Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

"Castlevania DS is one of the most addictive games I've ever played"

I grew up in the NES period. Actually the Atari period but I only caught the end of that. I remember playing the original Castlevania and finding it a pain to beat. I then played all of them up to Symphony on the Playstation. I even played those cruddy N64 ones. I had tried to play the first Castlevania for the Gameboy Advance but the game was so dark that I could hardly see. I passed on the rest of the Gameboy Advance ones. I picked up Castlevania DS because it looks really good and I needed (well, not needed, wanted) a new DS game. I was pleasantly surprised.

Soma (the hero from Aria of Sorrow, the last Gameboy Advance Castlevania) finds out that the dark power is still in him and that a cult has built a castle and is trying to bring the dark lord back. Rather basic plot and while I didn't play Aria, I got most of the stuff. I did miss out on one thing which must have been a twist in Aria which involved the guy with black hair. It's heavily hinted that he someone that fans should know but I couldn't figure it out. Anyway, the plot really doesn't go much further. There are three endings, none of them is truly exciting but oh well. While I'm still on the plot, I really didn't care for Soma. I like Julies though....

The graphics in Castlevania DS are just jaw dropping. The backgrounds are beautiful, full of color and it varies A LOT in the game. Soma and the other human characters have boring character models that just aren't all that detailed, face wise. I liked how Soma's cloak flutters, or at least seems to. The character portraits look really good, if not a bit too anime like for a Castlevania game. The enemies are just fantastic to look at. Some of the bosses are just WOW inducing for a 2d game. Big pluses all around on the graphics.

The sound in the game is pretty amazing. The only voice acting is a name being shouted during one scene near the end of the game. I really wise these DS games had more voice acting and since this game doesn't have a whole lot of dialog I would have thought it would be fairly easy to provide voices. The sound effects are nice, everything has a different sound. Metal clicks, enemies scream, things burn ect. It's very nice and I enjoy the big wolfs howl. The music in the game is just WOW. Every song fits every place and situation. I would buy the soundtrack in a heart beat.

The control in the game is good. Let's start with my complaint. The Y button (I think it's Y, which ever of X and Y is on top, it's that button) swaps your equipment on the fly because you can make two sets. Making less menu travel. Great idea but nothing sucks more then accidentally hitting that button and not realizing it until the boss has slaughtered you because you never put anything in the second set. Jumping is easy and the control is very smooth. I found that everything is just nice and smooth when it comes to the control. The stylus is rarely used. You use it to break ice blocks, which is easy. You also use it to draw seals which you have to do when you defeat a boss; you need to draw the seal that was used to open the door. It's fairly simple as long as you know what seal you're supposed to be doing. I've also heard that you can control your familiars with the stylus but I never tried that because I think it would be hard to move around and attack while trying to move your familiar as well.

Have you played either Symphony or the Gameboy Advance titles? If so you know the basics. It's still the same but now there's soul collecting. You start in a large castle; no map is available at the start. There are two to buy but you get 90% of the map by exploring the castle. That's the whole point of the game also, to explore this castle and find the cult leader. The cool thing is, like in Metroid, you can only reach some areas once you have a certain power. Be it double jump, swimming or whatever.

Now, the castle is huge, has secret paths, switches and is filled with I believe 110 enemies plus something like 15 bosses. Some of the enemies are just slightly altered versions but overall there is a large selection. Each monster (except a very select few) has a soul to get. They give you powers and what not. Be it stat enhancers, special attacks or abilities. Each monster has a rating of 1-3. It's how rare they are, a level 3 is very hard to get. Now, you can hold 9 souls of each monster. The more you have, the more powerful it is. So it's kind of like Pokemon. However, you can also use souls to make new weapons. While you can buy some new weapons or find them on your adventure, you need to use souls to make the better weapons. It's just 1 soul per weapon and that soul is gone from your collection forever. All of this makes it a bit more interesting and gives you reasons to slaughter enemy after enemy.

Now, you also gain EXP. It levels you up and gives small state boosts. It's very easy to level up in this game. The thing is, it's easy because the enemies drop a lot of EXP and they are mindless to a degree. The bosses can pack a punch though because they tend to alter their patterns a lot, depending on what you're doing. Not a drastic change but they might throw in a new attack or something. This can keep things interesting but once you learn the boss's patterns they drop like flies. Or you can load up on healing items and still win.

Am I missing anything in the game play? Not really. It's fairly basic, and it plays like the newer Castlevanias (excluding the 3D ones of course). The game offers three endings to view, all of which can be seen in 1 play through. Also, upon getting the middle ending you get a whole new mode that plays in the same castle but with three totally different characters and at least 1 new boss that I know of. The game also offers a boss rush mode upon getting the best ending. It just has you fighting all of the bosses right in a row.

The game is roughly 10 hours for 100% map and all 3 endings. It might seem short but tack on at least 5 more for the other mode. It's a decent amount of play time. The problem though is that once it was over I wanted more and there just wasn't more... The game is addictive and just great. The length however is a killer of sorts and I just feel like one point has to be taken off. This is the best DS title out there as of Oct. 2005. It's a must buy in my eyes but be warned it has a lot of backtracking and exploring and it is fairly short.

Story - 7/10
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 8/10
Game play - 9/10
Replay Value - 9/10

Final Score - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05