Not as good as Aria of Sorrow.
You play as the main character from the previous castlevania game, Soma Cruz. In the last game, he discovered that he was the new Dark Lord-Dracula. Soma stopped this from happening, and escaped Dracula's castle which he had accidentally landed in. A year has passed since then, and Soma is one day attacked by a woman named Celia, who intends to resurrect Dracula along with an ever-growing cult. Soma pursues Celia to the cult base where the adventure begins...
Gameplay
The gameplay is very much the same to Aria of sorrow, where you could steal enemy souls. In case you never played Aria of sorrow, it had a new system where you could gain the souls of enemies and use their abilities to help you on your way. In Dawn of Sorrow, it's pretty much the same thing. The souls are very well varied and all have useful traits. Some may cause a wave of fire to run across the ground, others may cause Soma to lunge out at enemies with his tongue. There are plenty of souls to collect, so you can experiment and find which ones work well with your playing style. There are some souls that are required to complete the game, but they never really get in the way of your preferred soul sets.You may also fuse your souls with your weapons therefore making them more powerful. There are some weapons that can only be fused and not bought at the shop. Aside from that, you've still got the basic castlevania "RPG" style gameplay. It's often times Non-linear, so you can do most things in any order you want. You spend most of your time fighting monsters, and jumping around on platforms. There’s also plenty of secrets to find, and a few bonus game modes to unlock. The touch screen is used to break crystal blocks on screen that hinder Somas progress. It's also used to target enemies for your familiars, and, more importantly, draw magic seals. Magic seals are found throughout the game. The Magic seals are then used to defeat bosses. The formation of the magic seal appears when the boss runs out of health. Correctly tracing the symbol seals the boss, thus defeating it. If, however, you fail at tracing the symbol right, the boss will regain some of its health, and you'll need to lower its HP once more to able to try again to seal it away. Its health does not entirely refill though, thus removing some of the stress of having low health yourself.
Overall, the gameplay is very similar to Aria of Sorrow.
Graphics
The game has its excellent moments here. While the DS is capable of much more, the graphics are still really good. The characters movements and actions are animated very well, and some of the special effects of the game look excellent. Some, for example, are done in 3-D and incorporate themselves in to the game very well, such as sealing bosses. The souls and attacks all look very well done. The backrounds literally make you feel like you’re there-in the action-as Soma Cruz. From a technical standpoint, it may not be anything special, but it certainly does a great job of making you feel as if your there. I personally thought they were very fitting.
Sound
The music is wonderful. It's clear, and I have yet to dislike a single track in the game. The sounds are very clear, from the tiniest tink of a dagger, to the ferocious roars of some of the monsters. Overall, something your ears should enjoy and hopefully not loathe.
Replay
There are plenty of bonus modes to unlock, and a New Game+ feature, so you’re bound to play this game at least two or three times. There's plenty of fun to be had finding all of the souls, and chances are you won't obtain all of them in your first game.
Overall, the game is lots of fun, and you’re most likely going to spend many hours on it. The main game can be finished rather quickly, but you'll miss out on quite a lot of extras and whatnot if you decide to do so. The game isn't nearly as good as Aria of Sorrow was, but it is still an excellent DS game nonetheless.