Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is more of the same…in a good way.

An interesting aspect of the Castlevania franchise: rarely any of the titles is a direct sequel to the game before it and features the player taking control of the same character again. Though the games take place in the same universe, every game in the series features you in the feet boots of a new protagonist. Though Symphony of the Night was a sequel to Rondo of Blood, the main character of that game wasn’t the same. It’s one of the only prominently popular franchises to engage in this practice.

But as the franchise moves on, its creators decide to approach the formula with some ingenuity. In this case, it’s a pretty simple update: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was regarded as an excellent title among the series’ faithful, and the only good Game Boy Advance iteration, so why not make the first entry on the DS a sequel to it? AoS had some good ideas, and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow would be the game to capitalize even further on the formula it established.

When you begin the game, you realize that the protagonist, Soma Cruz, has lost his powers as he’s been away from Dracula’s Castle for a good while. It’s very similar to the way Samus conveniently loses her powers after each Metroid game. The Metroidvania titles in the Castlevania series were originally derived from Metroid, so this is all par the course, really. Soma was allowed to live a normal life for a little while, but it isn’t long until it’s interrupted by a cult dedicated to the resurrection of Dracula. The cult is led by a woman named Celia Fortner, who plans to revive the dark lord to prevent the loss of her powers. Though Soma is warned not to get involved with the order, he decides to take their challenge anyway and heads back to Dracula’s Castle.

The soul system that made the last game popular unsurprisingly returns in this game, and it also unsurprisingly has been given enhancements. The surprising aspect is how the souls do much more than just aid you in battle. There’s some attention to detail to be exploited in collecting a number of souls, and a number of the same souls. For instance, obtaining and equipping a skeleton soul allows you to throw a bone at another enemy; obtaining a number of those same skeleton souls will allow you to throw a bigger and stronger bone. The same goes for many other souls, including ones that enhance your stats, like strength and HP. If you thought the Soul System catered to your inner OCD before, prepare to lose many hours on this now. Especially if you’re concerned with obtaining the souls that are harder to get, as there are more of them this time around.

Souls can also be used for synthesizing new weapons, a new feature for this game. In AoS, you could obtain the best weapons by either exploring the surroundings or having enemies drop them. Not so here, as the only way to get the best weapons is to use the soul synthesizing system. This is done by matching a soul with an existing weapon you have in your inventory to create a stronger weapon, and some matching might enable your weapon to now have an elemental effect. The synthesizing is done by returning character Yoko Belnades; yes, she actually has a use this time around.

Graphically, the game also uses the power of the DS. With this, the character, enemy, and background sprites are right on par with the best SotN had to offer on the Playstation. Though there are numerous enemies ripped right from that game, some of the newer enemies have been given nice animation detail that’s wonderful to see in motion (and obsess over, if you’re that type). The same goes for the backgrounds. Fans like to knock IGA for various aspects of the franchise that they feel have grown stale, but if there’s one thing you have to praise him for excelling at, it’s attention to detail. Soma himself also animates just as good, if not better, than Alucard.

The dual screen setup also makes it easier to progress from section to section. No longer do you have to pause to check the map often to see where you have to go next. You can either have the map or your stats displayed on the top screen (and cycle through them pressing the select button) while the game is still going with the touch screen. This makes cycling through them much less of a hassle.

Depending on your preferences, the above may or may not be the first aspects of the game you notice upon playing it for the first time. Heck, you might even notice from the cover, and not just the in-game portraits, that the art style has been completely revamped. It may be a big departure from the previous styles used, but it’s not for the better. The art this time around is less gothic and more like art rejected from a Saturday morning cartoon. It’s not even half as good as Ayami Kojima’s material, and the gothic tone of the game is slightly ravaged because the style is used in the game’s portraits. Only “slightly,” though, because the sprites themselves aren’t affected. IGA said the new art style was to appeal to a younger audience, and if the sales data is correct, it didn’t work.

But it’s a good thing the music is still good. Michiru Yamane returns to lend her work for another Castlevania soundtrack, bringing with her Masahiko Kimura, who she previously partnered up with for Suikoden III and IV. The majority of the tracks are more mellow than your average Castlevania title (the DS isn’t a good system for handling guitar riffs), but the soundtrack itself is great and varied, with a nice mixture of slow and fast-paced music to accompany each stage.

The difficulty level is a tad higher than AoS. The majority of the normal enemies can still be disposed of pretty effortlessly, but after the halfway point of the game, the boss difficulty starts to climb. Hope you like challenge, because the bosses here will test your reflexes and your (hopefully good) management of souls. And hopefully you’ve been using the synthesis system to your advantage.

But with that challenge comes a new feature called the Magic Seal system, which uses the touch screen to draw a seal to, well, seal bosses after a battle. They start off pretty easy, but become pretty complicated as the game goes on as you obtain newer seals. It sounds like a neat and quirky idea on the surface, but it’s actually very gimmicky and can become a royal pain – especially later on. Some of the tougher bosses require much harder seals that have to be drawn, but imagine the scenario where your adrenaline is pumping after taking down a tough boss, and all of a sudden a complicated seal that requires twelve lines to be drawn suddenly appears The fight was tough enough that your hands might be shaking on your first time through the game, so you’re a little fidgety while drawing the seal. It’s possible that you might mess up, and failure means that the boss will regenerate around 20% of their health; not something you want to happen if you’re up against tough opposition. Sure, you can practice the seals in the menu, but that won’t help your n
erves when the time comes.

The level design for the castle is fantastic for the most part, as it never feels repetitive or boring to go through the well-detailed locations. The last two levels are sadly exempt from that praise, feeling as if the level designers ran out of steam by the end, as the designs feel like they’ve been cut-and-pasted. It’s nowhere near the level of Lament of Innocence or Curse of Darkness, but it’s still disappointing after wandering through so much good design.

And there’s a lot of it to progress through this time around. One of the main problems AoS had was that it was very short for a game so good; around four to five hours. DoS is at least twice as long, and you’re guaranteed to spend even longer if you go soul hunting or would like to acquire the real ending; unless you intend to consult an FAQ or strategy guide for the latter.

A small amount of flaws aren’t enough to keep the game from being superlative, and one of the best games in the franchise. Dawn of Sorrow stands toe-to-toe with Symphony of the Night for the best Metroidvania game. The replay value also adds to this, as afterwards, you can feel free to go through the game again on a higher difficulty to get more souls. It may be longer than Aria, but not long enough that you won’t be able to play it again. It also has the best post-game bonus in the franchise.