I first had the chance to play Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at E3 this past May. I then had another opportunity to play the game this past summer at a press event. To say that I was jonesing to get the full version in my hands was an understatement. Ever since the now classic Playstation Sympony of the Night, the series has been the pinnacle of platform gaming. Dawn of Sorrow, I’m very happy to say, lives up to this fine tradition.
There has been over 20 titles in this series that has spread itself over almost 20 years and 15 different systems. It has a long legacy of fine gameplay and most of them have basically the same story. Dracula is on the verge of being reborn and it’s up to you to enter his castle and kill him, or try stop his emergence from happening.
This time out, you take on the role of Soma Cruz, the main character from the last Castlevania game on the GameBoy Advance system, Aria of Sorrow. This new title is set a few years after the events of the last one, and assumes you defeated Dracula and prevented Soma from becoming the latest incarnation of the Dark Lord. Because of this link between Soma and Dracula, Soma can possess the souls of creatures that he kills. These souls, when used properly, grant new powers and abilities with which to dispatch those meddlesome creatures of the night.
Unfortunately, as is often the case in the Castlevania universe, someone wants to bring Dracula to power. A mysterious woman has brought a handful of recruits to see if they can’t harness the power of Dracula and bring forth his horrible reign once more.
This game is classic platform gaming at its finest. You run around Dracula’s castle, jumping from ledge to ledge and room to room while dispatching Dracula’s minions with various forms of weaponry and abilities. At the end of each section of the castle, there is generally a boss monster which, when defeated, will grant you a new power that will grant you access to more of the castle (such as being able to transform into a bat to reach those high places you can’t jump to).
Scattered around the castle are save points for you to replenish both your health and your magic bar, which is drained when using your abilities, as well as to save your progress. These are placed far enough apart to make things a challenge, and to make finding the next one difficult, but not so far as to make things tediously frustrating.
Of course, if it does become tediously frustrating, you can always backtrack to another part of the castle and kill more creatures in order to level up and become stronger. This is because there is a certain RPG element to the game. Soma gains experience as enemies are killed, which will cause him to level and gain more strength, defense, luck and other skills. In addition, there are numerous different items that you can find throughout the castle that will also add to your stats, making the challenge perhaps a little bit easier.
As is often the case with Castlevania games, there are multiple endings. When certain conditions are met, you can actually unlock a “Julius Mode,” which then lets you travel throughout the castle as Julius Belmont. In addition, Julius will meet up with additional characters including Alucard from the Castlevania classic Symphony of the Night. Each of these characters has different abilities and is almost like a complete different game, since different steps are required to get through the castle to the lair of the evil Dracula, and is definitely a great incentive to replay through the game multiple times.
This is the most fun I’ve had with Nintendo’s latest handheld. I’ve been a big fan of the Castlevania series for some time, and thankfully this title delivered in every way possible. My only complaint is that it is not long enough, but that is a selfish gripe since the initial game will take you some time to progress through and the additional modes only add to them. I just couldn’t get enough of this game, and it will be a permanent addition to my library for quite some time to come!
I've been playing games ever since I was a wee lad. My favorite games as a child were the classic Pitfall and a game called SNAFU, which was a sort of puzzle game along the lines of Tron Light Cycles. I've had most of the major console systems since the early days and have a wide range of tastes of games and I'm always eager to give a new one a try.
