New Legacy Of Igavania yay! I put a lot of love into this video and I hope that shows to all of you. I'm aware a lot of you have been anticipating this video and I hope it was worth the wait. I am always so surprised about the growth of this channel and seeing it pass 250 Subscribers is amazing! I say it a lot but thank you all so much for being so passionate about my channel, it means a lot to me :D I have more video's on the way for my other series 'Foxhole' which I hope helps make the wait for my next Legacy Of Igavania not quite so painful ^^;
17:29 if you wake up in Dracula's castle, and attacked by very real skeleton monsters, and feel the soul of said monster enter you, you're bound to have more than a few questions.
Excellent video dude, especially the editing and the section about the animation frames/principles. Aria of sorrow holds a special place in my heart for being the game that got me into Igavania and it still stands as my 3rd favourite Igavania game. While it's a lot more safe and restrictive than Symphony and future titles, I think that's what makes a good entry point for people wanting to explore these types of games, heck it worked wonders on me. It's defo the best of the GBA Igavania's in my opinion and titles of the GBA.
Thanks you very much, this video definitely has the most effort in terms of the editing so I'm glad it shows :D I completely agree, Aria is a brilliant starting point for newer players and I know many who got started with it. It was the third Igavania game I ever played and I remember back in the day spending countless hours replaying it and collecting souls. The game has such a solid sense of pace to it as well, it's not surprising to me that it's looked back on so fondly by so many.
They finally ported the GBA games as a collection to all consoles yesterday! You wished it into existence! Hahaha. I started streaming this last night on PS5. Great video!
@@domoru5264they disabile those, you can do it by downloading a simple patch online, I Guess they could easily find out, touch wasn’t even a feature a part for a comple of gimmicks
Of all the eras of Castlevania that can be made into an anime, this era is begging to be animated. Everything about it screams animate me! From innocent naive Soma entering the castle to realizing he has control over the monsters, the Belmont trailing him and the eventual spoiler alert reveal, it's perfect. 4 seasons Netflix, come on
Anyone discovering this video in 2021: good news! The GBAvanias are now available on Switch via the Castlevania Advanced collection! We still don't have SotN though. I wish we did but the fact that it's a playstation exclusive makes that... hard, I think. But great vid! And thank you for the animation lecture.
Respectfully, the Sorrow games eclipse Symphony (no pun intended) without much effort. Better map design, better core mechanics, better bosses, more weapon variety. Dawn in particular is on par graphically, although I do prefer Symphony's art direction as a whole, including character art. And the music is roughly equivalent.
I hate that you’re right. I’m 45 and I’ve only recently have come to accept that Symphony isn’t the top dog. I’ve always known it since Aria, Dawn, and Portrait but I suppressed those thoughts
I gotta respectfully disagree The level design in both sorrow games is inferior imo compared to symphony The characters physics in symphony is so much more fluid than it is in both sorrow games especially dawn where soma feels too stiff in comparison to alucard, the overall enemy design is also much better and more engaging to fight, the presentation of the game is also just better(but tbf dawn and aria had hardware limitations of the gba and ds) Imo symphony shadows dawn sorrow in a sad way for me, bc dawn of sorrow was a game I was excited to get in to but it has just left a sour taste in my mouth, aria was much better, mainly due to my preference of the controls/physicis and the pacing of content . While dawn has better bosses, there are only a handful that stick out and generally I don’t play igavanias for the boss fights, as the boss fights are just serviceable and get the job done but aren’t really a core factor for me at least when it comes to playing these games, there are other Metroidvanias with much better designed boss fights such as will of the wisps or hollow knight Dawn of sorrow is still good but nothing that blows me away, I have had a much better time playing symphony, aria and even circle of the moon tbh I haven’t delved that much into the other ds igavanias but from what I have played they haven’t been able to make me feel the same as sotn or aria, they feel very overrated to me, I will still push myself to beat those other ds games, but currently I am very disappointed in the quality of ds games as of rn Also I have no bias for sotn, I only recently beat it and got into the game last year, yes it is my first proper castlevaina game but I generally speak of games based on my enjoyment, and the only two games so far do I consider to be masterpieces are sotn and aria( I have played more than just symphony and aria, (I have beat circle of the moon and castlevaina 1 both of which I consider to be quite good games, and have played the majority of dawn but couldn’t bring myself to beat bc of I didn’t enjoy it as much I will beat it fully and I have started replaying it to give it another chance but thoughts currently still remain the same) This ended up being a rant on dawn but oh well
@@slopy8bitretogamer-252 Symphony's level design is much inferior lol. Like it’s not even close. "Inverted castle" 😂 please be serious. While Dawn's level design isn’t anything special and frankly inferior to its prequel, Aria is the pinnacle the series has to offer. The combat and abilities is much better than Symphony and this isn’t debatable. Movement is case by case. Both Sorrow games provide more movement options and more abilities that augment your traversal. "Fluidity" is arbitrary. Symphony is better animated than Aria, but it’s roughly equal to Dawn. As far as responsiveness is concerned, the games control as they should. I prefer Aria over Dawn as well. Doesn’t really change that they both shit on Symphony in the factors that matter. Symphony being the best Igavania only holds up if you haven’t played Aria, any of the DS games, or Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. I played SOTN for the first time last year, beat it 4 times. While it’s an excellent game, it suffers from a lack of difficulty, generally unimpressive boss fights (compared to the later Igavanias), meddling level design and bizarre progression. The Soul system from the Sorrow games are so profoundly superior, I cannot express it in words.
