Results tagged “Castlevania”

When gamers talk about some of the most vaunted Castlevania titles in the series, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon usually isn't among them. You could chalk this up to it being a portable game released in an era when portable games themselves were still seen as nothing more than a distraction - something that, a baffling number of people still see it as today, which is saddening. But no, CotM had a number of other problems. And they extend far beyond the fact that the game itself shows its Game Boy Color origins.

CotM was developed by Konami's now-defunct Kobe studio, which also handled Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness for the N64. This Game Boy Advance launch title was the last game in the franchise produced by them, when power over the franchise was wrestled from them and given to IGA at the Tokyo studio - who now no longer has power over the franchise, having it wrestled from him because of Castlevania Judgment. None of Kobe's games were seen as the best Castlevania games, but they definitely made some nice attempts.

But something all three of their games had in common was good music. Masahiko Kimura may not have done too much music for the franchise, nor is he well recognized as one of the franchise's greatest composers. But he's actually a pretty big contributor, though some of his tracks were produced when Konami's composers used the collective "Konami Kukeiha Club" pseudonym.  Of the three GBA games, Aria of Sorrow may have been the best, but CotM certainly had the best soundtrack.

Before I start with the samples, I would just like to note that this is a soundtrack to a launch GBA title, so the quality isn't going to blow your mind. Also, CotM has quite a few tracks that are remixed from older Castlevania games (and remixed well); some of them will be used here.

This first one is "Awake," which is used for the first part of the game (the catacombs). It's a pretty nice track to start out with, and it alone blows away just about any music track from any other GBA Castlevania game:


Next is "The Sinking Old Sanctuary," which is actually a remixed version of a track from Castlevania: Bloodlines, and was also used for Legacy of Darkness. This version is my personal favorite; the Bloodlines version is actually of lower quality than this one, and the LoD version is a little too slow:


The last track here is "Aquarius," which also is a remixed track from a previous game. This was originally featured in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and is redone very well here. About half of the overall soundtrack may be remixes, but it can get away with that if they're done so well:


Many Castlevania games have remixed soundtracks (like this one!), and I'm hoping that the team at MercurySteam was serious about having orchestral themes for Lords of Shadow. If they do, I'm hoping they pick some obscure tracks like The Adventure Rebirth had. I don't think anyone seriously needs any more remixes of "Vampire Killer," "Bloody Tears," or "Beginning," though I'm sure at least two of those will be part of the game (especially "Vampire Killer"). Oh, and hopefully the game is good, too.

At this point, there's no denying that E3 2009 was one of the better E3s, considering how the internet is still abuzz with discussions about what happened and what surprises were revealed days after the convention ended. But like any other convention, there are always games revealed that pique your interest in an alternate kind of way; games whose concepts provoke observational skepticism. This is very much to the chagrin of game developers. There were quite a few of these at E3, but I'll just give my opinion of the biggest three that caught my eye. Starting with this one.

When Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was unveiled at Konami's Press Conference on Wednesday -- with a trailer being subsequently uploaded to Konami's Kojima Productions E3 2009 page -- gamers were immediately taken in by its looks. Admittedly, it looks quite breathtaking from what's been shown; it contains some of the best graphics seen from a game this generation along, with some excellent voice acting by the likes of Patrick Stewart, Robert Carlyle, Patricia McElhone, and Jason Issacs. Even though the gameplay itself looks a little more-than-inspired by God of War, it's quite breathtaking.

But it's only after viewing that until it dawns on you to look into exactly who is developing it. The game was teased on Kojima Productions' main page for a few weeks, and apparently Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima is serving as a producer (though really it's still unclear as to what role he'll have in its development). However, the game itself will be handled by MercurySteam Entertainment. If you've never heard of them, they also handled last year's Clive Barker's Jericho, which wasn't received all that well.

A lot of my concern stems from the fact that I probably care about Castlevania a bit too much. But after thinking about the trailer a little, I don't think it really feels like a Castlevania game. I'm sure there's more to be revealed about it in the coming months -- until its release date sometime in 2010, ideally -- but I hope Kojima and crew (still referring to Hideo, not the series' venerable artist Ayami Kojima) are more integral to the project than they're letting on at the moment.

Though it's not like the previous 3D console Castlevania's have been that great. Though Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness contained elements that made them feel like Castlevania games, the products themselves were of middling quality because of the amount of repetition that was involved. (Seriously, you don't know the meaning of the word "repetitive" if you haven't played these games.) It feels as if Konami had no choice but to pursue an alternate development team to produce a 3D Castlevania right, but time will tell if it's actually MercurySteam. The problem with what's been shown so far is that the trailer has nothing that makes it feel like a Castlevania game. It really seems like it's something that was initially developed as an original project, but Konami happened to see it and slapped the Castlevania name on it. That in itself wouldn't stop it from being a bad game, but there aren't a lot of opportunities these days for the series to be fully realized in 3D, so it would be great if it had a fusion of both a Castlevania feel and a quality action/adventure.

Though admittedly, it looks more faithful to Castlevania than Castlevania Judgement for Wii, which featured some utterly bizarre character designs by Takeshi Obata (of Death Note).

Also, this news makes me wonder what exactly has happened to Koji Igarashi, the (former?) main producer behind every Castlevania game for a little over the last decade. Sure, he and his team couldn't do 3D well at all, but their 2D games have been quite superlative -- including Order of Ecclesia, which was just released in October of last year. I think I'm going to miss the supposed (though nearly guaranteed) lack of involvement from him, along with Michiru Yamane and Ayami Kojima. Here's hoping they're working on a 2D game whose release will coincide with this one, and that, uh, they're not out of work. I was looking forward to the 3D sequel to Symphony of the Night that was teased at the Tokyo Game Show last year (though I have no idea why Gametrailers.com lists that as a teaser for Lords of Shadow, as they're clearly not the same game).

At this point, I'm at two minds in what I think about Lords of Shadow thus far. I'll admit to being incredibly impressed when I saw the trailer, and I always thought that God of War is what Castlevania should have been in 3D -- which makes the fact that this game is borrowing a few ideas from that one incredibly ironic. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope Kojima is really integral to its development (while not adding any hour-long cut scenes to it), and hope that MercurySteam is more talented than I and a lot of people think.

If you've been following the Castlevania franchise, you might notice that every recent game is like the development team's response to criticisms that people often have about the previous entry. It's where Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia doesn't differ from its predecessors, in being another effort to evolve the series to keep it from becoming too stagnant.

But to arrive to solely that conclusion about OoE is to misunderstand its full intentions. OoE may have a lot in common with the previous games, but it's probably the biggest leap the series has taken in some time.

When Dracula X Chronicles (which included a remake of Rondo of Blood) released for PSP in 2007, fans who played the game either remembered or discovered how good the original style of Castlevania was when done right. It was a tough game that demanded skill and strategy more than the "Metroidvania" titles did. In other words, they thought it felt fresh in a franchise whose progeny was becoming somewhat samey. Similarly, there were also fans who like the Metroidvania titles a lot more than the original ones, those who still appreciate the gigantic leap in style that Symphony of the Night offered.

Therein lies the thought process that birthed Order of Ecclesia. One of the most standout aspects of the game is how it cleverly fuses the styles of old and new together to mix things up. Whereas you ventured through the monolith that was Dracula's Castle in the previous games, this time, as female protagonist Shanoa, you're required to wander through a number of locations that aren't the main destination first. The level design takes ideas from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, though mixes it up with Metroidvania elements.


The designs of these locations have quite a bit in common with the original games, requiring you to start at one point and end at another. You still have the ability to level up during the quest, and the controls of the game feel like a Metroidvania title, which provides a nice sense of variety. In other words, it's the perfect response to Portrait of Ruin's fun-but-often repetitive level structure.

