It's official: Aria of Sorrow details

[OB1]

Shizzy-shizzat!

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!

[Dark Jaguar]

Near future eh? Well, I'm reminded of this show I saw a long time ago called Vampire Hunter D. That was the distant future, one of those post-apocalyptic ones (with Dracula being very important as the most powerful of vampires), but still very monstery. It seems that using werewolves is a good way to get rid of crucifixes.

Anyway, I certainly am looking forward to this one too. Hopefully they will be able to make it both look AND sound good.

[OB1]

The second Vampire Hunter D movie is really cool, you should see it.

[OB1]

Go to gamespot to see some cool videos of this game. Here are some screens:




Hot damn! It looks even better than the last Castlevania! I just hope they fix the sound quality this time around.

[Dark Jaguar]

The sound quality in the first game was very nice indeed. In fact, since I didn't have much of a problem with the look, I'd almost prefer sacrificing graphical quality to avoid the NES quality sound, almost.

Anyway, I certainly hope they can manage to get the sound quality back up to at least COTM level.

[big guy]

i have vampire hunter D: bloodlust sitting with me right now. it's a fantastic movie, one of the best anime's i've seen...but not quite as good as trigun...or saber marionette J (it's fruity, yeah, but it almost made me cry, which says something about its quality, right?) or mahou tsukai tai (i think that's what it was called) which are my top 3 anime series'. i guess it's unfair to compare VHD to them, since it's a standalone movie. oh well.

[OB1]

Of course not. With Trigun you have 26 episodes to tell a story. Bebop is better than Trigun, though. ;)

As far as anime movies go, there are plenty better than VHD Bloodlust, although few can compare in terms of animation. Here are a just a few anime movies that I like more than Bloodlust (okay, so I like to make lists. sue me) :

-Akira
-Grave of the Fireflies
-Spirited Away
-MSG: Char's Counterattack
-Ghost in the Shell
-Metropolis

[OB1]

And don't worry about the sound in Aria, DJ. Ign brings good news:

Igarashi also made specific mention that the development team listened to the complaints about the not-so great soundrack in Harmony of Dissonance. For Aria of Sorrow, the development team reworked the audio tools and dedicated more cartridge space and processor cycles to the sound. From what we heard at the demonstration, the game sounded pretty darn good.

[Dark Jaguar]

That's good news, as is the fact that you finally saw Grave of the Fireflies. I dare say that's my fave movie of all time (anime or no), and my 8 year old sister liked it too (hey, my mom made her watch it). I've heard good things about Spirited Away, but I haven't seen it around to rent yet.

[OB1]

Yeah I bought the excellent two-disc Fireflies DVD several months ago. Incredibly moving film.

Unfortunately you won't be able to rent Spirited Away for a while. It won't be out on DVD or VHS until late summer most likely.

[big guy]

i tried to watch metropolis 3 times but kept having sex in the middle of it...anyway, it was pretty cool...but not trigun...which i love.

and i saw ghost in the shell once...and read some of the manga...but it also didn't hit me like trigun did...i don't know why.

i haven't seen the rest of your list, but that may be something for me to look into doing.

anyway, saber marionette J is still my fav anime i think...and i shudder to say it because it's so girly.

[OB1]

You kept on having sex i the middle of it?

[big guy]

yeah, i don't think i've seen the whole thing, all the way through...without, uh, interruptions. but the art style was incredible.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Sounds extremely romantic...

Another Castlevania game already? Sheesh.

[big guy]

they are pumping out castlevania's really fast these days

and it was fairly romantic at the time, but i think i'm gonna stop talking about it, as it's making me uncomfortable now. it was, in the first post an off hand remark, the second post, a bit of a joke, and now i'm begining to wish i'd never said it.

so yeah, castlevania games...didn't one just come out a few months ago?

[OB1]

Last.. september I believe. But development of Aria of Sorrow started long before Harmony of Dissonance came out. And it has the same director. There's no such thing as too many Castlevania games!