Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow DS game

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

2005

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

from 73 members

Even if their vampire hunting franchise has now appeared on PS2, you can always count on Konami to grace a Nintendo console with a new Castlevania game. Follow up to the GBA?s Aria of Sorrow, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow once again follows the exploits of the somewhat androgynous Soma Cruz. It?s a few years since Aria of Sorrow and our purple-clad hero is called upon to fight his way to the heart of a castle which is some sort of ghoulish homage to Dracula?s own dread fortress. The sprawling, maze-like citadel is populated with all manner of chimaeric beasts and other enemies, and it?s up to Soma to explore and battle through, be it with axe, whip, or whatever other satisfying weapon takes his fancy. If you enjoyed Aria of Sorrow, be prepared for more of the same, but this sequel makes full use of the DS?s capabilities with vastly improved graphics and a powerful, anthemic musical score. Most DS games aim to exploit the more unique abilities of the DS and Dawn of Sorrow is no exception. You?re required to trace occult symbols on the touch screen to gain entrance to various doors throughout the game. Defeat of enemies is rewarded with their ?souls?, the collection of which will grant Soma new skills and attacks. As your collection of souls grows, you can trade them with friends using the DS?s effortless wireless capabilities. And it?s souls that you?ll need if you are to progress in this game. Soma Cruz may be barely more than a schoolboy, but his powers increase dramatically as he collects souls and fuses them as necessary to acquire impressive new abilities. He?ll need a broad range of powers if he is to stop the plot ? it turns out that the castle-like nature of the enemy HQ is all part of a wider plan to resurrect the vanquished Dracula to terrorise the earth once again. Dawn of Sorrow, like Aria, is directed by Koji Igarashi, and continues the pleasing resurgence of the Castlevania franchise, with or without a certain Simon Belmont.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow details

Format:	12 DS
Players:	1
Genres:	Adventure, Arcade/Platform
Developers:	KONAMI
Rental release:	30 Aug 2005

Write your own review

Most helpful review Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Fangs for the memories

By MrBurns (5 reviews) from Swindon , 22 Aug 2008

[Highly rated reviewer]

I really enjoyed this game, to the extent that I still replay it every so often even now, three years since I first bought it!

If you've played Aria of Sorrow on the GBA then the controls will be pretty familiar to you. Otherwise there is a slight learning curve. Unlike a lot of Castlevania games, this requires more than just hacking and slashing your way through the levels. So in addition to attacking and jumping from platform to platform, you also need to equip souls to gain abilities.

To gain souls, you need to kill the enemy who has the skill you need.

The story is also pretty cool, with multiple endings available.

Only one drawback to this game-after boss battles you'll be asked to draw a sigil on the touchscreen. Some of them are quite complicated and seem kind of pointless.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review

All reviews

(1)

Sort by:

Fangs for the memories

By MrBurns (5 reviews) from Swindon , 22 Aug 2008

I really enjoyed this game, to the extent that I still replay it every so often even now, three years since I first bought it!

If you've played Aria of Sorrow on the GBA then the controls will be pretty familiar to you. Otherwise there is a slight learning curve. Unlike a lot of Castlevania games, this requires more than just hacking and slashing your way through the levels. So in addition to attacking and jumping from platform to platform, you also need to equip souls to gain abilities.

To gain souls, you need to kill the enemy who has the skill you need.

The story is also pretty cool, with multiple endings available.

Only one drawback to this game-after boss battles you'll be asked to draw a sigil on the touchscreen. Some of them are quite complicated and seem kind of pointless.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review