"One of the most solid DS titles to date, and it has a lot of character too!"

Game Review: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Overview:
The DS has been the pride and joy of the handheld genre for the past year or so, but there have only been a few indisputably great, must-have games for it. The hype for a new Castlevania title was huge when we all first heard about it, and at the very least, this matches the hype. But it doesn't much do anything to completely outdo the hype. When people think of Castlevania, they usually think of a kick ass adventure title with classic roots, and each new game has a few new features to keep things fresh. Yeah, Dawn of Sorrow keeps things fresh, but feels a little more like a member of the series as opposed to it's leader. But it is a very solid title, and while it doesn't really reach the must have level, most people will like it anyway.

Storyline: 7/10
Dawn of Sorrow actually continues on the storyline of it's GBA predecessor, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. We still have our friendly but mildly introverted friend Soma as the main character, and the game takes place one year after the events of Aria in Japan, in which Dracula's castle came into existence and Soma found out that he was the heir to Dracula's powers. In the beginning of Sorrow, while Soma and his friend Mina are talking at school, a witch arrives and tries to steal him away. He avoids this by fighting some monsters, but he still wishes to know the reasoning behind the attempt, so he finds the headquarters of the witches cult in a large castle, and with some friends, tries to get some answers.

As the story progresses, you will get interested in the characters and their whereabouts, but to be honest with you, story dialogue is few and far between. You get the feeling that there could have at least been a little more story in the actual game. And by the end of the game, you haven't really figured too much out that you didn't know from the very beginning (or close to the beginning). And character development is also very limited.

But for these flaws, we have to remember that Castlevania is not expected to have a perfect storyline. You probably won't be paying that much attention to it while playing anyway, because the game focuses on tight gameplay more than anything. But for some positive notes, it fits well into the Castlevania storyline, there are no plot holes, and it will keep long time fans busy with a fresh new addition to the grand scheme of Castlevania games.

Gameplay: 9/10
Dawn of Sorrow is a great take on one of my favorite (but really rare) genres. The combination of Platformer and RPG. And for as rare as this hybrid is, it's hard to get right. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow nails the challenge dead on and delivers as one of the most fun games on the DS to date.

A good deal of the game is spent in the main castle, where you fight monsters and jump all over the place, and gain levels, just like old times. But there are tons of new catches here. You are no longer restrained to just a sword or a whip or something. You have a huge arsenal of weapons at your disposal. Axes, swords, spears, and tons of more obscure exotic weapons make just jump and slash action a ton of fun. And then you can equip different kinds of armor and accessories you can find and buy. Oh yeah, and you can BUY stuff too, which is really nice. Two of your friends have decided to follow you to the castle and temporarily set up shop. One is Hammer, apparently a fairly young war veteran who will sell you a myriad of things including health recovery items, weapons, armor, and other miscellaneous stuff. Yoko Belnades is your other friend, who can use the souls you find to upgrade your weapons.

But wait… What are these souls I speak of, you ask? Well, a huge deal of the game is spent collecting souls from enemies you defeat, much like in Aria. Every time you defeat an enemy, there is a chance that you will get their soul. It depends on the enemy how common they are, but sometimes you will get a huge amount of any given kind, or you might have to actually work to getting ones you want for hours. But once you do get some souls, they act like magic. There are three different kinds of souls, and each kind does different things. I'm not going to say what they are right here, but you will find out pretty soon anyway. But some can increase your stats, some can be used to summon monsters, some can act as powerful projectiles, and some can be almost useless. And there is a big magnitude of enemies and bosses in the game, and a soul for each, so this system will keep you busy for a while.

Yes, the game really combines two genres very well and keeps the series fresh with a huge castle with twists and turns all over the place. There are tons of concepts that are introduced with souls, and they can make for a ton of fun all throughout the game. And there is also some interesting multi-player, which may be kind of unfair to a given player, but is still fun and involves putting monsters into your own dungeon, which is nice. Vets and new players alike will enjoy this game a lot.

Graphics: 10/10
Because this is a Castlevania game, and because there are pixels involved, Dawn of Sorrow had to be a 2D adventure title. But this brings up a question. How can we use the DSs full graphical capabilities in a 2D landscape? And, how far can we advance things?

Well, I am happy to let you know that these are easily the best 2D pixilated graphics I have ever seen. Seriously, this stuff is amazing. You can tell that individual sprites must have taken hours and hours of time to perfect. Even small sprites, like lanterns, have clearly had a ton of work put into them. Each area has obviously had a huge amount of effort put into them, and it is comforting to know that the developers really cared in this area.

But I do have a grief or two. While some of the character sprites look great and draw from other classic members of the series, other ones are just not as great. Soma himself always has a little annoying trail coming from him, and his way of running is kind of stupid looking too. Julius Belmont usually looks pretty good, but at certain points in this game, he looks nothing short of laughable. But to be honest with you, these small complications do nothing to overshadow how generally great the game looks. The character portraits are also worth mention, and look great in their drawing style.

Sound: 7/10

With all due respect, the game has good sound. But this is some of the weaker music I have heard from the series, and even if I'm not a huge fan or expert on the music from previous castlevanias, some of the tracks get a little annoying. At least a good half are really good, haunting, and creepy, but the other half are annoying, repetitive, and not too skilled. The sound effects are dead on though, so that right there saves the sound category quite a bit.

Control: 10/10
What can I say? The controls are good. And simple too. One thing I noticed after turning the game on is that you pressed B to jump. This upset me. I don't like not using A to jump. I rarely have to press B to jump on platformers, because since the age of the dinasaurs. People have been using A to jump. That's just the way we do it. And then I realized, hey! I can fully customize my controls! So all that skepticism was for nothing. And once you get into the game a little, you will get the ability to switch between two sets of controls at will. Both of these sets include different souls, weapons, armor, controls, and accessories which you yourself set up. So with the tap of a button, you can whip out a completely different weapon set for use. Fantastic for control, really great.

Difficulty: 8/10
The difficulty on this is actually pretty good. The more you progress through the game, the more you will realize that you can't just keep on going. Sometimes, you will need to backtrack and find some items or souls that you need. Which is great, because if you could just breeze through things, that wouldn't be good. Bosses are comfortably hard. Sometimes you might not actually know where to go, which can test your patience fairly quickly. That aside, this will keep you challenged comfortably.

Replayability: 9/10
The game itself is long. Very long. And because training and collecting things benefits you, there is a lot you can do during and after the game is completed to make the experience even longer. There are a ton of souls to collect, and that right there is an incentive to play for a long time. Also keep in mind that the castle is so big that there are areas which are not required for you to go through to actually complete the game, and finding these places yields rewards. There are multiple endings and some great extras that are unlocked after you beat the game, and fans will drool at the sight of those. You can play this for a long time, and pick it up and play even after big lapses in playing.

Overall: 9/10
Rounded up. This is a great game. It does have it's flaws, and it probably won't be remembered as one of the greatest Castlevania games ever, but it is a great addition to the series and one of the best titles the DS has to offer for now. No one was trying to say it was perfect anyway, even if it is really high quality. If you even had thoughts about buying this, try to give it a shot somehow, because it is a lot of fun.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/06