It also has something else in common with the old titles: the difficulty level. Metroidvania titles have been known for being generally on the easy side, a trait that never left when SOTN established it. But this game breaks that mold: it's quite tough, and sometimes a tad brutal. But not at all in a bad way, as it actually seeks to exploit a commonly used but never focused upon gameplay aspect of the previous games: the necessity of using specific weapons against specific enemies. Sure you could use electricity against mechanized enemies before, but you could still get by without exploiting any weaknesses without too much of a problem. This time around, it's imperative that you use and abuse the system, because ignoring it will leave you seeing the Game Over screen very often.

Not to say that won't happen anyway. You could be adjusted to everything above, and still easily perish. But that's good, because usually your death is just a signal that you're not good enough yet, and this game requires as much as a test of skill as Rondo did. It's not on the "push you to the limit level" that a game like Contra 4 is - though that's mainly because of not dying in one hit, the ability to carry healing items, and save points scattered around -- but it comes close enough that you won't want to make too many mistakes. Shanoa tends to take more damage than previous main characters.


The real new aspect this time around deals with how you obtain items, most importantly Glyphs. Glyphs can be acquired by absorbing them from either enemies or certain locations. It's also possible to absorb one while an enemy is in the middle of casting the spell, though that's something you'll only want to do when there aren't too many enemies on the screen at the time; they tend to hit hard. At the same time, it's something you'll want to do, since many of these are the best spells in the game, especially if it's coming from a boss.

Glyphs completely supplant weapons this time around, and enemies no longer drop them. Raising your luck is only used to get armor or items you otherwise wouldn't want to spend a plethora of money on at the shop. Shanoa can equip one Glyph in each hand, and you can either, for example, use two swords at the same time or mix things up. You'll also need to switch pretty quickly between three different set-ups to fight against distinct enemies, which is more necessary (and harder to master), than it sounds.

This game also has a main hub in the form of a village, though it's initially unpopulated. It's your job to rescue all of them that have been imprisoned throughout various levels. The villagers help you in obtaining some of the more rare items and accessories that can be a benefactor in facing some of the game's tougher enemies. Most of them are pretty easy to find, but you might have to go out of your way to get a few; they're locations are never tough enough to locate to warrant any complaining.


Shanoa is the centerpiece of the game's plot, which overall takes itself more seriously than PoR's - as in it actually takes itself seriously. It still isn't any good, but has its intriguing points. Shanoa is on a quest to obtain and unite the three Glyphs of Dominus for the Order of Ecclesia, which will supposedly help in preventing any further resurrections of Dracula. If you've played a Castlevania game before, you can pretty much guess how the entire plot will unfold.

Fitting in with the darker tone of the game is the new artwork, this time drawn by Masaki Hirooka (Espgaluda). His style has more in common with Ayami Kojima's, though it doesn't emit as much of a Gothic vibe as hers. Still, it's vastly preferable to the low-budget anime tripe that infested the last two titles.


The music is right on the same level ad Dawn of Sorrow's soundtrack, providing a mixture of fast-paced and melancholy tracks, depending on the level. For instance, slow-moving underwater levels tend to have slower-paced tracks (the track "Azure Wanderings being the best example of these), and areas with intense fighting situations have the faster-paced tracks. The music isn't quite on the same level as PoR, as it's missing the contribution of the excellent Yuzo Koshiro this time around, with him being replaced by Yasuhiro Ichihashi (who did work on Dracula X Chronicles).

This franchise practically needed Order of Ecclesia to come around to show fans that Castlevania still has a life ahead for itself in terms of potential. It's definitely not a gigantic jump in innovation for the franchise, but at this point, does it really need that? Of course not! The series has been perfectly fine adding incremental updates between each installment while remaining in its pre-established comfort zone, and it can be fine remaining within that...for now, at least.

There was, as they say, trouble in paradise for Sony a few weeks back when Microsoft announced that two more Xbox Originals would be joining their lineup on the Xbox Live Marketplace a few weeks ago. With the addition of Sega Soccer Slam and Raze's Hell, the number of Xbox Originals available would go up to 25. The problem for Sony here was that the number of Xbox games on XBLM would be the same as the amount of PSOne games on Playstation Network.

Not that it's at all a surprise, given how Sony has been releasing older games on the service slower than a snail's pace. But upon comparing the number of Xbox games and the number of PSOne games, the company's efforts weren't just said, they were pathetic and infuriating. The potential of people trying games they missed during the PSOne generation was nearly squandered.

Unless you're Japanese, of course, where they've had over 200 games on the service for a good while, making the North American and European efforts seem incredibly paltry in comparison.

But the tide may be turning. Last week, we were graced with the presence of Castlevania: Chronicles. A pretty welcome port of the game, seeing as how the game went for way too high prices on ebay previously. Who could pass that up at only $6? Well, I did, but that was only because I was in the midst of buying gifts for family members. That, and I was wondering where I could find some of those ever-elusive Playstation Network cards, which should have been out years ago.

Now, news comes out today that the first Suikoden title is now available on PSN, also available for only $6. Part of me is hoping that Sony has finally gotten the signal and is now starting to address the problem with the spartan classics lineup. They've already addressed the situation of new games on PSN -- which were mainly for PS3, but are now seeing PSP ports -- so logic suggests that this is next in line for repairs. Then again, part of me is saying this is only a coincidence, and starting next week (or the week after, if they don't update next week), it'll be back to the same old crap. Here's to hoping!

Now, I need to get ahold of one of those PSN cards that only took two years to come out.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night carved a special place in our hearts in 1997 for a number of reasons. Sure, it's a fine action/platformer, and one of the finest in the Castlevania franchise. But there were other factors in making the game popular with a huge number of core gamers, one of the main ones being that it was 2D. The interesting thing is that only a few years before its release, 2D games were rather commonplace among the market. But Symphony of the Night was birthed in an era where the medium was making its gravitation towards 3D. If you want to look at how successful the efforts were, I dare you to take a glance at a 3D Playstation game from that era and not cringe in horror at its pixelated polygons. We may have adored games like Final Fantasy VII back them, but time has not been kind to its now inherently primitive technological features.

That's one of the reasons why Symphony of the Night worked in 2D, and still does today. While your average then-newfound casual audience blithely ignored it in favor of the titles that were pushing the technological boundaries of the 32-bit console, Symphony of the Night appealed to gamers with a deep sense of fondness and nostalgia for 2D titles. It was also different from previous Castlevania games in the series, and was the first foray into the Metroidvania titles.


It's true that the game has been supplanted today in terms of sound, level design and gameplay by the likes of games such as Dawn of Sorrow and apparently Order of Ecclesia, but in 1997, the game was something special. The Playstation was primarily used for 3D titles, but Symphony of the Night proved that the console was no slouch when it came to 2D titles as well. The game has some beautiful animation and aesthetic design that still looks marvelous eleven years later. The game did push the technology, but in a different way than most other games releasing at that time. Here we had a title that emphasized its intrinsic art and design rather than other technical features, and that's one of the main reasons why we keep coming back to replay it even now.

Not to say it's aged perfectly well, because it hasn't in some ways. Some of its gimmicks have worn a little thin. The idea of an inverted castle caught us off guard when we first stumbled upon it. The sheer shock that we thought we had achieved 100% of the castle and were near the end of the game when we actually had another half of the game left is something you'll never forget in your gaming life when you're pondering over your favorite moments of the medium.

