The Game Boy Advance was quite the machine, I've learned, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was a highlight on the handheld. Or, I was told it was. I wasn't exactly a fan. I could see how you could be impressed by it, but the characters put me off, and my skill was poor, to say the least.
So, good news if you completely disagree with me on Aria of Sorrow: The story continues on the Nintendo DS in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.
Here we go again?
Frustrations
I have a passing knowledge of Castlevania. Something about Dracula, something about vampire hunting families, something about taking place across a whole load of periods. I had hoped Dawn of Sorrow would introduce something new, to try and win me over after Aria of Sorrow didn't quite do it, but no. Here we are, in the near future, with the silver-haired young lad called Soma Cruz, the reincarnation of Dracula, struggling to adapt to life.
He and Mina have had a visual upgrade, but still look a little too anime for me to really get behind. Sadly, they've not had a linguistic update. The writing continues to bore from the beginning. Out of nowhere - but conveniently at the start of our story - Mina asks Soma what his powers were called. You know, those life-changing powers that forever changed him as a person in the previous game. You know the one, the power, of the thing...
Soma replies that he no longer has them, ever since the credits rolled last time out, in fact. Well, that's a bummer, isn't it?
And just like that, some mysterious and clearly evil woman appears from thin air, summons a skeleton, and gets Dawn of Sorrow going. Only for a friend of ours to have our back.
Well, to be blocked by a barrier and have to throw us a knife. Better than nothing, I suppose. Let's put this knife to use and see how this game plays.
Like Aria of Sorrow, killing an enemy allows you to absorb its soul for use as an ability, in this case, the ranged weapon skill of bone throwing. Might come in handy. A few more enemies and a few more starting skills remind us how things work, like how close you need to be before attacking, how deadly giant golems can be...
An introduction wouldn't be complete without a know-it-all explaining everything to us, and Genya is our know-it-all. We have, apparently, always had our powers available to us, but our Dracula-senses have never tingled enough to have them spring forth and help us out.
We're told a little more about this cult leader, Celia, and how she wants us to be sacrificed to summon the actual Dracula, rather than the pale imitation that we are. This Genya seems to know quite a bit. I wonder who he works for. They seem well connected. Can't get past a magical barrier, though.
He tells us not to get involved. You know how that's going to turn out.
Heading out into the snow of wherever we are, we're hunting down Celia for reasons known only to Soma, I suppose. Revenge? For what, springing an ambush in town? Spooking Mina? Not sure. All I know is that we're not alone.
It seems like Hammer is meant to serve as a little comic relief. His first thought, more or less, is to ask whether there are any girls on this adventure, but soon brushes his embarrassment under the carpet to tell us why he's here.
My thoughts exactly, Soma.
Fun Times
And finally, everyone shuts up, a map appears on the top screen, and a lovely looking Lost Village is in need of exploring. I'm emulating Dawn of Sorrow, and while these screens do seem to have captured a lot of fog, I want to point out how good this game looks, especially when you catch the parallax motion of the trees in the background, the ghostly trail of Soma, and the dazzling effects of defeating demons and other nasties.
No, really, Dawn of Sorrow does look better than this. It plays much like you'd expect too. Jump around, stab some enemies in the face, find hearts in candles, because that's always a thing... If you liked Aria of Sorrow and the way it does things, Dawn of Sorrow is that with a fresh coat of paint.
If there's one thing we know about a Castlevania title, it's all the multiple paths and backtracking through rooms and hallways that we'll be getting up to. Here's on. Down, or onward? Definitely onward.
That's a short sword, glowing on the ledge there. You can swap out your equipment and abilities as the situation demands. However, for reasons utterly unknown to me, despite navigating all the way into the menu, I fail to actually swap my crappy knife for this sword. I only noticed that after the fact, which might give you a hint as to how well I did at this game...
Giant wolves and shambling zombies are no match for me, despite them getting in a few hits and spilling my blood. Your attacks, be they stabs, thrusts or special abilities like swinging a lance around for a bit, drain different amounts of energy, causing you to think about how you approach a fight, and when and how to attack an enemy.
