Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

I had never played a Castlevania game before, so I had no idea what to expect from Dawn of Sorrow, so I took a chance when buying it, but it quickly became one of my favourite games I'd ever played.

From what I know now, having since bought some of the older GBA games, Dawn of Sorrow is more or less more of the same, and it is also very similar to the GBA Metroid games.

Essentially it's a 2D side scroller. You play as Soma, and you must uncover the mystery surrounding the plot to give rise to a new dark lord, and as the hero, you have to thwart the evil plans. The game has some RPG elements, you have a large map to explore, and you need to level up to be able to take down the bigger demons you'll face. You will even collect a number of weapons by purchasing them from the shop, collecting them from enemies you defeat or you can forge new ones using souls. One of the best features in the game is collecting souls, defeated enemies only occasionally 'drop' their souls for Soma to absorb. Upon doing so you gain the power of that enemy, and you can use the soul to forge a new weapon, or use it's power to fight. Some souls offer a stat increase when equipped, or allow Soma to summon creatures or fight using that creature's abilities. Bosses generally always leave their souls behind and give Soma a major ability that you'll need to progress; such as the double jump and walking under water. So, in true RPG style you'll be gaining new powers as you progress, and hacking everything to death as you hunt for new souls.

Visually, the game is top quality, and although it's 2D the sprites are brilliantly designed and the animation is stunning. The anime style characters are well drawn, and there's a fair bit of sprite scaling and rotation, and some nice flashy effects with some of the soul's powers, and overall there's not a fault to be found. The music's just as good, and each area of the map has it's own theme and it's own accompanying music, and each piece is fantastic! The effects and cries of the various demons and creatures is also great.

The storyline is told through a number of encounters with the human characters you meet. Some of which you wind up fighting, but with a large area to explore, and multiple endings, as well as a bonus extra mode using other characters it will last you a good while, even without the weapon and soul collecting, and with secret areas there's a lot to see and do.

Once it's all over, there's a harder difficulty setting to get your teeth into. And given the extra difficulty you'll need all your talent from the last play-through to survive. It provides a genuine and worthwhile challenge. And lastly, there's a belated multiplayer mode, which seems like an afterthought. Basically, you design your own 10-stage assault course, fill it with a number of nasty demons then race a friend through it. Oh, and there's also a boss-run mode, which puts you against every boss in the game, one after the other. But doing so can unlock secret weapons to use in the main story, so it's worth your time.

Overall, Dawn of Sorrows is one of the best of it's kind I've ever played. It is definitely a worthwhile addition to anyone's DS collection, and it's currently one of the best RPG's on the DS, despite it not strictly being an actual RPG.