direct_quote
Member
I'd say play all them because they are good and play them in order of release (CotM, HoD, AoS). Aria of Sorrow is definitely the best one and has a LOT of things to collect and try out, while CoTM offers a nice challenge.
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Metroidvania
People called Romanes they go the house?
Aria is the best, no contest.
CotM is alright if a bit clunky (but holy shit is it ever dim), but I didn't really care that much for Harmony.
CotM is alright if a bit clunky (but holy shit is it ever dim), but I didn't really care that much for Harmony.
MaverickHunterAsh
Member
Aria of Sorrow, by quite a large margin.
Circle of the Moon was okay (good music, but super-dim graphics and REALLY hard), but Harmony of Dissonance was pretty trashy all around. Its soundtrack still brings back painful memories.
Circle of the Moon was okay (good music, but super-dim graphics and REALLY hard), but Harmony of Dissonance was pretty trashy all around. Its soundtrack still brings back painful memories.
Necromanti
Member
Aria of Sorrow is definitely the most playable of the three, and is an all-around great game, too.
Man, this thread made me realize that Order of Ecclesia came out more than 5 years ago...has it really been that long? And Aria of Sorrow is more than 10 years old. What the hell? Did I really play it when I was 12?
Man, this thread made me realize that Order of Ecclesia came out more than 5 years ago...has it really been that long? And Aria of Sorrow is more than 10 years old. What the hell? Did I really play it when I was 12?
I've still never beaten Circle. I was SO anticipating the game, but my glacier GBA just could NOT play it, and I never gave enough of a shit about portable gaming to buy an SP for a system I effectively already owned. I tried to play it once on my DS phat but the controls are super stiff to me. Still, the difference from trying to play it day 1 vs playing on a DS is insane. Even that worm light isn't an option, don't joke about that shit. Circle must have been the most poorly tested game ever for real world conditions 
I always hear it's better than HoD but, if you mean on a GBA and not an SP or DS, circle will be completely unplayable.
I always hear it's better than HoD but, if you mean on a GBA and not an SP or DS, circle will be completely unplayable.
The Spoony Hou
Member
Aria has the best story (or I'd say, the most interesting one). Circle wins gameplay-wise by a long mile though.
Harmony is crap.
Harmony is crap.
GrotesqueBeauty
Banned
I think most people would say Aria, but I prefer Circle of the Moon. As a launch title it's a bit more limited on a technical level, but it has better plaforming and exploration. I believe it was the last one developed by KCEK, and it shows. It has different priorities and a more cohesive mood that's reminiscent of traditional level based Castlevania games. Harmony and Aria are both victims of Iga's bland hallway syndrome, although I think the formula was still new enough that people didn't notice as much.
I'd probably give Aria a nod as my second favorite due to the inventory system and superior music and bosses, but it's not as cut and dry as some fans let on. HoD is extremely underrated. The music is weak and the bosses are mostly underwhelming, but the controls and castle design are great. It's often criticized for being too similar to SotN (what a problem to have), but I think that's a pretty superficial take. It stands pretty well as its own entry. It's a solid if not completely inspired take on the formula, and a million times better than the DS's second entry DoS if you ask me.
I'd probably give Aria a nod as my second favorite due to the inventory system and superior music and bosses, but it's not as cut and dry as some fans let on. HoD is extremely underrated. The music is weak and the bosses are mostly underwhelming, but the controls and castle design are great. It's often criticized for being too similar to SotN (what a problem to have), but I think that's a pretty superficial take. It stands pretty well as its own entry. It's a solid if not completely inspired take on the formula, and a million times better than the DS's second entry DoS if you ask me.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Aria of Sorrow is the most interesting one. It introduced the Tactical Soul system iirc, has great simplistic gameplay and a decent ost.
Bjoern the Smexy
Member
I actually really like Harmony of Dissonance, but Aria is definitely better.
Circle of the Moon is a bit like Metroid on NES for me: I really want to play it more because I know it's good, but at the same time it's so huge and a bit more on the difficult side (also I just don't know where to go).
But get them all. They're all awesome.
Circle of the Moon is a bit like Metroid on NES for me: I really want to play it more because I know it's good, but at the same time it's so huge and a bit more on the difficult side (also I just don't know where to go).
But get them all. They're all awesome.
Chinbo37
Member
where should you start? play them chronologically so you can transition to the DS games naturally
ya i really need to get on these games. SOTN is one of my favorite and I beat Circle of the Moon but held of on the other advance/DS games. I even have most of them I think.