The enemies keep coming, your energy slowly recharges, and the screen keeps looking really rather lovely. I can get behind these graphics. The close-up character images not so much, but the actual gameplay I can see myself admiring. There's a touch of slow down here and there, but that's emulation for you. We'll manage. So long as nobody talks.
Who are you?
Alright, mate, calm down. I recognise your family name. I, as a player, know what your deal is. Mostly. I bet that's going to come back to bite me in the arse. I wouldn't mind playing as someone who looks more like Julius than Soma if I'm honest. Yoko, too. Where were these guys in the intro sequence? Competent, good looking. Where am I going with this?
Julius leaps off and goes on his own for a bit, which riles up Yoko for some reason I didn't catch. We can't follow him - it's not like we've got superhuman abilities or anything - so we've got to find another route into the castle, and that's going to require a gimmick.
Further Frustrations
Now I never had a Nintendo DS, so I don't know how much of a problem it ever was to swap between stylus and buttons. If a game is focused on one or the other, it's literally no problem. If there's a blend, though, it ought to be designed well enough to not cause any issues.
I hope these magic seals aren't here just to justify the use of the touch screen. I hope they serve some sort of purpose for the game, but at the same time, I hope they're not everywhere. After cutting and slicing my way through enemies with both the face and shoulder buttons, I don't want to have to quickly switch to the stylus to jab a shape before a timer runs out or anything.
After proving I can draw two lines, the Magic Seal mechanic is taught. I passed with full marks. I guess I'll be escorting the young lady then.
Down into the darkness, we go, and a door sticks out like a sore thumb. A door, magically sealed. Ah. So I've just got to go up to it and draw open the lock. I see.
But no. By the time I switch from the controller to the mouse, Dawn of Sorrow just draws it for me. What's the point in that? At least the door is open, I guess. Yoko mentions something about a monster, but by the time I register what was said, I'm through and facing quite a large silhouette.
I sense this door was a mistake.
I get a couple of hits in, but the door the other side doesn't open. I'm stuck here until I can fell this beast. I seem to remember falling into the same trap in Aria of Sorrow, with a giant skeleton. I don't really want to repeat the events of that game here.
But I do, and I'm kicked back to the main menu because I didn't come across and use any save points. Awesome. And by that, I mean so long, Dawn of Sorrow.
Final Word
Once again, a Castlevania game interests me in parts, but not the right parts to keep me playing. Dawn of Sorrow looks excellent, in places. It plays well, just like the other Castlevania titles. It's not got the greatest of story hooks, though, and the characters aren't appealing to me, but I have no doubts that it's got something going for it. It expands on previous stories, it brings characters back for more - there must be something in Aria of Sorrow to mean all of this was a good idea.
I've never had great success with Castlevania games, mostly due to impatience and lack of determination to make progress in the way the games intend me to make progress. But the gameplay is relatively stable. You know what you're going to get, and it does it well. With the new graphical effects, it does it with a flair and a flourish, too.
I can imagine myself playing Castlevania, right up until the point where I remember that the plot is silly, the characters on the dull side, and the gameplay almost demands the skill and perseverance that I don't have.
And yet. The more I think about it, the more I want to give Dawn of Sorrow another go. I have no doubts that I won't get much further and will continue to abandon all hope and head to YouTube to see what I'm missing. But I want to see some more of it. As goofy as I find Soma Cruz, I do want to see him in action. I want to see how the supporting cast fit into the adventure. I want to see how bonkers the story will get.
I read these perhaps lost in translation lines and think "how can anyone see past this to continue?", but, like badly spoken Resident Evil dialogue, sometimes you've just got to find out. Dawn of Sorrow is nowhere near as stupid, it's just that I don't like the way anyone speaks. It's my problem, not the games. And I can overcome my problems.
Fun Facts
It's good to know that even the developers thought the use of a touch screen and stylus would get in the way of the gameplay. It's better to know that sillier ideas, like using the microphone, would be dropped as well.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, developed by Konami, first released in 2005.
Version played: Nintendo DS, 2005, via emulation.