Believe it or not, but back in the day, Konami knew how to make good games. Not just Pachinko machines using their popular franchises. Actual honest to goodness, good games. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is one such great game. Being the final entry on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance hand held means a lot. The franchise would continue on consoles and the Nintendo DS. Fans of Castlevania, already know about Aria of Sorrow.

Aria of Sorrow is set in the future

The third Castlevania game on the GBA is still set in Dracula’s castle. While it is set in the year 2035, your weapons are decidedly medieval. This is not one level after another Drac’s castle though. Nope, Konami dropped that with Symphony of the Night on the original PlayStation.

Aria of Sorrow continues the “Metroidvania” level design. This means levels are interlocking and massive. They also require a lot of back tracking to get to every nook and cranny.

This is accomplished by picking up powers and abilities later in the game. With these new powers you can come back to earlier levels to finish objectives. Aria of Sorrow introduced the Tactical Soul ability system.

Use the souls of enemies

Tactical Soul means you absorb the soul of an enemy and take on their abilities and skills. This is integral to completing later parts of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Souls are broken up into four categories – Bullet, Guardian, Enchant, and Ability. You can have one of each enabled at a time.

Gotta catch them all

Aria of Sorrow is somewhat social too. Meet up with another player with the game for cool bonuses. Such as trading souls between each other. That is the essence of the Tactical Soul system.

2D Castlevania games have evolved over the years. Since the original came to North America on the NES each new release has pushed innovation forward. While it is possible that Konami will show a Castlevania collection at E3 2018, it is not exactly high on expectations list.

Castlevania has hit plenty of platforms so check eBay or hit Amazon for a copy of your favorite game and platform. For more Castlevania games check out these articles.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams