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Soma returns on a Dual Screen world. And not to be outdone, we have Dual Reviews to prove it!
October 14, 2005 | 3:51 PM PSTby: Nate Gleaves
Upon finishing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, I was fully prepared to rag on it hardcore in my review. Seeing as how the DS is a much more powerful machine than the Game Boy Advance, I was expecting the game to be leaps and bounds better looking and sounding than Aria of Sorrow was. I was half expecting it to be nearly on par with my all-time favorite, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, for Sony’s original Playstation. Throughout the entire game, I felt like Konami dropped the ball with Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. I kept thinking to myself “This looks and sounds exactly like a GBA Castlevania.” Since I consider the DS to be at least as powerful as the PSOne, I felt totally cheated.
Then just as I was sitting down to begin my complaint-filled review, intelligence took over. I decided that it has been two years since Aria of Sorrow. Maybe my human brain could use a refresher course? I dusted off Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and jammed it in the GBA slot on my DS. After playing that for about three seconds, I realized that my memory might have been a tad on the rusty side. The enemies were all small, the animation was lacking, and the death explosions were disappointing. And even though it is still good for a GBA game, the music was a little less nifty. After playing for ten minutes I had no choice but to admit that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is in fact a big improvement over Aria of Sorrow after all.
With that experiment completed, I decided “Heck, why not?” and dug out Symphony of the Night to pit it head to head with the latest in the Castlevania series. The Greatest VS the Latest! Of course in my head there was a clear winner before Symphony of the Night was even done loading. No new Castlevania could ever come close to its level of awesomeness, in any aspect. I was just firing it up to prove to myself how inferior Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow really was. Well paint up a spotted feather and stick it in my ear if Symphony’s graphics weren’t the be-all-end-all 2D superiority that I thought they were. To my surprise the graphics in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow are probably just as good as those in Symphony of the Night. The enemies are just as big, and the death animations are just as ridiculously gratuitous. In fact, I think the backgrounds may be slightly better looking in Dawn than in Symphony. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that Dawn is “better than Symphony” regarding anything. When it comes to the main character however, I do think that Alucard looks more fluid and is better animated than Soma. Not to mention he is just way cooler.
The gameplay is for the most part exactly the same as the last few Castlevania games. The biggest change is in the way you must draw magical seals to defeat each boss. Once you get close to finishing off a boss, the game freezes for a few seconds and you must draw a seal on the touch screen to banish them from existence. This seemed like a cool concept, but I ended up disliking it. Instead of a satisfying scream of defeat and a huge explosion from a tough boss to bring you relief, the magic seal screen pops up. Whenever this happened, I felt no relief whatsoever. What should have been relief turned into paranoia. Did I remember the pattern for the seal right? Did I waste too much time double checking myself? If I screw this up I have to fight him some more and I am almost dead! No, to me the magic seal is not cool; it is just a lame gimmick that uses the DS touch screen, like nearly every DS game so far. Definitely not innovative.
Soma uses the souls of his enemies almost exactly like he did in Aria. The only real change is that you can now tie souls in with your weapons to make them stronger. I think this is a definite improvement. Last time, I didn’t feel any real reason to try and collect souls other than for the sake of collecting them. This time around the game whispers in my ear that if I can find and collect the soul from a Valkyrie, I can make my halberd all the more awesome. Motivation to collect souls equals a big thumbs up from me.
Once you finish the game, you can play through it again as a team of the trio of Soma’s sidekicks. This is a nifty extra that definitely warrants a second walkthrough, which is not something you can say about most games these days.
Final Word:
Well there you have it. This game is more of the same, but in this case that means more of the good. My only real complaints were that I thought the graphics and sound weren’t what they should have been. Thanks to my investigations into the past I learned that my complaints were completely ridiculous. The game looks good, plays good, and sounds good. It doesn’t sound as good as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it is hard to top the best video game soundtrack ever. All I ask is to be able to play as Alucard again some day. Please Konami, give us Alucard!
8.0
-- Nate Gleaves
Hold it! We still have a second opinion and the overall rating on the next page!
Then just as I was sitting down to begin my complaint-filled review, intelligence took over. I decided that it has been two years since Aria of Sorrow. Maybe my human brain could use a refresher course? I dusted off Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and jammed it in the GBA slot on my DS. After playing that for about three seconds, I realized that my memory might have been a tad on the rusty side. The enemies were all small, the animation was lacking, and the death explosions were disappointing. And even though it is still good for a GBA game, the music was a little less nifty. After playing for ten minutes I had no choice but to admit that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is in fact a big improvement over Aria of Sorrow after all.
With that experiment completed, I decided “Heck, why not?” and dug out Symphony of the Night to pit it head to head with the latest in the Castlevania series. The Greatest VS the Latest! Of course in my head there was a clear winner before Symphony of the Night was even done loading. No new Castlevania could ever come close to its level of awesomeness, in any aspect. I was just firing it up to prove to myself how inferior Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow really was. Well paint up a spotted feather and stick it in my ear if Symphony’s graphics weren’t the be-all-end-all 2D superiority that I thought they were. To my surprise the graphics in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow are probably just as good as those in Symphony of the Night. The enemies are just as big, and the death animations are just as ridiculously gratuitous. In fact, I think the backgrounds may be slightly better looking in Dawn than in Symphony. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that Dawn is “better than Symphony” regarding anything. When it comes to the main character however, I do think that Alucard looks more fluid and is better animated than Soma. Not to mention he is just way cooler.
The gameplay is for the most part exactly the same as the last few Castlevania games. The biggest change is in the way you must draw magical seals to defeat each boss. Once you get close to finishing off a boss, the game freezes for a few seconds and you must draw a seal on the touch screen to banish them from existence. This seemed like a cool concept, but I ended up disliking it. Instead of a satisfying scream of defeat and a huge explosion from a tough boss to bring you relief, the magic seal screen pops up. Whenever this happened, I felt no relief whatsoever. What should have been relief turned into paranoia. Did I remember the pattern for the seal right? Did I waste too much time double checking myself? If I screw this up I have to fight him some more and I am almost dead! No, to me the magic seal is not cool; it is just a lame gimmick that uses the DS touch screen, like nearly every DS game so far. Definitely not innovative.
Soma uses the souls of his enemies almost exactly like he did in Aria. The only real change is that you can now tie souls in with your weapons to make them stronger. I think this is a definite improvement. Last time, I didn’t feel any real reason to try and collect souls other than for the sake of collecting them. This time around the game whispers in my ear that if I can find and collect the soul from a Valkyrie, I can make my halberd all the more awesome. Motivation to collect souls equals a big thumbs up from me.
Once you finish the game, you can play through it again as a team of the trio of Soma’s sidekicks. This is a nifty extra that definitely warrants a second walkthrough, which is not something you can say about most games these days.
Final Word:
Well there you have it. This game is more of the same, but in this case that means more of the good. My only real complaints were that I thought the graphics and sound weren’t what they should have been. Thanks to my investigations into the past I learned that my complaints were completely ridiculous. The game looks good, plays good, and sounds good. It doesn’t sound as good as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it is hard to top the best video game soundtrack ever. All I ask is to be able to play as Alucard again some day. Please Konami, give us Alucard!
8.0
-- Nate Gleaves
Hold it! We still have a second opinion and the overall rating on the next page!
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November 20, 2009