When you play it today, the combination of the music in the inverted castle does feel like a combination that's melancholy enough to be genuinely frightening, but one can't shake the feeling that it feels like a gimmick in order to extend the play time. This game could have remained unscathed back then, but god forbid if that was in a game in this day in age. Gamers would've flooded message boards en masse to complain about how lazy the developers were to slap on an unnecessary twist like this. You wouldn't believe how much gamers tolerated without complaining before the internet had to come along and ruin everything.


Another problem in the inverted castle is confusion in where you need to go. You can go anywhere when you first enter it, but there are parts where stronger enemies lurk that can make you see the game over screen within an instant. To be fair, the game avoids Lament of Innocence's problem by placing one of the stronger enemies immediately after the entrance to the section, making sure you know to run like hell if you're to underpowered to take on the opposition in that section.

Another strange reason people adored the game was for its voice acting. This was an aspect where Symphony of the Night was similar to many other games released around that time. In today's era, video games are given careful localizations where professional talent is hired to translate it into English and professional voice actors are hired to dub the game. That was not at all common in 1997, where most games were localized in a way where the developers wanted to spare every penny, and hired talent that was less than professional. Symphony of the Night's voice acting is absolutely horrible, but it invokes kind of a The Last Dragon effect where it's so bad it's good. Some of the writing isn't too great either, and it's outsourced localizations (listen closely to some of the acting to hear their actual accents) like this that lead to lines like "What do you here?" or "Think you I would forget such a thing?"


But hey, we tolerated it, and now it holds a sense of nostalgia for all that played it back then. So much nostalgia, in fact, that they can brush aside the redone translation included in the PSP version (the one in Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles) without a second thought. The new translation is undoubtedly better, but when playing through games again, many gamers need every element of the original to be left intact and completely untouched, otherwise something would feel "off" the entire time. The PSP version also adds a number of special features that were only included in the Japan-only Sega Saturn version (you know, the good extra features, not the lame extra levels).

But there's a reason why we keep coming back to the game multiple times, and it's not just for nostalgia. For one, Symphony of the Night has an atmosphere that feels genuinely haunting, an element lost in many Castlevania games nowadays. The juxtaposition of a moody soundtrack and the gothic-inspired backgrounds creates a harrowing aura that immerses the player into its environment. What's important is that the game needs both in order to achieve this. Some aspects of the inverted castle would feel bizarre by themselves, for instance, but it's the music (especially Lost Painting) that gives the areas their edge and pushes them onto a horrifying level.

Games like Curse of Darkness and Portrait of Ruin have better soundtracks than Symphony nowadays, but damn if the music here isn't something special. Many game soundtracks involve knowledge of where that music was used in the game in order to derive any excitement from them, but Symphony of the Night's soundtrack can be perfectly enjoyable to listen to even if you haven't played the game yet.


And even if some of the level design seems a little suspect now, think about the fact that the first game to actually stand toe-to-toe with this game was Dawn of Sorrow, which didn't release until 2005. For eight years, Symphony held the crown of the best designed Castlevania title. In an industry that's highly reliant on sequels that supplant their predecessors, being the best game in the franchise for eight years is a lifetime.

Also, in Castlevania games we were usually placed in the boots of a Belmont, a vampire hunter brandishing his traditional whip: the "Vampire Killer." But Symphony let us play someone different: the main character, Alucard, was a vampire himself. However, he was a vampire with a vendetta against evil that we could get behind. No longer were we confined to a whip, but this game gave us multiple weapons to use, along with special techniques, increasing the variety ten-fold.

Time usually isn't good to a number of games, that's a standard we've accepted in the video gaming medium. Even if our perspective on some of the elements has changed for the worse in recent times, Symphony of the Night is still perfectly playable today for either a revisit or for the first time. It's the kind of game that should be experienced by anyone who has a fondness for anything 2D, and like many older games, it wouldn't demand much of your time either.

It's never any surprise to see a subset of gamers split in their opinions on a game. Yet, given the non-surprise of it all, you'll see them arguing back and forth frivolously over internet message boards. This is one of the aspects that distinguish Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin from other installments in the series, and most games for that matter: the audiences giving the arguments for and against it are ostensibly evenly split, and they go toward both extremes. While one finds the game to be a worthwhile product in the franchise, the other thinks it's an absolutely execrable product not worthy of the series' name.

There could be two possible reasons for this. For one, you wouldn't know from taking a glance at it, but Portrait of Ruin was released for the franchise's 20th Anniversary. Though series producer Koji Igarashi (his nickname, IGA) said the only feature in the game that trademarks it as an anniversary title is the main character's usage of a whip, there actually are numerous references to the older titles spread throughout the game. But it's possible that one audience wasn't satisfied with this because they felt it had to be the unparalleled best in the franchise, standing above even the pre-established games in the series. The second possible reason is that the game does have numerous flaws, but maybe they bother some people more than others. Of course, a third reason could be that we're on the internet, where everyone has to hate on something regardless of its inherent qualities; but that's another discussion.


Portrait of Ruin brings some new features to the Castlevania franchise. The game is reliant on the two main characters, Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin, working as a team to pass obstacles and defeat enemies. Here is a franchise that's always focused on solo play, but in order to pass many parts of the game, including battles, team attacks and team techniques rule the day. This opens the door to many possibilities, like having one character attack while the other uses magical attacks at your command. Dual physical and magic attacks are also possible, which take a pretty good chunk of damage from numerous surrounding enemies and bosses; they're powerful enough that many of them will drain half of your MP, but they're worth it if you're in a pinch.

If you've played many Castlevania games before, and owned a Sega Genesis, the name "Morris" might sound familiar. That's because Jonathan Morris is the son of Castlevania: Bloodlines' protagonist John Morris. He currently wields the famed "Vampire Killer," a whip passed between many Belmonts, and given to him by his father. He, unfortunately, lacks the ability to unlock its true power because he isn't a direct descendant of the Belmont bloodline. Also, you wouldn't know it by her last name, but Charlotte Aulin is a direct descendant of the Belnades line, a family that always served as assistants to the wielder of the Vampire Killer. Charlotte is also the thinker of the two, while Jonathan tends to solely rely on his strength and vigilance, often making him reckless.


Jonathan and Charlotte happen upon Dracula's Castle in 1944, set against the backdrop of World War II. Dracula isn't due for a revival just yet, but the two of them, especially Charlotte, sense that something is amiss within the castle. The two of them, upon exploring only around eight percent of the castle, happen upon a man named Wind. He explains to them that a mysterious villain named Brauner has taken the castle over in Dracula's absence, and he's established portraits that encase the castle's power for his own nefarious purposes. No one ever said a Castlevania game's plot had to be steeped in logic, and Portrait of Ruin's plot certainly doesn't take itself too seriously.

Another new feature added to this game are the aforementioned portraits. Once you come upon one in the castle, you can enter them to defeat the enemies and bosses within and collect necessary items to help you explore more of the castle. The portraits act as a glorified hub system, but it fortunately sidesteps Lament of Innocence's problem of being able to access the more difficult ones too early. You won't be able to reach the later ones until you advance further in the castle.

All of the portraits contain bosses that you'll have to deal with before you go. Not an easy feat, for the bosses in Portrait of Ruin are quite difficult. But they're only difficult in the way that they have patterns that can be exploited before you can defeat them, but this comes at the expense of learning them first, requiring you to take heavy damage from their attacks. A little perseverance will go a long way towards defeating them, which you'll need, because you'll most likely die on your first try. Regular enemies won't pose much of a challenge, though.


The portraits themselves represent one of the problems in the game, however. The first four are pretty good and well designed, but you'll be disappointed when you realize that the last four are just extensions of those first ones. It feels as if the development team either ran out of ideas or a budget for four more areas, and decided to rehash them by designing them differently. It's kind of like the problem Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness had, except in 2D form. Fortunately, moving on a 2D plane is faster than moving on a 3D one, making it feel like less of a grind.

