Basics

Controls

• Direction (D) Pad: The D-Pad (or Directional Pad) is used to move your character around within the game itself. Pressing right will allow you to walk right, while pressing left will allow you to walk left, et cetera. Use in conjunction with attacking, jumping, and other things to discern the direction you are going to attack/jump/et al. Also use the D-Pad to navigate the various in-game menus.
• Start: Whilst in-game, pressing Start will bring up a menu where you can see your equipment, souls, enemies defeated, and so on and so forth.
• Select: Pressing Select will bring up the castle map. Once in the castle map, you can see where you've been and where you need to go.
• L Button: The L Button has no practical use in the game (other than obscure menu-scrolling functions) until you get the Grave Keeper skill, which allows you to backdash. Furthermore, once you get the Hippogryph ability, you can press L while in mid-jump to fly upwards into the air, gaining incredible height with your jumps.
• R Button: The R Button is used to control some of your souls when equipped. The soul category that is controlled by the R Button is the "Blue Group."
• B Button: The B Button is your character's primary attack button. With whatever weapon you have equipped on your character, you will attack with that weapon when the B Button is pressed. Additionally, it is the "cancel" button within in-game menus.
• A Button: The A Button is your character's jump button. Press the A Button to make your character jump, as well as swim while underwater. Once you get the Malphas ability, you can press A twice (once after you've initially pressed it and are already airborne) to perform a double jump. Additionally, with the Skeleton Blaze ability, pressing down and over (when over equals the direction you want to go) will allow you to slide under objects and obstructions, as well as into enemies themselves to damage them.

Doing Battle
Fighting in this game is rather straight-forward and simplistic. However, there are many different ways to damage your enemies and combat them. This is what this section of the Basics covers.

1.) The Traditional Fight - Traditionally fighting an enemy basically means that you'll battle him with only the primary weapon you have equipped. You do this by pressing B to unleash the power of whatever currently-equipped weapon you have equipped. This is how you'll end up fighting a vast majority of enemies in the game.

2.) Using Souls - The ability to assimilate enemy souls in a Castlevania game is a brand new feature in the franchise, first appearing in this very game. You basically have a variety of over 100 different souls to use in battle, which you can learn more about later on in the Basics section, as well as the Souls section itself. Using souls in battle is almost integral, but using just souls while fighting an enemy or a group of enemies is going to be a rare occurance. More often, you'll use…

3.) A Mixture - Using a combination of traditional fighting with soul using, you'll find the perfect balance in battles. Fighting with your weapons and backing up your attacks with strong souls (or strategically important souls) will allow you to, in essence, do some serious damage to your enemies in the game.

The secret to fighting in the game is to find your perfect balance. The castle of Dracula is expansive, and you'll find more often than not that you'll be using different techniques on different enemies. This is to be expected - there are 112 different, unique enemies in the castle, with 112 different, unique battle tactics. Not to say you will, in turn, have 112 different, unique battle tactics, but that instead you will leave your options open and fight differently when the circumstances make you.

Thankfully, fighting in the game is explicitly simplistic, so there's no real need to go on about it.

The RPG Elements
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is an action/adventure game with many, many RPG elements. First started in the franchise back on the Playstation in late 1997 with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow is really the fourth Castlevania game to have heavy RPG elements and overtones. Be aware of the following to help you progress in the game.

1.) The Leveling Up System - This game is made a quasai-RPG primarily because of its leveling up and experience points system. You'll gain experience points by fighting enemies in the castle. Each enemy gives different amounts of experience, but a rule of thumb is the harder the foe and the later in the game you encounter him, the more experience he'll give you. It's all in progressive fashion however, meaning that even though you only need 70 experience points to get from level 1 to level 2, and you need 15,000 experience points to get from level 50 to level 51, it'll take the same amount of time to obtain both levels because of enemy progression in the game. It's a cool system that lets you control how strong or weak your character is directly.

2.) Weapons, Armor, Accessories and Items - Another sure-fire sign of an RPG is being able to equip unique weapons, piece of armor and accessories on your character(s). Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has no shortage of these pieces of equipment - quite the contrary, you'll find that a very integral part of the game is having the strongest items and weapons available to you. It's the only way you'll truly progress in the game easily is by making sure your character is made as strong as he can possibly be via the assistance of powerful gear. Additionally, items (mostly healing) are available in the game. Another RPG-like quality, healing items and other such items are available in the game, making the RPG elements even deeper.

3.) Shopping - There's a shop in this game, and a Castlevania game hasn't seen a shop since 1997's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Basically, this means that you have even more direct control of your preparedness, being that the one shop in the game (at the castle's entrance, run by a man named Hammer) sells a plethora of healing items, weapons, pieces of armor and accessories. The most powerful of all categories aren't at the shop, but you can easily beat the game with just those items found at the shop. Make sure you use the money you find all over the castle to your full advantage. Being prepared will help you in the long run.

Souls
Assimilating souls in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a fundamental skill in the game that you'll need to learn to harness if you want to have any hope of beating the game. There's an entire section of this guide dedicated to the over-100 souls in the game, their uses and stats, et cetera, that you owe it to yourself to read. Don't overlook the uses and disadvantages of each and every soul. Only through trial-and-error can you know the true strengths, weaknesses, and overall uses of each and every soul in the game. So see the Soul section of this guide for more information on those.

On to Walkthrough...