Castlevania Aria of Sorrow was released in 2003 by Konami.
In 2035, 36 years after the Belmont clan completely destroyed Dracula, Soma Cruz and his friend Mina are at shrine when they black out at the occurence of a solar eclipse and are awoken by Genya Arikado who states they're in Dracula's castle and that it's in this year that Dracula is to be reborn. After monsters show up and attack, Soma defends Mina only for the monsters soul to be absorbed by Soma. Genya puts up a protective barrier to protect Mina while Soma goes off to find the secrets of the castle in order to go back home.
Going by the beginning of the game, you'll already know that Soma is Dracula and as Dracula, any monster that Soma defeats, he has the chance to absorb its soul. Every enemy in the game except three bosses have a soul that Soma can acquire and there's four kinds of souls. Bullet souls will allow Soma to use the skills as a sub weapon, like when the axe armor throws an axe across the room, a skeleton throws a bone, etc. Guardian souls can be turned on or off and have various properties, so Soma might summon a ghost, dash forward as a different monster, or change into bat form. Enchanted souls give Soma innate abilties like draining life when damaging an enemy, increasing stats, etc. Then there's the ability souls which are always on, but are your skills like double jump, that you use to progress to different parts of the game.
Like Castlevania Circle of the Moon though, the souls have different drop rates. On Aria of Sorrow, there are thankfully not just two souls that have high drop rates. There are actually a good amount where the drop rate isn't very bad, but there are are also souls where the drop rate is a bit ridiculous. At the very end of the game, I went up five levels while tryinig to acquire one soul, and then after I quit attempting to get the soul and just progressed, I killed three of a different enemy while going through the area and got its soul. I'd recommend not to do what I did my first time playing as I kept killing the same enemy over and over each time I saw a new one to get each soul, and I really didn't have any fun. The times I played afterwards, including the current time(except this part near the end,) I went through the game and used the souls I acquired in the playthrough. There are plenty of souls that work well, they just might not be as powerful as others, and a few of the powerful ones have a somewhat decent drop rate as well.
No longer just equipping a single weapon like the last couple games of this style, Soma also loses Juste's ability to repeatedly dash in either direction and now plays more similar to Alucard in Symphony of the Night. Soma can move mid air during a jump and his jumps have weight to them which makes platforming more enjoyable than the last game while he can also backdash and cancel attacks during a backdash, but there's a significant pause during the backdash. Soma can find weapons, armor, and accessories while he progresses through the game, with multiple different weapon types, each having different recovery times, different speed, distance, etc. There are guns in Aria of Sorrow as well, including phaser guns now that the series is in the 21st century. After a bit of a ways into the game, Soma will also have access to a merchant who will sell him weapons, armor, accessories, and items.
It's an explorable title in the Castlevania series so there are multiple areas and multiple teleporters to get back and forth between locations. You can finish the game normally giving you the bad ending, but if you explore everywhere in the game, you'll find a hint that allows you to progress further and get the good or worst endings. Anyone who's played Symphony of the Night will love the worst ending, you just need to get killed on the final boss. Most of the bosses on Aria of Sorrow were pretty dissappointing, though coincidentally, the game also has one of my favorite bosses in a video game(video/spoiler below.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Le6F1dlC8
After completing the game regardless of ending, you can play as Julius Belmont, listen to the games music, and play boss rush as either Soma or Julius. Julius can't use items or change equipment and he doesn't gain experience, however, he does get more powerful with each boss orb he acquires. Julius uses the vampire killer as his main weapon, complete with the hanging whip ability, and instead of acquiring different sub weapons, he can switch between holy water, the cross, the axe, and his holy cross item crush. Instead of a backdash, Julius does a quick dash around the enemy facing their direction.
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow is a great game, though I did write a bad review about it a long time ago due to my first experience with it and grinding for souls as I came across each new enemy. It's just how I played it that made the game much worse than it actually is. So only grind for souls if that kind of thing doesn't bother you, otherwise play through it like a normal action/adventure game.
Gameplay - 9
Design - 8
Presentation - 8
Balance - 9
Overall - 8.5
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