Castlevania GBA - best to worst?

[Geoff D]

I've decided I need some 2D Castlevania lovin' - where to start? Circle Of The Moon? Aria Of Sorrow?

Also, does White Night Concerto = Harmony Of Dissonance?

[Magnakai]

I think WNC = HoD... but I'm not sure.
In any case, Aria Of Sorrow is easily the best of the three. Check reviews if you want... Out of the three, I'd consider AoS the only essential one.

[electric_warrior]

I decided a few weeks back that I needed to try a Castllevania game as i'd never played one. I got Harmony of Dissonance (White Night Concerto), but i'm finding it to be pretty damn bad. I heard Aria Of Sorrow was best but I understand it's hard to find.

[Geoff D]

Yep, Aria Of Sorrow seems to be scarce at a reasonable price at the moment - was it a limited run or something?

[martTM]

I like them all (being a Castlevania whore... second only to Zelda ) but I'm not sure what to suggest. White Night Concerto is definitely the weakest, but not because it's bad - more that its far too easy and hasn't got much extra to do. Aria Of Sorrow is great, but even that didn't last too long; I've definitely got a soft spot for Circle Of The Moon, which felt close to Symphony Of The Night to me. Plus I still haven't got the full completion yet, which is pretty rare for me...

[Treble]

I'd say HoD isn't that bad at all. I'd give it 6/10, maybe 7. And bear in mind I gave CV: LoI only 5/10.

[darkangel]

Circle of the moon and White night concerto are the best ones.

[razu]

I'm playing Circle of the Moon at the moment. Very good indeed.

[martTM]

I'd say HoD isn't that bad at all. I'd give it 6/10, maybe 7. And bear in mind I gave CV: LoI only 5/10.

That's because Lament of Innocence is distinctly lacklustre - it's not terrible by any means, but it's also missing so much of what makes a Castlevania game enjoyable. The GBA ones are great because they maintain the pleasures that SoN manages to capture... while being different at the same time, of course.

[craptest]

Played them all and here's my view:

Best: Circle of the Moon
Close 2nd: Aria of Sorrow
Don't bother: White Night Concerto / Harmony of Dissonance.


Some of my fondest GBA memories was playing thru COTM, Now the SP has a light there's no dark screen issue either.

Buy COTM and AoS. Castlevania heaven!!

[MonkeyWrench]

If you're a CV fan then I don't think you can go wrong with either of them. As other people have already mentioned Harmony of Dissonance isn't up to scratch, but it's not all that bad. However, If push came to shove I'd have to take Aria of Sorrow out of the three.

[Magnakai]

I'm honestly suprised that people put CotM first. It's the toughest, and will certainly last you the longest, but I find it hard to believe that anyone enjoyed it nearly as much as AoS. Anyway, AoS was basically Symphony Of The Night shrunk down onto the GBA, with (possibly) better graphics.

Play have it for 26.99, but are out of stock.

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=search&adudisc=y

There's a seller on eBay who has it on Buy It Now for 12.00. Definitely worth it, if you ask me.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3082599371&category=48454

[Geoff D]

I've gone for Aria - looks top, can't wait to get stuck in

[martTM]

AoS was basically Symphony Of The Night shrunk down onto the GBA, with (possibly) better graphics.

But didn't you think it was too short? I managed to get full completion in a relatively short amount of time - nearly as quickly as I did for HoD, in fact. SoN, meanwhile, still takes me ages to finish and I still haven't reached the maximum (over 200%, I seem to remember... but I haven't played it in ages). Length isn't everything, but it's certainly important.

[Geoff D]

Length isn't everything, but it's certainly important.

So my Mrs tells me :/

I quite like my GBA games to be bitesize length - I don't get to play with it much, so 100 hour epics put me right off - between 4-10 suits me just fine