JAVA | Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, A Successful Sequel or a Stumbling Mess? - SimplyAJ (REVIEW)

[@Synathidy]

"There's a lot of BUTTS with Dawn of Sorrow." Well, you heard it here, everybody. The auto-generated subtitles even say "butts," LOL Nice analysis.

[@SimplyAJ]

Hahaha, you know after I said that I was like "should... I change this? Nah" Glad ya liked it!

[@father042]

Sums up my thoughts pretty well, it's a great game, but not as tightly designed as Aria and way more grindy, getting some souls like the Peeping Eye is a nightmare

[@SimplyAJ]

Tightly designed is a great point. Like, in Aria, sure, you have to get three specific souls to get to the true final boss in that game too, but those souls are linked to Dracula. They're essentially his moveset, and the drop rate on the three enemies isn't bad. Meanwhile, in Dawn, you need... Ukoback... and a Clown.. for some reason? haha

[@CaptainQuackYT]

As an achievement hunter, I am already dreading the inevitable "Collect and max all souls" achievement for this game when/if a DS collection comes out. I personally never played any of the DS games, so I really enjoyed this review and your respect towards spoilers, as I fall in that exact category of people you described who are waiting for a collection.

[@SimplyAJ]

Aha thanks dude, glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, for the moooost part, I try to avoid any critical spoiler stuff in my reviews, unless it's absolutely necessary for me to talk about. But even then, I give fair warning so people can skip past it (such as in my Golden Sun review). But yeah, honestly I don't imagine the achievements in the DS Collection being TOO outlandish. I'm an achievement hunting too. I'm betting on the Dawn side it'll require each soul, but I doubt they'll have us max them out.

[@fae_gavan7582]

I think it'll definitely be much easier than on the DS hardware. The advance collection made collecting these things much easier with the rewind function.

[@saidbrizzo2187]

Lucky you and me today they released the DS collection

[@GuyManley]

Well did you get the achievement ?

[@yan-rayiller-may8443]

Have you been enjoying the Dominus collection?

[@yan-rayiller-may8443]

I'm always surprised that no one ever mentions the really cool lore and implications of the map. An old far off village run by a cult that worship Dracula's castle that they found underneath their village and an ancient tower that has probably influenced the village for centuries. The villagers created an underground lab to experiment on kidnapped hikers. They also created a demonic guest house that they trick travelers into. The tower and the underground slice of hell really makes me think of Lovecraftian horror. How how long has that been Tower there, who made it and why is there an ancient abomination locked up at the top. Did the tower somehow create an incarnation of Dracula's castle? It kinda also reminds me of Resident Evil 4. Old village, cult that whorships something awful they found underground, lab where they experiment on kidnapped travelers.

[@mr.nitrogen239]

21:36 you called it. The Dominus Collection.

[@SimplyAJ]

Haha, yeah, was super happy that we finally got one!

[@WillfulVisions]

@@SimplyAJ Now we just need a collection with rondo, SOTN, chronicles, and the adventure rebirth. Or just the first three and give us another collection with the adventure, revenge, legacy, and the adventure rebirth. And then another collection with legacy of darkness, curse of darkness, and lament of innocence. And then another one for the lords of shadow trilogy :D

[@fae_gavan7582]

Personally, I think Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin's artstyle fits them very well. Their storyline all feel very....anime-esque? I can't imagine the gothic artstyle with a storyline like this. Speaking of which, I find it quite funny that Alucard STILL has this gothic touch to his portrait despite being in the anime artstyle, even moreso than Arikado.

[@SimplyAJ]

I can agree with that. I think a big part of it is the whiplash you get with the artstyles from Aria to Dawn. Plus, some just don't look good me. Like, I'm really not a fan of Soma and Julius's portraits at all in Dawn. They just look way too cartoonish. Honestly, I think they found the perfect style once Order of Ecclesia came out. If Portait and Dawn could have used that art style, that'd have been awesome. (But I will say the anime art style in Portrait isn't nearly as bad as it is in Dawn)

[@AudreyII970]

@@SimplyAJ Honestly, I understand and even agree that Dawn has a total Saturday morning cartoon vibe, but I'm with you even more that it's a blander, less flavorful art direction, even with that in mind. I totally understand letting Kojima focus on her current project only due to budget/schedule reasons, but damn, at least hire someone who does something stylized with the whole "low-stakes shonen" thing lol

[@adibis.vanced]

The definitive edition, so to speak, is a must with the patches you mentioned.

[@SimplyAJ]

Personally, I just deal with the normal game on a DS, but I completely understand wanting to patch it to make the experience better haha.

