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From The Entertainment Depot - http://www.entdepot.com Handheld
As one may infer from the title, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the direct sequel to the critically acclaimed GBA title, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. Many elements from Aria of Sorrow remain, while improvements have been made to some of the problem spots of Aria. New features also add immensely to the gaming experience.
While most Castlevania games reserve the role of the main villain for Dracula, Dawn of Sorrow takes place in a time period after Dracula has been defeated. It was revealed in Aria of Sorrow that Soma, the main character in both Aria and this title, was born to inherit Dracula’s powers and, in essence, become Dracula reborn. Soma was able to overcome this grim fate, however, by using the power of domination, which enabled him to collect the souls of fallen foes to use in his battles. The plot begins with a conversation between Soma and his girlfriend, Mina, one year after the events of Aria. While Soma is explaining that he has since lost his power of domination, Celia, the leader of a cult whose aim is to revive Dracula, attacks. During the battle, Soma realizes that he still has the power of domination, and he decides to track Celia down to discover the meaning of his powers and to put an end to this cult once and for all. The large cast of characters introduced in Aria of Sorrow returns, including Hammer, the retired military man, Arikado, an agent of the Japanese government, and Julius Belmont, whose family has been hunting vampires for generations. It turns out that Celia has selected two candidates to inherit Dracula’s power and Soma must stop Dracula’s revival while protecting himself from his own dark powers.
The game plays like previous Castlevanias. Soma has a life bar and a magic bar, which is replenished by finding hearts that are dropped by smashing lanterns or other objects placed throughout each screen. Players explore incremental portions of the castle, defeating bosses and obtaining new abilities along the way while uncovering bits and pieces of the story. Thanks to the DS’ dual-screen layout, players no longer have to pause and break the flow of the game to look at their maps or statistics: they are instead displayed on the top screen at all times. Dawn of Sorrow also boasts one of the largest castles in the series, and this claim is made even more impressive by the huge improvement to the castle design over previous installments of Castlevania. Having gone back to play Aria of Sorrow, I noticed many expansive rooms with no enemies and highly repetitive backgrounds and features. The rooms in Dawn are smaller, more detailed and filled with enemies to crush and plenty of opportunities for exploration. There are also a limited number of hidden rooms to discover by smashing through selected walls. This was somewhat of a let down because I ended up attacking nearly every wall in the game just to find the few hidden rooms which contained mediocre items. Even so, while previous games in the series have been admirably addictive, I found Dawn of Sorrow to be truly engrossing. I could not put the game down until I had completed at least the normal mode and the Julius mode.
Soma’s power of domination is one of the key elements in Dawn of Sorrow. As Soma defeats enemies, he occasionally gains control of their soul. These souls can be equipped and used for a variety of purposes. Souls are broken down into four categories: bullet, guardian, enchant and ability souls. Bullet souls consume magic points upon use, and grant Soma the use of deadly attacks unleashed by pressing up and attack. Guardian souls continuously drain magic points once they are activated and usually benefit Soma with temporary bonuses to his attributes or by summoning familiars to fight on-screen enemies. Enchant souls boost Soma’s attributes without requiring activation or magic points. Finally, ability souls give Soma the ability to perform special techniques such as double jump and buoyancy in water. Collecting the souls of every creature found throughout the castle is a huge and time-consuming undertaking, but it earns players a special item at the end of the game.
A new element featured in Dawn of Sorrow concerning souls is weapon synthesis. By combining rare souls with old weapons, newer, more powerful weapons can be crafted. This provides a whole new and deeply engaging element to the game. Players can spend hours trying to craft the most powerful weapons in each weapon class, including swords, spears, and hammers, to name a few.