This was an excellent retrospective. I saw this on reddit and I was blown away by the quality of the review based on how new your channel is. I have a special interest in retrospectives of older games - especially games with RPG elements. Thanks for the content, I'm subscribed and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your next video.
one thing i noticed after playing all 3 gba castlevania games is how each one of them deals with grinding. in cotm grinding is unavoidable, since without it you wont have the level, the cards or armour to beat it. in hod grinding is pretty much a waste of time since the game is so damn easy. aos seems to strike the perfect balance by making the grinding optional. you can beat the game just fine by going through it and not grinding, but if you do youll have a slightly easier time and youll get a fuller ending.
Hey ! I just wanted to thank you for the bibliography you included in the description of the video. Not many people do this and I really appreciate the effort ! Great video, as always. Looking forward to the next one. Take care !
It's definitely one of the best titles on the GBA, I have a lot of Nostalgia for it. I think once I get the the DS Games, is when the gap between SOTN and every other Igavania starts to close. I am very excited for Bloodstained! I plan to have it be the last Legacy Of Igavania video in the series, so it will be a while until I get around to making a more in depth video. Doesn't mean I can't share my initial impressions in a video though :)
If they ever make an aos series after nocturne, I wish theyd flesh out the characters even more. I wanna see how Soma behaves in school and what kind of attitude he has. The battle of 99. And imrpove on Graham's writing.
Aria is the funniest game plot wise on a replay as you have this guy who’s like OHHH IM DRACULA REBORN and then you have the mc, a random teenager who is trying to figure out what the fuck is going on and how the hell do I get out and then turns out no actually the teenager is Dracula reborn But on a more serious note I love the fact that the reborn Dracula isn’t some evil supervillain by default as Dracula main “fuck humanity” thing comes from the lost of Lisa and if you want to count lament of innocence which came after this game Dracula was born from Mathias turning his back on god due to the lost of his love so the entire existence is based off one’s man grief of losing the lady he loves and getting stuck reincarnated because humanity sucks So when he is eventually truly killed instead of reincarnating as some evil asshole he is reincarnated as just some kid able to live his life without being damned to the fate of becoming the dark lord
So much effort was put into this video! I was craving some Castlevania content after finishing AoS a few days ago, and boy did you deliver. Very well done :D
Ahh, igavanias. The games with more replayability than any other game i have seen. Aria and dawn, in special, have the extra "catch them all" appeal with the soul system. Even if a soul has litteraly no use, it is really fun to grind and try to get 100%, them try to finish the game using the worst ones.
20:00 aria came out in time where you were suppose to play game through multiple times, thats why that era games have fuckton of these play through to unlock stuff
I mean... Give Soma some slack. He is a kid with no experience on any supernatural phenomenon or any Belmont/Drac feud before he entered the castle. His character writing while can be frustating, are make sense if you think about his age and his background.
I don't think realism is the worry when it comes to the literal reincarnation of Dracula from the future. Second thing is asking questions is fine, I love me some Solid Snake but ya gonna need a bit more than that to sell on the actual character
@@Stevem Reader sometimes are more known on the context of the story than the character inside of it are. When its first released, no one can known Soma as reincarnation of Dracula for sure until the bomb was dropped on later narrative. I think it kind of unfair when you expected Soma to be more steeled up and can grasp whats going on from get-go just because he had dracula soul in him. He is high school kid without any knowledge with even the castle power. Heck, he doesnt even known Belmont until Julius told him.
@@ranvionist Not my point, it's not a matter of being clued up. Not too bothered by questions, as long as you have more than just Questions which is like 70% of Soma's dialogue. His name is Soma Cruz or Kurusu Sōma which means ome/next' (kuru), 'by all means/ necessary' (su), 'pale' (sō), 'truth/reality(ma) next to each other "so" becomes Unripe. more or less, "the Necessary next of unripe truth". There's a ton of foreshadowing in his name to go with his vampire style walk cycle, pale white hair and ability to conquer the souls of his enemies. As well as his character design parallels to Dracula(maphios)as seen in Lament of Innocence in the cover of Aria, you see Soma next to a Pale Drake, Dracula's name derives from Drake or dragon. (Cruz means cross in Spanish too) So there's a ton of hints but more so than anything else I'd like a bit of characterization there's very little for Soma until Dawn of Sorrow
@@Stevem Foreshadowing (especially in small thing like name) are in no way a device for characters behaviour, it was more plot device planted for unexpecting twist in later plot. The plot of AoS are: Soma trapped in castle > He explore the Castle with minimum knowledge by Arikado except the Throne room > Meet Graham and asked for what truly happening > Meet Yoko and getting warned to not get too close with Graham > meet Hammer and all he talk about is opening shop > Meet J and asked his true identity, get info that he is amnesia > Meet Graham again to asking confirmation about Yoko accusation, turn out her accusation is true > Meet Graham that stabbed Yoko in the gut > Meet Graham again in Throne Room. I think the rest are about Soma to loose his sanity and everyone try to tell him that he was still him deep down, not his past identity as dracula. I dont know about you, it seem you had too many expectation in the character that only kid (which you kind of wanted to brush off despite character age are important for writing in order to know how character behave). Like i said before, it can be annoying to some, but the plot progress nicely because Soma asking question. What do you want him to do? To know who Julius as vampire hunter from the get go and expecting that kind line of job in future? Want to doubt Graham easily while Graham are actually the first nice face that kindly explain to him whats going on, unlike Arikado who ran off and tell nothing except "Throne Room"?