[@wellofcire]

@@SimplyAJ yeah...trying drawing those with a mouse....not so haha

[@ubx9563]

This game was the start of my love affair with Castlevania

[@Carlos_3990]

Another good video. It's great how you explain just enough as to not overwhelm us with information. And also loved the "wink wink" at the end for people playing Dawn virtually, was pretty funny heheh.

[@SimplyAJ]

Thanks man! Yeah, I often have a LOT more I'd love to say, but I also don't want the videos to get TOO large either.

[@Carlos_3990]

@@SimplyAJ it's better this way, more often than not a long winded explanation just for one topic makes watching or hearing it boring. Keep up the good work!

[@foxelius7071]

I remember getting this AND Megaman Zero 4 on the same day. My DS was fully loaded.

[@SimplyAJ]

Absolute golden age in gaming. What a strong couple of years that was.

[@ishield20]

Always happy to see your videos Aj. Best when watching with a cup of coffe

[@SimplyAJ]

Thanks so much. Gonna go make myself a second cup, now~

[@nracicot]

I was thinking the same thing about including The Adventure Rebirth in a DS collection.

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

I honestly wish Dawn was a remake of Aria to take better advantage of those new effects and rebalance some souls in Aria without changing the hilarious one armed swings for speed killing. Those were fun. Also, Aria had far superior weapons in terms of fun and visual design, some of them severely downgraded in Dawn sadly. And no joke weapons either like the Positron Rifle, the Excalibur...'s stone, the Kaiser Knuckle and so on. What a shame. As for the weapon soul smithing, as an idea it's fantastic but it's badly implemented in Dawn for a variety of reasons, especially compared to if it was implemented in Aria with its superior map design instead or in another Castlevania game instead, it would have been perfect for Curse of Darkness compared the dumb material hunting. Also it came out in a very unconfortable period of Nintendo where EVERY single title had to have a name or a game title that somehow included the "DS" moniker. Dawn of Sorrow = DS, Dual Soul system = DS system etc. It really lead to some hilarious concepts during that era. As for the stats, NOPE! Everyone had a bad time with the game's RNG since the Luck stat and for that matter, almost every stat, every weapon and every soul was severely nerfed from Aria for some bizarre and ungodly reason. Soma is far weaker compared to Aria even with the Claiohm Solais. The anime artstyle is also very unfortunate since the game already had a strong neo-gothic style already and the blan anime style messed it up despite the amazing intro cutscene. Thankfully it was much better implemented in the next game with Portrait of Ruin and some of its secrets.

[@SimplyAJ]

Yeah, for sure. A lot of the final forms of weapons were neat, but the grind to get each and every final form was really arduous , so by the time you maxed out one weapon, the thought of doing it another just wasn't really that appealing. I didn't cover it in the video, but Dawn is also quite a bit slower than Aria, movement wise too. This is super noticeably for the bat form of Soma, and of course, Julius Mode as a whole. The characters just often feel like they are stuck in mud as opposed to the nice, quick speed in Aria.

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

@@SimplyAJ Yeah, some of the final forms having a bit of a lackluster effect(final katana can hit a tiny bit faster and with more reach than other katanas or something) and requiring boss souls really didn't balance it well to make it appealing. I thought Soma retained his speed, save for having extra animations when turning around and a noticeably slower dodge but Julius got stupidly nerfed to the point where it made dislike the mode due to how poorly they implemented the three, or rather the two of the three. Yoko is balanced greatly to having her special effects and the heightened magic power with the screen clearing spells but Julius and Alucard are botched in utility. Julius should be like in his Aria form, super fast, have his uppercut and given the increase in graphical fidelity leading him to get RIchter's super slide as well. at the cost of his subweapons requiring a lot of MP to make up for his absurd power. Meanwhile, Alucard should lose the high jump since he has Bat Company but he should be perfectly balanced between physical and magic along with having higher defence and resistance to most ailments(petrify etc) compared to the other two. They could even have Alucard get Soma's Glide Armour and access it by having Alucard hold L in the air instead. Having him get both High Jump and Bat company was excessive and useless. If they didn't want the character to sequence break, the mode should have started with Alucard, then having him find Yoko and Yoko talking to JUlius at that room with the darkness and then the player will be able to freely explore the castle. Simple design and effective. It's partly why it makes me think it was rushed sadly, due to the necessity of the touch implementations taking time...or maybe because the team was split with the PSP game collection at the same time, where they had to port one game, recalibrate and remaster a second and then remake the first as well.

[@TehZergRush]

I ripped off the band aid and picked up all 3 DS games earlier this year, no regrets! I'm going to make time in the future to play all the GBA and DS games, just got so much stuff on the back log atm! It's too bad about the artwork, but glad to see the gameplay is still on point!

