A great improvement over Harmony of Dissonance.
NOTE: This review was written by me years ago, but it's never been posted on GB, so enjoy!
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After playing Harmony of Dissonance, I was quite disappointed how Konami was able to do almost everything backwards. HoD was largely unsatisfying, due to the lack of difficulty. HoD suffered from "Symphony of the Night syndrome," where your character got insanely powerful, while the enemies didn't get much stronger. CotM was perfectly consistent; weak enemies in old areas later changed to larger, more threatening baddies. Backtracking wasn't a cakewalk.
So, how does Aria of Sorrow's difficulty fare? Well, it's right in between HoD and CotM. While there are some painfully straightforward bosses--you know, the ones who just walk forward and backward, and only have one attack--the boss battles do get better, to the point where you may actually die. I feared that AoS was going to be another CV game that featured bosses whose sole existence was just to look pretty.
The Soul system is pretty nice, although it's got "Mega Man" written all over it. I suppose it's no big deal though, since I like Mega Man games. Many of the Souls are alike (and downright useless), but there are some that are very cool, namely the boss souls. Some Souls are very powerful, but they use up a lot of magic points, ensuring that you don't become overpowered. Like SotN, you can collect a variety of weapons. Each weapon falls into one of the following classes: short range, medium range, long range, and overhead. Obviously, the long range weapons are slow and unwieldy, but some overhead weapons are quite cumbersome as well. Sadly, I have yet to find weapons with special command attacks; I don't think they exist in AoS, due to the Soul system and the many attacks you can use from it.
I'm not sure what Konami was doing with HoD, but it's no secret that the music wasn't very impressive, partly due to the NES-like sound (I acknowledge that there are memorable NES tunes, but HoD had none, in my opinion). AoS is much better in the sound department, yet it still manages to look just as good as HoD. You have to wonder why Konami couldn't produce better sound with HoD.
I don't really care about the story in a CV game, but AoS is noteworthy because it has a nice twist (at least when you're on the path to the A ending). Of the four CV games, AoS' story is the best, because it's not so predictable like the other games.
AoS' replay value is the same as HoD's, except AoS has a little more for those who like to collect things (i.e. the Souls). Otherwise, AoS has the exact same extras HoD had (an extra playable character, a Hard mode, etc.).
AoS has restored my faith in Konami to produce quality SotN-style games that don't have SotN's faults. If they make another game, I'd like to have a challenge that's on the level of CotM--yes, I like hard games, and so should you, because they're very hard to find these days. I suspect that there won't be abother GBA CV game for a while, what with the new PS2 CV game in the works (although it isn't the game people had hoped for). If Konami decides to end the GBA series, at least they're ending on a high note.
