pleased that the conflict is over. Development Aria of Sorrow was unveiled at a press conference in San Francisco by executive producer Koji Igarashi on January 16, 2003. Igarashi had worked on previous Castlevania games such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Aria of Sorrow was placed in production alongside Harmony of Dissonance, resulting in both games sharing similar programming engines and gameplay elements. Aria of Sorrows Ability souls, for example, provide the protagonist with innate abilities like the Relic items in Harmony of Dissonance. Nevertheless, Igarashi claimed he wished to try a "different route" for the series with Aria of Sorrow via placing the game in a futuristic setting. Ayami Kojima, who had previously collaborated with Igarashi on the character designs of Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance, was brought into the project. Following the "different route" motif, the character designs were made more contemporary, using modern clothing over the more medieval look of the previous Castlevania installments. In developing the game's back story, Igarashi partially based it on Nostradamus's prediction of a "big evil lord in 1999" and the 1999 solar eclipse in Eastern Europe. One of Igarashi's prominent concerns during development was addressing the criticism expressed concerning Harmony of Dissonance. Igarashi noted that the music in Harmony of Dissonance had not been well received and Michiru Yamane, who had previously worked on the acclaimed music for Symphony of the Night, was hired in order to compose for Aria of Sorrow. The development team worked on the game's audio cycles, as well as delegating more cartridge space and processor cycles for the sound. Maintaining the visual quality of Harmony of Dissonance was a chief objective during development, as many reviewers had felt that Harmony of Dissonance had excelled in graphics at the cost of the audio quality. Furthermore, the staff tried to improve the series' gameplay system while retaining fan-favorite elements. Certain aspects that were missing in Harmony of Dissonance, such as hidden rooms and breakable walls, were incorporated into Aria of Sorrow. Igarashi added Soul trading via a link cable to assist players with collecting every soul in the game, which he believed would be difficult to accomplish alone. Reception Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow has received critical acclaim from several video game publications, with many comparing it to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, widely considered the best game in the