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Castlevania Aria of Sorrow is out now on the Wii U eShop! (US)

kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
Vorg said:
Portrait of Ruin is great. People will try to convince you it's a shit game and the worst of the ds trilogy, but I don't see how you can dislike the game if you're into the metroidvania formula. I went in thinking it would be crap and the game turned out surprisingly great tbqh. Still, you should definitely play the other games.
Click to expand...

I don't even like the igavanias and I enjoyed portrait of ruin despite its issues. It at least tried to make platforming somewhat meaningful. I like it better than OoE which I honestly thought wasn't very good at all.
 
Kuramu

Kuramu

Member
AoS was one of those games everyone said was great and I figured it couldn't be that good. I played it after every other Castlevania (so it's not nostalgia talking), and yet this was somehow perfect. It all just felt right in ways I can't put my finger on.

I personally think it's the best of them all. Better than SotN without question.
It's now been a few years, I look forward to playing it again soon
 
M

Miker

Member
The reason I disliked Portrait of Ruin was because it went from the Aria/Dawn of Sorrow Soul System that encouraged experimentation and varying builds to shitty subweapons that required grinding to maximize potential. I also found the stages to be haphazardly designed - it lacked the connectedness of SotN/Aria/Dawn. Order of Ecclesia also had more discrete stages, but it was harder and more interesting due to glyphs, so it still felt enjoyable to play through the linear stages.

There's a common criticism that Igavanias are big boxy rooms with platforms in randomly places with recycled sprites from pre-PSX games, and even as a fan of the series, I have to agree that it's true for Portrait of Ruin.
 
T

Tadale

Member
Let's do this:

Dawn of Sorrow > Symphony of the Night > Aria of Sorrow > Order of Ecclesia > Portrait of Ruin > Circle of the Moon > Harmony of Dissonance

This might be my favorite game series.I just finished up Circle of the Moon last week.
 
G

GreatMightySymp

Member
I know what I'm replaying tonight. :)

Got this on a whim before going to my grandparents when I was younger for the summer. Such an excellent choice.
 
O

Omegasquash

Member
Sagitario said:

Yamane <3
The GBA sound output makes me feel so nostalgic :p
Click to expand...
O5TuZLC.gif


I might have Heart of Fire on my workout playlist.
 
M

moltonasty

Member
Fond memories of this game! Prob my favorite igavania after SOTN. OoE was prob my least favorite. The fact that you could miss stuff that would prevent you from progressing was pretty shyte.
 
S

Sseklebeast

Member
Replayed Aria not too long ago on my Retron 5 and its still so amazing today as it was when it first came out.

Heart of Fire is one of my favorite tracks in a video game as well. Clock Tower theme is also pretty awesome!
 
B

Brakke

Banned
I played through Circle of the Moon on my AGS-101 SP just last month. This cart is in and all queued up to be my next travel game. I love how much excitement these games are getting because of the VC releases. They're some of my favorites.

GBA was really one of the GOATs.
 
S

Smellycat

Member
Amazing game

I think you should take out the spoiler about
Soma being a vessel for Dracula
You don't find out about that till near the end of the game.
 
T

Tempesta di Fuoco

Banned
Downloaded. I never played the GBA trilogy. Definitely want to play after I finish Harmony of Dissonance and will gladly await a good soundtrack after listening to Harmony of Dissonance's for only the 10 minutes I've played that game.

I played all of the DS Castlevanias (only really like Dawn though), so I am excited for Aria. Circle of the Moon was okay (just played it and beat it for the first time when it was released on VC), but some of the level design was really bad and the difficulty differences from one boss to the next was insanely unbalanced.

That said, the Metroidvania games aren't very good, in my opinion, outside of Symphony of the Night, which is the only Metroidvania that managed to capture any sort of mood or atmosphere. All of the other ones almost feel like weird Saturday Morning Cartoon spinoffs, if that makes sense. Crazy stupid stories, dumb overdramatic characters and character design, and laughably bad writing (Symphony of the Night had this, but that was mostly due to translation and the infamous voice acting).

None of them are even close to as good as the Classicvanias, but I still enjoy playing them.
 
F

Figboy79

Aftershock LA
I love this game so much. Why can't I play it on my 3DS? :(

I'd love to have an IGAVANIA collection for all platforms. In either case, when I eventually get a Wii U, I'll have a lot of SNES and GBA titles to add to my collection day 1!
 
S

Sorta Maximus

Member
My collection consists of Super Castlevania IV, Symphony, Aria, and Order of Ecclesia. I could get Dawn of Sorrow or more but I feel after a certain point it becomes diminishing returns for similar game experiences. They don't exactly move the concept forward very far with each release.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
How are these games on Wii U? Not too nasty looking stretched beyond its limits?
 
M

MrDaravon

Member
Brandon F said:
How are these games on Wii U? Not too nasty looking stretched beyond its limits?
Click to expand...

This is what I'm wondering. Also I don't have any of the GBA games on Wii U, but these should be playable on the Gamepad right? If so I'd imagine that's probably preferable than having it blown up on a TV.
 
S

steveovig

Member
Bought it today and I've already put in close to 4 hours. Last week, I beat HOD in 3 days, so we'll see how long this lasts. I do plan on getting all the Souls so that might add a little more time to my log for this. COM and HOD were between 11 and 13 hours for me but I didn't 100% either game. Right now, I'm stuck on
Death and his second form
and I'll probably level up a bit and collect some souls before trying again.
 