Like every Castlevania game, Portrait of Ruin has sub-weapons. But this time, they come with a twist: instead of merely using them, you have the ability to power them up by obtaining SP from enemies you finish them off with. The higher the enemy's SP, which you can tell from the secondary panel on the top screen, the more SP a sub-weapon gets. The problem here is that you won't get to enemies that have higher SP until much later in the game. This means that if you want to power up your sub-weapons earlier in the game in order to make them completely useful, you'll have to use them over and over and over again. This can easily become a chore, even when you want to power them up later on, because you're bound to have collected many by then.


But there are some nice positives here. Well, kind of. The artwork still isn't as good as the previous games, with the developers again making the decision of using anime-style artwork instead of the series' usual Gothic-style material. It sure is better than Dawn of Sorrow's art, but it still could use some improvement. It's still good enough that it doesn't ruin the mood of the game, which is good, because this game takes itself less seriously than Dawn.

One of the best features of the game is the music. This time, half of it is composed by Michiru Yamane, while Konami enlisted the help of semi-legendary video game music composer Yuzo Koshiro to help her with composing the other half. Portrait of Ruin easily has the best soundtrack of the portable Castlevania games, and has one of the best soundtracks to grace the series.

Portrait of Ruin is a great Castlevania game, despite a few hindrances that keep it from being the legendary title worthy of being the 20th Anniversary special. Even if it is a small step back from Dawn of Sorrow, it's still undeniably worth 10-15 hours of your time if you enjoy Castlevania or Metroidvania titles.

An interesting aspect of the Castlevania franchise: rarely any of the titles is a direct sequel to the game before it and features the player taking control of the same character again. Though the games take place in the same universe, every game in the series features you in the feet boots of a new protagonist. Though Symphony of the Night was a sequel to Rondo of Blood, the main character of that game wasn't the same. It's one of the only prominently popular franchises to engage in this practice.

But as the franchise moves on, its creators decide to approach the formula with some ingenuity. In this case, it's a pretty simple update: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was regarded as an excellent title among the series' faithful, and the only good Game Boy Advance iteration, so why not make the first entry on the DS a sequel to it? AoS had some good ideas, and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow would be the game to capitalize even further on the formula it established.

When you begin the game, you realize that the protagonist, Soma Cruz, has lost his powers as he's been away from Dracula's Castle for a good while. It's very similar to the way Samus conveniently loses her powers after each Metroid game. The Metroidvania titles in the Castlevania series were originally derived from Metroid, so this is all par the course, really. Soma was allowed to live a normal life for a little while, but it isn't long until it's interrupted by a cult dedicated to the resurrection of Dracula. The cult is led by a woman named Celia Fortner, who plans to revive the dark lord to prevent the loss of her powers. Though Soma is warned not to get involved with the order, he decides to take their challenge anyway and heads back to Dracula's Castle.

The soul system that made the last game popular unsurprisingly returns in this game, and it also unsurprisingly has been given enhancements. The surprising aspect is how the souls do much more than just aid you in battle. There's some attention to detail to be exploited in collecting a number of souls, and a number of the same souls. For instance, obtaining and equipping a skeleton soul allows you to throw a bone at another enemy; obtaining a number of those same skeleton souls will allow you to throw a bigger and stronger bone. The same goes for many other souls, including ones that enhance your stats, like strength and HP. If you thought the Soul System catered to your inner OCD before, prepare to lose many hours on this now. Especially if you're concerned with obtaining the souls that are harder to get, as there are more of them this time around.

Souls can also be used for synthesizing new weapons, a new feature for this game. In AoS, you could obtain the best weapons by either exploring the surroundings or having enemies drop them. Not so here, as the only way to get the best weapons is to use the soul synthesizing system. This is done by matching a soul with an existing weapon you have in your inventory to create a stronger weapon, and some matching might enable your weapon to now have an elemental effect. The synthesizing is done by returning character Yoko Belnades; yes, she actually has a use this time around.

Graphically, the game also uses the power of the DS. With this, the character, enemy, and background sprites are right on par with the best SotN had to offer on the Playstation. Though there are numerous enemies ripped right from that game, some of the newer enemies have been given nice animation detail that's wonderful to see in motion (and obsess over, if you're that type). The same goes for the backgrounds. Fans like to knock IGA for various aspects of the franchise that they feel have grown stale, but if there's one thing you have to praise him for excelling at, it's attention to detail. Soma himself also animates just as good, if not better, than Alucard.

The dual screen setup also makes it easier to progress from section to section. No longer do you have to pause to check the map often to see where you have to go next. You can either have the map or your stats displayed on the top screen (and cycle through them pressing the select button) while the game is still going with the touch screen. This makes cycling through them much less of a hassle.

Depending on your preferences, the above may or may not be the first aspects of the game you notice upon playing it for the first time. Heck, you might even notice from the cover, and not just the in-game portraits, that the art style has been completely revamped. It may be a big departure from the previous styles used, but it's not for the better. The art this time around is less gothic and more like art rejected from a Saturday morning cartoon. It's not even half as good as Ayami Kojima's material, and the gothic tone of the game is slightly ravaged because the style is used in the game's portraits. Only "slightly," though, because the sprites themselves aren't affected. IGA said the new art style was to appeal to a younger audience, and if the sales data is correct, it didn't work.

But it's a good thing the music is still good. Michiru Yamane returns to lend her work for another Castlevania soundtrack, bringing with her Masahiko Kimura, who she previously partnered up with for Suikoden III and IV. The majority of the tracks are more mellow than your average Castlevania title (the DS isn't a good system for handling guitar riffs), but the soundtrack itself is great and varied, with a nice mixture of slow and fast-paced music to accompany each stage.

The difficulty level is a tad higher than AoS. The majority of the normal enemies can still be disposed of pretty effortlessly, but after the halfway point of the game, the boss difficulty starts to climb. Hope you like challenge, because the bosses here will test your reflexes and your (hopefully good) management of souls. And hopefully you've been using the synthesis system to your advantage.

But with that challenge comes a new feature called the Magic Seal system, which uses the touch screen to draw a seal to, well, seal bosses after a battle. They start off pretty easy, but become pretty complicated as the game goes on as you obtain newer seals. It sounds like a neat and quirky idea on the surface, but it's actually very gimmicky and can become a royal pain - especially later on. Some of the tougher bosses require much harder seals that have to be drawn, but imagine the scenario where your adrenaline is pumping after taking down a tough boss, and all of a sudden a complicated seal that requires twelve lines to be drawn suddenly appears The fight was tough enough that your hands might be shaking on your first time through the game, so you're a little fidgety while drawing the seal. It's possible that you might mess up, and failure means that the boss will regenerate around 20% of their health; not something you want to happen if you're up against tough opposition. Sure, you can practice the seals in the menu, but that won't help your nerves when the time comes.

The level design for the castle is fantastic for the most part, as it never feels repetitive or boring to go through the well-detailed locations. The last two levels are sadly exempt from that praise, feeling as if the level designers ran out of steam by the end, as the designs feel like they've been cut-and-pasted. It's nowhere near the level of Lament of Innocence or Curse of Darkness, but it's still disappointing after wandering through so much good design.

And there's a lot of it to progress through this time around. One of the main problems AoS had was that it was very short for a game so good; around four to five hours. DoS is at least twice as long, and you're guaranteed to spend even longer if you go soul hunting or would like to acquire the real ending; unless you intend to consult an FAQ or strategy guide for the latter.

