One of the best GBA games, period.
Alright, alright, I haven't played Symphony of the Night. I know it's one of the best games of all time and helped pioneer a genre, but I just never got around to it. That said, does it really matter, considering Aria of Sorrow just rips it off? If I miss the chance to date a beautiful blonde supermodel, but instead get to date her best friend who's also a model, but just has brunette hair and a slightly smaller chest, is that a reason to complain? Of course not! And hell, for all I know, maybe that brunette has a better sense of humor.
There is a story in the game, but it's completely disposable. You play as Soma Cruz (not related to Ted Cruz, thankfully), a student who's trapped in a castle and has magic or something. It's hard to take the story seriously anyway, because it's trying to be all dark and serious, while at the same time, one of the enemies in the game is a maid that knows kung-fu. I guess she must have gone to the same training school as Felicia from Fire Emblem: Fates.
The one aspect of the story that is a real disappointment is that it takes place in 2035. It's an interesting idea to set the game so far in the future, rediscovering Dracula's castle, but in practice it changes very little. There's no technology that makes use of the game's future setting, and if you skip the cutscenes you'd never even notice. AoS could have used this as a chance to mix science fiction into its gameplay, but as is it's barely different from the standard Castlevania formula.
Aria of Sorrow is a Metroidvania game (well, no shit), so of course there's a big area to explore with abilities to gain that help you traverse the castle. This winds up being a double-edged sword, because while I appreciate the freedom to explore and find the path through the game myself, sometimes I gain a new power and look at my map struggling to figure out whether that hallway can be traversed with my new breakdance ability, or if it leads to a dead end with a crappy sword and a sign that says "Fuck you".
Of course, Castlevania also has RPG elements, so Soma has stats that will change depending on what weapons, gear, and souls he has equipped, making him stronger throughout the course of the game. However, he also gains experience points upon killing enemies and levels up to get better stats, which I always found strange in action games. Super Metroid's style of giving the player increasingly better weapons as they complete objectives makes sense, but if you're like me and want to jump over enemies instead of spending time standing there and hitting them over and over, you're going to be in trouble when you get to the boss room and realize you're underleveled. You can either go back and grind for experience points, or suck it up and throw yourself at the boss over and over until you've got its attack patterns memorized, watching yourself get a Game Over screen and booted back to the start menu every time you fail.
One of the things about AoS that differentiates it from other Castlevania titles is the fact that when Soma Cruz kills enemies, he occasionally absorbs their souls and gains new abilities that help in combat. This is neat and all, but for some reason, the game won't let you see the true ending unless you've equipped three specific Demon's Souls before fighting a late-game boss. As a result, you fight what seems like a piss-easy final boss before getting an unsatisfying ending that's clearly fake because there's another door on the other side of the boss arena. If you're like me, you'll look it up online to see what the fuck is going on only to find that you have to grind killing two specific enemies waiting for them to drop their souls so you can go and play the rest of the game. I don't know why the developers made this a requirement, considering it's easily the game's biggest area of sorrow. Not only that, but if you die to the real final boss, the game plays a different "bad" ending and forces you to either watch the credits or reset the game.
Upon completion of the game, you unlock Julius, a character who plays more like the classic Castlevania protagonists. Julius mode is a straight-up action game, considering he doesn't level up and does not gain new equipment throughout the course of the game. However, the game is not rebalanced to account for Julius. He starts strong enough to defeat endgame bosses, and as a result, the early bosses that give Soma trouble can't last five seconds in a fight against Julius. There's no story unique to Julius either, though that's an odd complaint considering the main story is hardly a masterpiece. All in all, though, it's just an extra. Complaining about Julius mode is like complaining you got a complimentary mint after dinner at a fancy restaurant instead of a free slice of chocolate cake.
Of course, these are all just little nitpicks. Aria of Sorrow is a fantastic game that any serious gamer should play, regardless of whether they've played Symphony of the Night. It's got a good variety of gameplay with a great soundtrack that moves along at a brisk pace. Just, when you see the Flame Demon and the Succubus, remember to grab their souls, okay?
