A really fun Memetroidvania by Konami. It came after Aria of Sorrow and the game system is very similar, except that instead of Souls and they Spirits, and they're not randomly dropped.
You start with only 1 equippable spirit but eventually you get 4, 2 useable ones with L and R and 2 slots reserved for passive abilities, but nothing's stopping use to active slots for passive abilities too so have some meaningful customization choices.
The game may seem simple and shallow at first but it improves as the game goes on and the boss fights are good, especially if you want to learn them without using healing items.
There is a world map and there is some annoying backtracking mid way through but eventually you'll learn an ability which allows you to skip a level if it has already been completed.

>>11853414 (OP)
Both Master of Spirits and Master of Spirits 2 are really fun and polished pseudo metroidvanias. The other GBA Shaman King games were really bad Pokémon-clones, though, iirc.

The sequel is more of the same, in fact many of the bosses / enemies / spririts make a come back, but it goes above and beyond offering more content: 85 spirits instead of 65, more levels, more bosses. It also does a good job at focusing on the fun parts, for instance it hands out the dashing ability much earlier on, and it also becomes much more challenging in the late game.
I found that the late game overstaid its welcome however as it dicks the player around many areas that re-use locations and enemies from previous levels without offering much if anything new until the very last area.
The backtracking felt also less rewarding as, except from a few exceptions, coming back with a new ability was mostly for stuff that weren't useful or even just chests with coins in them.

>>11853414 (OP)
Actually, it uses that Kitaro GBA game as a base engine, which used HoD engine.

>>11853439
>>11853414 (OP)
>You fight Ghonlins and Monsters that don't exists in the ecosystem of the original manga and both animes
>Dialogue and character interactions based on the 4kids dub and not the originals
>Characters that at the time only existed in the manga among Anime only characters

Shits weird, how did we get these games? BanDai / Banpresto were the holders in japan.

>>11853414 (OP)
Konami also did a GBC HunterXHunter game that is basically Castlevania.

>>11853470
>Kitaro GBA game

Is that playable without speaking Japanese ?

Damn the art looks great. Never even heard of this before.

>>11853470
That looks like another fun Memetroidvania, and there is a guide on gamefaqs that translates and explains items and power ups

>>11854685
that's because you're a milennial. GBA was a zilennial chad console.