Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a video game that is a part of the Castlevania video game series. It was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, and it closely follows the gameplay and features of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Its Japanese title is Castlevania: Minuet of Dawn (キャッスルヴァニア暁月の円舞曲 Castlevania: Akatsukitsuki no Enbukyoku).

The game takes place in the year 2035 and stars Soma Cruz, a high school exchange student in Japan. While visiting the Hakuba Shrine with his friend Mina Hakuba, Soma is transported into Castlevania (Dracula's castle) along with her. There he meets Genya Arikado, who defeats a group of attacking enemies and explains Soma's ability to absorb monsters souls.

Aria of Sorrow has several possible endings, depending on the course taken by the player.

All 110 enemies in the game provide a unique soul, which come in four main types:

• Guardian souls - these provide mainly defensive abilites such as summoning Familiars, temporary invulnerability, or shapeshifting. They are activated/toggled with the R button.
• Bullet souls - these provide subweapon-like functionality such as fireballs and other attacks. They are activated with the UP+B (?) combination.
• Enchanted souls - these work to give Soma new abilities such as walking on water or increasing statistics.
• Ability souls - these provide always-on abilities like double-jump and slide.

Souls can be traded with the use of two GBAs, two cartridges and a link cable.

Unlockable modes include playing as a Belmont (Soma Cruz is not a Belmont) and Boss Rush mode, where unique items are awarded for defeating the Boss creatures in sequence in a set amount of time.

After finishing the regular game, a new game can be started in Normal or Hard mode, with the option of keeping all items and souls (except souls that are necessary to keep the game storyline in order).