@@ranvionist lol Never said it was about telling of his character behaviour. Realism doesn't lead to compelling stories by default. That plot summary has nothing to do with Soma as a character. It would mean more to us as an audience if we KNEW who Soma was before he becomes the supposed Lord of Evil. You can write a compelling school kid just as easy as an adult even in asking questions the way you ask them can say a lot. Could you tell me right now without describing his appearance or background what kind of kid is Soma and how does he change throughout. because in my mind I didn't see much difference when he was either persona
When you bring up the characters needing more personality, it made me wonder how to flesh them out. Maybe drop the mystery about Alucard halfway through and show his thoughts on his dad being human again. Maybe some more character interaction between Soma and Mina, just a couple ideas.
I really wish Mina had more dioloauge in aria. Because for some reason whenever I go back to the castle entrance to buy crap from Hammer, I always talk to Mina, I really love pointless diolauge between characters in video games because it gives the characters more personality
Would've been very interesting to see this game done on the PS1, this would give a lot more space to give more scenes of dialog, and more dialog in general. More Alucard shenanigans, and maybe showing how Soma taking in the entirety of Dracula's power effects his mindset and mannerisms, maybe have him call his "Son" out on his bullshit during the big reveal. And give a lot more build up on Graham, there was an interesting start with this Holy man turned dark lord candidate, and maybe show him be more helpful and nice to Soma would help build him up as this strange character that none of the other people in the castle trust.
Watched the one u did on harmony.. And been looking for your vid on this as u said in the harmony clip which i loved.... It was a year ago n decided to search.... Good work man
I’m late to the party w your channel but your videos are fantastic. Huge Castlevania fan and I thought I knew everything about these games and still learned some new stuff.
Soma's story isn't very interesting, but I did love the soul collecting. I spent several weeks collecting them all, like Pokemon! LOL. The Black Panther power is one of my favorite abilities of any game.
He might have meant challenge-wise, Maxim is the toughest enemy, and even he didn't give me much trouble in that game. Julius in Aria on the other hand, what a battle. And I love Circle of the Moon, but that final Dracula phase can suck a fat one.
17:30 In the immortal words of Rick Sanchez, "You ask a lot of questions, Soma. Kinda makes you into an underfoot figure." Lol but in all seriousness, great video. These are all great - I'm surprised they don't have more views. Castlevania is truly dead -_-
I'm sorry, but did I see you using Flying Armor against Balore? Why weren't you using the Medusa soul? Edit: In regards to hard mode, there's something you forgot to mention. In hard mode, there are some pieces of equipment that can only be obtained in said mode.
Wait the Medusa Soul lets you stop in mid air?! I PLAYED THROUGH THIS GAME 4 TIMES AND NEVER KNEW THAT welp that would make the reaper simpler in theory
@@schemingfox No problem, I feel the love and passion as well. I hope I can one day get to this level of video editing as I feel very inspired by it. Your series is amazing! I grew up playing the old-school titles and metroidvania's in middle/high school when they were new. And now bloodstained is here, and we have a netflix series, and Simon and Richter is in smash. It's an oddly good time to be a cv fan right now. It's been a pleasure typing to you Fox. Till next time.
I’m so excited for your analysis on the ds castlevanias. They are so good and Portrait of Ruin + Dawn of Sorrow are some of my favorite games ever played. Order of ecclesia is great, but the glyph system is lackluster compared to the soul system. But I’m really excited for your reviews of the 3 anyway. You have a subscriber in me man, and your videos are super well crafted. I wish you luck as you continue. Cheers, Noah
I will still always believe Dawn of Sorrow to have the best gameplay between these two, but this is a great video, and I hope you have a great one Scheming! :)
I begrudgingly agree this is the best of the three GBA games (considering I have soft spot for Harmony), but I also say this is better than Symphony. Less janky for my tastes. I also enjoy this more than Dawn of Sorrow, but that's a topic for another day.
It doesn't feel as good to play. Something about the jump, movement, design choices. Believe me, I can understand why people rank it high on best of lists. But for me it has aged not so gracefully.
@@MrRaivokasMagma I can agree that early sotn is rougher around the edges getting around the castle and dying can be harsh in comparison to aria. Say for example that stairs parts with the falling skulls in sotn. Though I still feel sotn wins out warts and all.Since walking around in aria is so slow In comparison , while the bosses are tighter in aria the ones in sotn are bigger with such a variety I couldn't say no to it. Same with fighting enemies and music , more power in sotn leads to sleeker animations. The music benefits with the cd quality and just the straight up punch to it all
AOS is in my top 5. The presentation, story and gameplay come together so well. The soul system is one of the most genius things in the series even if you tend to stick to a few of the more useful souls. It was a perfect finale to the series' story imo and I always find disappointment in DOS as it didnt live up to AOS's gameplay or story. My only real problem with it is that it feels pretty short even with all it's content. One of the best in the series.
i played this back when i was in highschool some 10 Or more years ago, but i still figured out the whole jump attack canceling thing. I dont know if its intended to be found but its so unreasonably easy to do that the game doesnt feel good without taking advantage of it. i wonder how many others also naturally figured the technique out. you say that its more of a speedrun strat but i am not much of a speedrunner, and was def not one back then, and i managed to abuse it through pretty much the whole game.
Maybe you have an act for it since I played the game 4 times while going through this video topic with Fox and I never got the hang of it nor the back dash cancels
This Castlevania game has my favorite story. I like how it mentions a real life eclipse that will happen in 2035. ORAORAORA! You consider 2035 the distant future? Where did you get the audio dialogue for Soma from? Wasn't Castlevania 64 the first 3D Castlevania game?