A small amount of flaws aren't enough to keep the game from being superlative, and one of the best games in the franchise. Dawn of Sorrow stands toe-to-toe with Symphony of the Night for the best Metroidvania game. The replay value also adds to this, as afterwards, you can feel free to go through the game again on a higher difficulty to get more souls. It may be longer than Aria, but not long enough that you won't be able to play it again. It also has the best post-game bonus in the franchise.

Konami really robbed us in the early-to-mid-90s, but the unfortunate thing was that we didn't even realize it at the time. When we played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the first time in 1997, gamers realized from the intro that we'd really never played the previous game in the series. The company behind the Castlevania franchise had made due with only localizing its clone: Castlevania: Dracula X for the Super Nintendo. Some would say it's a poor man's iteration of that game, while others thought it was a lame attempt at a clone.

But now we live in a new generation, a time where more and more games are ripe for localization. We've collectively ditched those pesky, bulky, and expensive cartridges for new formats that are not only cheaper to produce, but capable of holding more information. Konami realized this, and decided to finally give us the real prequel to SotN: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. And as compensation for it taking so long to localize (around 14 years), Konami decided to remake the game for the PSP, along with throwing the original version and SotN in as bonuses for a budget price (though they have to be unlocked). They basically made up for us not getting the game initially and more.

The remake itself is entirely faithful to the original in a multitude of ways. The original Rondo was known for having some of the tightest and most reliable controls in the older Castlevania games, and the development team has retained that in this version. Jumping across platforms is something many remakes tend to stumble on, making platforming a little more difficult (see Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X for this) than it should be. But it never feels off here, and the programmers made sure that the exact timing of jumping, along with Richter's movement, are as perfect as they could be within a movable 3D space. The movement is just as good, if not better, than 2D Mario's adaptation to 3D in New Super Mario Bros.

The levels themselves also share the same great design of the original, except with a few non-detrimental modifications. Some are minor, like accessing a 1up takes a little less effort than it would in the original. But then you have aspects like Alternate Stage 5, which is completely different than the same stage in the original, complete with different music - it's also worth noting that the method of getting to the stage is actually different; it's much easier. Stage 7, the final actual stage as the eighth is just the final boss, also has different music, though the original design of the stage is completely intact. The new track added in actually helps give the level a more epic feel to make the player realize that they're at the last stretch, remaining only minutes away from the conclusive battle.

The soundtrack consists of a faithful amount of remixes of the original tunes, all of which should sound familiar to not only the three people who played Rondo beforehand, but also to players who experienced Dracula X. The SNES game contained lower quality but faithful tracks of the tunes from Rondo, though it also dropped some tracks completely because of a lower amount of stages. Some of the new renditions are more faithful than others, though. The new composition of "Cross Fear" is spot on, and "Ghost Ship Paining" even surpasses the original. Though it's a pity that both "Dreams of Triumph" and "Cemetery" lack the necessary rhythm to make them on par with the original, though they're still good. The music is still composed by members of the Konami Kukeiha Club, who were responsible for composing the original's music under the veil of anonymity.

The storyline takes place right before Symphony of the Night, setting the stage for the events that would transpire in Alucard's adventure. This game's hero, Richter Belmont, sets forth for Dracula's castle after the Dark Priest Shaft (no, that's seriously his name) kidnaps a number of villagers, including his girlfriend, Annette, and a young vampire huntress named Maria Renard. It is discovered that Shaft has also revived Dracula himself in the process. The final battle with Dracula is exactly the same as the prologue in SotN, though maybe with an added twist.

If you're good enough to make it to the alternate stages, you'll have opportunities to save some of the villagers being held captive. Here, you'll be greeted by a cut-scene involving that villager thanking you many times over for saving them. But mere thanks are not your only award, as saving them is the only way to obtain some of the special secrets in the game.

There are also music tracks spread throughout the game to obtain. These are here to collect because of the music editing feature, which allows you to change the music tracks to any of the stages in the game. The tracks consist of music from the original Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. The music is already fitting enough as it is, but it's a fun feature to tinker around with.

If you didn't realize that Rondo was different from your usual modern Castlevania game, you will upon only ten minutes of playing this one. Make no mistake that this is one of the older Castlevania titles, meaning that it's very challenging. Come packed with a bundle of persistence, because you will die in this game; and die very often. Fortunately, Rondo consists of the good kind of challenging gameplay, in that it's purely a test of skill. Some aspects, especially later in the game and in the alternate stages, might seem a little overwhelming at first, but they're never arbitrarily designed. The game is never cheap or unfair.

Additionally, the remake is a tad easier than the original. A little of the platform jumping has been made easier, and many of the tougher bosses from the original have had their speed reduced in order to help you be more competitive against them. A good example of this is the werewolf boss of Stage 2, who moves noticeably slower than his original counterpart. His curving fireball attack is also easier to dodge. That's not to say the boss battles aren't still challenging though. One of the setbacks of the SNES "version" was that the game felt cheap and frustrating, but that's avoided in the remake.

All of the voices have been dubbed into English with the exception of the intro that retains its original German tongue. The acting is pretty good, with Dave Wittenberg doing a great job as Richter, and sounding similar to his voice of Leon in Lament of Innocence. Michelle Ruff is also good as Maria Renard. Of course, if you're not a fan of the English voices, there's a Japanese option available.

The cut-scenes themselves are now done entirely in CG using the in-game engine, eschewing the anime-style portraits of the original in order to fit with the new character designs from Ayami Kojima. The dialogue exchanges are similar in tone to the original, though there are some changes in the storyline in order to completely tie it to SotN.

It's evident in the graphics that IGA's Castlevania team still hasn't attained a great grasp on 3D modeling. Though the environments boast more detail than in Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, there are a few points where some sections look bland, especially in comparison to the very colorful original. Fortunately, it's not too noticeable during the game thanks to the PSP's aspect ratio, but the aforementioned CG cut-scenes, that involve the camera angle zooming in close to the characters and environment, look awfully murky.

Still, a flaw like that doesn't go anywhere near stopping Rondo of Blood from being the best original-style Castlevania game to come from the franchise. The level design is perfect and perfectly challenging for the original and alternate stages. The remake itself is every bit as good as the original, even if it's a tad easier. What Konami has done here is completely make amends for anyone outside of Japan never being able to play the prequel to one of the best games in the franchise. Awfully nice of them, but thanks to the support of this (it's a Greatest Hit now), wouldn't it be nice if we got a better port of the original Rondo? It's been available on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan since mid-April, and hopefully only time will tell for its domestic release. It's been too long already, honestly.

What is a video game sequel? A sequel exists to, ostensibly, give people more of what they liked with the initial game and simultaneously correct the flaws that held the original work back. That game could have been held back by a few flaws, or much more than a few; and the sequel will exist to show the intended audience that the developers do listen to you. It says that they understand what you liked and didn't like about the original, and thus they intend to give us a sequel that fully realizes the initial concept.

Though that should be the intention, that isn't the way sequels always turn out. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence graced our presence in 2003, and was promised to be the first really good console Castlevania game since 1997's Symphony of the Night. But our expectations weren't met, as the game had a number of hindrances that held it back from being anything more than mediocre. But hey, everything's OK now, right? The core team behind the game is talented and competent. Surely they understood our frustrations with LoI, and decided to make a spiritual sequel that does the legacy justice. They may or may not have done this with Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.


In order to immediately appeal to the sensibilities of longtime Castlevania fans, the development team decided to have this game take place three years after fan-favorite NES title Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. The main character this time isn't Trevor Belmont, but a new character named Hector, a Devil Forgemaster. He and his friend Isaac, also a Forgemaster, previously served at the right hand of Count Dracula. Hector decided to leave after Trevor defeated Dracula in the events of Castlevania III, and desired to live a peaceful life. Unfortunately, fate would have different plans, as Hector's fiancée, Rosaly, is accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. Worse, her murderer was Isaac, a man he once trusted as a friend. Hector decides to head back to Dracula's Castle to find Isaac and avenge her death.

