aria of sorrow

under construction

one of the things that felt the most compelling to me about Aria was how long-abandoned the castle felt, emphasizing how it had been frozen in time all these years. and there's this melancholy vibe that really stuck with me through the game- a lot of the locations in Aria feel less like dangerous locales filled with spooky monsters, and more like... a castle where people lived at some point. there's a dance hall, a study, a large courtyard garden... even living quarters, complete with an area that feels like a young child's bedroom.

it feels fitting, then, that the version of Dracula's Castle that felt the most livable to me was in the game where you play as Dracula's human reincarnation. exploring Inner Quarters felt especially somber to me; between the slow music with an air of distinct loneliness about it, the loyal maids (demonic maids, but still) who remain there long after Dracula's bitter end, or stumbling across a room decorated with clouds and flowers painted on the walls, contrasting so heavily with the rest of the castle's gloomy decor.

and I haven't even mentioned the endgame area yet! oh man. that left a really huge impression on me when I first played Aria. time and space itself has been warped further into the depths of the castle. everything has been cast in a shroud of greyscale, with exits and corridors connecting at random, and you just see absolute chaos when you look out the castle windows- it's like they took the "This castle is a creature of Chaos." line from Symphony and turned it up to 11. I loved it.

as far as the literal plot goes- there's parts I love, and other parts I'm ambivalent towards. Soma's naivete towards Graham is both funny but also kind of frustrating; I'd understand more if Graham tried like, 5% harder to not sound blatantly evil. I mean, come on, Soma. two seconds after you meet the guy, and he's all like, "vampires are real, it's a well known fact in the underworld. PS I will inherit Dracula's powers. Muahahaha!", and you're just gonna nod and go "Hmm! Seems legitimate!"? but well, I have the social skills of a peanut, so maybe I shouldn't be that critical of him.

for a while, I thought "gee, Alucard's kind of a vague jerk in this game..." but honestly... it kinda makes sense? I mean, considering they went into this ordeal knowing damn well what was going on, being extremely hesitant to trust Soma makes a lot of sense. Soma's out here running around, completely oblivious to the fact that he's the reincarnation of Count fucking Dracula, and I don't really think Alucard wanted to risk what would happen if he found out sooner than he did. that being said... mmmmaybe you could've been more honest with him, Alucard...

and initially, I thought "it's weird that Soma's so suspicious of this Arikado person!", but I do have a headcanon for this! I mean, considering Soma's real identity, of course he'd look at this Arikado and think, "hmmmmm I don't know why but I feel this inherent distrust of them???". almost as if the soul that lies deep within you has been maybe, idk, been killed by this exact person several times over.