"Aria of Sorrow... and then some!"

If you're like me, you played Aria of Sorrow on GBA and (hopefully) enjoyed it as a great new direction of the Castlevania series. In Aria, the main character, Soma Cruz, has the strange ability to dominate demonic souls. That is, once he kills an enemy, he absorbs their powers and can call on them at will. A strange concept, indeed, but it worked quite well in Aria, and did better in Dawn.

Gameplay - 10/10
Graphics - 10/10
Music - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Replay Value - 9/10

Gameplay

Right off the bat Dawn takes advantage of the DS's touch screen by asking you to sign your name with the stylus. A little funny, actually, as you'll probably spend nearly an hour making your name look perfect. Once you begin, the prologue tells you all about Aria's events and the eleven months between games before tossing you into Soma's shoes. You learn about an evil cult trying to rebirth the dark lord for their beliefs. Run by their priestess, Celia, two candidates, Dario Bossi and Dmitri Blinov, vie for the position of dark lord by trying to kill Soma. Obviously in an attempt to stop this, Soma goes to the cult's base to end their operations from the core.

As amazing as Aria was, I can't help but feel like I'm missing something whenever I replay it after playing Dawn. I suppose it's the innovations of Dawn that really cling to me and make me wish Aria had them. The touch screen, for example, has more abilities than scrolling menus and a little signature work. In order to defeat the 'immortal' bosses of Dawn, you have to seal them away using one of five Magic Seals found throughout the game. These seals increase in difficulty as the ones before are rendered useless when a new one is found, and range from two stylus strokes to ten strokes by the time you reach the fifth seal. Aside from doodling patterns to kill bosses, the touch screen also has a number of other features, such as shaving away ice blocks or guiding 'familiars' (souls used to summon creatures to help you) to congregate on a certain enemy. Enough of the game used the touch screen to make a lasting impression, but not so much that the game was drowned out by it.

As mentioned earlier, Soma has the ability to dominate the souls of monsters and use their abilities to his advantage. However, new to Dawn, Soma can now fuse certain souls (with the help of Yoko Belnades) to his weapons to increase their power. With the excess of certain souls , this feature is wonderful. However, in order to obtain the strongest of weapons, rarer souls must be fused and sometimes even the souls of bosses are spent to reach the peak of physical strength.

Along with a few twists and turns of plot, challenging gameplay that was never frustrating, and innovations of both the DS and upgrades from Aria, Gameplay deserves a 10/10.

Graphics

What would a game be without amazing visuals? Well actually, visuals aren't as important as some gamers make them out to be. Many games of both the 2D and 3D era have sub-par graphics and still dish out amazing gameplay that awes vet and newbie gamers alike. Fortunately for those who dwell too much on graphical importance, Dawn of Sorrow does not disappoint.

Beautifully hand-drawn graphics flood both DS screens, riddled with so much color and detail that your mind cannot possibly soak it all in at once. A 2D platformer has never looked this great, detail-wise. It's such a pity some of the most amazing scenes are hardly noticed, such as the hundreds of windows littering the backdrop in the Condemned Tower, or the tiny breaths Soma emits in the snow-covered Lost Village.

Bosses and enemies never looked so realistic as well. Aria players may recall how Soma stuck out of the scenery and enemies blended quite annoyingly into the backdrop. Not the case here. All characters, enemies, and moving objects alike blend perfectly with each other and the background that you'll be wondering how great the next Sorrow game will look.

Seriously, these visuals rock. The attention to detail really shows. 10/10.

Music

The music is... well, perfect. Castlevania always seems to have exactly the right music to fit with the setting, and Dawn is no exception. I find myself, for hours, simply listening to the music in an area and not even paying attention to the game itself. Thank goodness for a Sound Mode so you can listen to all your favorite tunes once you've beaten the game.

Not much to say here except, wow... 10/10

Sound

Err... wait all this ranting of greatness and finally there's a flaw? Well not really. Again, the Gameplay, Visuals, and Music are stunning, but when you get to the sound effects department something doesn't quite fit. I'm not talking about the clashing of a sword on armor, or an enemy's cry of pain when it dies... no, the sound issue is in the voice acting. No, there aren't any full sound voices of conversations, but there are short clips of Soma's voice when he summons up a 'familiar' or when one of the antagonists laughs during their departure. Soma's voice seems to be different from the one doing all his grunts, Dmitri's laugh sounds more like he heard a funny joke than evil, and Celia's laugh is just plain annoying...

But alas, I'm only nit-picking. 9/10

Replay Value

Aside from the vast story of Soma's adventure, there are several features unlocked after beating the game such as Boss Rush Mode where you fight the game's 15 bosses using a cleared game save to unlock weapons, and Julius Mode where you play as Julius Belmont during his journey through the cult's base. Similar to Aria's Julius mode, however now you can play as other characters such as Yoko or Genya. You can also take on Soma's journey again in hard mode to unlock other hidden items, but nothing too grand.

All in all, once the game is over, it's not really over, but you might not spend all the time on the extra features like you did for the main game. Not a bad thing, though, and after a little while you'll crave a little more Dawn in your diet and pick this up again. 9/10

Overall

Dawn will treat any Aria fan to bigger and better things, and any newcomer to something completely fresh and fulfilling for a 2D action platformer. Definitely a must-have for all DS owners. 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/06