Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
- April 27, 2006 11:42 AM PST
- Email this!
Castlevania rises from the dead, and the Dawn of Sorrow is anything but for the DS.
- GamePro Score
- User Score
- Write your review!
A Feast of Souls
Dawn takes place one year after Aria of Sorrow, and again stars Soma Cruz, who must stop a twisted cult from resurrecting Dracula. The soul collection system is better than ever: souls can be coaxed from every enemy in the game, yielding upgrades to stats, epic weapons, new skills, and even commandable familiars. They can also be traded with friends, or used to create simple time trials. A couple of other minor additions do a lot to improve play flow, too: the top screen displays the map or character sheet, and early on you'll learn to instantly switch between two equipment sets.
The subject matter may be grim, but the visuals are bright and appealing. Soma regularly gains new abilities, opening up previously inaccessible areas. Retracing steps through familiar ground could become tedious if not for some first-rate art direction. Colorful and smoothly animated characters play their strange supernatural roles against varied and beautifully detailed level designs. Some of the voices sound rough, and are too low in the default mix, but the sound effects and musical score are better than most.
It Is Polite to Point
Stylus-based actions work best when directly connected to your character. For instance, vanquishing a boss monster with a drawn "Magic Seal" is an interesting occult twist, and puts you in your character's shoes, but scrubbing the screen to remove obstacle blocks is just gimmicky, and feels more like inexplicable divine intervention.
It's hard to complain too vehemently about such clumsiness when everything else comes together so cleanly, though. The Nintendo DS badly needs top-drawer must-own titles, and Dawn of Sorrow certainly fits that bill.
KEY MOMENT: Coming across a screen-high enemy and realizing it's not even a boss monster