[@SimplyAJ]

Oh nice! Yeah honestly even with a backlog, I feel like these games can be the perfect like "lay in bed and play a game" game. Or "watch a movie/tv show" and play at the same time. Then you can still play your backlog during your "real" gaming hours or whatever haha.

[@P4brotagonist]

I'm so conflicted on this game. Aria was an absolutely unreal game, and I was so excited for Dawn. There were a ton of cool, unique things in the game, and the art(minus the god awful portraits) were so good. There was just some really odd jank, like the stupid seals you have to draw(and I'm left handed so boy that sucked). It was great, but didn't quite have the "cult" sticking power in my mind of the first.

[@SimplyAJ]

Yeah, I think it's just one of those situations where, it's really hard to catch lightning twice. They did so well with Aria. And hell, it makes you wonder, if Dawn of Sorrow still used the same soul system, but wasn't so directly tied to Aria, if it'd have stood better on its own, since there would automatically be less comparisons. But honestly, who knows haha

[@SeptimusScholar]

@@P4brotagonist I liked Dawn of Sorrow, it was the reason I had a DS. But the story should have lead into another game... perhaps having Dracula actually appear and confront Soma

[@KuWota2k]

First CV game I played on an R4 card for my 3DS, so much fun. I dare say I like it a lot more than Symphony of the Night tbh haha. Great video series, been watching all your CV reviews so far and I'm subbed now, great stuff and format. PS: Your hair is awesome!

[@SimplyAJ]

Hahaha, happy to hear ya like my hair! But yeah, I'd agree that I probably like it more than SoTN too. Once I (finally) make my SoTN video, I'll be able to explain why in further detail haha.

[@KuWota2k]

@@SimplyAJ I guess it's a case of the DS games really just perfecting the formula SotN had while the GBA ones tried so hard to do so but lacked in some aspects while improving on others (culminating with peak being Aria of Sorrow). So from then on it was finally going upwards.

[@T3dAreS]

Great video! Would be so cool if you start doing some more now considering they were re-realesed in Dominus collections. cheers!

[@SimplyAJ]

Thanks so much! Actually just finished recording the SoTN episode last weekend. It'll be a while for me to finish editing (cause it's huge), but that should be the next CV video that comes out!

[@createprince2093]

love these videos man, you do such a great job also gotta say I love your hair

[@SimplyAJ]

Haha, thanks so much!

[@darknephilim3248]

Dawn was my first and probably my favourite of the series, although SOTN is very close. I never really had issues with the seals and while the drop rate was annoying it wasn't as bad as most games with mandatory grinding. Especially since it only happens once midway through the story.

[@SimplyAJ]

I think the GAMEPLAY is really solid. Like the Tactical Soul System was just a great gameplay mechanic over all, but man, when the luck was bad, it was REAL bad. That and the weapons were just super lackluster.

[@mnicy]

I love both Aria and Dawn. I 100% the souls and maps in both games. I distinctly remember the terrible grind for Final Guard in Dawn even with the soul eater ring

[@mnicy]

I remember on my Aria file I maxed out my levels and gold. What a fun game

[@SimplyAJ]

@@mnicy Aha yeah grinding out the Final Guard and the Iron Golem was super tedious.

[@kingdomcome3914]

​@@SimplyAJThe real hell were the Gargoyles in Aria. I went from Lv41 to Lv58 by the time I got the soul. Ugh.

[@len1802]

Aria of Sorrow for me have that vibe that's filled with some kind of attractive magic for it's music and stages, maybe because was the castle of Dracula, something that isn't in Dawn of Sorrow for lore reasons, but what kinda helps it is The Abyss, a place mentioned by Dracula in Castlevania Curse of Darkness and the place where he go after dying and from where he comes back to life, maybe the reason why Dmitri use that place to become "The Dark Lord"

[@Shrizzy7]

Great content! Keep it up!

[@SimplyAJ]

Eyy thanks so much!

[@REblll]

Sippin my own java while i get this java started

[@SimplyAJ]

Alright, time for everybody to list out their coffee orders, I'm runnin' to the store.

[@richardalcala4125]

Ty for making these I played through the gba collection and loved it so much I picked up the ds collection today and DOS looks beautiful 😍

[@SimplyAJ]

Glad you're enjoying them!

[@dljworks]

My guy was a Castlevania prophet!! All the way down to having Rebirth on the DS collection (not quite Rebirth but close enough with HC: Revisited!!!) Dude you gotta do more Castlevania videos. I know you probably want to do other games, but the people want your CV insight!!!

