Castlevania Dominus Collection Review

Three years ago, Konami released Castlevania Advanced Collection; a compilation of all the Castlevania titles released on the Game Boy Advance, and Dracula X for some reason. it was a decent collection, though the games did vary in quality. With one being great, and the other two being decent but having major issues holding them back.

I did a review of the collection if you want a more in depth run down on each game. After the Advanced Collection there was one thing on my mind, when we getting a DS collection. The series didn’t stop on the GBA, and the DS titles are considered some of the best in the series.

It wasn’t a stretch to assume that a DS collection would be on the way. Konami is all in on re-releases and remakes, and with Advanced Collection doing well it seemed inevitable we’d see a DS collection too. It may have taken a little while, but we finally got it in the form of Castlevania Dominus Collection.

Suffice to say I got it as soon as it was shadow dropped. But since I like looking at Castlevania games in Halloween, aside from last year when I looked at the Arkham games, I held off on uploading this review until the spooky month.

I mean this is Castlevania; the series is rich with gothic horror and macabre monsters. It’s only fitting to look at it during the month of fear, terror and candy. Which begs the question why they didn’t release it Halloween but whatever.

Before we get into the games themselves though, I want to quickly go over what you get in the collection itself and how everything is presented. In terms of what the collection offers, you’ve got the three main games, some extra games though it’s more like one extra game twice, it’ll make more sense later, a museum featuring a ton of concept art and a music player.

The museum is decent enough, but nothing amazing. It doesn’t go quite as far as other collections like Atari 50 or the Cowabunga Collection. It’s simply an art gallery featuring concept art from the three main titles. Basic but it still contains plenty of great artwork to ogle at.

The menus are easy to navigate, and everything is organised well. Though for some reason the games are presented in reverse order, and I don’t know why. Granted it is the canonical order in terms of the story, but it’s the opposite order of when they were released.

I always go through these in release order to see what was changed and improved over time. I think a lot of people do, so it’s weird seeing them listed in reverse. This is the first time I’ve seen this. The Cowabunga Collection at least had them ordered by platform, what’s this game’s excuse. A minor nitpick I know, but it still bugged me.

In terms of display options, there aren’t any different filters like scanlines or CRT options. Which is fine since the DS didn’t really have either. Those filters make more sense in older games since those games were designed around such display options to better hide the pixelation.

The DS didn’t have this issue. By this point pixel art had been greatly improved to avoid looking too pixelated. Having CRT and scanline options for this collection doesn’t make much sense. Would be nice to have but I can see why they didn’t bother.

Instead, the display options are focused on the second screen. This is what I was most curious about going in; how were they going to handle the DS’ unique dual screen function on a single screen.

You have a few options to pick from. Some emulate the format found on the DS, some have the two screens side by side and others have three screens that show both status and map screens at the same time other than toggling through both.

They all work well enough, but none are quite perfect. No matter what option I picked it always felt cramped. The main gameplay screen is big enough to be playable, but the map and status screen are so small it can be easy to miss tiny details.

It made navigating with the map a lot more difficult since I would miss doors and pathways due to how small they were. Thankfully the maps never got as convoluted as Harmony of Dissonance otherwise I would have gotten completely lost.

I wish there was some kind of option to swap the sizes of the screens to be able to make them out more clearly, but alas that isn’t here. The set-up still works fine, and the different options at least give you some room to find the comfort zone, but I was never fully comfortable with any of them. As is probably expected given how hard it is to translate a two-screen game to a single screen.

The important thing is that the games do play well. The emulation is spot on with no noticeable lag, though considering M2 is behind this that isn’t surprising. These guys can seriously do no wrong when it comes to classic re-releases.

There’s also some quality-of-life additions that you would expect from a modern collection. You have save-states which is handy, but considering how easy it is to save in these games it’s a little unnecessary, and a rewind function that lets you go back if you mess up. Making these a lot more accessible to newcomers.

As for what games are included, you get all three Castlevania DS titles. Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclessia are the main attractions, but in keeping with Advanced Collection there’s also a fourth bonus game.

Unfortunately, that bonus game is Haunted Castle, Konami’s attempt to bring the Castlevania series to arcades. I’m not going to sugarcoat it; the game is fucking awful. This is one of the cheapest, most aggressively unfun games I’ve ever played.

I get this was an arcade game; they were designed to be difficult to take your money, but the best arcade games always felt fair. Haunted Castle isn’t fair. There are so many cheap hits and leaps of faith that you’ll likely lose a life within a couple seconds. It’s almost impressive in how unfair it gets.

To add insult to injury, the game only gives you one life per credit and sends you back when you die. At least this game has the Japanese version which lets you continue; the western release didn’t even give you that. That’s right, in the western version you had to beat the whole thing in one go.

Even by arcade standards this is too much. Sure, those could be bullshit hard but at least you could continue. At least they gave you a chance and didn’t cheap shot you every five seconds. They played fair, or as fair as could be when they were after your money.

Combine that with clunky controls, even by Classicvania standards, ugly visuals and an aggressively slow pace, and you have a recipe for one of the worst arcade games ever made. I’d say worst Castlevania game too, but I struggle to decide whether this or Adventure is worse.

Haunted Castle is bad. Every Castlevania fan knows this, so why is it here? It isn’t a DS game and isn’t connected to any of them in any significant way; why include it here?

