Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Designer(s)	Koji Igarashi (IGA), Satoshi Kushibuchi, Hiroyuki Watanabe, John Saito
Release date(s)	August 25, 2005 September 30, 2005 October 4, 2005 September 29, 2006
Genre(s)	Action-adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Media	512 megabit Cartridge

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, known in Japan as Akumajō Dracula: Sogetsu no Jujika (悪魔城ドラキュラ 蒼月の十字架, Akumajō Dorakyura: Sogetsu no Jujika^?, lit. "Demon Castle Dracula: Cross of the Blue Moon"), is the first Castlevania game to appear on the Nintendo DS handheld game console, and is a sequel to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. The game was developed by Konami and was first released on August 2005 in Japan, on September in Europe and October in the U.S. The game was re-released in Japan on 29 September 2006, under the "Konami the Best" range ^[1].

Contents 1 Plot 2 Gameplay 2.1 Julius Mode 3 Characters 3.1 Protagonists 3.2 Antagonists 3.3 Bosses 4 Development 5 Awards and Reception 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

The game revolves around the protagonist, Soma Cruz, one year after the events of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and his involvement with an enigmatic cult that seeks to kill Soma and revive Dracula. Soma decides to take the initiative and tracks them down to a castle, where he then takes on the task of destroying the cult.

[edit] Gameplay

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a platform game with RPG stat-building elements.^[2] The player guides Soma Cruz through a large sprawling castle, where he or she has almost free reign to go wherever he or she wishes. However, similar to the Metroid series, certain areas are inaccessible until the player defeats key enemies and obtains critical items. Along the way, the player must defeat a horde of monsters that roam the various rooms of the castle with the weapons he or she finds along the way. The more enemies the player defeats, and the stronger the enemy, the more experience points they get, which enables them to level up and improve their abilities.^[3] Several items, including weapons, armor, and accessories, can be found around the castle, dropped by defeated foes, or purchased at Hammer's shop, and can be used to increase the player's statistics.

The game features the "Tactical Soul" system from Aria of Sorrow, where Soma can absorb the soul of an enemy he defeats and can use their power. Dawn of Sorrow improves on the previous system by allowing the player to upgrade most soul abilities by acquiring multiple copies of the same soul^[4]. Souls can also be used in weapon synthesis to create rare and powerful weapons.

A new feature, the "Magic Seal" system, makes use of the system's touch screen. Using the DS stylus, the player must draw an intricate pattern known as a magic seal on the touch screen in order to trap defeated boss enemies. If the seal is not drawn correctly, the boss will regenerate some energy and continue to fight. The touch screen can also be used to break certain blocks, navigate menus, select a warp point, and control certain familiars.^[5]

The game also has a multiplayer vs. mode, where one player creates a section of the castle, complete with enemies, and both players race to defeat the enemies and reach the end of the level; players are also able to trade souls they've found in the game.

[edit] Julius Mode

By finishing the game once with either the true ending or the bad ending (in which Soma awakens as the Dark Lord), the player unlocks Julius Mode,^[6] where one can play as Julius Belmont, Yoko Belnades, and Alucard. Julius is armed with the traditional Vampire Killer whip, as well as the Axe, Holy Water, Cross Boomerang, and Cross Crash special attacks. Yoko is a witch who fights like her ancestor Sypha Belnades with a staff and fire, ice, and lightning spells. Alucard attacks with the Alucard Sword, Hellfire spell, and has the ability to turn into a bat. The gameplay is the same as the main game, except that the bosses do not require a Magic Seal and Soma is the final boss of the game. Soma will utilize several of the souls in the game for attacks, and transforms into a giant demonic creature after taking enough damage, in homage to the form Dracula assumed in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Protagonists

• Soma Cruz - Main playable character.
• Yoko Belnades - Introduces the player to the Magic Seal System and can upgrade weapons using acquired souls.
• Hammer - Acts as the game's merchant.
• Mina Hakuba - Soma's best friend and love interest.
• Genya Arikado - The disguised form of Alucard.
• Julius Belmont - The most recent Belmont of the series.