[@SimplyAJ]

Hahaha, and yet here I am still hoping for that true ReBirth re-release! I'll let ya in on a little secret: I have a script fully written for my JAVA on Symphony of the Night. The hard part is just trying to find the time to record it. Typically an 8-10 minute video ends up taking me like over an hour to record (due to just, ya know, mistakes, stutters, whatever). Order of Ecclesia is still my longest video to date, coming in at over 30 minutes and being a 13 page script. The recording process for that took a WHILE. Meanwhile... My Symphony of the Night Script is a whopping 23 pages long, so I can't even imagine how long it's going to take to record it haha. Needless to say, I AM really excited to get it made, hopefully soon! So, fingers crossed that I get the time to shoot and of course edit it haha.

[@kippicalequations9242]

Awesome video love your channel just found you, great stuff

[@SimplyAJ]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks so much!

[@SamWithoutAPlan]

Not a fan of that new artwork. 🥴

[@nightcrawler5]

I'm with you! Much prefer the prior art style to the new anime-inspired look.

[@satansjihad6353]

Nobody is, I guess. I dont even dislike it, I just...Tolerate it.

[@safruddinaly5822]

I love it

[@Janfey]

I love the new one alot, but then again i aint gay

[@birdbowah]

​@@Janfeyomfg 😭

[@Nerom99]

26:29 You so close! Funny that they kinda did that, but did a Rebirth-version of Haunted Castle. It wasn't until then that I realized that the collections and Rebirth were handled by the same devs.

[@linc_inc]

The monkees diss is UNCALLED FOR lmao

[@HybridAngelZero]

I just found your channel through JRose's recent community post! Really been enjoying the heck out of your videos! Dawn of Sorrow was the first Castlevania I really played from start to finish, and the game that really got me into the series. And I can understand why the artstyle is a bit jarring to someone who's a long time fan, but the anime aesthetic was exactly what younger me needed to be willing to give the series a try after being trepidatious for a while. I would say it's tied with Symphony of the Night as my favorite in the series. I actually didn't do a full playthrough of Aria until January of this year (despite playing Dawn in 2005~6) and while I loved Aria a whole lot, I would say I still prefer Dawn. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the castle map in Aria feels a bit... cramped(?) in comparison to the DS games and SotN. I would say my biggest issue is, like most, the seals. It isn't even that they're there, but that if you botch them you basically have to do the last phase of the boss again. I'm hoping when the Castlevania DS Collection shows up, they have an "Auto Sealing" option for Dawn xD

[@SimplyAJ]

Honestly, that comment about the art is a fantastic point that I didn't even take into consideration! I was so used to the "gothic style" they were using, that it did throw me off, but didn't even think that it was probably a great gateway for new fans because it was definitely a bit more... "friendly" looking. So yeah, that's definitely an excellent point!

[@Fostext]

I gave up on this game pretty early on. But after watching this video, I think I need to give it another try!

[@SimplyAJ]

Awesome to hear! Hope ya enjoy it!

[@PatrickGilland]

I love this game to bits, but I am so glad IGA's team for Bloodstained Ritual of the Night fixed all my issues with the soul system and weapon synthesis by making it so the shards (souls equivalent) are not spent when making upgrades.

[@SimplyAJ]

Yeah, I really liked Bloodstained, over all. It felt like IGA finally "perfected" what he had envisioned with the Tactical Soul System.

[@JEANS__]

this game is based and better than the first game imp. like the story, combat, abilities and map better. just needs the no touch screen patch but still better without it i reckon.

[@SimplyAJ]

I definitely think it took a lot of steps in the right direction, which would be built upon pretty successfully for the later games. The pixel art is a huuuuge step up. I do wish the weapon system was a bit better though.

[@RM2011ish]

Honestly, Dawn of Sorrow is a game that is REALLY close to my heart as a Castlevania fan. It was the very first game I had for DS, and I honestly loved every second of it. I wasn't put off by the anime art style (Rondo of Blood had that too.) and the Magic Seals. But while I think Aria had the better story, Dawn had the better Castle and atmosphere. It really drew closer to the Symphony aesthetic and I absolutely loved the design of everything. Plus, the soundtrack has some of my favorite tracks in the entire series. (Dracula's Tears and The Pinnacle are banger tunes.) I fell in love with this game and am stoked it got a second chance at life with the Dominus Collection. People can trash Dawn all they want, but it's personally one of my favorite Castlevania games.

