|
 About the Game Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a 2003 game released for the Game Boy Advance. Part of the Castlevania series, it is set in the not-so-distant future of 2035 and features protagonist Soma Cruz trying to explore the mystery behind the reappearance of Dracula’s castle at that point in time. The game is considered to be one of the greats of the series, sporting the exploration and snappy combat that has come to define the series. Critically upon release it arrived to near universal acclaim, rivalled only by the other mainstay of the series, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for how well it is regarded. Critics praised the story, gameplay, level design and music as excellent, with very few flaws tarnishing the overall package. It enjoyed a rerelease on modern consoles as part of the Castlevania Advance Collection on September 23rd 2021. Bundled in with Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow is easier to play now than it has been since its release nearly twenty years ago. Our exploration of the Metroidvania genre starting all the way back with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, winding our way through Super Metroid as well as Metroid Fusion and recently a looking at a more modern entry with through Hollow Knight. Aria of Sorrow comes as one of the last great entries in the genre and we are incredibly excited to see how it holds up against the others today. About the LP This, as with many of our LPs will be a Guided Blind LP, where I will play with no foreknowledge of the game and Yorkshire Tea will guide me through the world, ensuring that I don’t go too far astray. (Without good reason) Art and banners, will, as ever, be handled by the amazing Bifauxnen. Episodes                        Links Our Patreon! - In case you want to support our LPs and see episodes early! Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Apr 21, 2023 |
#
?
Apr 6, 2022 23:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 08:58 |
|
|
Well its not the best post SOTN IGAvania because theyre all the best in their own way  except harmony of dissonance and circle of the moon e: ooh i kind of hate that bestiary popup but its also kind of useful Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Apr 6, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2022 23:25
|
|
|
Rigged Death Trap posted:Well its not the best post SOTN IGAvania actually Circle of the Moon is decent e: I think I need to correct Tea there - in this game, having multiples of the same soul does not power it up. e2: Love how Nat beats the backdash tutorial boss without actually using the backdash. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Apr 7, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 00:02
|
|
|
This one might well be my favourite Castlevania (okay, SotN has that je ne sais quoi that's impossible to recapture, but this has much friendlier controls and tighter design) and I'm excited to see you guys experience it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 00:05
|
|
|
Explopyro posted:This one might well be my favourite Castlevania (okay, SotN has that je ne sais quoi that's impossible to recapture, but this has much friendlier controls and tighter design) and I'm excited to see you guys experience it. It's got a much more linear "beat area, find power, use power to get to new area" progression/a lot fewer weird optional sub areas/a much more consistent difficulty curve, all of which really hits both your points, I think.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 00:47
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:
There is, however, a good use for having spares of some souls.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 01:02
|
|
|
Nat's continual ability to completely miss save points is still amazing.  Rigged Death Trap posted:Well its not the best post SOTN IGAvania
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 02:07
|
|
|
Circle of the Moon definitely benefits from the bestiary popup more than Aria. Aria is a little helpful finding out what you might be missing, but The damned "which idiot even has a damned card" is much more precious.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 02:14
|
|
|
"Is there a wall jump?" "I'm only going to fight the zombies if they get in my way" *immediately turns around and kills a couple extra* *Discovers animation cancels within the first minute of play* ^Tries to sequence break* *Gets stuck on steps* Never change, Nat.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 03:54
|
|
|
Remember your SotN strats, Nat. Crouch and stab everything in the shins.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 08:47
|
|
|
 A narrative that won't make me want to stab everyone on screen, just the assholes. To clarify there's plenty of non-assholes in this game. All aboard the Drac Race. We're going to go places. Well, mostly the Castlevania, but it deserves the plural on its own. anilEhilated posted:e: I think I need to correct Tea there - in this game, having multiples of the same soul does not power it up. Uh, it doesn't? A change in Dawn I suppose. Probably for the worse, I hate farming.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 12:40
|
|
|
Hell yeah, Aria rules and so will this LP. I can feel it in my creaking bones. - backdash-jumping where you tried it is, in fact, a typical sequence break for this game - the Bat soul isn't useless at all - it attacks below you, after all. You could have used it in the staircase where you lamented the lack of such an ability! Also it's cheap as hell - if you know from later games what the peeping eye soul does (or luck into it immediately), the enemy placement here is super clever actually non-LP-comments: Circle rules, I've played all modes back to back in the Collection because I couldn't get enough. Yeah it has obvious and massive flaws but it's such a short, focused, surprisingly challenging and varied game that I don't care. Also it has the best soundtrack on the collection imo!
