Quote:News Article: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Announced News Date: 01/16/2003
For the love of Christ, how many times do we have to kill Dracula? Er...well this is the third go at it on the GBA. Get the meat.
Discuss it in Talkback!
THE LEGACY OF CASTLEVANIA CONTINUES IN CASTLEVANIA®: ARIA OF SORROWTM FOR NINTENDO GAME BOY® ADVANCE
KONAMI GAMERS' DAY, SAN FRANCISCO - January 16, 2003 - Konami of America, Inc. today revealed Castlevania®: Aria of SorrowTM, the latest in a series of Castlevania® titles for Nintendo Game Boy® Advance. Aria of SorrowTM is Konami's third Castlevania® game for Game Boy® Advance, following the successful Castlevania®: Circle of the MoonTM and Castlevania®: Harmony of DissonanceTM - both of which ruled the top spot of Game Boy® Advance software chart at their respective launches. An entirely new adventure from Koji Igarashi and the creative team behind the critically acclaimed cult classic Castlevania® Symphony of the NightTM (Sony PlayStation®), Aria of SorrowTM is scheduled to ship in North America in May 2003.
"Aria of SorrowTM adds so many amazing new features to the Castlevania® series that this iteration is radically different from previous titles," says Jason Enos, Product Manager at Konami of America, Inc. "This is the first Castlevania® set in the near future, the first Castlevania® where the hero is not tied to the infamous Belmont clan of vampire hunters, and the first Castlevania® to let you acquire the souls of enemies and use their abilities as weapons. Castlevania® will never be the same!"
Aria of SorrowTM is the most exciting Castlevania® adventure yet! The year is 2035 and the game's high school student hero, Soma Cruz, is about to witness the fist solar eclipse of the 21st century when he suddenly passes out... only to awaken inside of a mysterious castle. Navigating through the castle's complex maze of labyrinths, players must battle ferocious monsters at every turn in order to find an escape before evil consumes them.
In addition to collecting and wielding multiple weapons, players now also have the unique ability to use the souls of their enemies to gain over 100 powerful new attacks and skills. Using the Nintendo Game Link® Cable, players can also exchange or trade enemy souls with their friends, further bolstering their character's strength against the evil forces lurking within the castle walls. Enhanced by a haunting musical score, stunning animated characters, gigantic monsters, astonishing special effects and breathtaking graphics, Aria of SorrowTM will have players wishing for their garlic cloves and wooden crosses!
Awesome. And it's coming out in May! I jut hope it's not a rushed product.
I think it's kinda cool that this game takes place in the future, but the whole Pokemon aspect of it really urks me. They did a little bit of that in the last Castlevania game, but this time around it's much more extensive. Does every game have to be Poke-ized?? I can hardly wait to play "Deus Ex: Gotta Catch 'em All"!!
Note to any Konami reps that might be reading this: Adding lots of Pokemon elements to an old franchise does not make it more fresh!
IGN has hands-on impressions of Viewtiful Joe and tons of new movies, plus a new trailer of PN03. Viewtiful Joe sounds even better than I thought it would be. Matt says it is an absolute blast to play and is now one of his most anticipated games. I can't say I'm as excited about PN03 after watching the new video, because it just doesn't seem to work. Watch it and I think you'll understand. But there is still a lot of time before it is released, so maybe they'll make it fit together better.
The bad news, however, is that Capcom is now saying on RE4 is GameCube exclusive, and Viewtiful Joe, PN03, Dead Phoenix, and Killer 7 may end up on other consoles eventually.
It seems that in Japan at least, Square worked out a deal with Nintendo. In fact, this is the SAME deal they worked out with Bandai's Wonderswan Color.
It seems that they will be releasing a FFTA/GBA-SP bundle (as well as a cheaper game-free GBA-SP of course) on launch day.
It includes these:
Quote:GBA SP, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a GBA SP AC adapter, a Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Original Premier Strap, and a Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Original SP Carrying Pouch.
Now, to be honest I really think they should also have included the headset adapter with the set, but it's fine. I think that Nintendo may just make a custom case with the Final Fantasy logo on it, but that's just a personal theory. Bandai didn't make a special outer casing on their WSC when the FF1/WSC bundle came out.
Anyway, if they decide to do this in America AND get this bundle out on launch, this is what I'll be getting instead of the bare pack.
I was bored and I have Photoshop 7.0 (which has gone badly underused mind you... other than an avatar every once in a while) so I decided to draw this. Thats how I feel about my GC purchase... :(
Soul Caliber II screenshots are at PGC...from the GC version no less...AND IT HAS LINK! and he looks way badass...you know, like the way he should have looked in the GCN version...
Thanks to Ookii of the Working Designs Forums, we've caught wind of the possibility of a new Castlevania game in development for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, subtitled Aria of Sorrow. The game actually has a North American ship date of may 6, 2003, which we find hard to believe, but the rumblings of a new game in the vein of Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance seem to be truthful.
On top of that, Konami is holding a press conference this coming thursday to unveil their line-up for 2003. Rumors indicate that the company might he showing their long-rumored PlayStation 2 game in the Castlevania series.
Certainly, all this will be cleared up in just a few days. None of this has been ANNOUNCED or CONFIRMED at this time, but action fans definitely have something to look forward to. Trust us.
UPDATED! - Just a quick update here, but it seems that Konami of Japan has already trademarked the name "Aria of Sorrow." Obviously, it seems like there's definitely something cooking here. We'll keep you informed, so keep checking back!
I don't visit IGN regularly. In fact at most I visited the site maybe three times in months. I know the site went with the Insider crap so they could make cash for the costs of maintaining the site. Apparently the AD revenues were not satisfactory because visitors were not clicking on them. I can understand the Insider thing, but why in the freakin hell does the site have to be littered with even more ads than before if it isn't making them much money? Mind you the ads from years ago were banner ads which I can take. I just don't understand how including pop-ups, full page ads, flash and flash ads that appear over articles are suppose to help them make any more money. Do people click on them now that they are more obnoxious than ever? Flash is the new cancer of the internet. The ads for movies and whatever have become so annoying with the included noises and crap. It annoys me.
Btw, anyone visit gameforms? I used to visit The GIA almost daily. It was like the best site on the internet. Can someone explain why the new site gets 10x less the updates if Gameforms is a combination of two sites? ^_-
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