Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

"Symphony fans, do not overlook this successor to the throne."

Dating back since the NES days in 1986, Konami, a classic video game company, has been giving us hits that have made us rejoice time and time again. One in particular is Castlevania, where you go to Dracula's Castle and battle monsters in different areas of the castle, fighting creatures from horror stories and mythology, like Frankenstein, Medusa, Death, and eventually, the count himself, Vlad Teppes Dracula. Spanning a legacy nearly 20 years now, on nearly every known console released, Castlevania continues to be strong.

Castlevania's strong point especially came in 1997, when it made its debut on the Sony PlayStation, titled Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. As opposed to playing as a whip-cracking Belmont in stage-by-stage action, you played as Alucard, one of the three heroes of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and the son of Dracula, who wields a sword. That was only the beginning of the series' dramatic turn. Introducing RPG elements to the series, leveling up and equipping weapons, armor, and accessories, it brought in another element with that: Non-linear adventuring, as featured in Super Metroid. Combining all these elements into one game, as well as classic Castlevania trademarks, featuring the creatures, sub-weapons, and awesome soundtrack, it became one of the greatest games of all time. Now, it has spanned a legacy of its own, spawning three Castlevania games of its kind on the Game Boy Advance and now one on the Nintendo DS. Truly one of Konami's most genius moves of all time was to put the Super Metroid-RPG Castlevania formula (sometimes known as "Castletroids") on 3 GBA games, and getting high ratings. Aria of Sorrow was the last of the trilogy, and that is where the story continues here.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow starts out one year after Soma Cruz escaped Dracula's castle, his soul in tact. He talks to Mina Hakuba, his childhood friend, about the experience, when a woman appears out of nowhere, introducing Soma to her creatures, and to her goal: Re-awaken the soul of Dracula within Soma Cruz. Celia Fortner, along with her two subordinates, Dmitri Bilnov and Dario Bossi, plan to resurrect Dracula, and either of those two subordinates are to become Dracula's new candidate. Based on the cult's philosophy, according to the in-game library, "for God to be absolute good, there must be a being of absolute darkness." They choose to revere God out of fear of the dark lord, as opposed to the other way around. However, after Celia attacks Soma, a few days pass, and Soma heads to their base...a replica of Dracula's Castle, without telling anyone, and intends to stop the cult's mad plan.

This replica of Dracula's Castle looks as good as any other. In fact, Dawn of Sorrow's graphics are on par with Symphony of the Night, featuring similar enemy designs of the Warg and Armor Knight, and even featuring the rotation effects from Symphony of the Night whenever you pass a tower. Soma's sprite has been revamped from Aria of Sorrow, if not only slightly, as his walking animation is almost the same, but you can see his shirt inside his jacket a bit better, and he leans forward before walking, and even has after images for his movements, much like Alucard did in Symphony of the Night. Soma also has more animations for his weapons. When he swings a Great Sword, instead of simply lowering one arm and the sword will come down, he actually swings it from behind, with two hands, all the way to being flat on the ground. Dawn of Sorrow also features a drastic change in the artwork. Instead of being a Gothic, Ayami Kojima style, it features an anime style. While some people were turned off by this new feature, not only doesn't it detract from the gameplay at all, it even has a cool anime intro FMV to boot.

Featuring Dawn of Sorrow's new look is a new soundtrack to boot. Comparing this to Symphony in gameplay is one thing. That's already been done three times. But when you compare this to a game that has been revered as having quite possibly the best soundtrack in video game history, you know there's something to this. It features various types of music, to a degree with almost as much variety as Symphony, including techno music, like what plays in the Wizardry Lab. It fits so well in the game, and you get to listen to one of the game's best tracks rather early in the game. For the chapel, underground caves, and clock tower, they sound similar as you'd expect them to in a Castlevania game. Similar style, anyway, but the Pinnacle is just something incredible. It features a very climactic mood, and for those of you who saw the demo, you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't, you're in for one of the best tracks in the history of Castlevania. Oh, and be prepared. You'll hear a lot of new tracks, but don't be surprised if you hear a few classic Castlevania tracks that many old-school fans know of.

This game appeals to both old-school and recent fans of Castlevania. In typical Castlevania fashion, you run around the castle, slaying monsters, and using new abilities. In Symphony of the Night fashion, it's non-linear, and you level up from experience points by killing monsters, and equip weapons, armor, and accessories. However, you get the ability to control souls. In other words, with the enemies that you kill, they may leave behind a soul, which you collect, and inherit their abilities. You may summon them as a familiar, or inherit a power relevant to their abilities that they used against you, and this applies to every enemy in the game. There are three kinds of souls: Bullet, which are usually projectiles, Guardian, which guard you with an ability or give you a power that lasts longer than a Bullet soul, and Enchant, which affect your stats. As every enemy has a soul, you find the one you like, and equip them, one for each type. This soul system was previously used in Aria of Sorrow, and it has returned to its sequel in all of its glory.

As there are many souls to collect in this game, it adds replay value to the game. You can collect all the souls in this game and use many of them to synthesize your weapons so you can collect weapons that aren't found around in the castle. After you beat the game, you can play in Julius Mode, where you play as Julius Belmont, further adding replay, and then Hard Mode. There is also a Boss Rush mode, so you can fight the bosses of this game in succession, and when you finish fast enough, you can get a special item or weapon. But believe me, you'll be sucking in more souls than Death spring cleaning.

While Dawn of Sorrow features many elements that make it truly a game to behold, not every game is perfect. Understand that, while this game features some very cool elements not found in other Castlevanias, it also features a few too many elements found in most other Castlevanias. A chapel? An underground waterway? A mine? The tower? A clock tower? The area design in this game isn't original. However, the soundtrack, graphics, and sheer fun of the gameplay will help you get past that easily.

Overall, if you're a fan of Castlevania, 2D games, or simply an owner of a Nintendo DS, you owe it to yourself to buy this wonderful game. If you beat Symphony of the Night, and you just don't think you've found a good competitor to its excellence, you must try Dawn of Sorrow. It fixes up many of Symphony's flaws, some of which were already previously fixed, but only after Symphony's release, including an organized equip system, warp points that you select where to go and when, and a balanced difficulty, where the bosses are actually tough, and you have to figure out their pattern.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: 10/10. If you think you've seen it all, you haven't.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/25/05