Just discovered the channel while looking for Igavania content. Love what's here so far, but is this Legacy of Igavania series defunct now? It'd be cool to see you cover the three DS titles, particularly Dawn of Sorrow!
Circle of the moon is clunky and basic but so underrated. The darker visuals look best with lit screens, the ost is better than aria's and the castle is one of the best in the series.
Yes I shall be, I am currently working on Lament Of Innocence at the moment. I'm thinking of making a first impressions video for Bloodstained and then doing a full Legacy of Igavania Video on it after I have covered the rest of Igarashi's Castlevania games :)
Scheming Fox Awesome man! I will subscribe and make sure I keep up on the updates. Thanks for the hard work and research. And amazing work by the way when you broke down sprite animations. I had no idea about that stuff so it really opened my mind. Things like that really separate you from a more general review/overview. Would be awesome if you made a dedicated video to that sometime!
When are you going to make a video on order of ecclesia or bloodstained you one of the best youtubers for these types of igavania games is like to see that maybe even try a couple videos on the 2d Metroid games
Concerning the story, let's be real here. No one plays Castlevania for the story. There's a reason why "What is a man?" is the series' most iconic line.
I'd agree that the story isn't a priority here, but Aria does add a fair bit of dialogue and upon its release looking at the reviews there was universal praise for that story.
I finished this game yesterday (emulated it, I can't find gba or cartrage so I don't give a fuck) I actually think it's awesome game from the story to the gameplay i mean ye characters r simple but so r every other character in every other Castlevania game and yes i mean sotn like are we gonna pretend bow bland some of interactions are in sotn? And i think the simple sprites and colorful art style give this game charm so im my opinion it's quite awesome for something that came on a hand hold console back then
I mean if it had a 'smear' effect anywhere near as much as mmzero, it would look cartoony as all hell which wouldn't fit at all with the game's style soo
@@schemingfox oh the game is still unrealistic but a 'smear' effect still feels too much and out of tone regardless of other silly shit (which lets be real is most of the sorrow games) Ah well. No big deal.
The animations on weapons lack many of the principles of dynamic animation that makes movement feel good in a game, a lot of what I am citing is from a GDC Lecture "Making Fluid and Powerful Animations for Skullgirls" I would recommend giving it a look if you want a better understanding of animation in Computer Games. ruclips.net/video/Mw0h9WmBlsw/видео.html
Soma's animation in general, his walk cycle, is a big turn off for me. It looks like he's holding his elbows close to his body and making a kind of circular motion. Like he's doing some kind of aerobic exercise. It looks really silly to me. That animation, the constant washed out look of the GBA color pallet, and the not so great sound/music of the GBA has kept me from playing this game. Don't get me wrong, I love Castlevania especially 2D Castlevania, but the GBA games were a real step backward in my opinion. Even the DS games... they pale in comparison to the masterpiece that is SoTN.
New Legacy Of Igavania yay!
I put a lot of love into this video and I hope that shows to all of you. I'm aware a lot of you have been anticipating this video and I hope it was worth the wait. I am always so surprised about the growth of this channel and seeing it pass 250 Subscribers is amazing! I say it a lot but thank you all so much for being so passionate about my channel, it means a lot to me :D
I have more video's on the way for my other series 'Foxhole' which I hope helps make the wait for my next Legacy Of Igavania not quite so painful ^^;
I fully intend on covering the DS Games :)
A wl
17:29 if you wake up in Dracula's castle, and attacked by very real skeleton monsters, and feel the soul of said monster enter you, you're bound to have more than a few questions.
Excellent video dude, especially the editing and the section about the animation frames/principles.
Aria of sorrow holds a special place in my heart for being the game that got me into Igavania and it still stands as my 3rd favourite Igavania game. While it's a lot more safe and restrictive than Symphony and future titles, I think that's what makes a good entry point for people wanting to explore these types of games, heck it worked wonders on me. It's defo the best of the GBA Igavania's in my opinion and titles of the GBA.
Thanks you very much, this video definitely has the most effort in terms of the editing so I'm glad it shows :D
I completely agree, Aria is a brilliant starting point for newer players and I know many who got started with it. It was the third Igavania game I ever played and I remember back in the day spending countless hours replaying it and collecting souls. The game has such a solid sense of pace to it as well, it's not surprising to me that it's looked back on so fondly by so many.
If anything it's more free than SOTN, lol. Weapons actually act differently and souls are infinitely more varied than subweapons.
They finally ported the GBA games as a collection to all consoles yesterday! You wished it into existence! Hahaha. I started streaming this last night on PS5. Great video!
They should do this also with Dawn of Sorrow for NDS
@@yorshka6955 how the hell would that work due to all the dumbass TOUCHSCREEN GIMMICKS THAT WERENT NEEDED
@@yorshka6955 they should do it with Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness
@@domoru5264they disabile those, you can do it by downloading a simple patch online, I Guess they could easily find out, touch wasn’t even a feature a part for a comple of gimmicks
@@domoru5264PS4/PS5 touch pad.
Anyone find this after the surprise release of Castlevania Advance Collection?
I'll say watching a AoS speedrun is far more entertaining than a SoTN one
Of all the eras of Castlevania that can be made into an anime, this era is begging to be animated. Everything about it screams animate me! From innocent naive Soma entering the castle to realizing he has control over the monsters, the Belmont trailing him and the eventual spoiler alert reveal, it's perfect. 4 seasons Netflix, come on
Anyone discovering this video in 2021: good news! The GBAvanias are now available on Switch via the Castlevania Advanced collection! We still don't have SotN though. I wish we did but the fact that it's a playstation exclusive makes that... hard, I think.
