Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Review (no fat)

Game Description

The acclaimed Castlevania series now enjoys dual screen status with Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Set in the castle of an evil cult, you play Soma Cruz who's out to eradicate a horde of monsters, steal souls and thwart the cult's plans of bringing back the prince of darkness - Dracula. The game still retains its trademark 2D platform style gameplay that made it a legend in the gaming circles.

Soma slashes and smashes his way through the hostilities and steals souls from the creatures he vanquished. These souls bring a whole range of powers and abilities to the player's fingertips. Some souls have to be equipped with abilities while others have built in abilities. Abilities are obtained by defeating boss creatures. These abilities help Soma navigate through the dark recesses of the castle, increase his jump strength, movement underwater, and boost his attack and defense on the whole… exactly what Soma requires for crushing the minions of evil and foiling Celia, the cult's high priestess.

The other innovation in this game is the use of the stylus to draw symbols that seal away bosses. This combo of normal controls and the touch screen makes for some innovative playing.

The game doesn't stray from its predecessors in the plot and gameplay departments and this edition fits in neatly with the dual screen concept of the Nintendo DS gaming system.

Gameplay

The actions starts off with Soma finding himself in a castle infested with monsters. Equipped with just the basics, and not much strength and experience to bank upon, Soma passes through the labyrinth while surviving attacks from monsters. As the game progresses, you grow stronger and get access to all kinds of weapons that are strewn all over the castle.

Killing off monsters has dual benefits for Soma as he gathers their souls and uses them to further increase his success rate within the castle. There are different kinds of souls that can be collected including golems, guardians, enchanted and so on. Some have inherent abilities while others need to be equipped with them. Souls come in handy when you have a tough fight. They are particularly handy while traversing hostile terrains such as water bodies with spikes sticking out from the bottom.

There are over 100 enemies in this game and thankfully Soma has access to axes, spears and a whole range of weapons that can vanquish them all. In addition to this, weapons can be customized by fusing a soul to a weapon thereby adding that soul's abilities to it.

There are plenty of boss creatures to kill and these are valuable as Soma can collect abilities from them. While fighting bosses, the player can weaken them with some well timed hits and then use the stylus (or fingers) to trace a symbol on the touch screen which will seal the boss for good. It might take a few tries and the symbols get complicated as you progress.

The side scrolling action involves a fair amount of jumping and motion but the controls are easy to use. As you gain experience, you'll learn new moves too.

The game can be very addictive… as is the case with the other titles in this series.

Graphics and Sound

The 2D game features crisp graphics in both the animate and inanimate department. The ambience is perfect for this kind of a game and the sprites, including the 100 odd monsters, are very well detailed. Overall, the game is fluid and visually pleasing. It's also backed by a sound track that fits the genre and adds eerie undertones to the action.

Summary

The DS is a relatively new gaming system and has a shortage of titles as of now. However, this game is a welcome entry and a pleasurable experience for owners of the DS.

The action packed side scrolling horror game has been around for a couple of decades and Konami doesn't seem to go wrong with any of its releases in this franchise. This game is a perfect translation of a winning script and has been implemented to utilize the twin screens of the DS to the maximum. Konami wisely refrains from reinventing the wheel as they refrain from exploring the third dimension.

A thrilling plot, hordes of monsters, neat additions to gameplay, great graphics and sound and immensely addictive gameplay combine to make this a memorable game.

Cost

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow retails at $34.99US at the time of writing.