If you weren't aware that Hector was a Devil Forgemaster in the plot, you would eventually be once the game began. Hector has the ability to summon "devils" to either assist him in battle or to use for other means, like during platforming (for the little platforming there is in the game). The more you use a devil, the more powerful it will become as it acquires experience points.

Though the concept of devil forging is great, it's hardly fully realized. Ideas for the more unique devils are used a few times once you acquire them, but are then dropped for the remainder of the game except for a few instances. Using them in battle is OK, but it's a novelty that wears of quickly because the majority of the game is a cakewalk. Later on, the game gets so difficult that even you're powered-up devils are useless in comparison to Hector's power later in the game.

Which brings us to the inherent aspect of experience points, in that they're actually in this game. LoI decided to forgo leveling up in order to maintain the vibe of an older Castlevania game, though it didn't have the elements that made those games good. But the developers realized that the Metroidvania titles' experience gaining system was popular with fans right now, and the intention of this game was to appeal to people who liked those games. It's very welcome, and corrects some (heavy emphasis on that) of the balance options.

Hector is also given the ability to use multiple weapons. Belmonts are confined to only using a whip: the Vampire Killer. But seeing as how Hector isn't part of that bloodline, he can use various swords, rapiers, spears, brass knuckles, axes, and clubs. You can also collect materials dropped by random enemies in order to forge with your existing weapon to make it more powerful. If the game ever gets tough, feel free to make some new weapons to stand a chance. Of course, if you don't want to make weapons, feel free to buy them from the shopkeeper, Julia. Hector happens to mention the fact that she looks just like his murdered fiancée, but that plot point isn't further touched upon in the game.

The battle system has been given a few changes since the last game. Instead of memorizing specific combos when given to you with the whip, CoD decides to give you one button to use as a primary attack, and another button to use as a conclusion to a specific combo. Gamers familiar with games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden certainly are going to dismiss the game's battle system as a little more shallow, but to its credit, it's much easier to use for someone not used to games like those. And it's not like Castlevania's focus is on a complex battle system anyway.


Actually, the problem with battles lies in the fact that you'll be fighting the same enemies over and over and over again. And that gets old very fast. Boss battles are quite a bit better, though, as they involve quick attempts to attack the opponents and require you to dodge attacks at opportune times. They're the highlight of the game as far as battles go, so it's a shame they're few and far between.

Also similar to the Metroidvania games is the design of the castle. CoD decides to drop the hub system from the last game in order to go for a vibe similar to what a game like Metroid Prime did: give the player a fully 3D labyrinthine castle to explore. It's now immediately clear what areas you're able to go in and what areas you can't go to yet. For those areas, you'll either need an item or a new devil forge to venture into.

So it's a shame that CoD misses the point as to what made the level designs of the Metroidvania games and the Metroid Prime titles so good. It's as if the designers didn't realize the problem of repetition in LoI, and decided to use the same cut-and-paste technique here. But it's infinitely worse in this game, as since it takes place in a giant castle, getting lost is that much easier. It's more of a casualty in order to make up for lost time. This game also has multiple very long passageways and hallways that all look very similar to each other, some of which have very little enemies residing in them. It makes exploring them get old incredibly quickly, and getting turned around in them even worse, even if you are checking the map every step of the way.


Also here to make them worse to explore are the graphics. Mystifyingly, the game looks quite a bit worse than LoI, technically and aesthetically. While that game had well decorated interiors to help its gothic vibe stand out, CoD is laden with dreary backgrounds and a color palette that isn't at all pleasant to look at. The character models, for the most part, also aren't as detailed or well-rounded, and they look awkward in their postures. They could have at least made Hector, who you're primarily playing as, the most detailed. But, of course, he isn't. The best looking characters are Julia and Trevor Belmont, two characters you'll often not see.

The best elements of the game, similar to LoI, are the art and music. Ayami Kojima's artwork is detailed and beautiful, especially in terms of the character art, where it falters in the game. The music is similarly beautiful, and it's one of the best, if not the best, soundtracks Michiru Yamane has ever composed for a Castlevania title or a video game per se. This game has the kind of soundtrack that you'll love listening to over and over again, and it never gets old.

Curse of Darkness is further proof that 3D is far from the specialty of IGA's Castlevania team. The game is really a regurgitation of the problems that plagued Lament of Innocence, giving fans the signal that the developers really didn't listen to us, or take a few cues from a game like Metroid Prime, which executes the concept better. The team has shifted away from 3D titles recently, and if games like the two PS2 titles (or even worse, Nanobreaker) are indications of what they would continue doing, that's fortunate for us.

It’s always bound to happen. There comes a time where the more popular older franchises have to be adapted to a new audience. An audience that’s more accepting of newer 3D conventions than the 2D styles of yore. You could probably think of a series becoming stale and not trying anything new; for remaining within its comfortable pre-established genre and with its vocal-though-niche audience.

And here it’s Castlevania’s turn to move into the third dimension, which was first on the Nintendo 64. The company who would eventually develop Circle of the Moon, Konami’s Kobe studio, decided it would be a good idea to make this series acceptable by the then-current standards. Their ambition would fall to reality, as their efforts were, to say the least, extremely lacking. Both games – yes, they made two of them – could have easily been worse, but they were far from acceptable for a series that holds itself in as high a regard as this franchise.

Upon realizing the failings of the past, and realizing how much better he and his team could do, current Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi (aka IGA) decided to make a new game in 3D. This time they would utilize the power of the Playstation 2 to get the job done. For a storyline, well, IGA would decide to make his own story for the origin of Castlevania’s Belmont clan. Since the original game featuring the origin storyline, Castlevania: Legends, wasn’t any good, this game would be the better origin storyline by the “official” team behind Castlevania. And they would call this game Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.

With this game retconning Legends’ Sonia Belmont from existence, LoI tells the story of Leon Belmont. He and his friend, Mathias Cronqist, previously resided as the heads of their company of knights in Europe, with Leon soon marrying his betrothed, Sara Trantoul. Their life is disrupted as Sara is kidnapped by an unknown assailant. Mathias explains to Leon that a man named Walter Bernhard has kidnapped her and intends to play a game with Leon within his castle enshrouded by the “Eternal Night.” Leon immediately leaves the knights, symbolized by him leaving his sword behind, and rushes toward the castle in order to save her.

LoI tells the origin of everything that would become standard in the series. Leon is given the Whip of Alchemy at the beginning of the game by an old alchemist named Rinaldo Gandolfi, who lambasted Leon for being reckless for speeding into the castle without a weapon. The whip, upon absorbing a bevy of power throughout Leon’s quest through the castle that would eventually become Dracula’s Castle, assumes the identity of the “Vampire Killer.” This is the whip that would be passed down through every generation of Belmont.

The story itself isn’t too bad, and the voice acting is also pretty good, but the overall plot falters because of some terrible writing. IGA definitely wants the series’ fans to take the tale this installment tells seriously, but that’s hard to do with a villain who places himself on a pulpit and proclaims himself to be “beloved by the night.” It’s even worse when the hero makes the grandiose proclamation of killing him and the night.  Good voice talent like Dave Wittenberg (Leon) and Jamieson Price (Walter) can only do so much with a script that feels like it cribs lines from a high school play written by a freshman student.

But hey, the game sure looks nice while telling the story, and while exploring. The character models are nicely detailed; not realistic enough to give anyone the unsettling Uncanny Valley vibe, but animated enough to never be off-putting. The environments contain the gothic-style design that Castlevania is known for.
 
