"The classic feel with a new twist"

The Nintendo Ds opened the door to a new innovation in gaming; it allowed gamers a new level of immersion in their games by implementing a touch screen into the system. However, the Ds suffered from a lack of good games in its library. Sure it had a few, but not enough developers were stepping up to the plate and answering the call. Then Konami stepped in and produced a wonderful installment into the next castlevania series, Castelvania: Dawn of Sorrow. It features astounding game play and storyline, all on a portable system, which usually plays second fiddle to the console systems.

Game play: (9/10)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow's game play is where the game truly shines. The game follows the tried and true core method of the game boy advanced Castlevania games. That is to say, it is a 2D hack n' slash game, but with surprising depth put into it. The game hinges on both combat and exploration, putting your new moves and attacks to the test to reach new places or to defeat monsters.

You play the game wielding a variety of weapons including axes, maces, spears and swords, but all of that pales into comparison with the games real draw, the souls of defeated monsters. While your primary weapons are the swords and other melee weapons (or guns!), you wield powerful new weapons never before seen in any Casltevania game. These weapons are the attacks of your foes! Literally, after defeating a monster, boss or other foul creature it will occasionally leave behind a soul. Possessing this soul will allow you to use on of that particular monster's attacks. (I.E. If I willed a skull archer I could then equip his soul and shoot a bow and arrow) With 119 monsters to collect souls from you can see how big and complex this gets. Most of the souls you get are completely unrelated to each other also. While one may yield the power to shoot a massive bow, another may allow you to turn into an owl. The bosses in this game are amazing, capturing the very put horror of the Castlevania series. You will battle your way through countless demons and other foul looking things, bent on adding your corpse to the other fallen adventurers.

The game environment simply put is, huge. You begin the game on one small corner of the map and by the end have most of it uncovered. Now that might not seem big to anyone, but walking from one end to another would take over an hour to do so (Don't worry Konami put a warp system to speed the process up.) As you progress through the game, you will attain new powers to reach new areas, (I.E. when you get double jump you can jump twice as high into new areas) One small gripe about the sheer massiveness of the Castle is that the background lacks a lot of variation. The different areas of the castle all have different background sets, but with little change in those sets. It is a small price to pay for the sheer immersion this game puts you in.

Story (8/10)
Dawn of Sorrow shocked many long-term players by putting you in control of Soma Cruz, not the traditional member of the Belmont family. This completely shifts the story from powering up the legendary whip, the Vampire Killer to stopping Dracula's revival. While I will try not to give away much of the plot, I will say that it is very deep in its story and does a great job of carrying on the castlevania tradition, despite it not being played by a Belmont. You can get one of three endings at the end of the game, depending on what choices you make. The story does however end up shallow in characters backgrounds. (I.E you can know where they all came from and why they are all either for or against you, but not much else.
Graphics (5/10)
This is where the game really struggles. The graphics of the game are well under par for a DS title and even sub par for a game boy advanced game. It is a 2D sidescroller that tried to recreate the classic feel of the old Castlevania games. In doing this they create a game that looks like it could have been released 5 or 6 years ago. Another gripe, as I mentioned before is the little background variation. Now the characters and monsters are wonderfully drawn in the 2D quality of the game. So the game does slightly redeem itself by adding very good detail to the different characters ect. in the game. The bosses, in particular, we very frightening both with how they looked, but also how they attacked. The gothic style that is the staple of the series is accomplished, but with little flare.

Sound (7/10)
The sound also slightly suffers in this game. Like the graphics, this game seems outdated in the sound field. The characters lack voices and the rest of the monsters in this game really lack the sound to really get me into the game, but... the background music in the game is simply amazing. It flaunts amazing tunes arranged and composed by Michiru Yamane and Masahiko Kimura.

Play Time (9/10)
The game clocks in at about eleven hours for the main quest plus maybe an hour or two of exploration after beating the game. Now that wouldn't be all that much, but the developers threw in extras. One of the main ones is a bosh rush. After you beat the game you can enter boss rush mode with the character and equipment you beat the game with. You will then have to beat all the bosses again one after the other. This adds a highly addictive level fun. Boss rush can be done both as one or two players. In addition to the bosh rush, one you beat the game; you can finally play as a Belmont player. You will play through the exact same game, but with a different character and move list. While playing the game, as Julius is half-baked and now a completely different game it still provides some fun for a few hours, (or a bunch if you plan of rebeating it with him.) All in all the game plus extras clocks in at around twenty hours (it can even get higher if you try to explore one hundred percent of the map), which is a nice decent length for any game, let alone a handheld game.

The replay value for this game is moderate. While the game doesn't really change and there isn't really many extras if you replay (there are a few such as keeping most of your souls from your previous file) you can still easily enjoy another play though of the game.

Overall (8/10)
The game is another great addition to the Castlevania series. While I personally don't think it is the best of the series, it sports both the classic feel of the old games while sporting entirely new ones which ranks it up there as one of the best. If Konami had only upgraded the graphics and sound effects to DS style then this game would approach perfection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/09/07

Game Release: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (US, 10/04/05)