What an impressive transition into the Nintendo DS but I’m not that surprised. By Aria of Sorrow, IGA & his team were getting back into their groove of making consistent quality Castlevania games after their bit of rocky reintroduction with Harmony of Dissonance.

Dawn of Sorrow is just taking the formula that Aria of Sorrow has refined at this point and cranking it up with upgraded visuals & soundtrack whiles improving on the combat due to having 2 load-outs to customize your equipment or souls that you switch on the fly that makes the combat flow less intrusive and boss fights aren’t as piss easy as Aria of Sorrow at times. Due to the upgraded presentation and more out of the box themes, Dawn of Sorrow's Castle somehow surpasses Aria of Sorrow's Castle by a bit, which is impressive.

Once again, the story isn’t anything mind-blowing, nor are the villains that great, but they make the plot work & it is nice to see more of Soma, Julius, Genya, Yoko, and Hammer which who I have grown to appreciate by the end of Aria of Sorrow, but this game elevates them to my favorite cast of characters in the series so far.

I do want to get my few complaints out of the way. The magic seal system is unsurprisingly not a fun gimmick that gets on your nerves, your luck stat doesn't work, and I really dislike the anime-style art.

However, this game is still an excellent Metroidvania that I enjoyed from start to finish and even beat Julius mode, which is by far the best unlockable mode in the series so far. A very strong start for Castlevania on the DS. I'm curious to see how Portrait of Ruin & Order of Ecclesia stack up since I have heard nothing but good things about these ones

[played a ROM hack that fixed having to do signs and the bug with luck not affecting drop rates]
I know this game is not considered as good as Aria of Sorrow, and there's no question that the story is flat-out worse. But I like the central puzzle to getting the best ending, and the soul collecting is truly fun, and I didn't really mind it at all. Some of the weirder souls are fun to experiment with, and I had a joy replaying it recently. I also liked some of the unusual puzzles (numbered rooms in the Demon Guest House is a favourite of mine).

Yeah, the story really is nothing but a retread after Aria of Sorrow, but I enjoyed the rhythm of the combat and souls so much that it outweighed it in the end.

The art direction transition is one of the biggest gaming crimes to ever be committed (it hurts my soul more than my eyes) but otherwise Dawn of Sorrow is a very solid experience and a suitable follow-up to Aria.

Aria of Sorrow was one of the most surprising experiences I’ve had this year, and after sitting on it more I’m starting to realize it may have cracked into the upper echelons of Metroidvanias for me. Aria is concise, rewarding, and (most importantly) very cohesive. All of Aria’s ideas flow very naturally into each other and that philosophy extends even into how the castle itself is designed. Unlocking a new power, for example, oftentimes also unlocks a route nearby that connects back somewhere very close to where you’ll need to go next for progression. Similarly, branching paths close to requires areas will usually reward the player for experimenting with these new powers by granting powerful new weapons and armor. In other words, Aria’s gameplay loop is very cohesive and it constantly sets fires to the neurons in my brain in the best way, and I think Dawn of Sorrow’s biggest flaw is that it lacks that same cohesive glue.

Dawn’s castle doesn’t really have that same masterful level of flowing into itself and it’s much easier to get lost wandering aimlessly as a result. It definitely doesn’t help that exploration feels a lot less satisfying, too, because the overwhelming majority of the good weapons are attained through sheer luck by getting a good enemy drop….or by sheer luck (with extra steps) since you also need these same enemies to drop souls to create weapons with at the shopkeep. Both methods to obtain new weapons are effectively the same thing, in other words, and it’s pretty antithetical to how Aria approached this in its design which was already pitch perfect. I always felt a lot weaker than I actually was because my weapons were constantly below the grade they should have been just because I didn’t feel too particularly keen on engaging with this aspect of the game (aka, grinding until I get the right drops).

Dawn of Sorrow also does have some “early DS syndrome”, which is as charming as it occasionally frustrating. Admittedly, I do love me some early DS era crustiness but the way it’s implemented here is a bit cumbersome. After defeating a boss in Dawn of Sorrow, you have to use the touch screen to draw these (memorized) sigil patterns to completely finish the fight. If you fail, the boss regains some health and you have to do everything again until you get it right. Now, I’m no stranger to forced touch screen implantation, and it’s honestly a pretty inoffensive mechanic in the grand scheme, but man is it frustrating when you get one of these wrong. The biggest problem here is that they’re timed, and you have to contort your fingers from resting comfortably on the buttons to suddenly reaching for your stylus to doodle some lines. It takes my brain a couple of seconds to shift modes which leads to the gimmick feeling a bit disconnected from everything else that’s happening. Again, nothing too egregious and it’s an issue that’s definitely overstated, but not a great inclusion either.

Despite my negativity on some things, there’s definitely a lot to be enjoyed here too. Outside of the drawing thing, the bosses themselves are a highlight and a lot of fun to master. The souls themselves are maybe even more distinctive here than in Aria and they’re legitimate use for most of them. My favorite addition is probably being able to switch between two combat kits at the press of a button without having to pause the game to fiddle around in menus. Sprite animations and the like are top notch, especially for an early DS era title, and weapons all have a proper feel to them depending on what you’re rocking with. The soundtrack is also pretty great, but that goes without saying with Castlevania.