Though it’s interesting to see how they’re implemented in terms of level design. Instead of giving players a degree of exploration in a gigantic labyrinth of a castle like its Metroidvania brothers, LoI adapts a hub system in order to get from level to level. Upon entering the castle and going through the training ground therein, the game gives you five levels to start with. In this sense, it actually feels more like the older Castlevania games as opposed to the aforementioned open-ended ones.

Even though it’s a good idea in theory, the hub system is executed in the worst way possible. You’re free to go to any level at any time, but the problem is that each level varies in difficulty. The one you should start with is indicated by having a partial map of the level available outside the entrance, but after that, you’re left with no idea of where to go next. The difficulty goes from easy to moderately difficult in the rooms going from left to right, but how could you possibly know this without exploring each section in detail beforehand? You couldn’t, and what remains is nearly the epitome of bad game design. Enemies in the “later” levels require longer combo strings to stand a chance against, combo strings you’ll need to acquire through defeating weaker enemies in the “earlier” levels. Again, there’s no way to know this upon approaching the game for the first time. The game also ditches the RPG-like leveling system, which had become popular in the franchise. That's actually a shame, because it could have made the aforementioned flaw of initial uncertainty a bit easier to take.

The design of the levels themselves isn’t very good either. Here’s hoping you’re a big fan of the occasionally well-decorated environments, because you’ll be seeing them over and over and over and over again. The problem with them becoming monotonous is that not only are you exploring locations that look exactly the same, but their similarities will make it that much easier to get lost in. You’ll have to check the map almost every step of the way to make sure you’re going the right way, and even then it won’t prevent you from inadvertently taking a wrong turn.

The fighting system is actually pretty good, and could easily be classified as Devil May Cry-lite; an ironic occurrence, seeing as how Devil May Cry was originally accepted as a precise adaptation of Castlevania in 3D when we ignored the N64 efforts (and eventually this one). Fighting enemies is pretty fun, until you realize that with similar looking environments also come the same enemies ad nauseam. The most interesting battles are the boss encounters, where using all of the techniques available to you are required to win. So it’s a shame there are only around eight of them in the entire game, including the optional one. The game also surprises you with an unbelievably difficult final boss, in which you can only do minimal damage to the opposition while it can do heavy damage with only lifting a finger.

If there are two things that are perfectly great here, it’s the music and the artwork. Series mainstays Michiru Yamane and Ayami Kojima, responsible for the music and art respectively, have done some of their best work here. Yamane’s music helps assuage the pain of exploring and fighting through the same environments and enemies, even if her usual guitar riffs are absent in this game -- which she later explained was because of the time period the game takes place in. It’s also worth noting that a music box is available in the game, which not only allows you to play each track in the game, but also contains a text description of each track written by Yamane herself to explain the significance of each piece in the game. Kojima’s characters are nicely rendered into 3D, giving the characters and bosses a distinct, gothic look about them. The game itself may not be worth investing time in, but the music and artwork are certainly worth it.

Lament of Innocence is, in essence, a great concept executed poorly. After being shown how good a Castlevania-like game could be done with Devil May Cry, and after superlative efforts from the team that brought us games like Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow, this particular title comes as a total letdown. What should have been stand-out moments, like exploring the castle, fall prey to laziness thanks to the cut-and-paste design of the whole affair. Maybe the team realizes their flaws, and does better next time.

We, as gamers, should be able to forgive Konami for the misstep that was Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. The game released at the launch of the Game Boy Advance in June 2001, a system still in its infancy, and was another in an attempt to make a palatable portable Castlevania title. Also, the game was developed by Konami’s now-defunct Kobe studios, a subset of the company known for releasing the lower quality titles from Konami – including the two god-awful N64 Castlevania titles. That’s more reason why you should just forget about it.

In case some fans didn’t, though, Konami decided to make a spiritual follow-up in order to appease to the fans. They called it Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, a title developed by Konami’s Tokyo studios. The game was also headed by Koji Igarashi (IGA), and developed by the same team responsible for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Therefore, it should be a great game; the worthy successor that fans had been clamoring since its predecessor graced the PSOne back in 1997. Expectations, however, can only get you so far.

Calling HoD a successor to SotN is only grammatically correct in terms of the game being from the same development team, not in canon. The game’s storyline occurs well before Symphony, starring the grandson of Castlevania II’s Simon Belmont: Juste Belmont (pronounced “Joost”). He’s called into action when his friend, Maxim Kischine, informs him that their friend, Lydie Erlanger, has been kidnapped and taken into Dracula’s Castle. Both Juste and Maxim take off to rescue her from the ominous and monolithic labyrinth.


One of the flaws the team sought to correct in this game was the main character’s walking speed. CotM’s Nathan Graves walked way, way too slow, forcing the player to always tap forward twice to run every time they needed to (more cumbersome than it sounds). HoD’s Juste runs at a brisk pace, but also added to this game is the ability to dash backward and forward across platforms (whereas Symphony only had a back dashing option). This makes the pacing of the game faster, and makes simply running less of a needless chore.

Also fixed by this game are the graphics. CotM wasn’t too hard on the eyes, but its simple sprites and color palette showed its Game Boy Color origins. HoD uses the Game Boy Advance’s graphical abilities to display animation and colors almost rivaling SotN. It still looks nice despite its apparent focus on a rainbow of reds and greens (though that really kind of works against it if you plan on playing the game on one of the newer, backlit GBA SP’s, which bleeds red colors. Keep that in mind), but no one in their right mind was expecting something on par with SotN from a system not capable of that the PSOne could do.

Also new to HoD are elemental sub-weapons. The sub-weapons themselves are nothing new to the Castlevania franchise, but in this game, Juste has the ability to add elements like fire and ice to them, using various effects depending on what elemental book you have equipped (they’re acquired in various places throughout the game). This is a very useful ability for enemies who are weak against a specific effect.


The tragedy here is that while HoD tried to mimic SotN and rectify CotM’s mistakes, it also falters on elements those two titles got right. One is the difficulty; CotM started off OK, but as you progressed through the game, it became a little too challenging, forcing you to level grind in places in order to have a fighting chance against enemies in further sections. HoD makes things easier…too much easier, in fact. You don’t even have to be a seasoned Castlevania veteran to make it through the game with minimal effort.

It’s true that SotN was a pretty easy game, but it was one that displayed a well-balanced form of easy. This means that while mostly every obstacle in that game was climbable without making your palms sweaty, it was still fun because you were an even match against the opposition. But HoD is far too easy, and Juste is always far too powerful for just about every enemy, which makes things boring. SotN certainly didn’t have any bosses that you could defeat without taking a scratch, which is exactly what a good half of the boss encounters in this game will end like. Most of the bosses are easier rehashes of forms from all of the previous games, and the ones that aren’t are just lame in design.

CotM had a problem with its level design, in that while there were different sections of the castle, most of them had the same bland aesthetics to them, making exploring them feel monotonous. HoD makes its levels more distinct, as its backgrounds and aesthetics make every area feel different than one that came before…for a while. That’s until you reach the halfway point of the game and advance into the second castle, only to realize that it’s the same castle in reverse. This is where the monotony begins to set in, where you’re required to go back through the same locations in a maze-like manner, searching to trigger the next plot device or find the next boss. Very little of the “exploration” in the second castle is any fun, it’s just incredibly tedious. An upside-down castle in SotN was clever when it was done back in 1997, but in 2002, a reverse castle just reeks of laziness.