Need to take stock and get to playing these.
I'd say Circle of the Moon. It both combines the classic with the IGA philosophy and avoids many of the faults of the latter (like not recycling sprites is one that I don't often hear). It also blows my mind that the Kobe team was able to figure out the GBA's soundhardware for a launch title while IGA's team later produced that weird soundtrack for HoM and openly admitted that it was because they didn't know how to.
GrotesqueBeauty
Banned
I'm with you on CotM, but iirc it reuses numerous assets from Rondo.
I still have this baby:
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Had a blast playing them on my brother's GameBoy Advance SP. Nice times...
Yep best two GBA Castlevania in one package, can't go wrong (play Aria first).
Avoid Circle of the Moon, it is seriously terrible.
Is seriously a terrible opinion.
Aria of Sorrow is by far my favourite, but one can't really go wrong with any of them. I played all three over the summer and did a lttp: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=649595
My typing abilities are as terrible as CotM.
Circle of the Moon is the only one I actually had and got with my GBA, it was in no way my first Castlevania, but will always partly be one if my favourite Metroidvanias. I would have gotten the others but back then when I was younger it was a lot harder to find these games in shops.
I'm hoping once Konami get Lords of Shadow out of their system we might get some more Igavania style Castlevania games.
I'm hoping once Konami get Lords of Shadow out of their system we might get some more Igavania style Castlevania games.
Large Professor
Member
I played both for the first time a couple of months ago. Aria is the better game, although it's probably too easy, whereas CotM is perhaps slightly too difficult.
Aria of Sorrow came before Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness. Both of those two games featured Ayame Kojima's art. I don't think it was the reason for the anime look.
I have not played Cirlce of the Moon proper yet, last time I did, I reached the sewer place with the blood pools, and had a really hard time finishing that area because the blood always killed me. I recently ordered CotM from ebay, so I will pass judgment on the game until then. This is the only handheld CV game I have no finished.
I am saying this because I am unfamiliar with what you call IGA's bland hallway syndrome. I find both AoS and DoS to have excellent level designs and things to do in almost every room. The other two DS games, PoR and OoE do have some really bland hallways.
@OP: Play them all. Also, play all the DS games as well. All the handheld CV games are good. They range from quite good to excellent.
BumblebeeCody
Member
Aria of Sorrow. Really awesome game.
sixteen-bit
Member
CotM is the hardest and has the best music (though admittedly it's mostly arrangements of classic CV tracks), but I still like Aria best.
Circle of the Moon by far. It has a better designed Castle, better progression, and better enemies than any of Iga's games. It has tons of secrets, the DSS system gives the game tons of depth, and the specialized character modes you unlock from beating the game give it tons of replay value. It feels like a perfect marriage of old-school action Castlevania games and new-school Metroidvania games. The music kicks ass as well. Seriously, play it!
I always felt CotM's castle was really terribly designed. Jeremy Parish wrote an article on 1up called "Circle of the half-baked Moon" about this:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7160161
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7160161
SonicMegaDrive
Member
This one.
But as for the Metroidvanias, my default is Circle of the Moon.
Davey Cakes
Member
Aria of Sorrow since it plays close to Symphony of the Night and, well, SotN is amazing.
That said, Circle of the Moon has a different sort of feel to it that makes it very refreshing.
Harmony of Dissonance is easily the worst. Still worth playing though. The mirror castle is an interesting concept and the gameplay is serviceable. Soundtrack is poor.
That said, Circle of the Moon has a different sort of feel to it that makes it very refreshing.
Harmony of Dissonance is easily the worst. Still worth playing though. The mirror castle is an interesting concept and the gameplay is serviceable. Soundtrack is poor.
I've seen this opinion before. Interesting. HoD has some similarities to SotN but Aria really drove it home in that department.Harmony was my first GBA game and it really felt like a portable Symphony to me in both the music and design department. I would have to suggest it, although you see that I'm biased
Circle of the moon is a most balanced game (in gameplay, challenge and story) compared to aria of sorrow. Only flaw is duration. Anyway, both are great and have great music outside of gba standard sound.
Harmony of dissonance is a mediocre game and sound like sh**. Only "succesor of fate" is a good tune.
Circle of the moon is the only non-igarashi game, but is far better than harmony of dissonance.
Harmony of dissonance is a mediocre game and sound like sh**. Only "succesor of fate" is a good tune.
Circle of the moon is the only non-igarashi game, but is far better than harmony of dissonance.
