Developer/Publisher: Konami
Gameplay Stats: 48 hours, 48/48 Steam achievements
Konami surprise released 3 Gameboy Advanced Castlevania games in one package! Plus also an SNES one. I had to play! The pack includes Aria of Sorrow, Harmony of Dissonance, Circle of the Moon, and Dracula X. I played the first 3 when I was younger on a Gameboy Advance, but Dracula X was new to me. The first 3 games required two play throughs, one as the story's protagonist and one as an alternate character. The alternate character playthroughs are pretty breezy, so it's not quite like playing the whole game again, they usually have all the necessary movement abilities from the start so you aren't shepherded through the game on as short of a leash.
Aria of Sorrow - Quite possibly the best game in the bunch! It's got some old school charm with some new design elements thrown in. This also probably has the most grinding of the bunch if you wanted to 100% it by collecting all of the monster souls, but it's enjoyable to do so (for the most part). The bonus playthrough as Graham was easily the most fun also. Best visuals of the bunch, decently good music.
Harmony of Dissonance - The most action oriented of the 3 GBA titles since the shoulder buttons are always dash moves left and right. They tried to do the Symphony of the Night thing where you explore the same castle twice, but the two castles are almost identical. Not even inverted or flipped or anything. I consulted some guides on where to find some of the collection items and even the guides got the two castles confused. Not their best effort I don't think. I really did like the shoulder button dashes though, that should come back if they decide to make a new game. I don't often get lost in video games, but I did in this one, the castle is a hot, same-y mess. The nice controls do make up for some of the frustration though. Also no grinding!
Circle of the Moon - I think this might be the earliest release of the 3 in the collection and I think it sits in the middle as far as meshing with my tastes goes. The best music and some absolutely lovely pixel art. It's a bit chunky, but in a good way. It did feature some grinding, but not an absurd amount. Way more menu-ing than I think was necessary, but the way they did the magic system in this game was pretty neat. You pick from two sets of cards, one is generally the style of magical effect and the other is the element. While trying ti figure out what the combinations did I was able to guess some of the time which was cool.
Dracula X - My least favorite of the bunch for sure. This game is more in the vein of the OG Castlevania on NES, so there are no exploration or RPG elements, it's just a punishing action platformer. I think I would have quit this game if it weren't for the ability to rewind time included in this collection. There were so many jumps where an enemy from off screen would hit you before you landed sending you into a pit. It's NES hard where they are encouraging you to memorize the game to progress and I don't really have that kind of patience anymore. I think it's because I don't have as much time for gaming, but I could just be becoming a salty old man. Hard to say.
Would I recommend this collection? If you like Metroidvanias and are itching for some gaming history I'd recommend playing the first 3 in the bunch! If you have nostalgia for Dracula X/Rondo of Blood I could recommend picking the collection up for that one as well. I do like the Encyclopedia, Save States, and Time Rewinding that you can do in this collection, they definitely make the old style games way more forgiving and in line with more modern sensibilities. [7/10]
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