Classic interview reveals why Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was made for the GBA

The wonderful gang at Shmuplations has translated another classic interview. This time we're diving all the way back into 2003 to check out an interview in Nintendo Dream. The ND gang sat down with Koji Igarashi to talk about the release of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. In the snippet below, Igarashi explains why the GBA was chosen for the game.

Partly it’s because Circle of the Moon sold very well for the GBA, and before that I had guessed that this would be the era of the GBA. Those were the main two reasons. In today’s world, if you try to release a 2D game on something like the PS2, it’s going to get lower ratings (compared with 3D titles). The hardcore fans still love 2D, but to the general market, it’s seen as something “lesser” than 3D, unfortunately. Symphony of the Night was a Playstation game, and many wanted to see a sequel for the PS2, but it turns out that making a 2D game for the PS2 is more difficult than you might think.

For the GBA, on the other hand, 2D is the standard assumption, and graphically it has similar capabilities to the Super Famicom, and the scale of the development isn’t too unwieldy. It’s nice, because a game released on the GBA gets reviewed and appreciated fairly as a 2D game. So yeah, taking all that into account, I can’t imagine making a 2D game on a different system. And I love 2D games, personally.