But great vid! And thank you for the animation lecture.
Respectfully, the Sorrow games eclipse Symphony (no pun intended) without much effort. Better map design, better core mechanics, better bosses, more weapon variety. Dawn in particular is on par graphically, although I do prefer Symphony's art direction as a whole, including character art. And the music is roughly equivalent.
I hate that you’re right. I’m 45 and I’ve only recently have come to accept that Symphony isn’t the top dog. I’ve always known it since Aria, Dawn, and Portrait but I suppressed those thoughts
I gotta respectfully disagree
The level design in both sorrow games is inferior imo compared to symphony
The characters physics in symphony is so much more fluid than it is in both sorrow games especially dawn where soma feels too stiff in comparison to alucard, the overall enemy design is also much better and more engaging to fight, the presentation of the game is also just better(but tbf dawn and aria had hardware limitations of the gba and ds)
Imo symphony shadows dawn sorrow in a sad way for me, bc dawn of sorrow was a game I was excited to get in to but it has just left a sour taste in my mouth, aria was much better, mainly due to my preference of the controls/physicis and the pacing of content .
While dawn has better bosses, there are only a handful that stick out and generally I don’t play igavanias for the boss fights, as the boss fights are just serviceable and get the job done but aren’t really a core factor for me at least when it comes to playing these games, there are other Metroidvanias with much better designed boss fights such as will of the wisps or hollow knight
Dawn of sorrow is still good but nothing that blows me away, I have had a much better time playing symphony, aria and even circle of the moon tbh
I haven’t delved that much into the other ds igavanias but from what I have played they haven’t been able to make me feel the same as sotn or aria, they feel very overrated to me, I will still push myself to beat those other ds games, but currently I am very disappointed in the quality of ds games as of rn
Also I have no bias for sotn, I only recently beat it and got into the game last year, yes it is my first proper castlevaina game but I generally speak of games based on my enjoyment, and the only two games so far do I consider to be masterpieces are sotn and aria( I have played more than just symphony and aria, (I have beat circle of the moon and castlevaina 1 both of which I consider to be quite good games, and have played the majority of dawn but couldn’t bring myself to beat bc of I didn’t enjoy it as much I will beat it fully and I have started replaying it to give it another chance but thoughts currently still remain the same)
This ended up being a rant on dawn but oh well
@@slopy8bitretogamer-252 Symphony's level design is much inferior lol. Like it’s not even close. "Inverted castle" 😂 please be serious.
While Dawn's level design isn’t anything special and frankly inferior to its prequel, Aria is the pinnacle the series has to offer. The combat and abilities is much better than Symphony and this isn’t debatable. Movement is case by case. Both Sorrow games provide more movement options and more abilities that augment your traversal. "Fluidity" is arbitrary. Symphony is better animated than Aria, but it’s roughly equal to Dawn. As far as responsiveness is concerned, the games control as they should.
I prefer Aria over Dawn as well. Doesn’t really change that they both shit on Symphony in the factors that matter.
Symphony being the best Igavania only holds up if you haven’t played Aria, any of the DS games, or Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. I played SOTN for the first time last year, beat it 4 times. While it’s an excellent game, it suffers from a lack of difficulty, generally unimpressive boss fights (compared to the later Igavanias), meddling level design and bizarre progression. The Soul system from the Sorrow games are so profoundly superior, I cannot express it in words.
This was an excellent retrospective. I saw this on reddit and I was blown away by the quality of the review based on how new your channel is. I have a special interest in retrospectives of older games - especially games with RPG elements. Thanks for the content, I'm subscribed and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your next video.
Thank you very much :D
Now the Castlevania Advance Collection exists and playing these games just became a lot easier.
I love Soma’s Aria outfit, bellbottom jeans are great.
one thing i noticed after playing all 3 gba castlevania games is how each one of them deals with grinding.
in cotm grinding is unavoidable, since without it you wont have the level, the cards or armour to beat it.
in hod grinding is pretty much a waste of time since the game is so damn easy.
aos seems to strike the perfect balance by making the grinding optional. you can beat the game just fine by going through it and not grinding, but if you do youll have a slightly easier time and youll get a fuller ending.
Agreed, I think Aria strikes a great balance between HOD and COTM. It makes the game very replayable because of that.
still need grinding for best ending sadly but still i agree one can see how tight AOS in general, minus the movement lol
There is a glitch in cotm that allows you to use all cards even the ones you don't have.
Julius mode is 🔥🔥🔥
hikari na re!!*flies to graham and punches his face*
Hey ! I just wanted to thank you for the bibliography you included in the description of the video. Not many people do this and I really appreciate the effort !
Great video, as always. Looking forward to the next one.
Take care !
Thank you very much :)
The attack analysis was such an unexpected treat. Definitely changed how I look at games
You should tag this with animation too, great explanation of the principles
My favorite GBA game ever. I never really finished Circle of the Moon or Harmony of Dissonance but I love Aria of Sorrow to death
I'm glad you enjoyed this one , we did plan to talk about Bloodstained, but much further down the road it's like the final boss
It's definitely one of the best titles on the GBA, I have a lot of Nostalgia for it.
I think once I get the the DS Games, is when the gap between SOTN and every other Igavania starts to close.
I am very excited for Bloodstained! I plan to have it be the last Legacy Of Igavania video in the series, so it will be a while until I get around to making a more in depth video. Doesn't mean I can't share my initial impressions in a video though :)
A person who cares about using borders not to compromise the original aspect ratio of retro games.
Subscribed.
