SOTN and Dawn of Sorrow are easily my two fav Castlevania games. Haven't played Aria of Sorrow yet, which is pure blasphemy I know, but I now have the Advance Collection so this Halloween it's gonna finally be time.
Enjoy SOTN
I was frothing at the mouth for Dawn to come out after Aria and while I liked the game, for whatever reason the one I keep coming back to again and again over the years is Aria. Dawn is like a slightly less good and more gimmicky version of Aria with better graphics -which still makes it a great game. Of course this comparison originally took place on a GBA SP vs fat DS and if you play Aria blown up on an even bigger screen today the difference in graphics will be even more shocking.
Something about Castlevania just makes me appreciate its sometimes rough, almost NES-like quality. This is also why I don't care about CotM having stiff controls and feeling so "industrial" -it feels like NES Castlevania merged with SotN. And it was a GREAT GAME. Aria shook off all that rust with much better controls, graphics and mechanics but didn't (well, couldn't) go overboard into touch screen rune stuff.
What I really want is a version of Aria for DS that lets me see the map all the time on the other screen like Dawn. That was the best part lol.
edit: Aria also used the same hand-painted, gothic look for its art and in-game portraits as SotN. Combined with the lower-detail sprites I thought the overall tone was cooler and just more CV. By Dawn they had switched over to complete anime style and I felt the silliness of Soma was shoved in my face more -the white-haired, blue-jeaned early 20's guy effeminately storming the castle just seemed more palatable when steeped in the stylings of CV myth, and with more detail left to the imagination, than in full-on anime mode. This is of course preference and doesn't wreck the game, but does hit if you are already a fan of the first one.
