Dawn of Sorrow

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the game that brings Konami’s bellowed game series Castlevania to Nintendos new portable system, the Nintendo DS. And it is about now I stop sounding like just about any other boring review out there, and get down to business: This game is great. If you were ever a fan of Castlevania, or just of platform and/or action games in general, you will most likely find this game enjoyable. It’s quite similar to the older games in the series, or the Castleroid that is, mostly Aria of Sorrow, and this is the sequel so it makes perfect sense.

The story closely follow its prequel and although I should not spoil it as Aria of Sorrow is a great game that should be played by anyone that haven’t so far, basically, the main character, Soma Cruz, is the reincarnation of Dracula’s body. In AoS he refused to become the dark lord by refusing to merge with the darkness of chaos that he encountered after he accidentally ended up inside the Castle in Transylvania in AoS that take place during the year 2035. Now, a year later, a religious cult with the belief that for God to be good, there has to be a evil counterpart as well, want to resurrect Dracula was destroyed in 1999. As Soma don’t want to, the cults leader, Celia, has found two candidates that can also become Dracula... But Soma is still the bodily incarnation of Dracula, so ha have to be dealt with first. So Celia confront Soma, and he decide to confront the cult and ends up at their monastery, a place that appears to be a recreation of Castlevania.

After a short tutorial on the game, you end up outside the castle. A lot of monster bashing awaits you form here on out. In this game, like older “Castleroids” Soma gain levels similar to a character in a RPG. As you slay demons, your stats boos with each level and you get to equip different equipment that suit your gaming style, like if you want to raise your defence, or do more damage with weapons. Speaking of, in order to defeat all the evil in the castle, you get to use several type of weapons you find throughout the castle. Sword, maces, spears and a few others area available, but you won’t find the best weapons in the castle though, as you will have to go to Yoko, another returning character from AoS, that can use monsters souls to a weapon to upgrade it to the next weapon in the chain of its type. This is a system that works great as all weapons will be useful when you find them, and you will never really encounter and that aren’t worth using as they can get upgraded to better ones. To get monster souls, you simply kill a monster and there is a certain possibility you will get that monsters soul, all based on luck. Some are harder to get then others, and the main reason you want many souls is because they give you different abilities. All depending on the enemy you got it from, you get such powers as throwing knifes, summon familiars or put up different defensive shields and auras. Some souls are also boosting your movement or ability to get around the castle by giving you powers for reaching areas you could not get to before, like throwing a puppet through a hole in the wall and then switch place with it, ninja style. Most movement souls are gained from bosses, which you must beat before you can get further in the castle.

The game is fairly open ended, but you must do things in a certain order if you want to progress, mainly get a boss soul for an ability that get you to the area with the next boss, who in turn has a ability that will take you to the next are and so on. You can still go to several alternative places, and there are some backtracking to be done as well, but its all fun considering how several areas of the castle is linked up with each other in different ways, so you will often get several routes for the backtracking. In the end, it all depends on if you like backtracking or can tolerate it or not if you will like the setup. I really enjoyed it as all the places in the game is simply gorgeous to look at, and because there are so many cool areas in the castle to begin with.

As said, the graphics is just awesome. Each area in the game really spring to life due to all details. One of the most impressive thing are the 3D backgrounds found in some areas of the game, and they look stunning. It’s really nothing that affects gameplay, but makes the game great as a whole. Also the music help set the mood in the game. Although the sound quality is lacking a bit due to the limited space of a NDS game cart, they really did a good job with it. The highlights are the classic Castlevania tunes, Bloody Tears and Beginning, that you get to hear as alternative music if you beat the game to unlock the secret characters to play as.

Secret characters are Julius Belmont, the strongest Belmont of them all and the person that destroyed Dracula in 1999 to begin with, and he has the trusty Vampire Killer whip and all the classic Castlevania sub weapons ready from the get go. A bit into the bonus mode you find Yoko who joins you, and she is a real boss slayer with strong magic, but can’t take a lot of damage or move around that well, but she can be good to use if you are low on health as she drain some from the enemy with her main weapon. Last of all, you get Alucard. He probably doesn’t require any further introduction, but he is Dracula’s son in case you didn’t know. His main contribution to the team is his mobility, so you might not want to use him for the more battle heavy parts though. He still has his super cool backstab special attack though.

The bonus mode is played similar to the regular one, but more open ended as you have all the abilities to get to every part of the castle as you find all three characters, so you can go about it in any order you want. Also, you don’t get any upgrades or new weapons for these characters, but they got some good features as it is, so it won’t matter. This mode is also harder then the main game, and therefore more challenging. And you also get to unlock Hard Mode for a game you beat, with makes you play with Soma from the beginning of the game, but you get to keep all the things you got from the last save file. So if you want a real challenge, you should release all souls, sell all equipment and get rid of all money and play Hard Mode that way, and you will se the definition of “Hard”. Other unlockables in the game are Boss Ruch Mode that basically pit you against all the bosses form the game, one after another, that you will have to defeat as fast as you can. You also get bonus items for your save file you played with if you get a good time, and a few exclusive weapons as well.

All in all, this game is really enjoyable, and even if some might fear the fact that you can beat the game I about 10 hours, if you play all modes and try to get 100%, the game easily last a lot longer. The gameplay works great, and it’s a lot more balanced the in other games in the series. There are a lot of things to discover in the castle, and you will encounter many interesting places and enemies of all kinds are in there. Everything from Witch students that try to crash lad on you with their broom and maids that attack you with martialarts, to hell spawned daemons and knights in armour that are about 10 times your size. And don’t even get me started on the bosses.

The game don’t really have any big shortcoming to be honest, so if you like game like this or find this game interesting, you should owe yourself the treat of playing this great game. The gameplay is fun and challenging, the graphics are stunning and make the castle really come alive, and last but not least, the music is really good and what would require of a Castlevania game. There are loads of features, bonuses, things to do and challenges to take on. A great game that realy live up to what you would require and expect form a Castlevania game.