Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

First off, before I even begin my opening paragraph which usually fills in the history of the gaming franchise, I have to explain something:

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow can be trunucated into Castlevania: DS. And it's on the Nintendo DS. Trippy.

Or maybe just planned out. Konami has been making the Castlevania series almost as long as the Super Mario series, but it just hasn't picked up the stamina that the Mario series did. While, no doubt, it has been insanely popular, the game series has only been really popular with platforming and adventure groups, and not much else. Too bad, because, as I'll explain, 2D Castlevanias kick a lot of ass.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is actually a sequel to the Game Boy Advance hit "Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow". In the original game, Soma Cruz went with Mina, his girlfriend, and discovered that in the near future, Dracula will be returned to power. Of course, he stops this (Because he's the guy in the long coat and the goth look), and ends up gaining the powers of Dracula himself, then destroying the powers within himself, but he must first travel in the same castle and defeat what creates Dracula, blah blah blah.

TRANSLATION FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE LAZY LIKE ME: Soma can suck up the souls of enemies and use their powers.

Okay, so, in this game, Soma discovers that some cult is trying to raise Dracula again, and of course, only one man can stop him. (Well, there are three men in the castle, but none of them ever think of joining up and kicking some serious ass, you're left to fight on your own for some myraid reason). Somewhat conflicting with the previous game, Soma still has his soul-suckin abilities, and intends to start over again to stop the cult. In the castle (Promoted as the biggest one in the series), Soma will travel and attempt to stop two uprising guys with the power to become the next Dracula.



The game is the same as Aria of Sorrow, but with some minor changes. First off, the generic controls are the same: Move, jump, slash, et al. The movements are, for the uninitiated, basically Mario with a sword in his hands. Of course, this is just fine, because just like the Mario series, platforming is suprisingly easy to pull off.

Second off, the touchpad is now used. Now, don't worry, Konami didn't screw up your Castlevania, but some may think so. The game pretty much plays without the touchpad, not requiring much more than the buttons for the entire game. The times when you USE the stylus usually fall under the following catagories:

- Busting away ice on the screen (The only fun thing to do with the stylus),
- Activating menus you could otherwise use buttons for.
- Drawing patterns to kill off boss enemies.

And that's about it. While this seems like it basically overlooks DS hardware possibilities, it keeps the game simple. For the most part, you can keep your stylus happily tucked in your DS without worrying about it. Well, except for one thing, which I'll touch on later.

The graphics and sound are majorly improved, which is the big catch about this game. Comparing this and Aria of Sorrow side-to-side, you can definately tell an upgrade. The animations are smoother, more complex, and generally look better on the DS screen. 3D intermittently pops up in various places (Like in backgrounds), but for the most part, the game is made of good old 2D sprites. The music is, of course, great, still upholding the legacy of the Castlevania series. Some of the songs are great and catchy, while some, however, seem to just kind of drone on in the background.

This Castlevania game is actually the first game to use fully Anime styled characters, which was a mistake. The old illustrations of Castlevania (I mean the fully illustrated art for the games like Symphony of the Night) were outstanding, some of them still remain to serve as backgrounds for my computer. However, the new Anime style, while it could possibly bring in younger gamers (Hah) looks ugly. The characters remind me of the kind of run-of-the-mill anime characters you see on Cartoon Network, and it really dissapoints me. The original Castlevanias had an air of sophistication and realism to this, this game feels a lot more like an anime TV show.



The game itself is great. Konami really knows how to take a basic engine, or in this case, and established game engine from Aria of Sorrow, and make it even better. The ability to upgrade weapons with souls, the soul abilities themselves, huge moving enemies, and endless passageways add to the effect of the game. This was no rush job, either, with hundreds of enemies and items for your killing and use, respectively. The story does well with the game, but really feels tacked on (After a while, I got sick of the horrible job they did representing Julius Belmonte and Alucard, and I just ignored them completely) and the gameplay itself is worth the time. Nothing felt better than upgrading my character's levels and abilities until he was a walking killing machine.

Okay, now to get to my one and only gripe (Other than the ignoreable art) that takes this game down a star. Because Konami must have felt they HAD to use the touchpad, they added symbols to the game. How it works is simple- when you defeat a boss, you must draw that symbol quickly. If not, it gets a percentage of it's life back, and you have to continue fighting it.

Now, let's do a little game. Google search a picture of or get your DS, or just imagine it with me. Plant your left hand firmly on the control pad. Right hand manning the buttons swinging your weapon. Now, try to draw a symbol.

Oh wait, no more hands? That's right, you have to drop one end of the DS, quickly grab your stylus or thumb grip, and enter that bad boy in. And don't forget if you mess up, you better drop the stylus and grab that DS again, because it'd be time for more fighting.

See the issue? I tried multiple ways of doing it. Obviously, it takes far too much time to rip your stylus out of the back of your DS. Putting my stylus on my lap isn't good, because it might fall off from my shaking as I yell at the boss on screen. The ONLY WAY I could effectively keep track of this stylus was to plant it firmly between my teeth and sit there looking like an idiot with a wannabe pen hanging out of my mouth while I rocked back and forth fighting the monster on screen. Not the greatest way to play in the world.

Don't get me wrong. Castlevania DS is a great game. If you're looking for a solid platformer on your shiny new (Or ugly old) DS, this is definately the game to pick up. The sheer depth of the game will keep you entertained for hours on end. However, hardcore, sworn in, membership-card-carrying members will probably find this a little childish for their tastes. What might be fun is if some great reverse engineer finds a way to change the art in the game to something more eye pleasing and less 12 year old Dragon Ball Z. That'd be cool.

4 star(s) out of 5

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