[edit] Antagonists

• Celia Fortner - Celia is the founder of a cult bent on orchestrating the coming of the next Dark Lord. The loss of Dracula made Celia worry that her powers might wane. She plans to plunge Soma's mind into darkness in order to seize the power of the Dark Lord. The player never fights Celia.
• Dario Bossi - One of Dracula's potential successors, Dario has the ability to manipulate fire. He was born with this ability when Dracula was defeated in 1999. His fiery personality and impulsive tendencies push him to immediate action. He has an antagonistic relationship with Dmitrii Blinov.
• Dmitrii Blinov - Dracula's other potential successor, Dmitrii has the ability to copy magical powers gaining him the title, The Mirror. Although he seems irresponsible, Dmitrii will stop at nothing to accomplish his goal of discovering the purpose behind his abilities. He has a poor relationship with Dario Bossi.

[edit] Bosses

• Flying Armor - The first boss, he constantly floats in the air, while moving across the stage. Attacks with a pair of levitating swords. Collecting its soul reduces falling speed.
• Balore (Balor) - The mythical king of giants, only his upper part is fought. He attacks with his enchanted eye, and constantly pounding the arena with his massive fists. He was originally fought in Aria of Sorrow, but his strength is weaker than it was previously. Collecting his soul grants the power to shatter blocks with the stylus.
• Malphas - A demon who has the ability to fly, he summons waves of crows or orbs of dark power to attack. Collecting his soul grants the ability to double jump.
• Puppet Master- A giant marionette with a big head and many arms controlled by strings. It creates a puppet that it drags into iron maidens, then trades that puppet's place with the player. It also spews out little dolls, probably mannequins, to restrict the player's movements. Collecting its soul grants the ability to toss a puppet and switch places with it.
• Rahab- A subaquatic, demonic fish, it constantly moves around the battlefield, and either jumps to the other side of the arena (releasing in the process a flurry of droplets which cause damage), emerges to purposelessly spin above the water level, or to fire an icy blast. It's possible that he has something to do with the sword bearing his name in Aria of Sorrow. Collecting its soul grants the ability to move underwater.
• Gergoth - A bestial enemy living in the top of the Condemned Tower, it can attack with a crushing pounce, a breath that draws Soma into a bite, or a superpowered laser beam. Eventually it will shatter the blocks that keep it in the top level, crushing all levels down to the first level of the Tower. Collecting its soul grants the ability to continously fire a laser beam.
• Zephyr - A demon with powers over time, it can temporarily freeze time to attack, with a variety of associated attacks, including jumping to the ceiling, dashing forward with clawed fingers, throwing daggers, and dashing forward without attacking. Collecting its soul grants the ability to stop time.
• Bat Company - A massive group of bats that amass themselves to adopt different shapes - that of a giant hand that can inflict heavy damage in close quarters, a giant mouth that shoots out damaging sonar waves (remincent of the Moai head enemies from Gradius), a massive sphere of disembodied bats, or a massive bat. Collecting its soul grants the ability to turn into a bat.
• Paranoia - A monster that is actually fought twice - a miniature Paranoia that's the size of Soma, and a giant Paranoia. The small one attacks with a small weapon, while the larger one hovers above Soma and charges into him. Both can disappear within the mirrors set in their respective rooms, and fire energy beams that rebound in four hand mirrors that float in the arena. Collecting its soul grants the ability to enter mirrors.
• Aguni (Agni) - A demon possessing Dario and granting him greater power. It's a horned skull set in a flaming skeletal torso. It has the ability to claw its victim, fly to the ceiling and fall, causing a ripple of flame, throw fire projectiles that ripple along the ground and rapidly fly around. Since killing Dario will result in the game ending, Soma must destroy Aguni by entering the mirror in which he hides. Collecting its soul grants the ability to send fire across the ground.
• Death - The grim reaper, it has two forms - one in which it wears a closed robe and a hat, and a second one in which the robe is open and has no hat. Among its wide array of attack patterns are: vanishing into thin air, then hacking with its scythe from behind, spinning its scythe to conjure a circle of small sickles, summoning three copies of itself to attack, casting a spell that brings great skulls to the arena, which inflict heavy damage, and dashing to attack at ground level by brandishing its scythe. Collecting its soul grants the ability to summon scythes.
• Abaddon - Fought in The Abyss, this half-man, half-locust uses its wand to summon its main and only attack: swarms of locusts. Problem is, even though it is its only attack, it inflicts massive amounts of damage if they are not avoided or destroyed correctly. The movement of its wand determines the path the locusts will follow. Other than that, it just hops mindlessly across the relatively small arena. Collecting its soul grants the ability to summon locusts.
• Menace - An enormous combination of the demons Dmitrii absorbed, it is fought in two shapes, an unmoving assembly of distorted human and other parts, and a massive demon with two weak faces. In the first round, its horned head must be destroyed, and it attacks by summoning spears from above, and a poison mist from below the horned head. In the second, it can attack by punching, kicking, or with the mis-shapen miniature monsters it generaties, which explode on contact, causing massive damage. In this form, both of the weak faces must be attacked: one on its knee, the another shielded within its skull, which periodically opens its jaw to reveal the face. It has no soul.
• Soma Cruz or Dracula - Julius Mode only. Soma uses several souls he can obtain in the normal gameplay mode. In his first form, Soma uses the attack of a Great Axe Armor and a Gaibon familiar. In his second form, he transforms into a giant monster (the same one used in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood), that uses a string of attacks, including the use of the Larva, Harpy, Aguni and Abaddon souls.