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 13:24
|
|
|
Omobono posted:Uh, it doesn't? A change in Dawn I suppose. Probably for the worse, I hate farming.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 14:23
|
|
|
Aria of Sorrow was the first SOTN-style Castlevania game that I beat, and for good reason. The combination of finding cool new weapons and monster powers meant that the game was fresh and interesting from start to finish. I actually got a surprising amount of mileage from some of the most basic souls. Even being able to throw a spear gives you range on stuff, and that's pretty dang useful.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 14:50
|
|
|
Peeping Eye is an enemy in basically every single Castlevania...except SotN where it only shows up as a background element. The popup on the right is just a quick look into the Bestiary. Less useful in Aria of Sorrow compared to its other appearances in the Advance Collection, but still useful if you're wondering if you got the soul for the thing you're punching. On that note, the number shown isn't the enemy's level, but rather its entry number in the Bestiary. Finally, there are two types of Guardian Souls (the blue ones): the ones activated by holding R, and the ones toggled on/off by pressing R. You can tell the difference between the two by the cost: the hold-R ones will have a long dotted arrow beneath the X/TIME cost, while toggles will have a short arrow. On that note, Souls as a whole are technically termed "Tactical Souls", a term that no one outside of fan wikis use. The different types, in addition to the color, have different names: Bullet Souls (Up+B), Guardian Souls (R), Enchanted Souls (equippable passives), and Ability Souls (can be toggled individually, gives new movement capabilities). I was going to encourage you to try out all sorts of different souls and then remembered I just saw you using Killer Fish and Merman so I guess I don't need to say anything. Keep up the good work.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 16:26
|
|
|
One thing I do want feedback in is the pop ups. At the moment I have them there because I thought showing them would be helpful in indicating a difference of the advance collection, but they make blowing up the video to match the full screen difficult and I can't decorate the blackspace around the game at all to make it a little less stark. Obviously I can't do that much with this set of episodes but for the next set I can see about fixing some stuff up.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 16:57
|
|
|
I'd prefer to see less of the Bestiary pop-ups, if possible. They do start to get distracting. Also, you not equipping armor as soon as you picked it up was starting to give me severe anxiety!
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 17:02
|
|
|
I love Aria of Sorrow, but my favorite is definitely Curse of Darkness for the PS2.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 17:20
|
|
|
Yeah I'd say turn the Soul Gadget off. Its more than a little annoying and I'm not quite sure what you mean by "indicating a difference of the advance collection." Aside from the gadget and the option to toggle High Quality Sound, I don't think there's any meaningful differences from this version to the original GBA cart.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 17:22
|
|
|
ChaosArgate posted:I'm not quite sure what you mean by "indicating a difference of the advance collection." *I assume blue/yellow souls would get that color.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 17:32
|
|
|
yeah you can turn off the popups if you want.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 19:59
|
|
|
Rosalie_A posted:Peeping Eye is an enemy in basically every single Castlevania...except SotN where it only shows up as a background element. Yup. But it's there! 
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2022 20:37
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:It was, in fact, the first good one after a while. There are still issues, but it's a lot of fun nonentheless. That was the one that was a GBA launch title, right? I remember playing it on an early GBA and it was fun, but almost impossible to see what the hell you were doing in some parts because of the system's light issues and the dark palette. This one is quite legit and I'm looking forward to seeing Nat
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 00:29
|
|
|
Honestly, Circle of the Moon is pretty good and I think people underrate it, but it's definitely one of those games that feels flawed in a few ways when you revisit it. (For instance: almost all the equipment, and less forgivably, the cards, are random drops from enemies, and the hidden secrets are all just HP/MP/Heart upgrades; a lot of it just feels kind of empty? And the environments aren't nearly as well designed as most other entries in the series.) Some parts of it feel a bit more like a proof of concept than a full game, but it's a solid enough experience and the different modes gave it a decent amount of replayability, I was really impressed with it when the GBA first came out. I'll put another vote for "get rid of the bestiary popups if it's causing problems", I don't think they add very much unless you're really enjoying doing commentary on the enemy names. Or if you find it helpful for tracking which souls you have, I guess. I enjoy the way you're trying out all the souls and using some unusual ones; it's very easy to get complacent and just use the straightforward ones, but some of the abilities are really out there in neat ways and it's fun to see them. (I don't think I've ever used Killer Fish...)