[@SimplyAJ]

Haha, well just to clarify, I certainly wasn't trying to trash Dawn of Sorrow, cause I do really enjoy it. It was also one of my earlier DS games, and I spent a ridiculous amount of hours playing and replaying it. Most of my criticisms of the game come from revisiting and realizing some of its flaws. Back when this game came out, I had just graduated high school, and had a lot more free time. I wasn't as miffed over things like the luck glitch (or hell probably didn't even know it existed haha), but now a days, when revisiting it and getting stuck grinding out a single mandatory enemy to get the good ending and realizing I somehow wasted like 45 minutes with no drop can be mildly annoying haha. And yeah Rondo did have it's PC-88 Anime Art, which does look super campy, but it was also its own stand alone game at the time. We went from Aria having this really solid gothic art, to the most milquetoast "safe for all audiences" anime style, so the tonal whiplash was just a bit odd. The art in Portrait of Ruin doesn't really bother me as much as Dawn's. Maybe because Dawn was such a direct sequel, and I really do think they made Julius look awful haha. But yeah, as for the music, 100% agree, it's REALLY damn good.

[@RM2011ish]

@@SimplyAJ Not having Kojima return for the art wasn't exactly the greatest impression I'll admit.

[@fatenabu1]

Dawn of Sorrow with the definitive edition patch is great.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Oh, there's more than three mandatory souls, haha.. I remember having to grind out foreveeeeeeer on the Skeleton Ape just to get the longer throwing ability. A blemish or two here and there, on what's otherwise an excellent game in my eyes. I just love how it looks and feels. A nice improvement as well is it shows you on the separate screen how many items an enemy can drop, so you can immediately tell (if you're going for 100%) whether you need to actually grind out on an enemy or not.

[@BaselardFE]

I played Dawn this week through the DS collection, and I kid you not; I had to bring out pen and paper to remember the inputs for the seals. 😭 You pretty much hit the nail on the head, I think I had higher expectations BECAUSE it was a direct sequel and felt disappointed when they didn't innovate enough. Game still looks, plays and sounds amazing though :D

[@seamusburke639]

This is undeniably one of the best Castlevania games, but I have a lot of nitpicks... - Drawing the symbols in the heat of battle is really tedious and annoying. - Grinding the souls to get the best ending feels like a bad way to pad things out. - I didn't see much use in upgrading the weapons with Yoko when my standard weapons did fine. - The anime portraits don't hurt the gameplay but it's a definite downgrade from the previous games. - The story feels weaker. Every cutscene is one of the characters saying "Soma! Stay out of this!" and barely protesting when you come along anyway.

[@psychosparten049.esquire9]

The biggest sin this game had committed was having a second chance to have Death play a bigger role but messing that up again also.

[@FuriousMaximum]

Dawn of Sorrow, for me, has the best "extra" mode. Most are just "run to the end" by starting with all the mobility abilities. This one has some story, and the 3 characters works well.

[@SimplyAJ]

Yeah, this one actually had some sense of progression as well. It felt like there was an actual point of exploring the castle again.

[@s01itarygaming]

Of all the things you can complain about Dawn of Sorrow, a great but flawed game, the seals are the worst thing. If it ever gets remastered/rereleased they better remove them.

[@bishop6881]

Badish new! They made them easier lol

[@s01itarygaming]

@@bishop6881 i wish they would just let us disable them..

[@bishop6881]

@@s01itarygaming same, thankfully if you mess up the QTE you can just rewind until you get it right

[@tomgiddens2963]

I never had the chance to play this game during it's original release but, after seeing your video, I think I'll hunt it down and give it a playthrough.

[@SimplyAJ]

Hope you enjoy it! Luckily this isn't one of the games that's all that hard to find.

[@CommanderXephy]

THE ANIME STYLE THANK YOUUUUU As a long-time fan I was ALWAYS welcome to change, but the art style change was just so *jarring* to me. My friend Wolven and I talked about it and just... didn't like it. It's not ugly so much as it just doesn't fit. The game was fun. It wasn't memorable to me, though. Great video!

[@SimplyAJ]

Yeah, the art style change from Aria -> Dawn is enough to give you whiplash haha. Glad you liked the video!