C

Christian

Member
HNNNNNNGG!!

I want to contribute more, but all I can say is

HNNNNNNGG!!

Reviewed this when it came out back in the day, had the testes to say it topped SotN in everything but graphics and music. And I'm still right. What a classic game. BUY IT. Can't wait to get home and pick it up myself.
 
M

Miker

Member
Brandon F said:
How are these games on Wii U? Not too nasty looking stretched beyond its limits?
Click to expand...

MrDaravon said:
This is what I'm wondering. Also I don't have any of the GBA games on Wii U, but these should be playable on the Gamepad right? If so I'd imagine that's probably preferable than having it blown up on a TV.
Click to expand...

I actually don't have any GBA virtual console games myself, but the GBA games are handled by M2, the studio known for awesome retro ports like Genesis games on 3DS. I think most people regard the GBA virtual console as the most authentic of the various virtual consoles on Wii U.
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
I played a ton of Dawn of Sorrow, but I remember getting stuck at a certain part and never finishing it. I actually liked that game on balance better than SoTN, which I've always thought was a bit too easy to fully deserve all the lavish praise it receives. So if this is better than Dawn, then I'm down for sure.
 
M

Mendoza

Member
MrDaravon said:
This is what I'm wondering. Also I don't have any of the GBA games on Wii U, but these should be playable on the Gamepad right? If so I'd imagine that's probably preferable than having it blown up on a TV.
Click to expand...

It looks crisp as hell on the TV, but I just instinctively look down on the gamepad anyway, probably because it's a GBA game. Hell, even when my buddy was playing it, when he was sitting directly in front of the TV, I noticed he still looked at the gamepad.
 
D

DrDrizzay101

Member
Never played this one but loved CotM as a GBA launch game... when I could position twelve lamps around myself to actually see the screen. Just bought it and can't wait to try it out, Order of Ecc. is the only other GBA/DS title I've played and it was also excellent.
 
L

LordGouda

Member
I've played AoS over 100 times on my GBA and on emulator. I'm so willing to play it 100+ more times on the Wii U. Now just want DoS on the Wii U and I think I will be in Castlevania Heaven... or wherever.
 
S

Shmuely Bully

Member
LiveFromKyoto said:
I played a ton of Dawn of Sorrow, but I remember getting stuck at a certain part and never finishing it. I actually liked that game on balance better than SoTN, which I've always thought was a bit too easy to fully deserve all the lavish praise it receives. So if this is better than Dawn, then I'm down for sure.
Click to expand...

It is. The plot isn't much better than Dawn, but the level design is much better and it doesn't have the seals mechanic dragging it down. I'd say it's a bit easier than Dawn too, but for the right reasons. Too many bosses in Dawn felt like they were made difficult just by adding attacks that you couldn't dodge or (in the case of the final boss) just making it into a test of endurance.
 
B

batbeg

Member
Thoroughly enjoying this. I was thinking about buying Shantae but had some trepidation about the price with my current finances not wanting me to drop 20 bucks, and I still had 6.50 on the Wii U eShop. I've only ever played the DS trilogy + Castlevania IV, but really only ever liked Dawn of Sorrow. Suffice to say, I'm thoroughly enjoying this! Played over three hours so far, including a few deaths so probably closer to four hours.
 
B

BobbyRobby

Member
I gotta finally play HoD. I bought PoR despite people talking badly of it, and I'm liking it. It's a little worse than the others, but still good.

So maybe the Internet's been too hard on HoD also.
 
L

LiveFromKyoto

Member
Okay. I had $11 sitting on the eShop that I was saving for Metroid Zero Mission, but it seems like that's never going to happen for some reason so I took the plunge with this. Seems really well made so far. This is the first GBA game I've downloaded, the pixel smoothing effect seems a lot better done than most similar effects.

Kind of wish the question mark for the manual wasn't perpetually in the corner though.
 
S

Sothpaw

Member
I have this on GBA and I will never get rid of it. To me this is as good as portable gaming gets.

BobbyRobby said:
I gotta finally play HoD. I bought PoR despite people talking badly of it, and I'm liking it. It's a little worse than the others, but still good.

So maybe the Internet's been too hard on HoD also.
Click to expand...

Yes, HoD is a very good game. I would rank them SotN=OoE=Aria=Dawn=CotM>HoD>PoR, but HoD and PoR are still really fun.
 
O

Occam

Member
Sagitario said:
The 3DS can't properly emulate GBA games, though.
Click to expand...

Of course it can. 3DS has a fully working internal GBA emulator, as demonstrated by the GBA ambassador games and Zelda Four Swords. There is no technical reason not to allow us to play GBA games on 3DS.
 
@

@MUWANdo

Banned
Occam said:
Of course it can. 3DS has a fully working internal GBA emulator, as demonstrated by the GBA ambassador games and Zelda Four Swords. There is no technical reason not to allow us to play GBA games on 3DS.
Click to expand...

Four Swords is a port and the ambassador games aren't being emulated.
 
K

Kill3r7

Member
Kuramu said:
AoS was one of those games everyone said was great and I figured it couldn't be that good. I played it after every other Castlevania (so it's not nostalgia talking), and yet this was somehow perfect. It all just felt right in ways I can't put my finger on.

I personally think it's the best of them all. Better than SotN without question.
It's now been a few years, I look forward to playing it again soon
Click to expand...

Agreed, for me it's on par with SotN.
 
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