Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow Review

• System: Nintendo DS
• Year: 2005
• Region: North America
• Developer: Konami
• Publisher: Konami

Aria Of Sorrow is considered by many to be the finest of the Castlevania trilogy on the Game Boy Advance. So when Konami announced that the next release on the brand new Nintendo DS would be a direct sequel, fans were very excited. They would get to experience the same great gameplay and many of the same characters they loved all over again. Perhaps there would even be some new features that would take advantage of the more powerful hardware.

Before moving on, I must mention that since this is a direct sequel to Aria, there may be some unavoidable spoilers here, so please read ahead at your own risk.

The story once again focuses on Soma Cruz, one year after the events in Aria. He’s enjoying a nice quiet day with Mina, when a woman named Celia, the leader of a new cult, suddenly appears. She tries to kill him, but Arikado shows up just in time and tosses Soma a weapon to defend himself with. After defeating the first monster, he discovers that he can absorb souls once again. He thought he lost this power after destroying Dracula’s Castle last year. It seems like Celia is trying to bring back the Dark Lord’s power, and Soma must use his power of dominance to prevent that from happening.

The game’s plot is alright, but one problem I have with it is how much talking there is. It seems like every 5 minutes you’re being stopped by someone flapping their yap. You can’t even go to the store without some jabroni talking your ear off. I know there are some people that really enjoy the stories in the series, but I feel it just breaks up the flow of the game and gets in the way more than anything. Thankfully, you can hit Start to skip any dialogue segments if you’re not into them.

Just like the previous titles on the Game Boy Advance, this is a Metroidvania-style game. You’ll explore the castle in a non-linear fashion while defeating any monster that stands in your way. When you take down a boss, you will usually acquire a new ability that will allow you to advance further in the castle.

Dawn Of Sorrow features the same great gameplay that was present in Aria. You have an assortment of weapons to choose from, ranging from small daggers to giant spears and greatswords. Whenever Soma defeats an enemy, he has a small chance of absorbing its Soul, which gives him the ability to use that monster’s skill. So yeah, kind of like the Castlevania version of a Blue Mage. There are tons of Souls to collect, and they give you lots of different ways to kill your enemies.

Moving the series from the GBA to the DS let the development team improve upon the gameplay experience by using the second screen as a permanent map. This is a great addition since you no longer have to stop what you are doing to switch to the map screen, although you can still pause it if you want to. One unfortunate thing is that Nintendo forced everyone to add some kind of touchscreen functionality to their games at the time. So Konami opted for seal drawing after defeating a boss, which is a little annoying, but not too bad. The only other touch screen control is used for eliminating ice blocks.

A great addition to this game is that you can have 2 different equipment and Soul setups that can by swapped at any time by pressing X. This is incredibly useful as there are plenty of times where you will need multiple types of Souls to progress, and it’s nice to just swap with X instead of having to hop in and out of the menu constantly.

The graphics are fantastic. It looks like what you might get if the series continued getting 2D releases on the Playstation, maybe even a little better at times. Great looking character and enemy sprites, and some very nicely detailed backgrounds. The character art on the other hand may turn some people off. They went with more of an anime style rather than the gothic look of the previous games. Personally, I think it looks great, but some of you may not dig it.

The game’s soundtrack is once again handled by Michiru Yamane, and once again, it is fantastic. There are tons of great tracks to hum along to while you’re exploring the castle. Sound effects are also handled really well, with nothing being too annoying.

Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow is a great followup to Aria. The tight controls, excellent music and visuals, and Soul collecting make this a hard game to put down. If you’d like to buy a copy, prices range from 15 dollars to about 35 depending on completeness. Be warned though, there are a lot of counterfeits out there. If it’s being sold from China, or just has a photo of the cartridge and says, ‘Brand New’, there’s a good chance that it’s a bootleg. So, be sure to do some solid research before plunking down your hard-earned money on this excellent game.

8.5 out of 10