The PS2 Backlog Committee Game Club #1 - Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow

[crimson_tide]

izzy speaketh, let's create it fam! Feel free to join in anytime. We are starting this club off with a whopper, bruhs! In this thread, we will discuss the game Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, one of the best search action (...fine, Metroidvania) games ever created...or is it? Will we live in hazy rose tinted memories or has time not been kind to this former favorite of many? We're going to go through the game, pick at it, and post our thoughts. We can figure out the rules later but let's get this train going down this track, friendos!!!!

[isthatallyougot]

izzy speaketh, let's create it fam! Feel free to join in anytime. We are starting this club off with a whopper, bruhs! In this thread, we will discuss the game Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, one of the best search action (...fine, Metroidvania) games ever created...or is it? Will we live in hazy rose tinted memories or has time not been kind to this former favorite of many? We're going to go through the game, pick at it, and post our thoughts. We can figure out the rules later but let's get this train going down this track, friendos!!!!

This is my first time playing it, so there's no possibility for rose tinted glasses - other than the general formula, but it's great so far. I really loved HoD, and (to a slightly lesser extent) CotM, but this is very much top tier IgaVania so far. One gripe I generally have with all GBA games is the sound. Sound is so important to me in (anything) games that, from my perspective, they ought to really be called audiovisual games rather than "video games", lol. And the GBA sound chip is just an atrocity. I know concessions likely had to be made for overall cost when releasing the product, but man do I not enjoy it. I'm not saying there are no good tunes or no good effects in this or in other GBA games, but they're so hardware-constrained that it really impacts the overall flavor. There are, as said, some nice tunes here in AoS as well, but they can't reach their proper heights via the tech on which they were produced.

That issue aside, it's really fun. I'm one of those weirdos who can respawn rooms endlessly hoping for a rare drop via RNG, and I love it when that pops. (I had 3 or 4 pure bladestone in Demon's Souls that I got on my own, and if you know anything about that, it says all I need to say, lol.)

[canedaddy]

I plan to start it tonight.

For the record, I've finished exactly one Castlevania game: Symphony of the Night. That was outstanding. Since then, I've played a couple of others in this style... Dawn of Sorrow on DS and a little bit of Circle of the Moon on Switch... but neither hit me the same way.

I'll give this one a good run for the sake of this discussion.

[isthatallyougot]

I plan to start it tonight.

For the record, I've finished exactly one Castlevania game: Symphony of the Night. That was outstanding. Since then, I've played a couple of others in this style... Dawn of Sorrow on DS and a little bit of Circle of the Moon on Switch... but neither hit me the same way.

I'll give this one a good run for the sake of this discussion.

Symphony of the Night is a rare bird, for sure. It's funny because I remember dismissing it when it released, both because of the allure new and fancy 3D (I couldn't be bothered with those antiquated sprites and limited canvas, lol) and because of my general inexperience with the series. But when I picked it up later in the console's life, I was like, man am I a grade-A idiot! Such a brilliant game. And speaking of sound from my last post, it's on a pretty short list of my favorite OSTs in gaming.

[crimson_tide]

Well, first things first: I don't think I played this one either. I think I am thinking of the DS one. So far, three bosses in, it's already way better paced than the previous two, especially Circle of the Moon. I don't like that one. I think I only had two cards the whole game, I had to stop playing it! The RNG gods were not kind to me there.

I also think the DS one was the one I played because I went to the menu way less. I am in there constantly playing with new stuff I picked up. It's very Symphony in that regard. Which isn't bad at all because we all know Symphony is the best. Funny aside: I bought Symphony because it was 2D sprites since after a year of bad polygons I was dying for something that was just pretty and 2D Castlevania could never disappoint. I knew nothing about it, hadn't heard anything. Just bought it because 2D Castlevania from the box art on the back.

On the downside though, this story is terribad ! Loving the cheese but they are laying it down thick. Also, it's been really breezy thus far. While Symphony wasn't Dracula's Curse or anything, it still felt challenging. I have been tearing through Aria.

To end on a high note though, the character portraits are really good. I like Soma's design a lot. That white trench is baller!