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

My favorite Castlevania game. I think this is the first Castlevania game I played. 0:35 That thing is nightmare fuel. I was okay with the anime aesthetic. It made the characters more expressive even though Ecclesia made the characters more expressive as well. There is a mod that can change the art style in this game and they even made the new characters in this art style. I prefer to play the game without this mod so I can see their expressions change. 2:02 The Monkees XD. 2:04 ﾟДﾟ! 7:19 I saw what you did there. 10:33 I didn't know you could do that. I used a mod to make the seals easier to use (only drawing one line). There is a mod that removes stylus controls entirely but I want to scribble something in the file select screen. 13:19 I think I did that. There is a mod that fixes the luck stat. I use both that and the easy seal mod. I think Dario and Dmitri didn't have their powers until after the solar eclipse so maybe they were unaware of who they are. I could be wrong about that but I think I heard that from somewhere. I think Dracula's castle was rebuilt by a cult and it was designed to resemble his castle. The castle itself seems to draw power from a location called The Abyss, which appears to be somehow connected to Chaos, the source of Dracula's powers, as the Dark Lord candidates need to travel there to finalize their transformation into the Dark Lord. If you have an R4 card you don't need to track down DS games and you can also mod the game to improve it. I don't think I added Portrait of Ruin on my R4 card yet. I should fix that. I did have to move the date back on my 3DS because for some dumb reason my card stops working after a certain date. I think it's called a time bomb. I think they did this so you have to buy more cards but there are ways around that. 26:47 So you do know about it.

[@SeptimusScholar]

I wish they would make a 3rd Sorrow game

[@yan-rayiller-may8443]

The 3rd sorrow was in our hearts all along.

[@TetrahedronDash]

Personally I enjoyed Dawn of Sorrow after recently playing it for the first time (a store in Montreal had DoS and even PoR which I both bought, complete in case, manual, game, etc) and while it did take a long while to get all souls in NG+ (on Hard), I eventually got them all and the Chaos Ring was so worth it for near infinite MP and being able to infinitely have a guardian soul out and use bullet souls with super fast MP recovery. Valmanway + Abaddon's Soul + Death's Soul rips and tears like Doomguy himself lmao I guess I was less harsh because I came from the fangame Ponyvania: Order of Equestria (I love luck in that game and gamble grinding for 4-5 Star equipment/weapon drops via enemies) and wanted to genuinely try more after beating SotN for the first time about like a year ago or etc.

[@28_Spokes]

I never owned a GBA so I’m only familiar with Castlevania DS. I did enjoy it but had many the same gripes as you did (left handed as well) I actually put hundreds of hours into Castlevania Harmony of Despair on 360, that’s how I learned so much about the characters from the DS trilogy. Excellent video, AJ, now I must go get a hot cup of Java.

[@SimplyAJ]

Glad ya enjoyed it! Yeah, I highly recommend grabbing the Advance Trilogy if you're interested in checking out the GBA games. They're definitely worth looking into.

[@Game_Glyph]

Dude I love your videos…

[@SimplyAJ]

Thanks so much, glad you're enjoyin'em!

[@theganjician9272]

I would love a collection of DoS, PoR, OoE and SoTN. It would be cool to put all 4 castles together and such into one giant map or multiple areas outside the castle fully connected and make sense leading to the castle with all enemies and bosses from each game in it. Too much to ask for I know but, some people can wish lol. Oh and I have always wished that DoS and PoR actually had blood effects when you attack an enemy instead of the orangish pixels that come out of them.

[@HaLoFreQ2000]

Ive been playing this on my switch in the new dominus collection and being able to draw the sigils on the touchscreen while in handheld mode makes it much more tolerable for me at least.

[@alvarorubio1993]

This happened to me, I forsake collecting souls until the end when I got the soul eating ring but at that point I spent Gergot's soul to forge Claim Solais.

[@pop000690]

So I played this one via the Dominus Collection (fun fact your video here made a lot of good predictions on that one haha) and I feel kinda the same way about Dawn to an extent. Imo the first half of the game is pretty good (almost great even) but then the second half of the game started to feel more like a chore to play and the bosses (imo) just felt like they became damage sponges and just take too long imo. It's not all bad of course. The music is great as always, the sprite work is top tier, and the core gameplay loop is still enjoyable. And yeah, those Magic Seals can get in the trash. I'm sure it was worse on the DS but even in the Dominus Collection they're just unnecessary. And while I actually enjoy most of the CV games stories (they ain't Shakespeare but they're fun enough to get through ) yeah Dawn's story is not that great imo.

[@REblll]

Great vid man, a lot of buts in the vid but not the good kind ;) For me portrait was the best of the ds trilogy and if I had to choose Aria is 1000% superior to dawn but dawn has its charm here and there

[@SimplyAJ]

For sure. I definitely was trying my best to convey that, while it has its "issues" that it's still a GREAT game haha. It's a little challenging to critique a game but also show people you enjoy it too. Just gonna say this here: I absolutely can't wait to cover Portrait. I've been looking forward to revisiting that for a WHILE.

[@sahelebrahimal-wasti4829]

Portait of ruin is my first ever castlevania game I played and I enjoy the series afterward.❤❤

[@peacockfilletsteak]

I pretty much agree with all your assessments here. Aria is much better base game than Dawn, but man... that Julius Mode in Dawn is a BANGER.