[edit] Development

The announcement of a new Castlevania game for the Nintendo DS first appeared on IGN August 1, 2004^[7], with the publishing of the game being accredited to Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo. Hard details about the game wouldn't appear until January 5, 2005, when Konami announced that the game would be a sequel to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow^[8][9].

[edit] Awards and Reception

Generally, Dawn of Sorrow received high praise from reviewers, with a 89/100 average rating of 52 published reviews^[10]. Though there wasn't a huge leap in graphics between Dawn of Sorrow and its predecessor, Aria of Sorrow, critics didn't seem to mind^[5][2]. In fact, it gained praise for following the " tried-and-true Castlevania formula"^[3]. Critics, however, were unimpressed by the game's use of the touchscreen features with it being described as "ancillary in practice"^[3]. The "seal drawing" aspect of the game is often lambasted as being "not all that necessary"^[11], awkward^[3] and "more [of a] gimmick"^[2].

Dawn of Sorrow won several awards since it's release:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly: Game of the Month (Issue #197), Gold Medal^{[citation needed]}
• IGN: Editors' Choice Award^[12]
• Nintendo Power : 2005 DS Game of the Year (Staff)^{[citation needed]}
• Nintendo Power : 2005 Best GBA/DS Graphics^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

• Several enemies in Dawn of Sorrow were sprites also used in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, including bosses Slogra and Gaibon as standard enemies and the boss Karasuman (renamed Malphas). Subsequently, many enemies and their sprites (among them several bosses) were reused in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

• The game's artwork, including the box cover, the movie that plays if the game is left at the title screen, and the character portraits, are drawn in a distinct anime style. This is because the game's producer Koji Igarashi also wanted to market the game to younger audiences who watched cartoons.

• The Silenced Ruins area is a direct tribute to the first Akumajou Dracula/Vampire Killer game for the MSX—in addition to similar visual designs, the background music is a remix of the background music for the first stages of this title that started the series, Vampire Killer. Also, the boss in this area, the Bat Company, is a reference to the original Castlevania, where the first boss was a giant bat.

• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow contains three items, the Crown, the Bell, and the Konami Man, as homages to the original NES Castlevania. They have no effect on gameplay, although they can be sold to Hammer for money.

• By inserting Aria of Sorrow in the Game Boy Advance slot, a doll resembling Mina appears in Yoko's shop. The player also receives the rare ring from the start of the game. However, this does not work with the more recently released Castlevania: Double Pack.

• In Julius Mode, Soma's final form is the same sprite of Dracula's final form from the game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.^[13]

• A script dump of the game shows some unused dialogue which hints that the developers intended to make Hammer a playable character^[14]

• The songs Bloody Tears, Beginning and Illusionary Dance return as remixes in Julius Mode.

[edit] See also

• Castlevania
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
• Castlevania characters

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at MobyGames
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at GameSpot
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at IGN
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at GameFAQs
• Enemy list from IGN

v • d • e Castlevania video games

Castlevania • Vampire Killer • Simon's Quest • Haunted Castle • The Adventure • Dracula's Curse • Kid Dracula • Belmont's Revenge • Super Castlevania IV • Chronicles • Chi no Rondo • Bloodlines • Dracula X • Symphony of the Night • Legends • Castlevania (N64) • Legacy of Darkness • Circle of the Moon • Harmony of Dissonance • Aria of Sorrow • Lament of Innocence • Dawn of Sorrow • Curse of Darkness • Portrait of Ruin Characters • Sorrow characters