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 01:40
|
|
|
Aria whips rear end, congrats on getting to experience it for the first time. Simply Simon posted:non-LP-comments: Circle rules, I've played all modes back to back in the Collection because I couldn't get enough. Yeah it has obvious and massive flaws but it's such a short, focused, surprisingly challenging and varied game that I don't care. Also it has the best soundtrack on the collection imo! Circle was my first Castlevania game, so I didn't realize until years later how much of its music is remixed from earlier entries in the series. C-Euro fucked around with this message at 02:16 on May 4, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 09:43
|
|
|
Does Aria have multiple soul sets you can hotswap through? It's been a while since I last played the gba/ds 'vanias so I don't remember when that became a thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 10:03
|
|
|
Ayndin posted:That was the one that was a GBA launch title, right? I remember playing it on an early GBA and it was fun, but almost impossible to see what the hell you were doing in some parts because of the system's light issues and the dark palette. Explopyro posted:Honestly, Circle of the Moon is pretty good and I think people underrate it, but it's definitely one of those games that feels flawed in a few ways when you revisit it. (For instance: almost all the equipment, and less forgivably, the cards, are random drops from enemies, and the hidden secrets are all just HP/MP/Heart upgrades; a lot of it just feels kind of empty? And the environments aren't nearly as well designed as most other entries in the series.) Some parts of it feel a bit more like a proof of concept than a full game, but it's a solid enough experience and the different modes gave it a decent amount of replayability, I was really impressed with it when the GBA first came out. 2) isn't there an option to fill the black screen with a cool background image in the Collection settings (L2)? You could rotate those. I kinda like the pop-ups for the enemy names. 3) yeah, trying out something goofy and finding out that it actually does a lot of damage (water gun early game MVP for me) is the best part of these games
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 10:53
|
|
|
Omobono posted:Does Aria have multiple soul sets you can hotswap through? I wanna say that’s a thing Dawn brought to the table? I don’t remember this being in Aria, at least.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 11:32
|
|
|
Happy to see a new Metroidvania Let's Play from you guys and looking forward to following from the very beginning for once 
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 12:28
|
|
|
Omobono posted:Does Aria have multiple soul sets you can hotswap through? Aria's great. I think the first time I experienced it was actually through a randomizer, which was hella fun but also somewhat confusing!
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 18:25
|
|
|
I'm legitimately surprised to see that the water gun can be so good. I always wrote it off as just another soul I'll never use. Ditto for the Killer Fish, and there are a few points now I can see where it would be very useful. re: Sonic chat. I was 13 when I first saw Sonic Underground and even then thought it was cheesy, but grew loving the comedy chili dog show, and SatAM. gently caress knows what I'd think of them now though, especially the latter.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 20:36
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 22:58
|
|
|
The moment when you came up with the thread title was priceless. EDIT: Episode 3 Grand Armor? Okay armor at best. Gnoman fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Apr 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2022 23:12
|
|
|
Bamboo sword might have lower attack power, but weapons like that can be useful if you're that hard up to take out hard to reach enemies. Like the stack of skull heads right where you found it or the unes located in those inconspicuous locations. Also, Tiny Devil soul is indeed the poo poo for this point in the game.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 01:59
|
|
|
Yeah, so we're starting to get into what I think is the weakest point of the game, a lot of the bosses are extremely underwhelming. That poor manticore deserved better treatment from the devs.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Apr 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 02:01
|
|
|
I'm enjoying Nat speculating on the plot of the unreleased Castlevania 1999. The thread title is  . And of course for all the factions and the contestants that have been preparing for the Drac race for decades an unpredicted dark horse has appeared to blow this joint up. Metaphorically and literally.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 06:14
|
|
|
I feel bad for those zombie soldiers. Sent to fight supernatural beings, and what do they get? A knife. And grenades with a one foot blast radius. "Sir can we have guns" "No"
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 06:21
|
|
|
Shitenshi posted:Bamboo sword might have lower attack power, but weapons like that can be useful if you're that hard up to take out hard to reach enemies. Like the stack of skull heads right where you found it or the unes located in those inconspicuous locations. Also, Tiny Devil soul is indeed the poo poo for this point in the game. by the by: bat soul is super useful against Unes below you, too!
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 11:28
|
|
|
Mildly Interesting posted:I feel bad for those zombie soldiers. Sent to fight supernatural beings, and what do they get? A knife. And grenades with a one foot blast radius. I'm assuming they don't have the fine motor skills required to effectively operate their rifles anymore. I don't know what the shelf life is for modern grenades, probably more than 36 years, so I've got nothing on those.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 12:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 08:58 |
|
|
Omobono posted:I'm enjoying Nat speculating on the plot of the unreleased Castlevania 1999. Speaking of theres a fan game being made in the style of castlevania 3/Bloodstained curse of the moon all about 1999. holding off on posting its trailer since its minor spoilers.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2022 12:44
|
|