[@NickSchoenfeld]

This was just re-released (The DS Trilogy). I wonder how the new version tackles the stylus seal parts.

[@d4sbot]

You can use just a button sequence instead of drawing, kinda lika a qte. It's much better tho its still not the best because you still have to remember the sequence.

[@Ninjamohawk]

This game made me buy a DS (yes, buy. I'm old) and Julius mode is the best thing about this game imo.

[@SimplyAJ]

Haha, I mean, I had to buy my DS as well! But yeah, Julius mode is fantastic.

[@xboxclown8922]

I'm very surprise this turned out to be even better than Aria of Sorrow. Sure some tricks aren't as effective. But it quickly makes up for those in other amazing ways.

[@carubnut]

Luck was already broken in Aria of Sorrow, how come the developers didn't patch this?

[@jacobmartin7434]

I liked both game, but only remember aria of sorrow. I totally foroñgot about the seals

[@9594Jacob]

We did get a Nintendo DS Trilogy as collection port. So you got your wish.

[@rfk223]

I like that Castlevania novelty T shirt you'e rockin!! Fresh

[@SimplyAJ]

Haha, thanks! Definitely want to get some other ones at some point in time.

[@Agumon5]

It truly is one of the best games ever made. And it would have made my top five list if not for the stupid luck bug that essentially makes one of the stats completely useless, and makes several items in the game worthless.

[@DrsJacksonn]

The problems you mention about the soul drop rate are most definitely legitimate. But I always thought this was an amazing game despite it. I wish they could make another game just like this, but just having fixed the soul drop rate.

[@pobbityboppity1110]

Which soul do I equip to get this guy’s hair

[@q-zhiphop5346]

God i hope for a DS collection sometime soon.

[@SimplyAJ]

Saaaame here!

[@JaegerX87]

Dawn of Sorrow Definitive edition+ is the way to go to play this game. It absolutely removed all the things you hate from the game including the cartoonish portrait, luck issue, and the infamous touchscreen. Thank me later.

[@SimplyAJ]

I'll definitely look into it! I mean, I can deal with portraits, they aren't really breaking the game for me, but yeah some of the other issues are just a bit of a shame haha.

[@FromBeyondTheGrave1]

>_> it’s not identical to Dracula’s castle, and if you’re cult that worships Dracula with magic abilities why wouldn’t you build a Castle Town reminiscent of your lord

[@NerevarineKing]

Aria Soma design is the only Soma for me.

[@SimplyAJ]

Agreed.

[@jackskelington19]

Never found the seals to be an issue. I can see why people dont like it but the bosses arent difficult and the seals are simple just tracing. Since it shows you the seal before

[@williamzeo2493]

I never found souls collecting a chore, since I knew that we would had a new game+ I finished the game normally and them grinded everything with the soul ring on the new game+

[@CAVEDATA]

“Acquired” as if its some valuable commodity rather than a toy your mom bought me.

[@TawazonBalance]

You are awesome 👌 👏

[@KiddDaPhoenix]

24:45 Grant isn't forgotten in the Netflix show, he's just genderbent into Greta.

[@yuumijungle548]

id say this game is better than order of ecclesia, however i would say that aria is still better, the gameplay itself is perfect, however there is just way too much grinding in the game this time arround, first off you need to get 3 random souls to get to paranoia and even have the chance to beat the game and if you want to upgrade your weapons you need even more souls and if you want to use some of the best souls for yourself you need even MORE souls, like 90% of the game is literally grinding souls, and the other 10% is playing the actual game, i think there should be a game mode where the drop rates for souls are improved by like 400% or something, its so annyoing. lets say before the first boss you want to have a better red soul than skeleton, that means getting the axe armor soul. now you are at the shop you can buy yourself an axe and then upgrade it with your axe soul for an early battle axe from yoko, great! but now you are missing your axe soul again, so now you have to grind another one, since you need that to beat the game, since without paranoia you cant get the true ending. now before the 2nd boss you can upgrade your axe again by grinding the manticore soul, that makes 3 this far. you then need ukobak and killer clown, thats 5, also the treant soul is one of the best souls in the game, you probably want that, so thats 6, also devil is the actual best soul in the game, you have to get this, thats 7. you probably also want to upgrade your greatsword to later get a claim which is the best weapon in the game and the strongest weapon to use against the final boss. for this you need the valkyrie soul, thats 8, then you need lilith, thats 9, then you need to get the one from the green guy, i cant spell his name, thats 10, but you also want a 2nd one since this is one of the best yellow souls in the game since it makes it so you dont flinch at all, thats 11. you also need gergoth, however you always get this one so its 12 but not really, lets keep it at 11. after this you also need final guard and alastor, oh joy, thats 13, but hold up, these 2 are actually so insanely hard to get that you probably should consider getting the 300k gold for the soul ring, which means getting the gold ring first which doesnt take that long to be fair, getting 300k with the gold ring takes about 20 minutes, but this might actually still be faster than grinding final guard and alastor without it, depends on how lucky you get, might not be needed if your lucky. so all in all 13 different rare drop souls, plus 300k gold farming, its a brutal grind fest if you wanna have the easiest time possible. in aria you just pick up claim off the ground and your good, thats literally all you need to beat the game, you dont need any red blue or yellow souls, besides the 3 you need to unlock the true ending and curly i guess, but thats pretty quick to get.its just more fun to replay aria, the pacing is just better if you dont have to stop for long grinding sessions constantly. actually i forgot, you probably also should get the great axe armor soul, since if you upgrade your axe you will have a way faster final guard grind, so the final score is actually 14 souls that you probably wanna get, not 13. or you are just a god gamer and try to beat the final boss with the durandal that you can just pick up near the end of the game, good luck with that, the final boss is very rough in this game, and this is the absolute best weapon you can pick up and use without rare drops and it has like 60 attack? pretty pathetic. basically: a casual player absolutely has to grind for souls to beat the game, which i think reduces the fun one will have playing the game drastically.

