Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Last week I finished Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. It was the third installment of the Castlevania series on the Game Boy Advance, but it was widely considered the definitive game for the system (Source: Wikipedia). I decided I’d start with this one. I haven’t played a Castlevania game before, and my only other Metroidvania experience was Metroid Fusion, which I didn’t beat and will have to return to at some point.

The game was a blast, and I see why it was so highly spoken about. Everything about the gamefelt polished. The controls felt good, the sprites were amazing, and the environment was well designed. As an example of the vibe, you can see a screenshot of the save room below.

The game had a good difficulty progression. I never felt like I was outmatched by any enemies, and it was fun to learn the best system to defeat them all. Seeming like I wasn’t doing enough damage served as a reminder to go back to the shop and review my items, as well as the powers I was using. The power collection system added a fun customization aspect to the game, as you will have to work with the powers collected in that run. That’s not to say the game wasn’t frustrating. There were plenty of monsters that I would skip out of annoyance and bosses that made me want to throw my game, but that’s more of a user error. A couple of times, I resorted to stocking up on as many potions as I could and just tanking the boss.

The map was very well laid out. As I’ve heard, with the Metroidvania genre, the game rewards exploration and backtracking. The new abilities you acquire not only open up new areas of the map but also new areas of the places you’ve already visited. There were a couple of times I got stuck and had to look up a walkthrough, only to realize that I did not look at the map closely enough to see there was a room I hadn’t explored.

Overall, I had a really fun time with this game, and I want to play the DS sequel as well as a proper Metroid game, too!