am saying is PICK THIS GAME UP!