DS owners won't be filled with Sorrow over this game
Written: Nov 17 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: a great game, with lots to do, defintley worth picking up
Cons: some of the seals can be a pain to draw.
The Bottom Line: I vant to suck your DS
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| tommy_lop's Full Review: Castlevania Dawn Of Sorrow for DS |
I got Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow when I got the Nintendo DS, after all it was a castlevania game that made me get my GBA, I thought it would be fitting that I would get a castlevania game as my first DS game. Also Aria of Sorrow is one of my favorite GBA games so having it’s direct sequel was definite on my priority list. So is dawn of Sorrow a worthy reason of getting a DS. The answer if you’re a castlevania fan is a definite yes.
Story.
Every 100 years (or 2 days if you count the amount of Castlevania games) Dracula rises from his grave. In the year 1999 the Belmonts and Alucard where ready for Dracula’s resurrection and sealed his castle in an eclipse Cut off from his power when Julius Belmont gave the final blow it was the end of the evil count.
Or was it, the year is now 2036 and Dracula has manage to reincarnate himself into Soma Cruz. Soma didn’t even realize this in till a year ago when he and his friend Mina where teleported to Castlevania. It was during his fight to with Graham a man claiming to be the heir of Dracula that Soma discovered who he really was. With a help of his friends and the mysterious Genya Arkido (Alucard) Soma was able to over come the darkness that was poisoning him and return to being a human.
A year has passed and it seems that not everybody is happy with Soma’s decision to remain a human. An evil cult is now after his life and there even threading Mina. Against Arkido’s warning Soma tracks the cults hideout down to an old castle. It seems that a few of his friends from last years incident have caught on to his plans and he quickly bumps into Yoko, Julius and Hammer all willing to lend him a hand. But what does the cult have plan for Soma, and will he be able to stop there plans for bringing about a new dark lord, or is it still his destiny to become the dark lord?
Graphics.
So far Symphony of the night has have the honor of the best looking 2d games, and it’s hard to debate that to because Symphony had some beautiful graphics. But Dawn of Sorrow is here and it’s kicking its butt. Not only are the characters are as well drawn and well animated as Symphony so are the back grounds and if not more so. In Dawn of Sorrow Konami doesn’t forget that the DS has a 3d engine. And while the game is a 2d game some of the backgrounds use the 3d engine to produce a lot more depth. You can’t help but be amazed at the view as you walk up to the castle keep and you see the back of the castle all render in 3d.
I also like a few of the new characters drawing that they used making the game a bit more anime inspired, it defitley looks better during the cut scenes. There is also a fully animated cut scene that appears if you wait on the main menu long enough.
Oh as far has the duel screen goes the bottom touch screen is the main action. The top can be toggled between Soma states and the enemy he is fighting or the castle map.
Sound.
The sound during the Soma’s quest as more of the modern castlevania hard rock feels to the game. The music fits into the game fairly well and it’s nothing to complain about but only Vampire Killer from the good old days makes it in here. The good news for fans of the classic Castlevania is during Julius mode a lot of areas change to classic Castlevania, you hear the village theme from Castlevania 3 and bloody tears in there as well. A definite good mix. They do have Japanese VA’s for a few of the yelps and screams but no major voice acting really happens in the game.
Game play.
Ok there are two main gamplay modes.
Soma mode.
Soma’s mode is the standard modern day Castlevania games that blends an RPG in with Metroid and puts into a Castlevania atmosphere. If you have played Aria or any other Castlevania game you will know what your in for. As Soma is not a Belmont he will equip different weapons, most of them are sharp staby things to kill enemies. There is also armor and other abilities to pick up and equip.
Since Soma is the reincarnation of Dracula he can obtain monsters skills by absorbing there soul. Rather then the standard, daggers, axes, and crosses. Soma gets fire balls, lasers, and angry shrieking plants (don’t ask). There are a lot of souls to collect and a few of them are hard to get. Not every new monster gives you a soul, sometimes you have to kill several of the same kind in order to obtain there soul. Rather then having a amount of hearts you can have Soma as a magic meter and each soul ability depletes, collecting hearts will replenish the magic meter. Souls that you collect but have no use for can be given to Yoko in her shop in order to make and upgrade weapons, which is kind of handy when you get excess souls.
The castle and the areas in the game are huge and this easily has the largest castle of all the castlevanias there are plenty to explore and things to collects. And with 3 endings to the Soma quest and the final two going around finding all the bosses you won’t be board.
For the touch screen part of the game it comes in play two instances. You will use it to break blocks that block Soma’s way, there are a few puzzles that go around breaking the right ones in order to continue but not many. Most of the time it comes in drawing magic seals. It seems that this cult as perfected in making boss monsters invincible, so the only way to win is to draw a seal that puts them under wraps. The seals become more complicated as the game goes on. Luckily for are non artist ones out there the game goes more by speed then accuracy. The idea is to hit the points at the edge of the seal in the right order, in one stroke, before time runs out. Failure to do this and the boss regains about ¼ of there HP and the fight continues.
Julius quest.
In order to unlock Julius quest you need to get a bad ending for Soma. This is easy once Soma finds a way to get past the fake final boss. After words he will be invited to the middle of the castle. If you don’t equip him with a talisman that you get from Mina, something will happen there that will turn Soma into Count Dracula and Julius Belmont must now find and kill him. (note doing this will not end Soma’s mode, you’ll start off at your last save and you can then equip Mina’s gift to continue on to the best ending).
Julius Belmont mode plays like a mixture of the new castlevanias and Castlevania 3 for the NES. You explore the castle as Julius and his whip and level up. Along the way you can recruit Yoko who turns out to be a decedent of Sypha from Castlevania 3. And she has the abilities of Spyha as well. Including your rod weapon and using a lot of really strong magic spells. Later you will also meet Alucard this time in Symphony of the Night digs. He uses a mix of skills from both games, he can throw out fire balls as well has use a sword. His animation was also barrowed from Symphony.
Julius quest is also a bit similar and more linear then Soma but unlike other 2nd character quest they had in past Castlevania games this one takes it self a bit more seriously and has a dialog and story. That’s not to say that it’s anywhere near as deep or involved as Soma, but it’s at least worth taking a look into.
There is also a boss rush mode as well has a 2p race mode that can be played through in the game.
Final Recommendation.
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow proves itself to be better then every one of the GBA games and that is high praise considering how good the GBA games are. The castle is huge, lots of souls to collect and a 2nd quest that is actually worth playing through.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tommy_lop
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Member: tommy
Reviews written: 962
Trusted by: 119 members
About Me:
Ran over a grandma, punched a kid, and still diden't get a PS3. (just kidding.)
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