[@Waffletigercat]

I don’t hate the magic seals, but the game would be better without them. However, I absolutely LOATHE the ice blocks. Those things are horrible pace-breakers.

[@bmfitz2647]

Well this video aged perfectly lol 😅

[@daftcruz]

I hated the soul grinding and did not like the level design. It's a good game but needed more polish to be as great as Aria.

[@JusteDeTeve-mm4bg]

Julius has been binging on crack cocaine since aria of sorrow

[@FatWrekkd]

This guy talking bout hair 😂

[@mothius238]

Castlevania Downgrade of Sorrow. I like Dawn but Aria is the better game, and also, Portrait is better.

[@GuyManley]

Ok, I don't like the change in character art either. But no one who wears 2 hair styles at the same time has a right to talk Shit about my boy Soma.

[@SimplyAJ]

Ah, the classic "I agree with you, but I'm gonna show my whole ass and insult your physical appearance anyway." Grow up, dude. That's like, peak loser behavior.

[@tsuzyx9672]

As someone who beat every Igavania but Circle of the Moon, Aria of Sorrow was the best of them, Order of Ecclesia is my favorite, Symphony of the Night is the most revolutionary, Harmony of Dissonance had the Best Belmont (Juste does not get enough love), the best music came from both SotN and DoS. The most enjoyable to play was actually Dawn of Sorrow. I'm playing through it as I type this.

[@SimplyAJ]

Aha, Portrait doesn't make your list eh? Interesting! I wish I could categorically rate them, but I feel like my placements would move constantly. Sometimes I think Aria is the best, other times, I think it's Portrait, etc. Just depends on the week haha

[@Waffletigercat]

I prefer Order of Ecclesia.

[@leargamma4912]

Come on. The art isn't THAT bad.

[@5mac866]

16:44 but that's not punishing game design? You made the decision of whether or not you want to keep the souls to get the ring later in that run or spend them to upgrade your weapon now, you made the decision so you can't blame the game for your choice

[@SimplyAJ]

Except, you absolutely can blame the game design, because players aren't given that knowledge ahead of time. If you went into the game with the knowledge that you can EITHER spend the souls and get the weapons you want OR you could get the ring, then sure, that choice is up to the player to make, but nowhere is that information told to the player. Hell, if anything, a simple solution to this would have been to make it so you simply needed to acquire the souls at some point. A checklist of souls, that once you had them, would count towards getting the ring, and if you spent them, it's not punishing you for doing so.

[@blza_box]

What the unconventional hair style!) How you've made it?

[@Tt-yr9ri]

I strongly dislike the character art i Dawn. Really strange they didn't bring back Kojima for this one... And the luck system was just not as well balanced as in Aria of Sorrow which is a great game. For me, Dawn just felt like an inferior version of Aria of Sorrow. To me Dawn is the least good out of the three Nintendo DS Castlevanias.

[@chuganoga1908]

I never understood why they changed the art style. The anime crap looks so bad I hate it aria and symphony looked freaking amazing and inspired

[@charleybarley7148]

Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia are my two favorite games on the DS. Portrait is FANTASTIC but not as good, IMO.

[@SimplyAJ]

Oh man, I really love Portrait. Just felt good to have a character that could WHIP again, too.

[@EDS3Gaming]

being a child calling castlevania metroidvania. shame. and dislike.