They also completely missed the mark on the music, as HoD has one of the worst, if not the worst, soundtracks to ever grace a Castlevania title. Not because the tunes utilize NES-style sound quality, but because the music tracks are poorly composed. They seem comprised of a cacophony of sounds, strung together in the intent of forming something palatable to listen to. NES-style soundtracks can be done right on the GBA, the Mega Man Battle Network soundtracks are a good example, but if you want an example of them being done horribly wrong, look here.


The experience is over fairly quickly. Like the other Castlevania games on the GBA, HoD can be completed in around 4-5 hours. Its total playtime is an homage to the 16-bit era in every respect in that aspect, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering that game’s overall quality.

The developers attempt to mimic SotN falls flat, as it seems that they forgot what people adored about their previous effort in the first place. There’s already the example of the castle design, but fans liked the fact that SotN was unique for a Castlevania game, and took the series into uncharted waters with its design. Sure, SotN may have aped the Metroid-template (establishing the term “Metroidvania”), but presented some new challenges for the franchise. That’s something HoD never, ever does.

These days, Harmony of Dissonance only remains a slightly masochistic curiosity, much like Circle of the Moon. In trying to fix the flaws of CotM, HoD gets some aspects right, and breaks a number of others. If you’re searching for a Metroidvania fix on the GBA, as far as Castlevania goes, Aria of Sorrow remains your only worthwhile option. Well, that and Metroid: Zero Mission.

There’s a rather large variety of Castlevania games readily available, even if they all fit within a few genres. Variety in most cases is a good thing, but not in a series where many of the games are of varying quality. That also depends on whether they don't age well – like many NES, PSOne, and N64 titles – or just total crap, the latter of which fits for almost any Castlevania game in 3D. You can rest assured that Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is one of the best in the franchise.

Aria released in a time where the Game Boy Advance began to hit its stride, when the average gamer started to realize that this portable gaming thing was worth more attention than just qualifying a mere diversion when away from a console. Aria was one of the first in a legion of great GBA games to release after the GBA SP in 2003, releasing between games like Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. Aria, like the two aforementioned titles, still stands up almost perfectly today, and kept the 16-bit spirit alive.

Why is Aria so good, though? For starters, you can thank the unique (for a Castlevania game) environment the game takes place in. Aria takes place in our future, and it’s a semi-believable future at that. A young man named Soma Cruz mysteriously happens upon a castle he once regarded as only a legend. He finds his friend, Mina Hakuba, passed out on the floor and immediately meets a mysterious, though familiar, man in a black suit. He tells him that he has arrived in Dracula’s Castle, a labyrinthine monolith of a palace. Soma (that’s you!) has to venture forth through the castle in order to save Mina.


Good level design is a prerequisite for a game that begs for non-linear exploration. Aria is an entry into the “Metroidvania” style of Castlevania games. It deviates from the standard of going from beginning to end and repeating the process ad nauseam, and features a wide open castle for you to explore that’s similar in the way Metroid is. Sure, you could be cynical and call the thing a lame rip-off of the process, but the level designs of this style of Castlevania are so good that you’d have to be an awfully mean-spirited, soulless entity to even make an attempt at that. You know, unless you’re referring to when they don’t work.

However, Aria’s does, in fact, work very well. The castle is a behemoth with multiple paths to take, many of which can’t be explored initially because of a specific ability or item that has to be obtained later in the game. Is there a pristine-looking stylish piece of armor laying on a platform well above the position you’re standing in? Well that’s too bad, and you’re definitely going to need some addition to your arsenal in order to achieve a higher jumping technique. Aria is loaded with structures like that. It never serves as an impediment, though, but as an addition to the sense of exploration the game offers.

Aria requires a lot of backtracking, but it never feels like a chore, unlike some other games. That’s because it’s done with finesse, care, and thought. The designers were apparently aware of how much backtracking can be too much, and used a proverbial barometer to measure the balance between the factors of boring and absolute tedium, placing the bar in the middle to give the game a perfect sense of freedom. It’s one of the numerous elements that make the game playable more than once.

The other element is unique to Aria: The Tactical Soul system. Every enemy in the game drops a soul that gives Soma a unique power if equipped. Three different souls can be equipped at one time. One is used for attacks, a second one used for either stronger attacks or a defensive addition, and one used solely for defensive supplements. They’re helpful in keeping the game fresh, and anyone playing can go through it differently, given the multiple combinations of souls giving varying attributes.

Multiple weapons are also available throughout the game. Some found in various locations – the stronger ones being very well hidden, dropped randomly by enemies, or purchased at the store. The stronger ones come from the enemies, and the drop rate depends on their weaknesses – using a light-branded weapon against a dark-laden enemy is obviously beneficiary, for example -- and your current Luck level. Both of these can be obtained through the three previously mentioned means, though the elemental-laden weapons don’t begin to become increasingly prevalent until around 1/3 through the game.

The weapons themselves are also distinct in their type. There’s the standard well-balanced sword, knives that are quick to use but not very damaging, rapiers that do about the same amount of damage as swords depending on what kind. There are also larger weapons, including gigantic swords that perform a heap of damage, but at the cost of a slow motion. Of course, if you prefer a huge challenge to the game, you can feel free to go without a weapon at all.


Aria's difficulty fits squarely into the well-balanced criteria. Breezing through every regular enemy isn't possible in this incarnation, unlike Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance. The bosses predictably prove an even bigger challenge; they start off easy enough, but the encounters with them ramp up ten-fold around the halfway mark. The difference between a boss being easy or hard can be decided by whatever souls Soma is currently equipped with. Make sure to experiment, because it can make the difference between a fight being tough-as-nails to almost effortless. What makes the encounters so enthralling is that they're only as tough as you make them, and the challenge is never too overbearing.

Due praise should be given to the art, provided by self-taught artist Ayami Kojima. Her unique style is fitting for the game, helping to bring about the gothic style of the title. It also works as an assistance in the promotional materials, lending credence to the game’s unique aesthetics. The portraits in the game also help in giving it a harrowing feel when the need arises.

Those “unique aesthetics” come into play with the game’s vibrant hand-drawn graphics. Aria looks even better than the best the 16-bit titles had to offer, with a color-palette using a range of colors that’s never ill-fitting but giving the environments their necessary touch. Some of the environments also uphold the series’ standard of containing little easter eggs to discover by tinkering with them a little. The character sprites are also excellent for the system it’s on.

It’s a shame the music doesn’t rise to the standards set by everything else in the game. While it isn’t bad, the majority of current series mainstay Michiru Yamane’s soundtrack sounds like an afterthought compared to some of her other, vastly superior works for the Castlevania franchise. No one was expecting her work to be on par with Symphony of the Night’s, which used various instruments for a nice variety of quality tunes – and you’d be insane for expecting that kind of range on a system not even capable of half the amount of quality as far as pure sound goes. Sure, there are some standout tracks like “Phantom Palace,” “Clock Tower,” and “Can’t Wait Until Night,” but it’s mostly forgettable fare. Some of the remixes of the themes are much better on the ears, though; certifiable proof that composition is important for a system not capable of too many sounds. Castlevania: Bloodlines proved that she’s capable of working with a system -- in this case, the Sega Genesis – with lower sound capacity, so it’s a mystery as to what happened here.


With the game being so great, it’s a pity the game has to come to an end so quickly. Don’t expect to spend more than about 5 to 6 hours with the main game. Thankfully, games this short beg for replays, especially for the multiple combinations of weapons and souls, items that can’t be obtained through the initial playthrough, and, of course, the fact that it’s incredibly fun.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is one of the best in the series, and easily the best among the GBA titles, because of the amount of care lavished upon it. You can tell that the developers admire the series, and wanted to represent their respect for it with a fresh, new take on the series. The game’s beautiful gameplay and 2D graphics will ensure its playability for years to come. You know it's special if it renders its portable predecessors nearly unplayable.