Haha thank's :D
If they ever make an aos series after nocturne, I wish theyd flesh out the characters even more. I wanna see how Soma behaves in school and what kind of attitude he has. The battle of 99. And imrpove on Graham's writing.
Aria is the funniest game plot wise on a replay as you have this guy who’s like OHHH IM DRACULA REBORN and then you have the mc, a random teenager who is trying to figure out what the fuck is going on and how the hell do I get out and then turns out no actually the teenager is Dracula reborn
But on a more serious note I love the fact that the reborn Dracula isn’t some evil supervillain by default as Dracula main “fuck humanity” thing comes from the lost of Lisa and if you want to count lament of innocence which came after this game Dracula was born from Mathias turning his back on god due to the lost of his love so the entire existence is based off one’s man grief of losing the lady he loves and getting stuck reincarnated because humanity sucks
So when he is eventually truly killed instead of reincarnating as some evil asshole he is reincarnated as just some kid able to live his life without being damned to the fate of becoming the dark lord
So much effort was put into this video! I was craving some Castlevania content after finishing AoS a few days ago, and boy did you deliver. Very well done :D
Ahh, igavanias. The games with more replayability than any other game i have seen. Aria and dawn, in special, have the extra "catch them all" appeal with the soul system. Even if a soul has litteraly no use, it is really fun to grind and try to get 100%, them try to finish the game using the worst ones.
Yeah, I love the Soul System! It's so fun to see all the different weird souls you can get :D
Some are definitely better than others though :L
20:00 aria came out in time where you were suppose to play game through multiple times, thats why that era games have fuckton of these play through to unlock stuff
I mean... Give Soma some slack. He is a kid with no experience on any supernatural phenomenon or any Belmont/Drac feud before he entered the castle. His character writing while can be frustating, are make sense if you think about his age and his background.
I don't think realism is the worry when it comes to the literal reincarnation of Dracula from the future.
Second thing is asking questions is fine, I love me some Solid Snake but ya gonna need a bit more than that to sell on the actual character
@@Stevem Reader sometimes are more known on the context of the story than the character inside of it are. When its first released, no one can known Soma as reincarnation of Dracula for sure until the bomb was dropped on later narrative. I think it kind of unfair when you expected Soma to be more steeled up and can grasp whats going on from get-go just because he had dracula soul in him. He is high school kid without any knowledge with even the castle power. Heck, he doesnt even known Belmont until Julius told him.
@@ranvionist Not my point, it's not a matter of being clued up. Not too bothered by questions, as long as you have more than just Questions which is like 70% of Soma's dialogue.
His name is Soma Cruz or
Kurusu Sōma which means
ome/next' (kuru), 'by all means/ necessary' (su),
'pale' (sō), 'truth/reality(ma) next to each other "so" becomes Unripe.
more or less, "the Necessary next of unripe truth".
There's a ton of foreshadowing in his name to go with his vampire style walk cycle, pale white hair and ability to conquer the souls of his enemies.
As well as his character design parallels to Dracula(maphios)as seen in Lament of Innocence
in the cover of Aria, you see Soma next to a Pale Drake, Dracula's name derives from Drake or dragon.
(Cruz means cross in Spanish too)
So there's a ton of hints but more so than anything else I'd like a bit of characterization there's very little for Soma until Dawn of Sorrow
@@Stevem Foreshadowing (especially in small thing like name) are in no way a device for characters behaviour, it was more plot device planted for unexpecting twist in later plot.
The plot of AoS are: Soma trapped in castle > He explore the Castle with minimum knowledge by Arikado except the Throne room > Meet Graham and asked for what truly happening > Meet Yoko and getting warned to not get too close with Graham > meet Hammer and all he talk about is opening shop > Meet J and asked his true identity, get info that he is amnesia > Meet Graham again to asking confirmation about Yoko accusation, turn out her accusation is true > Meet Graham that stabbed Yoko in the gut > Meet Graham again in Throne Room. I think the rest are about Soma to loose his sanity and everyone try to tell him that he was still him deep down, not his past identity as dracula.
I dont know about you, it seem you had too many expectation in the character that only kid (which you kind of wanted to brush off despite character age are important for writing in order to know how character behave). Like i said before, it can be annoying to some, but the plot progress nicely because Soma asking question. What do you want him to do? To know who Julius as vampire hunter from the get go and expecting that kind line of job in future? Want to doubt Graham easily while Graham are actually the first nice face that kindly explain to him whats going on, unlike Arikado who ran off and tell nothing except "Throne Room"?
@@ranvionist lol Never said it was about telling of his character behaviour.
Realism doesn't lead to compelling stories by default. That plot summary has nothing to do with Soma as a character. It would mean more to us as an audience if we KNEW who Soma was before he becomes the supposed Lord of Evil. You can write a compelling school kid just as easy as an adult even in asking questions the way you ask them can say a lot.
Could you tell me right now without describing his appearance or background what kind of kid is Soma and how does he change throughout.
because in my mind I didn't see much difference when he was either persona
These igavania episodes are amazing can't wait for the next one!
Thanks :)
Played the Double Pack recently. This really stood out as a better experience against Harmony of Dissonance.
Man, do I have good news for you.
When you bring up the characters needing more personality, it made me wonder how to flesh them out. Maybe drop the mystery about Alucard halfway through and show his thoughts on his dad being human again. Maybe some more character interaction between Soma and Mina, just a couple ideas.
