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[DogofWar]

Having just finished Aria of Sorrow for the second time I was curious what you guys think.

Circle of the Moon apparently isn't very popular and I don't see why, it is my favorite of the three. Of course it was also the only one I owned when GBA was the current console, so nostalgia might be a factor. But I have played it to death, it was my first entry to the series as well. The gameplay is relatively hard but it has great variation from the very beginning of the game and the DSS system allows to quite easily and fast change your set up. The soundtrack is amazing as well:







The one bad thing about it is the farming you might have to do for certain DSS cards, since you really want to have all of them due to the effects they make. Some of them are kinda worthless in the end as well.

Aria of Sorrow is also a great game that has aged very well. Absorbing souls and gaining the abilities of enemies makes for great and varied gameplay, it encourages tedious farming of every single enemy, since you want their souls as well. Which makes it even worse than Circle of the Moon in that regard. The story is also kinda silly even by Castlevania standards.

Then we have Harmony of Dissonance. I have never made it very far in this game. It looks like shit quite frankly and the gameplay seem extremely outdated. Can someone hype it so that I will want to give it another chance?

 

[Andyliini]

Aria of Sorrow easily. It's actually the best Castlevania game out there. Tight controls, tried, true and perfected gameplay and great music makes it very memorable experience. The soul system is also one to enjoy.

 

[MrA]

I'd say circle of the moon, don't know why exactly, all 3 are great though

 

[gradient]

Aria of Sorrow.

It's a fantastic game and right up there among the best of the whole series. Bought it on the cheap back in the day and didn't expect it to be as good as it was.

 

[swit]

Circle of the Moon. Great gameplay, solid castle design. Second best metrodivania, imo (after SotN) Aria of Sorrow feels super linear to me, also didn't care about the new anime art style in that game.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Aria of Sorrow easily gets my vote.

 

[DGrayson]

Aria of Sorrow by a lot.

 

[Naked Lunch]

I only played thru it once a long time ago - but I remember thinking Aria of Sorrow was possibly the best of the entire CV series.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Circle of the Moon had a lot of charm, but for me the best was Aria of Sorrow.

 

[Nikana]

Going through a lot of GBA on my phone lately. Are all three worth playing?

 

[DESTROYA]

It's funny I'm currently playing Aria of Sorrow now and it's by far the best in the series

 

[DogofWar]

Going through a lot of GBA on my phone lately. Are all three worth playing?

Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow are both great for repeated playthroughs even.
Made this thread to see if it was just me who never got into Harmony of Dissonance, seems it is the game and not me though.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Going through a lot of GBA on my phone lately. Are all three worth playing?

If you like Metroidvanias then absolutely. Keep your expectations low for Harmony of Dissonance though. I found it to be one of the weaker Castlevanias in general, especially when it comes to music.

 

[Sticks]

Going through a lot of GBA on my phone lately. Are all three worth playing?

Id skip Circle.

 

[Astral Dog]

I love all of them, Aria of Sorrow is probably the best
HoD has some very cool boss sprites and a big campaign

CotM is great, but the graphics and game mechanics aren't quite as strong for being a lauch game, and the difficulty is off putting for some players

 

[Knightime_X]

Circle of the moon is really good but Aria inches it out a bit more.
I found circle of the moon to be the most challenging if you don't use the exploits.
Harmony is not bad, but not as good as the other 2.

 

[Dr_Salt]

Aria of Sorrow.

 

[bronk]

Aria of Sorrow is the best by far

 

[HYDE]

Circle of the Moon is excellent!!
I'd rank them like this:
Aria
Dawn
Order Ecclesia
Circle
Portrait
Harmony

Symphony of the Night is amazing also.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Never understood the hoopla around Aria. Never enjoyed the dozens of absolutely useless weapons, the soul system and the map are pretty meh, and the artstyle and story... *shrug*. It's a solid game, but there's no clear winner for me in the GBA trilogy as each game has glaring weak points. The DS trilogy is way better.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Aria takes the prize.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Circle of the Moon is sort of overrated, but it was a launch title after all. I did accidentally badly sequence break the game when I played it so I sort of had a fucked up experience but like, that's part of it.

Harmony of Dissonance was better but not amazing and I remember the music being bad.

Aria of Sorrow was the one that brought it all together where Igarashi found his groove again and that continued through the DS titles.

 

[Komatsu]

Aria of Sorrow, easily. Circle of the Moon was a WHAM when it came out but was bested by the games that followed.