Rhomega Beta
Member
Aria>Harmony>Circle
Interesting to see how there are so divergent opinions on this, I was sure this would be a landslide victory for Aria, but guess I was wrong.
Anyways, Harmony of Dissonance might be better than I remember, but it definitely had the most unremarkable music, which imo is a big part of these games.
Circle of the Moon in my opinion, have really poor thought-out save points and warp rooms, and where the secrets in other metroidvanias often let you go from one place to another faster, giving you shortcuts, no such thing is availale in Circle. Also, the card-system is kinda fun, but also very cryptic, because you never know which enemies to hunt down to get a certain card, and you also have to try out all possible card-combinations to know what they do - and that often involve taking damage or something different. I feel this part of the game is by far the most sloppily designed.
Aria have more anime-style graphics, which is not my preference, but it perfects the sub-weapon system, have much better level design, and awesome music, making it in my opinion the ultimate of the gba-games. Of course, if you have DS, I would say that both Dawn of Sorrow and especially Order of Ecclessia are the superior games, and Portrait of Ruin is also on the same level.
And none of the gba-games have any challenge.
Anyways, Harmony of Dissonance might be better than I remember, but it definitely had the most unremarkable music, which imo is a big part of these games.
Circle of the Moon in my opinion, have really poor thought-out save points and warp rooms, and where the secrets in other metroidvanias often let you go from one place to another faster, giving you shortcuts, no such thing is availale in Circle. Also, the card-system is kinda fun, but also very cryptic, because you never know which enemies to hunt down to get a certain card, and you also have to try out all possible card-combinations to know what they do - and that often involve taking damage or something different. I feel this part of the game is by far the most sloppily designed.
Aria have more anime-style graphics, which is not my preference, but it perfects the sub-weapon system, have much better level design, and awesome music, making it in my opinion the ultimate of the gba-games. Of course, if you have DS, I would say that both Dawn of Sorrow and especially Order of Ecclessia are the superior games, and Portrait of Ruin is also on the same level.
And none of the gba-games have any challenge.
While a lot of valid points, this Dracula is in no way the hardest.
The SNES ver. of Dracula X had the hardest Dracula.
Yeah, I never played the Snes-version of Dracula X, but I could beat this Dracula in maybe 20 tries, while in Dawn of Sorrow I remember giving up and using potions during the battle - which I never normally do to preserve the challenge.
COTM was probably my favorite, although Aria is really good too. Didn't like Harmony very much.
COTM may be dark and fugly but it's interesting as a metroidvania that actually has a proper difficulty curve, that remains challenging instead of your character turning into overpowered boring bullshit. Also, great music.
COTM may be dark and fugly but it's interesting as a metroidvania that actually has a proper difficulty curve, that remains challenging instead of your character turning into overpowered boring bullshit. Also, great music.
I probably got more playtime and enjoyment out of Circle of the Moon... Hunting and collecting from the enemies was insanely rewarding. And it has some of the best enemies in the history of the series, if I recall correctly. It must be played on a back-lit GBA... It is a damn dark game.
But Aria may be the "better" game...
But Aria may be the "better" game...
DoDonGouki
Member
COTM -> AOS -> HOD
Hey Iga ! We need another 2 or 3 Metroidvanias pls.
Hey Iga ! We need another 2 or 3 Metroidvanias pls.
itwasTuesday
He wasn't alone.
Aria of sorrow.
It had the best weapons. And guns.
It had the best weapons. And guns.
Aria is by far the best realized game of the three and the one at the top of the list. It has what was at the time a really unique weaponry system, an amazing story provided you didn't spoil it already, and a fantastic soundtrack.
Circle of the Moon is a bit on the hard side with a final boss that's nearly impossible and a shitty magic system, but it's a good mix of classic Castlevania sensibilities and modern exploration, especially for its time.
Harmony of Dissonance... I might actually recommend starting with this one. I liked it at the time, but I'm not sure it aged well. Also, the soundtrack is weak and the graphics are oddly poor (an attempt at making up for lack of backlight, I think).
Circle of the Moon is a bit on the hard side with a final boss that's nearly impossible and a shitty magic system, but it's a good mix of classic Castlevania sensibilities and modern exploration, especially for its time.
Harmony of Dissonance... I might actually recommend starting with this one. I liked it at the time, but I'm not sure it aged well. Also, the soundtrack is weak and the graphics are oddly poor (an attempt at making up for lack of backlight, I think).