Overall, Dawn of Sorrow is a fun time even with some ideas that don’t feel as meticulously baked as Aria’s. It’s a good follow-up to a game that expands on the story premise and gameplay concepts of its predecessor in many ways, and that’s all I could really ask for. Also, I guess I’m a big Castlevania fan now on a binge of the series? Wasn’t expecting that one.

A solid entry all in, but I do think it's a fair bit weaker than the sublime Aria. Mostly because the game doesn't really give out good weapons at all, you're a lot more reliant on getting low-drop Souls for key parts, and the Magic Seal system that requires weird touch screen gestures is a pain in the ass. (I actually resorted to using the No Touch Screen mod because I just could not do the last one at all. And I just finished Trauma Center!)

Still, good game, worth a playthrough, did hand-wring over giving it another half-star.

Very fun game with a decently interesting story. I enjoyed the character progression from the first game, despite there not being too much of it. As most Castlevania games go, the story and characters are the least important part. The design of the map is pretty good, and the controls and combat have been improved from Aria and a few of the souls have been as well, but the use of the touch screen is a needless gimmick that interrupts bosses and wastes time. On top of all of that, the grinding for souls can be ridiculous at times and completely ruins the flow of the game at times. The game could be a 9/10 if the seal system was completely replaced by keys and you were guaranteed an enemy's soul the first time you kill them. I've heard of a version that removes the touch screen mechanics, but as it is, this game is really fun, with a lot of room for improvement.

This game features a standard story with troupey villains that had potential but didnt fulfill it, with fun sometimes challenging boss fights and fun exploration, a good overall soundtrack and it has systems that i think it executes pretty well, the weapon crafting line system made getting your weapons feel even more rewarding and left you with a nice feeling when you did finish a crafting line, the souls system is just as amazing as it was in aria of sorrow although i feel that the games art style lacks in comparison to pretty much every single entry

Aria of Sorrow was amazing game but Dawn of Sorrow is formula perfected. Aside from character art that everyone complains about anyway, this game looks gorgeous with detailed, layered backgrounds and lavish animations. Music goes on par with graphics giving us best soundtrack since SotN without even one weaker tune. All the gameplay additions make soul farming and combat far more engaging. DS touch screen gimmicks do not become much of a hindrance (however reaching out for stylus in the middle of the battle can be distracting) and game 90% of the time still depends on button inputs. After all those years I am still impressed what IGA and his team achieved here even if lack of Ayami Kojima art is sorely missed.

We're back to reusing Rondo/SotN sprites baby! Woohoo!

Dawn of Sorrow kicks off the DS trilogy with a bang, expanding on Aria's gameplay additions and brushing up the presentation across the board. In my Aria review, I commented on how the only thing holding that game back from being my favorite Castlevania is the hardware it was released on.

Dawn of Sorrow looks, feels and sounds EXACTLY like what I had in mind. I mean, in some ways the DS is basically a portable PS1 in terms of power, right? Perhaps this is a glimpse of what Aria would've looked like on that system. I especially love the 2D areas with 3D backgrounds, like the village houses and the iconic clock tower.

Now, not everything hits the mark. The art is a SEVERE downgrade from previous games. I realize that it made sense for the time, but Ayami Kojima's works can never be replaced, especially not by this.
The dual screen was also a huge missed opportunity. Instead of adding gimmicks like breaking blocks or drawing seals to finish off bosses, they could have added something like a marker system to the map, where you'd be able to add memos to certain areas so you remember what to do in them later. "Small gap here", "high jump here", etc. Sadly they didn't quite see it that way, so hope you played enough Trauma Center before this.

The dialogue is also pretty bad at points. Characters constantly say things like "It's too dangerous, you should step back" to each other, and Hammer creeping over Yoko/Yoko creeping over Soma's relationship with Mina over the course of their shop dialogues got real old, real fast. The alternate endings were pretty cool though.

Beyond that, there's... Something about the design here that feels less focused than Aria's. I can't quite put my finger on what, but after finishing the game earlier today, I didn't quite feel like going back to 100% it.

Still a great game, don't get me wrong, but better visuals and soundtrack aside, Aria still comes out on top for me.

Gameplay: 4.5
Art Style: 4.5
Story/Lore: 4
System: 5
Chracter: 4
Total: 4.4

The second "Metroidvania" Castlevania game I touched, and boy howdy was it a good one. The map design was good, exploration was fun, and the wide variety of souls you got to augment your combat experience always kept things interesting. The bonus modes with more traditional Castlevania characters were a nice treat on top.

The only real marks against the game was the obligatory touchscreen gimmick with scrawling enemy seals, and the fact that with a game like this there's always going to be a pre-requisite amount of grinding for souls, and good golly are the droprates in this game at times outright terrible.

Play Aria first before jumping into this. Both are fantastic though.