Castlevania:
Dawn of Sorrows (DS)
From Konami
The DS has
been pretty barren in terms of games. In fact, this handheld
is nearly a year old (just a month and a half to go), with
only a couple of arguable "must have" titles...and
even fewer "must have games" (sorry, but Nintendogs
is not really a game, nor is anything else that involves
actively cleaning up poop from a virtual defecation machine).
Some would vote for Kirby, which is fine for the fans of the
typical "kiddy" games of Nintendo. Some could vote
for Advance Wars: DS, assuming you like hardcore strategy.
However, no game has really covered a very wide audience
appeal that could bring in hardcore gamers and the fans of
lighter fare.
Well, that
may have finally changed. After almost a year of feeling like
I threw away my hard earned money on the neat but useless DS,
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows has arrived. This title promises
to bring the classical feel of the GBA and Playstation
Castlevania games, but to give a little bit of the dual screen
innovation that Nintendo so loves to show off. So, ultimately,
when a game is being built from such a powerful and impressive
franchise as the Metroid-like Castlevania games have
established, can anything really go wrong? With a system like
the DS, that is really starved for a fun game, and with how
even a clone of a prior hit would be well received, will
Konami be able to strike gold like few other third party
developers have with the DS?
Plot
This is one
of the few Castlevania games (with Symphony of the Night being
the other one) that is an immediate sequel of a prior
Castlevania. They are all sequels, but by immediate I mean it
takes place in the same generation of characters (since most
Castlevania games take place a full century after the last).
So, some of this is covered also by Aria of Sorrows (GBA),
which took place a year earlier.
In 1999,
Dracula was defeated by Julius Belmont. He wasn't just beaten
into another long slumber. Dracula was finally finished off.
So, a couple of decade later, Soma, the hero of both this game
and Aria, during an eclipse, is pulled into an ancient castle.
That castle, naturally, would be Dracula's castle. Soma was
born on the day of Dracula's defeat, and thus he inherited
some of the dark lord's powers. Namely, Soma had the power to
consume and control the souls of the monsters he defeated in
the castle.
So, over the
period of time that takes place in AoS, Soma met a few wacky
friends (or acquaintances...since some of these people were
less than friendly), including Julius, the last descendant of
the Belmont line, and Yoko Belnades (a descendant of a mage
who traveled with Trevor Belmont in Castlevania 3). He also
fought off his destiny to become the new dark lord...a new
Dracula. It seemed that all was well.
However, a
year later, Soma and Mina (his dear friend...who is, in juvenile
fashion, hinted as his girlfriend in the plot) are accosted
one day by Celia. Soon Soma learns that Celia is trying to resurrect
the power of darkness that was once Dracula. So, naturally
curious about what is going on and if he could stop this
revival of evil, Soma (against the wishes of Mina and the
enigmatic Genya...don't even ask who he is, since the game
fails to make his point clear until the bad ending is played
out) heads to where Dracula's castle has reappeared.
The story is
somewhat standard and doesn't go into deep detail, overall.
However, in the end, each NPS you encounter manages to have
enough dialogue to show that they are individuals with their
own motivations. While the plot is not as drawn out as it was
in SotN, there is still enough to feel like this game is more
than a simple excuse for Soma to run through a castle with his
powers to control the souls of monsters. However, if you're
looking for something deep, like you'd find in an RPG, you
will be disappointed. Ultimately, the plot may not be stellar,
but it is definitely adequate and well suited for a
Castlevania game.
Game Play
For the most
part, this is very much like AoS and SotN. The game is made up
of a free roaming exploration mode with a fair number of
hidden areas and hidden items to acquire. As you explore, you
will find new abilities and items that will open new chunks of
the castle to explore. At all times, you will have the ability
to travel back to old areas to look for missed items, blah,
blah. It's familiar to any person who's played a recent
Castlevania or Metroid title.
Also, your
character has the standard set of RPG elements. As you slay
your enemies, you will gain experience that will count towards
level ups. When you gain a level, you will gain more HP
(health) and MP (used for using captured souls). Also, like
with most RPGs, you will find new equipment and items as you
explore. You will be able to use these to make your character
better in terms of offense, defense, luck (used to find more
items from fallen foes), intelligence (boosts the power of
your equipped souls), etc. It should be quite familiar and
good for past Castlevania fans.
Also, the
controls are still quite similar to those of AoS, SotN, or
Harmony of Dissonance. You have your basic jump and attack
options, you move with your d-pad, and you can activate some
special abilities with your shoulder buttons. Beyond that, you
now have two attack buttons. One will allow you to make normal
offensive strikes, while the other (assuming you have enough
MP...otherwise it serves like the first offense button) will
perform a special attack. This special will be based on your
currently equipped weapon. For example, if you are using a
katana then you will make an extra swipe, if you use an axe
you will make a powerful descending attack, and so forth. The
controls are simple enough to appeal to anyone, but still
highly functional.