Yeah for sure, their just needs to be a few more moments and scenes that are more than just mystery right :)
I really wish Mina had more dioloauge in aria. Because for some reason whenever I go back to the castle entrance to buy crap from Hammer, I always talk to Mina, I really love pointless diolauge between characters in video games because it gives the characters more personality
Would've been very interesting to see this game done on the PS1, this would give a lot more space to give more scenes of dialog, and more dialog in general. More Alucard shenanigans, and maybe showing how Soma taking in the entirety of Dracula's power effects his mindset and mannerisms, maybe have him call his "Son" out on his bullshit during the big reveal.
And give a lot more build up on Graham, there was an interesting start with this Holy man turned dark lord candidate, and maybe show him be more helpful and nice to Soma would help build him up as this strange character that none of the other people in the castle trust.
Coming here after they released on the Switch. Such a fantastic game.
Enjoyed this and thanks for a really informative overview of the game. Keep up the great work 🤘
Watched the one u did on harmony.. And been looking for your vid on this as u said in the harmony clip which i loved.... It was a year ago n decided to search.... Good work man
You are criminally unknown, fantastic work!
I’m late to the party w your channel but your videos are fantastic. Huge Castlevania fan and I thought I knew everything about these games and still learned some new stuff.
I love you channel, you put so much work into your videos! And they're interesting thanks!
Thank you very much, I try my best :D
Can you do any bosses in a different order without sequence breaks?
8:15 This is about artist skill rather than the system capabilities
Soma's story isn't very interesting, but I did love the soul collecting. I spent several weeks collecting them all, like Pokemon! LOL. The Black Panther power is one of my favorite abilities of any game.
Idk if id call HoD a "cakewalk". I never completed it; always got lost and stuck on where to go.
He might have meant challenge-wise, Maxim is the toughest enemy, and even he didn't give me much trouble in that game. Julius in Aria on the other hand, what a battle. And I love Circle of the Moon, but that final Dracula phase can suck a fat one.
that Jojo reference tho x)
I didn't realize at the time I played the game
I’m playing this game now on a DS. It’s amazing. I really wish that forward dash was there though from harmony.
"and then here is hammer... he is alright" XD
And people say that Aria is superior to Dawn, why?
The touch controls?
They are mostly gone in the dominus colection
17:30 In the immortal words of Rick Sanchez, "You ask a lot of questions, Soma. Kinda makes you into an underfoot figure." Lol but in all seriousness, great video. These are all great - I'm surprised they don't have more views. Castlevania is truly dead -_-
4:06 Soma: Star Platinum: Za Warudo!
Cool to meet you today! Your vids are awesome, keep it up! I have some too although I haven't done any for ages.
Thanks! :D
@@schemingfox Oh and give me a shout if you want to play some Harmony of Despair!
Nice, I am looking forward to your reviews on the 6th gen 3D Castlevanias. Those are my favourites
I'm sorry, but did I see you using Flying Armor against Balore? Why weren't you using the Medusa soul?
Edit: In regards to hard mode, there's something you forgot to mention. In hard mode, there are some pieces of equipment that can only be obtained in said mode.
Wait the Medusa Soul lets you stop in mid air?! I PLAYED THROUGH THIS GAME 4 TIMES AND NEVER KNEW THAT welp that would make the reaper simpler in theory
Don't remember to be honest, probably just didn't think about it :L
I can't believe I watched all 4 eps already. Good stuff. Can't wait till Lament, it's a seriously underrated game period.
Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed them :)
@@schemingfox No problem, I feel the love and passion as well. I hope I can one day get to this level of video editing as I feel very inspired by it. Your series is amazing! I grew up playing the old-school titles and metroidvania's in middle/high school when they were new. And now bloodstained is here, and we have a netflix series, and Simon and Richter is in smash. It's an oddly good time to be a cv fan right now. It's been a pleasure typing to you Fox. Till next time.
I’m so excited for your analysis on the ds castlevanias. They are so good and Portrait of Ruin + Dawn of Sorrow are some of my favorite games ever played. Order of ecclesia is great, but the glyph system is lackluster compared to the soul system. But I’m really excited for your reviews of the 3 anyway. You have a subscriber in me man, and your videos are super well crafted. I wish you luck as you continue. Cheers, Noah
I'm looking forward to revisiting the DS Games, I have fond memories of them :)
Scheming Fox Oh sorry about my late reply. First off, thank YOU for your reply. I’m looking forward to your analysis. Sincerely, Noah
I will still always believe Dawn of Sorrow to have the best gameplay between these two, but this is a great video, and I hope you have a great one Scheming! :)
I begrudgingly agree this is the best of the three GBA games (considering I have soft spot for Harmony), but I also say this is better than Symphony. Less janky for my tastes. I also enjoy this more than Dawn of Sorrow, but that's a topic for another day.
That's quite interesting, what is it about SOTN that you would say is more janky?
It doesn't feel as good to play. Something about the jump, movement, design choices.
Believe me, I can understand why people rank it high on best of lists. But for me it has aged not so gracefully.
@@MrRaivokasMagma I can agree that early sotn is rougher around the edges getting around the castle and dying can be harsh in comparison to aria. Say for example that stairs parts with the falling skulls in sotn. Though I still feel sotn wins out warts and all.Since walking around in aria is so slow In comparison , while the bosses are tighter in aria the ones in sotn are bigger with such a variety I couldn't say no to it. Same with fighting enemies and music , more power in sotn leads to sleeker animations. The music benefits with the cd quality and just the straight up punch to it all
That's fair enough :)
I dont like most of the weapon types in Aria/Dawn, but counterpoint: *GUN.*
AOS is in my top 5. The presentation, story and gameplay come together so well. The soul system is one of the most genius things in the series even if you tend to stick to a few of the more useful souls.
