CastleVania: Aria of Sorrow - Who picked it up?

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Alright, who picked up the new CastleVania game for the GBA? I got my copy after work this mornin\' (damn night shift) and have barely slept, as I can\'t stop playing it... The game reminds me of CastleVania: SOTN more than the previous two ever did (CoTM & HoD ) .

The one thing I\'m not sure I like or not is the soul keeping. You defeat enemies and depending on your luck or level, sometimes you absord their souls, giving you their ability. For example, kill a bat and you may asbord its ability to shoot sonic waves. Of course this takes away from your magic , but it is an interseting concept and leads to a Pokemon style "catch \'em all" premise. I already find myself goin\' back to some of the bigger enemies and tryin\' to get their souls. Kill them, no soul..exit room..Return, kill them...hope for soul. It\'s just like in CastleVania: SoTN , where if you wanted certain items, you would have to dedicate time to just killing certain enemies.

So far, so good. The future storyline is workin\' a lot better than I had expected and Alcuard does make a cameo (WoOT!). ... I\'ll post a review once I finish the game.

One and what other game features art like this?

Of course I have it... Why wouldn\'t I?    I only picked it up last night though since I didn\'t have the funds at the time to get it at launch.  I love the boss battles, but it\'s too bad they\'re so simple.  I can\'t wait to pick up the more powerful weapons.

I have it and have already finished it with 100% map and soul.
If you get all the souls you get something good.

[sp]To get Legion\'s soul you need to kill all the parts and take out the core last, or you won\'t get his soul.[/sp]

[sp]Get the ancient books to get clues for the good ending.[/sp]

[sp]After you have got 100% souls you get a ring that gives infinite MP.[/sp]

You can look at my map on gamefaqs.com if you want and
I am Working on a soul map. That will take some time.:snore:

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You my friend, are now one of my favorite people. Great map - espically the telporting (A-B-C) sections. Those was giving me a complete headache.

What\'s the trick to beating \'Death\'? He\'s bein\' a true pain in my ass.

Edit : Well, I beat Death and I have near 75% of the castle discovered, which means I am almost through with the game. I\'m only at three hours and already have near 50% of the souls and only need 25% more of the castle. Bummer.... Just curious, how long did it take you to get 100% on both the castle and souls? Oh and what level was your character at when you beat the game? My guy is only at level 25 and he seems plenty strong, where as my guy in CastleVania: HoD was almost at level 50 when I finally beat it.

I\'ll get this game sooner or later. Th\' reviews call it short (as LiC pointed out) but full of replay value.

I think I might try beating HoD and/or COTM first though. Those two dropped off my radar for some reason or another and I haven\'t gotten back to \'em yet. I was loving HoD (very SOTN-esque, a good thing) so it might not be too hard to slip back into Jeust\'s shoes..

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I\'d give both those a try also, but be prepared with CoTM it is a very long and hard journey, where as HoD is long - but rather easy. The difficulity is just right on this one, but too short.

Originally posted by Blade
I\'ll get this game sooner or later. Th\' reviews call it short (as LiC pointed out) but full of replay value.

I think I might try beating HoD and/or COTM first though. Those two dropped off my radar for some reason or another and I haven\'t gotten back to \'em yet. I was loving HoD (very SOTN-esque, a good thing) so it might not be too hard to slip back into Jeust\'s shoes..

Me 2

i finally traded in my GBA to get a nice ice blue GBA:SP and the backlit light is superb.

got metroid Fusion on Saturday (hope they release Super Metroid too )




so getting this bad boy might have to wait due to funds ....

*update*==== completed fusion today.... (game time only 4 hours though would liked it to be longer)

anyhooo... been thinking about getting into CastleVania... dose anyone Recommend me on to start my collection on the GBA ?

oh and L-I-C after playing Fusion i can see why you would of prefered a 2D version for Prime.

now that i have completed both ... looks like i will need to sit on my hands till the next metroid games comes out ....

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Thank God someone understands why I preferred Fusion to Prime.. I\'m glad I\'m not alone for once.

If you are goin\' to start the CastleVania trilogy - I\'d recommend starting with CastleVania HoD or CastleVania AoS. ... Circle of The Moon can be downright frustrating and is a lot different to the fact it was handled by Konami\'s Koyoto division.


Edit:
I just finished CastleVania: Aria of Sorrow. I had around 50% of the souls and 93% of the castle . I  spent the last couple hours just leveling up Soma - which made me clock out right at seven hours, instead of the four or so, it would of been if I would of went from point A to point B in the game.

I must say I was very dissapointed with how easy the final boss was. Death was the hardest boss, sadly.


Anyways, here\'s the stats.

• Character Level: 38
• Experience: 183156
• Gold: 15,638
• Castle rate: 93.6
• HP: 764
• MP: 396
• Attack: 187
• Defense: 76
• Time: 06: 22: 13

In Comparison....Here is my Circle of the Moon stats...

• Character Level: 50
• Castle Rate: 90.9
• EXP: 205,6512
• Hp: 940
• Mp: 263
• Time: 17:16:11

Here is my Harmony of Dissonance stats..

• Character level: 46
• Experience Points: 127.799
• HP: 474
• Magic: 211
• Defense: 150
• Castle Complete (A&B) : 180.5
• Gold: 2,768
• Time: 7:34:53

Looking back, I can\'t believe it took me 17 hours to beat Circle of the Moon.


Furthermore, while I liked collecting souls, I must admit it was more a gimmick than anything. I had my set souls - such as I always used Valkiyre , Peeping Eye , Flying Armor and the last one I can\'t remember the name of. I rarely swtiched off those, unless I was forced to for some reason.

I may go back and try to collect 100 percent of the souls, but I am thinking that could get frustrating real fast.

So LIC how is that Metroid Fusion going? Did you ever beat it.  

I just got Aria of Sorrow.. still working on HoD.. (COTM is on the back burner for now)

AoS is standard Castlevania fare, very reminscent of SOTN as the other GBA adventures are. I\'m having fun.