[canedaddy]

Well, first things first: I don't think I played this one either. I think I am thinking of the DS one. So far, three bosses in, it's already way better paced than the previous two, especially Circle of the Moon. I don't like that one.

I already like it a lot more than Circle of the Moon, which I bailed on pretty early. I don't know how many bosses I've beaten but I played for a couple of hours and would have been happy to keep going.

On the downside though, this story is terribad ! Loving the cheese but they are laying it down thick.

It is so stupid that it's hilarious. From the opening scene you know you're in for a treat. I'm extremely ignorant of Castlevania lore so if I'm supposed to know who any of these people are, that is not happening. It's just a random white-haired teen walking around Dracula's castle in an eclipse so he doesn't die and his female friend doesn't die.

[isthatallyougot]

On the downside though, this story is terribad ! Loving the cheese but they are laying it down thick. Also, it's been really breezy thus far. While Symphony wasn't Dracula's Curse or anything, it still felt challenging. I have been tearing through Aria.

It is so stupid that it's hilarious. From the opening scene you know you're in for a treat. I'm extremely ignorant of Castlevania lore so if I'm supposed to know who any of these people are, that is not happening. It's just a random white-haired teen walking around Dracula's castle in an eclipse so he doesn't die and his female friend doesn't die.

I know. I like Castlevania lore far more in theory and tone (within my imagination) than I do via actual execution, lol.

Death was a fun boss. I'm at just over 70% castle completion, but I've spent some time grinding drops. I did get briefly stuck at one point and forgot how to access the linked areas (where you essentially warp from one segment of the castle to another disconnected portion). But I've been abusing fools since.

[argyle]

I'm very early in - first boss. Digging it so far. Yeah, the story is cheese, but that's Castlevania - heck, the original game was made as a homage to classic horror movies and was just an excuse to put all those old monsters in one game.

CotM is bottom 3 of all Castlevanias IMO, it's just terribad. And I've played almost all of them (except for this one , the GB one(s), and possibly an import that didn't make it over? Oh, and I only dabbled with the first horrible N64 game and didn't touch the second, but I say those don't count. Fight me.)

Anywho, an Igga game has a definite vibe from the jump-off, and this one has it in spades. I'm really looking forward to digging into this one more.

[crimson_tide]

I am about 50% through the castle according to the map. It really just is Symphony shrunk down! And this script...I said downside and I was wrong, just keep this nonsense coming ! The translation had to be at least half of what drove this sucker off the rails. There's no excuse for this otherwise.

Oh and if Castlevania lore is even slightly intriguing to you, please watch the Netflix series. It is amazing and covers a pretty wide swath of the series. It's really fun just to look at with the insane anime battles but the have some very solid writing with great lines all the time. It's good stuff fam and all of it is just there if you have Netflix.

[isthatallyougot]

Oh and if Castlevania lore is even slightly intriguing to you, please watch the Netflix series. It is amazing and covers a pretty wide swath of the series. It's really fun just to look at with the insane anime battles but the have some very solid writing with great lines all the time. It's good stuff fam and all of it is just there if you have Netflix.

Yeah, I watched it. I enjoyed it quite a bit too.

I also seem to be the only one here who liked CotM.

I finished up Aria. I have 93.1% castle completion and 53.5% soul completion. There are a few tantalizing secrets that I haven't uncovered - obviously, and I think I'll try to find them on my own. If it drags on too long, I may look them up. I'm also having fun grinding item and soul drops, so I'll spend some more time doing that. I'm not sure how much more time I'll put into it overall, but I've really enjoyed it. It was a bit easy, but very much a worthy IgaVania. I slightly prefer it to Harmony, and that was a 5/5 for me. I don't think I could put it quite on par with Symphony, but in many ways it would just be splitting hairs - with the exception of the OST which, of course, was much better on the PS1, naturally, and not only in technical terms imho. But, in the end, it's fantastic with some minor stuff that didn't detract from the overall fun. I've got to dig into the DS entries. They're all in my backlog, and I've just never made the time.