Playing A Game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2024) PC

Way back in 2006, when I played Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow then the preceding Aria of Sorrow, Aria felt familiar but simple and "kind of short." This year, playing Aria's modern re-release then Dawn's, the sequel feels familiar but ... complicated and slightly long. Huh.

Weapon Synthesis is a cool addition to the 'vania power grind, giving you a clear series of goals for incremental weapon upgrades, but the fact that upgrades consume souls - sometimes even one-of-a-kind boss souls - makes some of them not worth the cost.

And broadly speaking, your inventory and the map and the bestiary (and even the story) are all "bigger" but not necessarily better; scrolling through shop menus still sucks, fast-travel points are still of mixed convenience, and a lot of enemy souls (even rare ones) seem like low-value filler.

But, even with rough edges, Dawn of Sorrow remains a satisfying and substantial example of the IGA-vania formula: exploring and slaying and collecting and upgrading your way to becoming an over-powered superhero.

This re-release is absolutely the best way to experience it, too, because - aside from awkward touch-screen "seal" sequences - the Castlevania Dominus Collection has brilliantly re-evaluated how to organize this game's visual information. Instead of simply replicating the NDS's top and bottom screens, where originally one screen swapped between "map" and "status" modes, this collection's default UI cleverly displays both support screens right next to the main action.

Short of something like a full-on remake in a modern game engine (which does kinda exist, in Bloodstained), Dominus Collection has done a really impressive job of upgrading the DS Castlevania games while still preserving their original content.

I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Better than: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2021), I mean, even if not much better; Dawn is still a successful sequel.
Not as good as: a "real" new Metroidvania, I guess? maybe Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night?
While I'm still waiting for Ritual of the Night 2: at least I've got plenty more Dominus Collection to go.

Progress: Killed Menace, 100% map, 100% souls. (But gave up on Julius Mode, I'd rather collect more souls!)

Rating: Good