Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
October 10,2005 - A series steeped in a history of interesting if somewhat repetitive storytelling and a future-gothic mythology, Castlevania has had its share of successes, and failures, on nearly every major system since the earliest days of the NES. With Circle of the Moon, for the GBA, the series entered into a new phase of gaming, combining the standard action adventure and platforming elements with new weapons, new magic powers, and an experience-gaining system akin to RPG leveling. The newest Castlevania game, Dawn of Sorrow, follows in the footsteps of this style of gaming. Marking the franchise’s entry into the DS market, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow proves that while we may still be in the same vein, there’s a whole lot more blood to be drawn from it.

Dawn of Sorrow is the sequel to the 2003 GBA title Aria of Sorrow, and continues to follow the events surrounding main character Soma Cruz. Soma, forsaking his powers at the end of Aria of Sorrow, finds reason to start adventuring anew after Celia, priestess of a black magic-using order, attacks Soma and reveals her plan to awaken the powers of the Dark Lord. Though Soma was tempted to become the resurrection of Dracula, he turned away from his powers in order that the Dark One should never return. Now Celia’s scheming has revealed others like Soma, born at the exact moment of Dracula’s demise, who exhibit special powers. Celia will use these potential candidates to kill Soma and replace him as heir to the powers of the Count. And so, into the creepy and elaborately complicated castle Soma must venture to stop this evil scheme and keep the world safe.

Utilizing a familiar system with a few new tricks, Dawn of Sorrow jumps right into the Neo-Gothic monster slaying with a wide array of archaic and modern weapons to choose from. Controlling Soma means choosing which weapon to wield, from katanas to great swords to hand guns, and then slaying the scores and scores of enemies, gaining experience and levels along the way. But experience is not the only thing gained; minions also drop money and souls. Money can be used to purchase new weapons and armor, as well as healing items and accessories. But more importantly, the soul gathering becomes an integral part of the gaming experience as Soma progresses through the castle, fighting bosses and solving puzzles. For instance, defeating bosses will usually unlock a new soul, which Soma can equip to use new abilities or for stat-increasing effects. These newly acquired abilities can then be used to double-jump over taller barriers or to float-fall to further ledges. Standard monsters also randomly drop souls, and these can be used for a multitude of ends; new throwing weapons, summoned minions, a boost in stats, or even a basic magic attack. The souls also play into the shopkeeper aspect, as one main character offers to upgrade weapons by attaching souls to them. The souls even affect a side-game from the main plot, in which players can fill a 5-room dungeon with any gathered souls and practice fighting all of the monsters for fun.

Dawn of Sorrow also utilizes the stylus in an interesting and unobtrusive way by minimizing the use but weighing heavily on the importance. As Soma progresses through the castle, he’ll acquire new magic runes, which will be displayed on the touch screen of the DS. Players must memorize these runes, as they’ll be required to trace them later in the game. Using a rune to unlock a boss room, players must use the D-Pad and buttons to defeat the enemy. Once dead, the player will be prompted to trace the rune on the touch screen; fail, and its time to fight the monster again (albeit in a weakened state).

Dawn of Sorrow reveals a true strength of the DS in its use of 2-D graphics; the beauty of animations. By far the best-looking of the Castlevania handheld games yet seen, Dawn of Sorrow takes pretty character and enemy sprites, places them over beautifully intricate backgrounds and sometimes changeable foregrounds, and then adds in a slew of the best looking explosions, fades, bleedings, oozings, and smokings ever seen on a mobile gaming unit. Just watching a boss die in a steaming pile of smoke and goo before exploding into a hundred beautifully render booms makes the game worth the price of admission. Furthermore, since the game stays 2-D, it never messes with clunky camera angles or terribly rendered “behind the shoulder” views which may represent the next generation of console capabilities, but have no place in a less powerful DS game.

The orchestrated, frantic and rushed gothic sounds of the franchise return with this title, and will not disappoint. Though sometimes repetitive, as adventure leveling music will often become, the score is always appropriate, The backing sound effects are scary in the classic Castlevania “sounds like a 1950’s horror movie” way, which is a good thing, and the mix between sound effects and music volume never seems to be off balanced. Indeed, more often than not I was turning the music up and getting the full mood of an arcade-style horror game. In its own weird version of expectations, the sound is absolutely perfect in this title.

All in all, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow offers the same classic style of previous Castlevania titles, replete with the outrageous bosses, fitting game areas, puzzle solving and platforming aspects which are perfectly harmonious with the new soul-gathering and returning level-gaining aspects of the series. The game stays true to its 2-D roots, taking an already rock-solid game style as a base, and moving forward in variations of themes. The makers’ only flaw is that they did not take any risks with the series, instead moving it into safe new directions. This is not to say this game is flawed, to be sure. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow combines the most solid and polished controls and gameplay yet seen in a DS adventure title with a storyline and mythos appropriate to the franchise. Add in the addition of bonus playable characters after the first run through, and this is a must-have game for any DS owner.

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