Aria is not fun for a story character

[Doctor Sam]

Aria should be a challenge extra character, not someone you need to play as to complete the story

• Cadence is made as the vanilla character to learn how to play the game, and it's perfectly fine
  
  
• Melody changes it up a bit, gives you a new method of dealing damage making some less useful items better for her than Cadence
  
  
• Aria? "Hey do Cadence again except take only 2 hits and never stop moving"
  
  The creators have so many creative other characters that spice up the game in some way, yet this is what they have for the final story mode character. Hell, make Eli the final character. At least he's fun to play as.

[Doctor Sam]

I'll say it first
*ahem*

git gud

[Fusha]

You're right. It's odd to make beating such a demanding character a requirement for completing the story. But then again, the story of the game isn't exactly a focal point, and it does give players one more small reason to challenge themselves to

git gut.

[SquareDildo]

Aria is a newgame++ character. You unlock her by beating newgame+ (Melody). It's supposed to be hard.

[Doctor Sam]

She's a story character, not a NG+ character. You can't finish the main game story until you win as her

[ThatGuyCDude]

I feel like Aria needed to keep the traditional hit point progression, but be constantly subjected to the Obsidian Shrine penalty (you fail to move with the beat, you take damage). The one hit wonder version could have been a bonus character, with Coda being the bonus BONUS character that increases the absurdity to 12 out of 10.

The difficulty spike between Melody and Aria is EXTREME, especially because in some ways Melody is easier than Cadence. It's fine for an optional character like Monk or Dove, but not a storyline character.

[Citronvand]

Yep, I stopped playing back in 2015 after many failed tries with Aria. It really sucked the fun out of the game for me since I wanted to complete the story. Looks like they still haven't changed anything since then.

[🔥Liyab🔥]

Might be an unpopular opinion on this thread but I personally enjoyed how Aria works. The first time I unlocked her I was like "okay wtf this looks extremely difficult" but clearing each zone with her felt satisfying everytime. (zones 4 and 3 are big walls but it gets easier in 2 and 1)

It's this part where you really have to know how the game works unlike with Cadence and Melody where you can win without fully realizing what you just did. (Insert me knocking a blademaster around multiple times with a flail)

Single Zones would be ideal since you can buy starting items and pretty much have checkpoints per zone.

Trainer is there to let you practice dealing with monsters with a 1-damage dagger. You get to learn how to dance around your enemies instead of instantly obliterating them with powerful equipment.

And yes, you will die a lot at first because this is where most mechanics that didn't matter much in other characters begin mattering a lot.

I feel like it's just fair for a game to have a difficult bit at the story, especially by the end. Take it like a skill-check, if you will. Heck, I personally believe Bolt or Monk are harder than Aria. Because they are even more punishing with smaller rooms for mistakes.

And if you still think it's too much, you can cheese it by doing Co-op mode or something. Completing the story doesn't have an achievement anyway...

[NorthernDruid]

2 out of three of Aria's restrictions would've been pretty fine.

One hit point and you take damage from missing a beat.

One hit point dagger only.

Dagger only and you take damage from missing a beat.

All of those are meaningful challenges on their own( well, one HP dagger only still seems a bit much), but all three combined is just.. there's too little to do.

Melody is interesting because you're playing a distinctly different experience from Cadence, Aria isn't really a different experience from Cadence, it's just harder... much harder, with less variety.

The problem is that dagger only removes such a large part of the game in terms of managing equipment and playing with what you find. And then one HP removes such a large part of the remainder.

Damage upon missing a beat is only icing on the cake.

So not only is the jump in difficulty huge, Cadence has a richer experience.

Which just... doesn't really make much sense. You'd expect a game to be richer towards the end of the experience, but for Aria the experience is diminished, none of the game's progression systems can help you. Two of the game's primary systems are unavailable. And there's no new play experience to replace it as it is for Melody.

So Aria's play experience isn't just harder.. it's poorer.

Aria's a fine challenge mode, but really poor for a story mode.

[Maryjoestar]

I've been enjoying the challenge of playing with Aria, but got frustrated when I finally reached a boss for the first time. After all that hopping along nonstop through Level 3 not missing a beat, suddenly I'm in the boss level and there's no music playing yet, only the flashing floor to get me up to speed. I didn't adjust in time. Arrrrrgggggh.

[🔥Liyab🔥]

Originally posted by Maryjoestar:

I've been enjoying the challenge of playing with Aria, but got frustrated when I finally reached a boss for the first time. After all that hopping along nonstop through Level 3 not missing a beat, suddenly I'm in the boss level and there's no music playing yet, only the flashing floor to get me up to speed. I didn't adjust in time. Arrrrrgggggh.

Hey! You can disable the muffled boss music effect in Audio Options. And in case you don't know yet, you won't get hurt as long as you don't start moving. Getting rid of the boss introduction screen will not count as a move, so feel free to get rid of it anytime. You can also turn this off in the Options, I think.