Recently while playing through Portrait of Ruin, it occurred to me that the level design was noticeably worse than Aria of Sorrow. Not only were there significantly more rooms feeling like "straight lines", but there was also significantly more repetition in the design, not even counting the four dark portraits towards the end. This got me thinking about what makes Aria of Sorrow's level design so good. I decided that a comparison between two thematically similar levels would help illustrate my case. Top Floor In the SOTN inspired Castlevanias, the Top Floor is an area of much importance. It is usually(but not always) a late game area, and often has important plot points occur, either to determine the player's ending or introduce significant twists to the story. As such, it is safe to presume the designers put a ton of effort into it. I'll start by first looking at what makes Aria's Top Floor work, and then compare it to Portrait of Ruin's equivalent, the ...