It was a perfect finale to the series' story imo and I always find disappointment in DOS as it didnt live up to AOS's gameplay or story. My only real problem with it is that it feels pretty short even with all it's content. One of the best in the series.
i played this back when i was in highschool some 10 Or more years ago, but i still figured out the whole jump attack canceling thing. I dont know if its intended to be found but its so unreasonably easy to do that the game doesnt feel good without taking advantage of it. i wonder how many others also naturally figured the technique out. you say that its more of a speedrun strat but i am not much of a speedrunner, and was def not one back then, and i managed to abuse it through pretty much the whole game.
Maybe you have an act for it since I played the game 4 times while going through this video topic with Fox and I never got the hang of it nor the back dash cancels
This Castlevania game has my favorite story. I like how it mentions a real life eclipse that will happen in 2035. ORAORAORA! You consider 2035 the distant future? Where did you get the audio dialogue for Soma from? Wasn't Castlevania 64 the first 3D Castlevania game?
Just discovered the channel while looking for Igavania content. Love what's here so far, but is this Legacy of Igavania series defunct now? It'd be cool to see you cover the three DS titles, particularly Dawn of Sorrow!
I am editing Dawn Of Sorrow as we speak :)
Circle of the moon is clunky and basic but so underrated. The darker visuals look best with lit screens, the ost is better than aria's and the castle is one of the best in the series.
Cap
@Terrordascasadas69 cope.
Funny seeing the ending after the gba collection was released some time ago lol
YES!!! more JoJo references in castlevania!!!
Bout to finally play this shit
Really enjoying these. Do you plan to make a vid on Bloodstained ROTN?
Yes I shall be, I am currently working on Lament Of Innocence at the moment.
I'm thinking of making a first impressions video for Bloodstained and then doing a full Legacy of Igavania Video on it after I have covered the rest of Igarashi's Castlevania games :)
Scheming Fox Awesome man! I will subscribe and make sure I keep up on the updates. Thanks for the hard work and research. And amazing work by the way when you broke down sprite animations. I had no idea about that stuff so it really opened my mind. Things like that really separate you from a more general review/overview. Would be awesome if you made a dedicated video to that sometime!
@@CompleteProducer84 Thank you very much, I hope you enjoy my future videos :D
lmao Alucard’s strongest ability is exposition, I hate how accurate that is
I think it's a good story... told poorly.
I honestly think if it was fleshed out it could be really good.
ARIA OF SORROW MORE LIKE, CAN I BORROW a copy of SOTN
MORE LIKE! REALLY FUN IGAVANIA GAME!!
@@schemingfox That's fair
Poison fist is sleeper top tier weapon
So... finally we know for certain : SotN>AoS
;)
When are you going to make a video on order of ecclesia or bloodstained you one of the best youtubers for these types of igavania games is like to see that maybe even try a couple videos on the 2d Metroid games
Working on Curse Of Darkness at the moment, I completely intend on covering Order Of Ecclessia and Bloodstained :)
Balore is da hardest but Death a close second. Julius easy af if you use silver gun
4:08 Jojo reference
My favorite game ever
I would definitely argue LOI having a better track then SOTN
AoS is better than Sotn tbqh
Concerning the story, let's be real here. No one plays Castlevania for the story. There's a reason why "What is a man?" is the series' most iconic line.
I'd agree that the story isn't a priority here, but Aria does add a fair bit of dialogue and upon its release looking at the reviews there was universal praise for that story.
"Getting lost in this game is a challenge."
Me and my dumb brain: "Yeah, funny story..."
Konami did it! Not cowards!
GBA only had 1 true igavania
I finished this game yesterday (emulated it, I can't find gba or cartrage so I don't give a fuck) I actually think it's awesome game from the story to the gameplay i mean ye characters r simple but so r every other character in every other Castlevania game and yes i mean sotn like are we gonna pretend bow bland some of interactions are in sotn? And i think the simple sprites and colorful art style give this game charm so im my opinion it's quite awesome for something that came on a hand hold console back then
I might create a Castlevania AU where soma's gender is the opposite, in other words...
Girl soma Cruz.
I mean if it had a 'smear' effect anywhere near as much as mmzero, it would look cartoony as all hell which wouldn't fit at all with the game's style soo
Hard disagree
This game has both a hoover and cat throwing ability, Also Alucard uses smears just fine in his game
I'll take 'Cartoony' over 'Janky' :L
@@schemingfox oh the game is still unrealistic but a 'smear' effect still feels too much and out of tone regardless of other silly shit (which lets be real is most of the sorrow games)
Ah well. No big deal.
That said how's it janky it's just visual?
The animations on weapons lack many of the principles of dynamic animation that makes movement feel good in a game, a lot of what I am citing is from a GDC Lecture "Making Fluid and Powerful Animations for Skullgirls" I would recommend giving it a look if you want a better understanding of animation in Computer Games.
ruclips.net/video/Mw0h9WmBlsw/видео.html
That one friend that doesn't like anything. 🙄
Story? Why? Gameplay should be king.
Soma's animation in general, his walk cycle, is a big turn off for me. It looks like he's holding his elbows close to his body and making a kind of circular motion. Like he's doing some kind of aerobic exercise. It looks really silly to me. That animation, the constant washed out look of the GBA color pallet, and the not so great sound/music of the GBA has kept me from playing this game. Don't get me wrong, I love Castlevania especially 2D Castlevania, but the GBA games were a real step backward in my opinion. Even the DS games... they pale in comparison to the masterpiece that is SoTN.