The game rules, play it if you haven't. The rest of the post is a spoiler alert unless you've played Dawn of Sorrow.
So, I finally had gotten around to this game this past summer while I was commuting. Excellent game with a pretty decent story, great gameplay and the Metroidvania gameplay we all loved from Symphony done even better with the addition of souls. I had beaten the game and although it was easy, still thought it was easily the best of its type since Symphony and almost as good as it.
Then I found out I had gotten the bad ending 'cause I didn't have certain "souls" equipped. Figuring out you needed the Giant Bat and Flame Demon was pretty simple. The Succubus was just weird. And since I had been playing it on my commute over the course of a month, I didn't really remember the areas well enough to know where the enemies were. So, I needed a FAQ to help me find them (and to figure out the Succubus is the third one). That's my only real gripe with the game, it just wasn't that intuitive to know which souls to use. The Giant Bat you get after beating a boss, so you know it's a special soul. The others are just normal enemies, so it was a bit cryptic, even with the help of the ancient books.
So I had put down this game for a bit and decided that I wanted to play Dawn this past weekend, but I really wanted to get the best ending in Aria first. So I picked it back up and decided to beat it properly. Boy am I glad I did. The extra ending is WAAAAY better than the crappy one and may be the best ending of a Castlevania game yet IMO. I loved the whole story and gameplay sequence you go through. I always thought Soma looked like Alucard, so it was nice to see him as being the one carrying the soul of Dracula. Julius was a bit of a bastard, as he should be, being a Belmont and all. The whole weird, alternate world was great too. And the best part of all is the fact that if you lose the last battle, you actually turn into Dracula and Julius fights you. They did a wonderful job with the sequence of the ending and it made a great game that much better.
The only question, IMO, is whether or not this one is better than Symphony. It had bad music (vs Symphony's wonderful music) and it didn't have the upside down castle to explore, but it had the souls, which actually affected the gameplay a lot, great enemies and tough rooms, awesome bosses (equal to Symphony), and I think a better storyline. They were both relatively easy games. So it's close, very close.
Definetely worth your time and money, if you can find it. You might as well get the double pack now, it's the same price as Aria itself. And considering the opening of Dawn basically gives away the ending of Aria, you REALLY should play Aria first.
So, I finally had gotten around to this game this past summer while I was commuting. Excellent game with a pretty decent story, great gameplay and the Metroidvania gameplay we all loved from Symphony done even better with the addition of souls. I had beaten the game and although it was easy, still thought it was easily the best of its type since Symphony and almost as good as it.
Then I found out I had gotten the bad ending 'cause I didn't have certain "souls" equipped. Figuring out you needed the Giant Bat and Flame Demon was pretty simple. The Succubus was just weird. And since I had been playing it on my commute over the course of a month, I didn't really remember the areas well enough to know where the enemies were. So, I needed a FAQ to help me find them (and to figure out the Succubus is the third one). That's my only real gripe with the game, it just wasn't that intuitive to know which souls to use. The Giant Bat you get after beating a boss, so you know it's a special soul. The others are just normal enemies, so it was a bit cryptic, even with the help of the ancient books.
So I had put down this game for a bit and decided that I wanted to play Dawn this past weekend, but I really wanted to get the best ending in Aria first. So I picked it back up and decided to beat it properly. Boy am I glad I did. The extra ending is WAAAAY better than the crappy one and may be the best ending of a Castlevania game yet IMO. I loved the whole story and gameplay sequence you go through. I always thought Soma looked like Alucard, so it was nice to see him as being the one carrying the soul of Dracula. Julius was a bit of a bastard, as he should be, being a Belmont and all. The whole weird, alternate world was great too. And the best part of all is the fact that if you lose the last battle, you actually turn into Dracula and Julius fights you. They did a wonderful job with the sequence of the ending and it made a great game that much better.
The only question, IMO, is whether or not this one is better than Symphony. It had bad music (vs Symphony's wonderful music) and it didn't have the upside down castle to explore, but it had the souls, which actually affected the gameplay a lot, great enemies and tough rooms, awesome bosses (equal to Symphony), and I think a better storyline. They were both relatively easy games. So it's close, very close.
Definetely worth your time and money, if you can find it. You might as well get the double pack now, it's the same price as Aria itself. And considering the opening of Dawn basically gives away the ending of Aria, you REALLY should play Aria first.
I was there on that fateful day, were you?
