Players familiar with the series can expect the same tight, responsive controls as previous entries, and making Soma run, jump, and slash feels natural right from the get-go. Fans of Aria in particular will be pleased to see the Soul System returning, albeit now referred to as Tactical Souls. For the uninitiated, Tactical Souls function as follows: when Soma defeats an enemy there is a random chance that Soma will take possession of said enemy’s soul (except bosses, who always give up their souls). These souls are divided up into four categories. The first are red Bullet-Type Souls, which when equipped, allow Soma, for a small amount of magic, to hurl some kind of projectile, be it axe, bone, or spicy rice curry (seriously). Next come the blue Guardian-Type Souls. These bad boys are activated (once equipped, duh!) by pressing or holding down the R button, and they generate some kind of lasting effect, such as a protective shield, a stream of random projectiles, or huge stat increases. Of course, they also drain Soma’s magic faster than Anna Nicole would an aging tycoon’s bank account. Thirdly, you got your yellow Enchant-Type Souls. These don’t cost any magic and they typically grant some kind of fairly mild stat increase when equipped. Finally, gray Ability-Type souls simply need to be picked up and Soma gains a permanent ability such as a double jump or free movement in water. The only real difference between this system and make a transformer online is that the one in Aria is that this time you actually benefit from getting more than one soul of a certain type, as many of the souls’ granted skills gain potency the more you have. Though this might tempt you to cling to every last soul as Ozzie Osbourne does his last remaining brain cells, this isn’t necessarily encouraged, since most of the more powerful weapons are obtained by sacrificing souls in the new Soul Synthesis shop. By combining weaker weapons with various souls the player can get some pretty potent stuff, particularly when giving up more powerful souls. Of course, once the souls are used, they’re gone for good, so you better think long and hard before you give up that rare soul, mister!