Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Review

The Castlevania franchise has been around since the NES generation. Fans of the series have played gems such as Simon’s Quest, Symphony of the Night and Circle of the Moon. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow takes the popular series onto a somewhat different path, but still retains that great gothic atmosphere we’ve all come to know and love. Set in the future year 2035, Soma Cruz is about to bear witness to the first solar eclipse of the 21st century. But all of a sudden he blacks out while climbing an unusually long staircase and wakes up in a mysterious location. Somehow he’s ended up in some kind of castle, and it’s up to him to figure out how to get out, while interacting with a number of NPCs. Taking control of Soma Cruz, you must navigate the treacherous nooks and crannies of the castle, doing battle with some of the most ferocious monsters we’ve seen yet.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as stated is set in the future. Strangely this has absolutely no effect on the overall experience of the game nor the look. Apparently Dracula isn’t too much of a home renovator, as there is absolutely no indication of a futuristic atmosphere in his castle. Don’t expect this to be some sort of space station castle, even though it actually is floating in mid-air. But even so, while the futuristic time period isn’t displayed in the castle, it looks great as it always has. Dracula’s home is simply huge, and carries with it all the trademark special areas. There are the main halls, the cemetery, various tower-like places and so on and so forth. If you’ve played previous Castlevanias, you should have no problem recognizing the normal look of the castle.

With the actual castle comes rather nicely detailed environments and the fear captivating minions of Dracula. Many areas of the game are very impressive to the eye, sporting some very nice lighting effects and really delivering the feel of the Castlevania franchise.. Unfortunately some of the areas you visit weren’t given much attention in terms of overall look, so the backgrounds won’t look nearly as impressive as others. This applies mostly to some of the lower parts of the castle, with the middle and upper ones showcasing a lot more elaboration with how they are presented.

But even though some areas of the castle may not look all that great, the monsters definitely make up for that. Aria of Sorrow sports over 100 enemies for you to encounter. A good number of them may very well be returns from previous franchise iterations. Mermen, Skeletons, Mudmen and various others make an impressive display of looking new while retaining a nostalgic feel. Then you have some brand new, and rather freaky monsters to square off with. You have giant flaming skulls, a number of different weapon wielding knights and some that are just plain gruesome. All of the monsters look incredible, and it’s amazing how much detail is put into some of them. Sometimes you may think you’re looking at a more advanced videogame system when seeing some of the monsters, including bosses. They all move with fluid and pretty realistic animation, even if their stupidity is there as always to allow for an easy kill. But then again when have non-human enemies ever been highly intelligent?

The monsters in Aria of Sorrow also play a bigger role, and that’s not just allowing you to kill them. Soma Cruz has the rather unique ability to collect the souls of enemies he kills. Speaking of “he”, though, Soma strangely looks like a female character at first, which begs you to wonder what Konami was up to when designing him. But nevertheless, he is a male with very female-like looks to him, but can still very much kick butt. Basically at any time throughout the game if you defeat an enemy and are strong enough, you have a chance of taking their soul. Now you shouldn’t expect to have this happen frequently, as some enemies aren’t quite so willing to “let go of themselves”. But these souls are critical to the game, as you get all your main abilities from them. Enemy souls are comprised of the abilities those enemies actually perform against you, and once you collect them, you can do the same right back. For instance, taking down a Bat and getting its soul will allow you to attack your enemies with supersonic waves.

The soul system also takes the gameplay one step further to make it that much more enjoyable. There are actually four different types for you to collect, and each brings something unique to the battlefront. You have your Bullet Souls, which are red. These souls allow you to fire off projectiles to harm your enemies, such as an array of fireballs, while consuming your magic. Blue souls are Guardian souls, and these will create some kind of magic effect on you until your magic would run out. Enchanted souls are yellow, and their very convenient function is to affect Soma’s body in some way while not consuming magic. Finally you have Ability souls, which there are six in the game, and they are simply special abilities for Soma to do that won’t consume magic either. They are mainly used to help Soma access some parts of the castle previously unapproachable. Soma’s slide attack that allows him to navigate tight spaces is an example.