Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Publications

Everyone who has at least once attempted to gather a soul from each of the 120 different enemies in Aria of Sorrow, especially during a speedrun, knows the frustration it incurs after a hundredth failed attempt to get the required drop. That just makes this all-souls TAS, played on hard mode, even more impressive.
This is an improvement of 1:38.85 over the previous movie, thanks to a more optimised route and newly used items. Please read the authors' comments for more details.
If you would like to see the game beaten even faster, don't miss the any% run by one of the authors, klmz.

Note: Starting from reset was necessary to use hard mode. However, doing so is normally not allowed — refer to the rules to see the reasons.
Those who greatly dislike that Aria of Sorrow's main character isn't related to the Belmont clan whatsoever can safely relax, because the powerhouse known as Julius Belmont enters the stage in the relatively short run of this Castlevania installment.
Julius is only available to those who have completed the main quest. While he can't do most of Soma Cruz's fancy tricks, he can get around just as quickly by glitching through walls and hopping madly around the castle, producing almost inhuman sounds with every jump.
This is an improvement of 7695 frames over the previous publication, thanks to newly found glitches and a brand new route.
Note: This movie starts where a main quest TAS left off. We do not usually accept movies beginning from a save. Please read the rules to see our reasons.
The Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow main quest TAS has become even more glitched. Using an obscure out-of-room travel technique involving in-game saving and subsequent dying, klmz plows through the game with the confident pace of a cold-blooded killing machine in a little under seven minutes — a whole minute and 8.13 seconds faster than the previous movie by the same author!
We recommend reading the author's comments for more information on the death warp glitch and other time-saving techniques used to make this improvement happen.
If you would like to see more of the game, we also have a run that does not make use of major warp glitches, as well as a run that collects every soul in the game.
Everyone who has at least once attempted to gather a soul from each of the 120 different enemies in Aria of Sorrow, especially during a speedrun, knows the frustration it incurs after a hundredth failed attempt to get the required drop. That just makes this all-souls TAS, played on hard mode and without using glitch warps in a little less than 25 minutes, even more impressive.
Upon completing his warpless run, Kriole decided to take another jab at this category, improving upon his earlier effort by 51 seconds.
However, if you would like to see the game beaten to a pulp in a mere quarter of this time, don't miss the any% run by klmz.

Note: While the player doesn't use glitch warps (neither by death nor by getting out-of-bounds using transform souls), he uses the normal warp rooms present in the castle.
Note: Starting from reset was necessary to use hard mode. However, doing so is normally not allowed — refer to the rules to see the reasons.
Those who greatly dislike that Aria of Sorrow's main character isn't related to the Belmont clan whatsoever can safely relax, because the powerhouse known as Julius Belmont enters the stage in the relatively short run of this Castlevania installment.
Julius is only available to those who have completed the main quest. While he can't do most of Soma Cruz's fancy tricks, he can get around just as quickly by glitching through walls and hopping madly around the castle, producing almost inhuman sounds with every jump.
This TAS aims to defeat Chaos (the final boss in the main game) in Julius mode, but is normally not accessible in Julius mode. However, it can be accessed in Julius mode if the player manages to avoid clearing in-event flags, which would disable the fight. After defeating Chaos, Julius clips out of the room, enters boss rush, then proceeds to the Graham boss fight.
Note: This movie starts where a main quest TAS left off. We do not usually accept movies beginning from a save. Please read the rules to see our reasons.
Normally a solar eclipse isn't a dangerous event, but for Soma Cruz being sucked through a portal and into Dracula's castle during one will turn his day into a total nightmare. As Soma you must venture through the castle and find a way out. As you do so, you will discover the true meaning behind the event, and why Dracula has risen yet again.
Those who greatly dislike that Aria of Sorrow's main character isn't related to the Belmont clan whatsoever can safely relax, because the powerhouse known as Julius Belmont enters the stage to destroy every boss faster then Soma ever could.
Julius is only available to those who have completed the main quest. While he can't do most of Soma Cruz's fancy tricks, he can get around just as quickly by glitching through walls and hopping madly around the castle, producing almost inhuman sounds with every jump.
This movie is a massive improvement of 20,247 frames (5 minutes 38.99 seconds) over the previous movie due to many new additions to the run and route that makes walls more of a suggestion.

Note: This movie starts where a main quest TAS left off.
The baseline tab shows the default movie beating the game as fast as possible without any special conditions.

Game Versions

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TypeNameTitle OverrideRegionVersionPlatformHashes
Good Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow (U) [!].gba U GBA SHA1: ABD71FE01EBB201BCC133074DB1DD8C5253776C7
MD5: E7470DF4D241F73060D14437011B90CE