The only
truly new control you will encounter on the standard buttons
and d-pad are the doppelganger ability. Once you find this
soul, you will be able to select two sets of equipment and
souls at once. With a simple press of the y button, you will
switch between the equipment sets. This way you could have,
for example, one set for quicker travel and a second set for
battles (or one set with a quick weapon and the other set with
a slow and heavy hitting weapon).
Also, back
from the prior Castlevania games, you will access to shops in
the game. There are two different shops. The first one will
include the option to buy and sell weapons, armors, accessories,
and items. After the first 20% of the game, you can count on
only using this shop to sell items and to buy potions. The
selection never gets updated after this point. The other shop
will let you fuse your acquired souls with weapons to create
upgraded versions. For example, if you have an axe and the
soul of an axe armor, you can combine them (with no money
involved) into a battle axe. This is the only real way to get
the most powerful weapons of the game.
Also, for no
real purpose, there's the ability to "free souls" in
the weapon upgrade shop. This will let you remove some souls
from your inventory. There is absolutely no reason to do
this...at all. You gain nothing, unless you want the
"fun" of re-acquiring these released souls. This is
one of the few down points of the game, since many players
will feel like experimenting with this function, only to lose
out on their souls. Plus, to make matters worse, there's no
description of this in the instructions. Way to overlook this,
Konami.
So, the main
feature of this game, like it was with AoS, is your ability to
collect souls. Each monster will have a rank of 1-3 stars on
how easily it will drop a soul. As you kill this monster, it
will have a chance of surrendering this soul to you. You can
collect up to 9 of any soul (or item) in this game. Some
souls, when used, will become more powerful according to the
number of them you currently possess (having 9 will max out
the power on any soul). This can mean anything from a more
powerful attack to a longer ranged attack.
The souls
will come down to three (plus one) classes and you can equip
one of each class at a time. There are the "bullet"
type, which are activated by hitting up and attack at the same
time. They will usually release a projectile of some sort, and
will consume MP. There are the the L button souls. Typically
these are you movement powers (turn into a bat, fall slower,
summon an ark to ride upon, etc) and they will consume MP as
they are used. These are typically the ones that open new
areas of the game. Lastly, there are the souls that are always
functional, but don't use MP. These will usually be simple
stat bonuses (like a small bonus to your strength...or a
sizable bonus if you have 9 of said soul). The last class is
called "abilities" and they are special souls. These
ones will all always be in effect. They don't cost MP and
include basic game abilities like double jumps and the
previously mentioned doppelganger.
So, the only
thing that stands out as really "new" in this title
is the dual screen abilities. Most of these are pretty nice.
For example, as you play on the bottom screen, the top screen
can be swapped between a map and a status screen (including
stats on the monster you last attacked) with a press of the
select button. This is definitely a step up from how one would
often have to check the map (pausing the actual game) on the
normal screen on the past Metroid-style Castlevania games.
This type of ability is actually what I think the DS was
designed for.
The other
features of the DS abilities come from a misguided attempt at
forcing the touch screen onto players. This comes in two main
forms (you can use it to select menu options, draw your save
game icon, and select a warp point from a teleportation room,
but this is not even worth mentioning). The first is a
non-annoying, but ultimately useless, ability to destroy
certain blocks with the stylus. These blocks only exist in a
few rooms and will have no real effect on the game play.
The other
touch feature is one of the worst DS game features I've yet to
see. When you explore, you will find five different
"Magic Seals". These are basically giant symbols
that appear on the touch screen. They will unlock doors to
boss rooms (which require no effort from the player), like a
key would. Then, as you fight the boss, you will go through
the standard "deal damage and don't get too much dealt to
you" scenario. Once the boss is out of HP, the symbol
will show up on the screen...incomplete. Now, you must draw
the missing part of the symbol, exactly as the game previously
showed you to draw it, in one fluid line, in a limited amount
of time. This starts easy with a simple line with a single
bend in it. Later, you will have to draw lines with 9 or so
angles to them. Now, when you fail your first time (and you
will fail...a lot), the boss comes back to life with ~25% of
it's HP. Then when you kill it again, you have to draw the
symbol again. Every time you fail, the boss comes back.
