Konami Inc. demonstrated their latest incarnation in the Castlevania series for the Nintendo DS handheld at the E3 Expo in playable form. Titled Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, the game takes place a year after Aria of Sorrow on the Game Boy Advance and stars familiar characters such as protagonist Soma Cruz, and his friends Yoko Belnades and Genya Arikado.
An opening cinematic shows Soma talking with his girlfriend Mina in the streets of the city, when all of a sudden a mysterious priestess appears named Celia. The menacing lady makes her intentions clear in that she wishes to eliminate Soma and whoever happens to be around him because of the fact that Soma is the reincarnation of the Dark Lord Count Dracula, yet did not become evil as witnessed in the previous game. To this end, Celia summons monsters to destroy Soma, but Genya arrives and gives Soma aid once again which results in Soma’s powers being reawakened.
As the cinematic ends, Soma makes it clear that despite warnings from his friends, he intends to pursue Celia and her cult to wherever they are located and stop them before they harm anyone dear to him. The game opens in a snowy landscape outside of the cult’s lair. Soma runs into another old friend, Hammer the arms dealer who offers to help him in the future. Upon entering a village outside the castle, Soma runs into his other comrades Yoko and Julius Belmont. Julius once again reaffirms his commitment to destroy Soma should he succumb to the dark side. This is pretty much all of the game’s story that is covered in the playable demo.
Dawn of Sorrow is definitely an upgrade of what was already a great Castlevania game in Aria of Sorrow. The game makes use of the Nintendo DS’s power to generate 3D backgrounds like those seen in Symphony of the Night. Also, the animation has been tweaked so that Soma, the enemies and the environments are smoother and more detailed than they were in the past Game Boy titles.
The game makes use of the DS’s special features such as the dual screens and the touch screen by having the top screen that can be alternated between a map and a status screen by pressing the select button. And the lower screen being where the core gameplay takes place, as well as where you draw the sacred seal’s in order to finish off a boss monster. Sacred Seals must be found in order to enter the boss room, and there are many different variations of how the stylus can be manipulated. The farther you progress in the game, the more complex the stylus moves become.
The core control scheme is pretty much identical to the GBA titles with only a few additions, veteran Castlevania gamers should have absolutely no problem picking up and playing immediately. Difficulty is hard to gauge, but the game did seem somewhat harder then it’s GBA predecessor as the second boss battle was difficult enough to end my game. Regular enemies did seem to be a bit more difficult as well, although that could have been due to going into a more difficult area before I was prepared.
There was no way to gauge the sound or music due to no headphones being provided and the ambient noise of the expo drowning out any sound whatsoever. There is no doubt however that anyone who has enjoyed the Castlevania franchise in 2D would be foolish not to watch out for this game as it looks to be yet another solid title from Konami.
