Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Second Opinion) Review

Sequels, sequels, and more sequels. That seems to be a major theme when it comes to this generation of gaming, and it’s no different here. But where many franchise sequels have failed this generation, this one succeeded beyond expectation. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the direct sequel to the critically acclaimed Aria of Sorrow for the GBA released only a couple years ago. We once again assume the role of Soma Cruz, a man (who actually looks like one this time) who has the ability to dominate the souls of his enemies. This basically means he has a chance of “absorbing” the soul/ability of whatever enemy he defeats depending on various circumstances.

Aria of Sorrow did a lot of things right, including a very intuitive battle system, a good story and well-done music. Dawn of Sorrow does have all these things, but does them even better. There are many more enemies, a more involved plot line and pretty memorable music. Even with the exact returning battle system, the entertainment is still there. Those of you who were skeptical of this game being any better than AoS, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately one of the biggest drawbacks of the game is it hardly does anything to utilize the features of the DS hardware. The microphone isn’t used at all, the touch screen is hardly important and the wireless features aren’t the most useful. The touch screen is only used for two things. One is to hack away at “ice blocks” that you may encounter in some areas of the castle. A boss that you eventually defeat gives you this ability, and once you have it, you use the touch screen to break walls of ice blocks that are impeding your forward progress.

Another feature which is a little more involved is the magic seals. There are a total of five in the game, and one of them you can actually view during the game’s impressive FMV cinematic if you don’t press any buttons. These seals are basically used to open doors that are sealed (*gasp*) and for also truly eliminating the castle’s bosses. When you get a boss down to 0 HP (hit points), you have to use your stylus to draw a unique design inside of a circle like boundary on the touch screen. If you’re successful, you win the battle officially. If you don’t, the boss regains some health and you must take them down again until you do so. Now depending on how quick you are with the stylus, you may have trouble with it at times, but otherwise it’s not a difficult thing to do. The lack of touch screen features disappointing, but thankfully doesn’t detract from the overall experience you should have. It would’ve been cool to have the soul collection system work more with it in some regard.

However, the game actually does use the dual screen feature of the DS very well. In the top screen at any given time, you will either have a map of the castle or yours and your enemies’ stats. The map can be expanded when you buy a couple expansions from Hammer, but otherwise it will display more of itself in the top screen as you continue to explore more of the castle. When you hit select, you will see your stats, the souls you currently have equipped and information about whatever enemy you may be fighting currently. This can help you if you want to know their weaknesses to certain elements as well as the rarity of their soul capture. The map is actually a godsend at times, as it saves you pressing start a thousand times throughout the game and can really save you at times when you are about to die.

So like stated before, the soul capture system is back, along with everything else that made AoS great. The graphical presentation of DoS is even more impressive this time since it has the DS’ capability in hand. DoS utilizes prerendered backgrounds, some that could almost be considered 3D and a plethora of surprising special effects. The detail given to the game’s various animations is also nice eye candy as well, as it was actually surprising to see some of the things you do. The beginning zombie enemies literally “split” apart when you kill them and it’s satisfying every time you kill them. Then you have your enemies that die in a burning fire, with a more impressive display than that of AoS. Some special effects that are also rather eye catching include knocking off the snow from a van near the beginning of the castle and hearing the “donging” of church bells in one of the tower areas. While it’s nothing exactly new, they are just little things that made the experience a little more authentic and memorable.

Your enemies are also heavily expanded upon, but are also relied with in terms of nostalgia. A great number of the baddies you saw in AoS make a very impressive return in DoS. Such enemies like the catoblepas and merman are very much here, and their new designs are very nice to see. But of course this is Castlevania, and you have over 100 brand new enemies to do battle with. This can be anything that looks like a cross between a wolf and a bear (Warg) to newly designed elemental creatures that aren’t exactly willing to give up their souls easily. So having a mix of new and old in DoS is a great thing, one of the many aspects that drives the entertainment value it brings.