This is not
a good feature on it's own, but when you consider how sweaty
your hands will be (thus you will smudge your screen to hell),
and how you may have fought a hard enough fight that
adrenaline will get your hands shaking, you will understand
how frustrating this will be. Plus, since the game will let
you practice at any time, you would think this shouldn't be
too bad...? Well, in reality, the practice mode is far less
picky than the real deal. For example, the last boss symbol
you must draw; I get about 80% success rate in practice when
trying this symbol (even during the boss fight), but I only
end up with about a 1% chance of success during the real deal.
This feature has nothing to do with Castlevania, and it only
serves to force the touch screen upon the gamer. Why can't a
DS game just be based off of two screens and not be a forced
attempt to use the touch feature?
So, while
Castlevania DS is a solid Castlevania title, and it has the
same elements we have come to know and love since SotN, there
are some failings. While most parts of the game are nothing
short of amazing, and the top screen is a wonderful addition,
the touch screen only serves to hamper the experience. If
there was no required touch screen usage in this game, it
would be nearly perfect from the game play perspective, but
with the Magic Seals...well, you'll enjoy playing this game up
to the final boss, but you will hate it when you're
done...assuming you can draw the final symbol.
Visuals
For those
familiar with SotN, then the visuals will look quite familiar.
For those less aware, the visuals are on par with how a PSX
side-view 2D action game would look. The level of detail is on
par with what one should expect from a DS game. That is, to
say, they are better than the GBA Castlevania games looked,
hands down.
The majority
of the visuals will not really make anyone's jaw drop open in
amazement, but that is not a bad thing. It's hard to really
give praise to something with this type of visuals, since the
greatest compliment that can be given, and how I feel about
this game is; the visuals are clean, the objects are easily
discernable, and you will never be left in doubt of what the
visuals being displayed are. There is nothing breath-taking,
like how Super Mario 64 gave an amazing feature of the first
truly 3D handheld game, but there is nothing to be left
desired for that is not present.
The only
thing lacking from this game that could have easily been
included is some sort of cut-scene visuals. For example, SotN
had a nice intro while the story was shown in text on the
screen at the start of the game. It would have been nice to
have a recap of AoS with this style of display. However, in
the end, this would not have really given anything that is
really "needed" in the game.
Audio
This is a
mixed bag. For the most part, the music is nicely Castlevania.
The same haunting style of music, with a blending of techno/electronica
and classical makes a nice transition to the DS. The music is
a definite step up from the sounds of the GBA Castlevania
games.
Also, there
is not much to detail in terms of voices. This is, simply put,
because there are almost no voiceovers. There is an occasional
"hey!" type of voice, but this occurs so infrequently
that it doesn't warrant a mention.
The sound
effects are what really make the bulk of the game. Sadly,
while most effects sound nice, some are outright annoying.
While the swinging of a weapon is wonderfully portrayed in
audio, some of the common sounds will get on your nerves. In
particular, I'm think of the cat sounds that are made when you
kill a witch. It's actually a nice sound...the first time you
hear it. However, the over-use of these more annoying sounds
will leave some people dreading the fact that you will keep
fighting these same sound generating creatures over and over
again.
At the end
of the day, the sounds are great. The music is amazing, the
lack of voices is not missed, and the sound effects are sharp
and clear. However, Konami should have done something about
the annoying and overused sounds (especially the howling of a
killed witch/cat).
Conclusion
At it's
core, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows is a solid Castlevania
game. It is also, without a doubt, the first wide appeal solid
title for the DS. With the classical GBA Castlevania feel (as
first seen with SotN), Castlevania: DS has a familiar and
addictive game play style, with a minor (but still deep enough
to serve it's purpose) plot to guide this thing. Plus, with
the DS technology, we are able to have a good level of quality
in the visuals and audio, and we even get a few added conveniences
that have never seen the light of day in a Castlevania title
before (like having a map or status screen at the ready while
still in the action of the unpaused game). In fact, if the
game was halted at this point, the game would have been nearly
an example of perfection.
Sadly, the
touch screen of the DS is not something that many developers
will try to deny. This is where Castlevania: DS, as well as
many other DS games, make a fatal mistake. Luckily, despite
the error (let's call it what it is...stupidity) of making the
player draw lame symbols on the screen to defeat a boss (art
skill and combat shouldn't have to cross in this lame of a
format...ever), the game is still enjoyable. At least it's
enjoyable until the final few minutes. When the final boss
won't die due to the hyper-sensitive nature of the touch
recognition system, many players who love the series, but
don't necessarily love touch technology, will probably share
the same feelings of anger and frustration that broke my own
enjoyment for this game. So, in the end, while you'll enjoy
playing this game, you will hate it when it's over. I
have to give Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows a 8.25 out of 10.
If the touch screen was not incorporated in this game, I could
have easily had given it a 9.5...sigh...such a minor and short
term problem that causes such a large headache...
Malik
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