Until the New Super Mario Bros comes out in 2006, this is the best platformer you can find on a next generation handheld
The player assumes the role of Soma Cruz, the protagonist who barely escaped becoming the next Dracula in Aria of Sorrow. The game opens as Soma wanders through town minding his own business. Suddenly, the leader of a secret cult ambushes him. After quickly fending off the attack, he discovers the cult seeks to resurrect Dracula.
Soma - who's none too keen with all that - sets out to track down the cult's base and thwart their evil plans. The base turns out to be a replica of Dracula's Castle, which is an excellent excuse to go traipsing through the old citadel once more. And in all honesty, because of Dawn of Sorrow's superb and refined gameplay... there is still nothing wrong with that.
In usual Castlevania fashion, the player is dropped inside a monster-infested fortress with what every penny-pinching vampire hunter would bring - a knife. Over time, however, this meager arsenal of a simple knife will grow into a large collection of weapons: swords and spears for hand to hand combat, tomahawks and guns for long range strikes. While you can probably just stick to one type of weapon throughout the entire game without much problem, it's really fun to experiment with which weapons work best for different situations. As you hack, slash, punch, and shoot your way throw monster after monster, Soma will slowly grow in strength by means of the game's basic RPG-system. Thanks to this element, don't expect the game to be leisurely paced or play like an adventure game; it's action, action, and more action... reminiscent of Super Metroid.
After defeating a monster, Soma will (by chance) obtain the ability of the defeated foe. Enemy abilities are different for each monster and range from reducing the speed of your fall to calling a creature to aid you in your struggle. While this system is the same as Aria of Sorrow; it is much more organized and developed. For those who have not played Aria of Sorrow, this is a vastly better system than Circle of the Moon's unconventional card system and Harmony's limited magic system. With over a hundred monsters in the game, there are a ton of cool abilities to experiment with. In addition to this, one of the characters, Yoko, can fuse the monsters you've collected into a weapon. The whole system is compelling and rewarding enough to keep players exploring the castle as much as they can, with a goal of forging the most powerful weapons possible.
Speaking of exploring the castle, the level design is nicely improved over other titles. It's all produced in a way where the castle is fun to explore, without the feeling of walking around aimlessly. Though, in structure, most areas are basically still maze-like corridors, the enemies and art direction for each area really work together to construct a different feel for each section.
Improving the pace even more is the subtle application of both Nintendo DS screens. As you follow all of the action on the lower screen, the top screen will display a map of the castle. By pressing the "select" button you can toggle between viewing the castle map or your character's status. This keeps the action going nicely, as you don't have to pause game play to check for leveling ups or where to go next. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the use of the touch screen...
Enter magic seals. In order to finish off boss monsters in Dawn of Sorrow, Soma must "draw" a magic seal. For you, this means after beating the boss silly, you must trace a symbol to banish the creature. If you fail to do so, the enemy will regain some health and you'll have to repeat the process. This can be more cumbersome than its novelty is worth -- seeing how players who want to keep their screen fingerprint free, will have to pull out the stylus to do the job. Fortunately, the drawing is fairly simple and won't require you to have a degree in art. On a more encouraging note, the boss fights are, for the most part, impressive as always.
Graphically speaking, fans will quickly notice that Soma and company looks noticeably different. Gone is the classic Castlevania art. It is replaced by something resembling the Saturday morning's 4KIDS TV. Even though the character portraits stick out like a misplaced stake in the Castlevania realm, they are limited to dialogue moments and only represent a fraction of the graphical content. The game is still fantastically detailed and greatly improved over the other GBA titles. From the more fluid animation to the intricate background work, players won't be disappointed.
In the sound department, Dawn of Sorrow doesn't dissatisfy either. This is easily the best sounding Castlevania to grace a handheld. The stereo sound on the DS takes full advantage of making this a great game to play with headphones. Like the others in the series, the music is excellent and provides an upbeat soundtrack that is in keeping with the haunting theme of Dracula's castle.
Like all great Castlevania games, the adventure has a beginning and an end. This doesn't mean once you beat Dawn of Sorrow it should sit on your shelves or be traded in. There is still quite a bit left to do. While experienced players can marathon through the game in less than seven hours, they will really miss out on exploring hidden areas of the castle. Players can collect monsters, experience multiple endings, and search for unlockables. Duel mode is also an enjoyable feature.
In duel mode, players can randomly place any monsters they've fought in an area, then race through killing monsters. They can also overload the area with tons of enemies and see how many they can take out. If a good competition is what you are looking for, use the wireless multiplayer feature and race a friend through the monster rigged area. While this isn't the multiplayer mode fans hoped for, it's a good step in the right direction.
By and large, Dawn of Sorrow is an excellent action title not to be missed by fans of the series. Players looking for a game similar to the Metroid series won't be disappointed either. However, it seems Konami could have made better use of the touch screen feature on the DS, and also taken a few more liberties with innovative game play. Even though the game gives you tons to do, many of the elements are not centered on helping the player beat the game. Nevertheless, until the New Super Mario Bros. comes out in 2006, this is the best platformer you can find on a next generation handheld.