Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance)
Posted: May 28th, 2017, 6:13 pm
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was a letdown, so I've ditched that handheld game and started Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for GBA.
It's been a long time since I've found a game that I've had trouble putting down, and even longer since I've found that on a handheld. But Aria of Sorrow is doing that so far, after about 3 hours into it.
This is only the 2nd Castlevania game I've ever played. About 10 years ago, I bought Symphony of the Night when it was re-released on Xbox Live for the 360. I loved it and it easily entered my Top 10 all-time. Then recently I realized that it's pretty stupid of me to like SotN so much and never play another Castlevania game. So I researched which one to try next... it came down to this game and Dawn of Sorrow for DS...both games seemed equally well-regarded, so I eventually choose to start with Aria since it was released first. (Anyone have a preference between Aria and Dawn? And how about compared to SotN?)
I sense that I'll ultimately prefer SotN, but this is really close. SotN has the benefit of being my first, and being bigger in scale, and having my all-time favorite game soundtrack (although Aria has a great soundtrack by GBA standards). I enjoy the Metroidvania style of gameplay too, so that helps. (Though I definitely prefer the Castlevania games much more than the Metroid games..especially because of the added RPG elements.)
Anyone else tried this? What do you rank as your favorite Castlevania games? I own several others in my collection, so I'll be sure not to wait another 10 years for my next one.
It's been a long time since I've found a game that I've had trouble putting down, and even longer since I've found that on a handheld. But Aria of Sorrow is doing that so far, after about 3 hours into it.
This is only the 2nd Castlevania game I've ever played. About 10 years ago, I bought Symphony of the Night when it was re-released on Xbox Live for the 360. I loved it and it easily entered my Top 10 all-time. Then recently I realized that it's pretty stupid of me to like SotN so much and never play another Castlevania game. So I researched which one to try next... it came down to this game and Dawn of Sorrow for DS...both games seemed equally well-regarded, so I eventually choose to start with Aria since it was released first. (Anyone have a preference between Aria and Dawn? And how about compared to SotN?)
I sense that I'll ultimately prefer SotN, but this is really close. SotN has the benefit of being my first, and being bigger in scale, and having my all-time favorite game soundtrack (although Aria has a great soundtrack by GBA standards). I enjoy the Metroidvania style of gameplay too, so that helps. (Though I definitely prefer the Castlevania games much more than the Metroid games..especially because of the added RPG elements.)
Anyone else tried this? What do you rank as your favorite Castlevania games? I own several others in my collection, so I'll be sure not to wait another 10 years for my next one.