Many of those secrets involve new weapons, armor and accessories for him to equip. Castlevania's beloved Clock Tower is there, of course, as well as underground waterways, vast chambers, an arena and all sorts of other places littered with secrets. Soma will explore a large castle divided into numerous sections. However, Soma's the one who is the protagonist, so, yeah, good luck with that, buddy.Īs far as gameplay goes, the basic framework of Symphony is still intact. Graham, one of those other people stuck in the castle, is convinced he's the dude about to inherit all the vampiric goodness. As Soma explores the place and does all the requisite killing of monsters and gaining of abilities, he finds out that Dracula and his castle are beings of chaos and Dracula isn't just a man, man he's a state of mind and his soul can be passed down to those deemed worthy.
A lad named Soma Cruz visits a shrine with a friend during a solar eclipse and winds up at Dracula's castle, where he meets a motley crew of other people who also found themselves there. In devising the story, the design team seemingly went the route of psychedelics. Not satisfied with being a mere mirror of its inspiration, Aria tinkered with the formula to become something more complex than one would expect of a game that can be beaten in less than 10 hours. The GameBoy Advance received a total of three scaled-down Symphonies, with 2003's Aria of Sorrow being both the last and the best of that number. However, the Symphony blueprint wasn't taken out of commission - it just moved to handheld devices. Meanwhile, the difficulty was dropped significantly, making it a far more relaxing game than its predecessors, as you could explore at your own pace and occasionally find weapons or accessories capable of turning even the toughest adversaries into complete pushovers.įrom there, the series embraced the third dimension on consoles and I found myself losing interest around the time I played Lament of Innocence and decided it felt less like Castlevania and more like a half-hearted God of War impersonator. You'd gradually collect abilities granting you access to new areas of the castle. Symphony of the Night kept the two dimensions and the platforming, but changed the focus to one of exploration, giving you a massive castle and changing the protagonist to Dracula's estranged son. However, with the PlayStation, a new direction was taken. Throughout the eight- and 16-bit eras, if a game bearing that moniker was released, you often could expect a tough-as-nails two-dimensional platformer where you controlled a dude with a whip who'd battle through all sorts of monsters on his way to confronting Dracula. The history of Castlevania has been an interesting one.
"A really good Symphony clone is still a Symphony clone." Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance) review
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