If you have seen any of the preview movies demonstrating the use of the touch screen, then you have most likely seen everything. The touch screen only has two functions. First, blocks of ice in Soma’s path can be broken by tapping them with the stylus. This can be somewhat interesting at times when stairs can be carved into masses of ice to reach new areas. The main function for the stylus, however, is to draw “magic seals” at the conclusion of boss battles. Apparently, Celia has placed a protective spell on select creatures (bosses) throughout the castle, and these magic seals must be used to ultimately defeat them. Players are prompted to draw a seal when a boss’s life reaches zero. If the seal is drawn incorrectly or too slowly, bosses will regain some health and the process will have to be repeated. This is exceptionally nerve-wracking because the stylus must be held between a player’s fingers while battling the enemy if the seal is to be drawn in time. While this does add an element or urgency to boss battles, it would have been nice to have seen more implementation of the stylus. The only other stylus function is to identify save files. When a new game is created, players are prompted to write their name, which can be done with the stylus. I penned in a classy “Soma” signature. This is a step in the right direction, and if the number of Castlevania releases for GBA is any indication, we can hope to see more Castlevania games on the DS with increased stylus support.
Series fans will definitely feel at home with Dawn’s visual aspects. The overall look of Dawn of Sorrow is vastly improved over its predecessor. While some of these changes are due to the new hardware, other stylistic changes have also altered the atmosphere of the title. The new art style appears heavily influenced by Japanese animation, which Konami has admitted to using in order to draw in a younger audience. This change somewhat softens the dark and brooding atmosphere typical of other Castlevania games. Character portraits also change to reflect the emotion of the character speaking, giving a “cartoony” feel to the game. Aside from these portraits, however, the backgrounds and enemies resemble the style of past Castlevania games. Again, while this change has been made to convince parents to buy the game for their young kids, numerous images of death and gore that abound throughout the castle. Corpses hang from ceilings, bones litter the ground, and blood covers whirling saw-blades that act as obstacles throughout the castle. Aside from the gore, however, there is also increased attention to detail in the backgrounds that wasn’t possible when Aria of Sorrow was released.
The Castlevania series is also notorious for its music. The music found in Dawn of Sorrow is some of the best of the series since Symphony of the Night. Masahiko Kimura and Michiru Yamane, the famed Symphony of the Night composer, teamed up to create catchy and highly addictive tunes, which is a definite plus during the long hours of soul hunting that some may choose to engage in. The sound effects are well done, and range from brief vocal clips to haunting screams uttered by defeated enemies. The high production value on the music and sound speaks to Konami’s commitment to providing a well-polished product in all aspects.
Of course, this would not be Castlevania if there weren’t any extras to be unlocked. Several endings can be achieved depending on how the game is finished. Once the game is completed, the hard mode and the “Julius Mode” is unlocked, which enables players to go through the castle as the famed Julius Belmont. The Julius Mode prolongs the gameplay by a good five hours and provides new challenges for even the most seasoned players. Other extras include a music mode to listen to the catchy music and a boss rush mode where Soma must battle all the bosses in the least amount of time possible.
There are also wi-fi features available for players who can find another person with a copy of the game. Two players can link up to either trade souls or to compete in a time trial mode. The time trial mode allows players to battle through a selection of monsters in the least amount of time possible. While this feature is a nice bonus, finding somebody with Dawn of Sorrow is a challenge.
Overall: 9/10 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is as close to perfection as the series has come in a long while. New hardware brought with it improved graphics, sound, and functionality, including the map display on the top screen. Beyond that, the new art style is a new turn for the series, and one that I found worked well for the game. While problem areas included the lack of serious DS functionality and too few hidden rooms, other features that were created specifically for Dawn of Sorrow, such as the weapon synthesis system and the wi-fi capability add a whole new dimension to a genre that boasts heavy roots in tradition and does not seem to change too often. This is definitely the best game I have played on the DS and one of my fondest Castlevania memories since Symphony of the Night. © Copyright 1999-2005 by EntDepot.com |
It has been nearly a decade since the Castlevania series unsuccessfully ventured into 3D territory on the Nintendo 64.