Because the Dominus Collection doesn’t just include the original Haunted Castle, but also a full-on remake called Haunted Castle Revisited. And this remake actually kind of slaps.

No joke, this version of the game is damned good. The visuals are much nicer; it keeps the same overall art style, but the animation is greatly improved and there’s a lot more detail to everything.

It controls much better, and it manages to provide a decent challenge while also being fair. The remixed music is also great as well, but the music was great in the original too so that isn’t saying much. It was probably the only thing the original got right.

This is the kind of remake I love to see. It’s one thing taking a good game and making it slightly better, but taking an awful game and making it good is far more noble a task. This isn’t even the first time they did this, they remade Castlevania the Adventure on WiiWare with similar results.

I would have loved to have seen Castlevania Rebirth on here actually. Since it would have fit with the Haunted Castle remake, and it would be nice to see it rereleased since it’s now lost media thanks to the Wii Shop closing. Maybe one day you’ll return Rebirth, one day.

Haunted Castle Revisited is a great little bonus, but it is still a bonus. It’s a very short affair and can be beaten in under an hour. It also lacks a lot of the replayability of the best classic Castlevania titles.

To be honest, for as much improved as the remake is, it unfortunately highlights a major issue with Haunted Castle conceptually. That being, Castlevania doesn’t work as an arcade game.

The Castlevania games were designed as home console experiences first and foremost. They aren’t made for quick bursts of action like most arcade games are; they’re slower methodical games all about the adventure.

I’m not saying Castlevania can’t have fast paced action, it can, but the series at its best is all about taking your time, exploring, and soaking up the atmosphere. That kind of experience doesn’t translate well to the arcade floor.

That said, while the series doesn’t quite fit arcade sensibilities, this remake does show that if done well it can make for a fun time. it’s certainly worth trying at least once, and while it won’t top the series best it’s also far from its worst. Which is ironic considering what it’s based on.

But that’s enough about the extra content. Why don’t we delve into the real meat of this collection and talk about the actual games. And unlike how the collection presents things, I’ll be going over these in the release order since that just makes more sense to me.

Dawn of Sorrow

The very first Castlevania released for the DS, Dawn of Sorrow also serves as a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow. Makes sense, you’re moving on to a new console and one of the best ways to ease yourself in is to make a sequel to the last game you made on the previous console.

Which is good for me too because I loved Aria of Sorrow. It was easily the best game on the Advanced Collection if not the best game in the series. So having more of that should be right up my alley, and on the surface it is.

Everything that made Aria so great is here in Dawn. That same system of gaining new moves from enemies, the great exploration that rewards creative use of said abilities, the tight action gameplay that never lets up, and the superb musical score is all accounted for. Although that last one is par for the course in Castlevania.

This is simply more of Aria, which is both its best strength and greatest weakness. See, while Dawn of Sorrow offers the same tight Search Action gameplay of its predecessor, it does little to improve upon or add to it in any significant way.

It has a lot of what made Aria good but also a lot of its flaws. Flaws that have in some cases actually gotten worse. The issue Aria had with not having invincibility frames has been exacerbated in the sequel by having more instances of being juggled by enemies, which while mostly an annoyance can sometimes lead to unavoidable death.

There were numerous times where I got stuck in a loop that caused me to die. It’s a good thing this collection has a rewind function otherwise I’d be way more pissed off. But perhaps the more egregious problem is the drop rate from enemies.

Like in Aria, Dawn has you pick up souls from defeated enemies that give you access to new abilities or status buffs. But much like in Aria the drop rate for these souls varies by enemy, with some being so rare your outright forced to grind them just to have the slim chance of getting them.

The thing is, in Aria it was possible to improve the odds by increasing your luck stat. The higher it went the better the odds of getting a drop. It didn’t do much, but it helped a little bit. In Dawn this is not the case due to a bug that prevents the luck stat from doing anything unless you add dozens of points into it.

This means that the grind is so much worse and means the odds of getting random drops through basic exploration are much less likely to happen. Giving you a lot less to experiment with.

One of my favourite moments in Aria was finding a way past the waterfall with an ability I picked up just from playing the game and finding a secret optional area. There’s something like that in Dawn, and a few more secrets involving cryptid monsters that require certain abilities to find, but the low drop rate means you won’t be able to get them without grinding.

This also influences one of the new features Dawn introduces. That being the ability to use excess souls to get even stronger weapons. A neat feature to have, but not only is getting the souls a hassle, it’s made redundant by having most of the weapons be obtainable via other methods like exploration or just outright buying them.

That’s another issue. What few new features Dawn does introduce feel superfluous. Take the touch screen elements for example. Because Dawn of Sorrow is an early DS game, as evidenced by the subtly hidden DS in its name, it tries to use the touch screen as much as it can.

This was a common trend for a lot of DS games in its early years. Understandable giving the touch screen was still a new technology at the time; only really seen in museums and educational attractions.

Some did it well and incorporated the touch screen very naturally into the core gameplay, others were gimmicky and outright obtrusive. Guess which category Dawn of Sorrow falls into.

Yeah, the touch screen elements are not incorporated very well. To its credit though they aren’t too obtrusive; at worst they’re minor annoyances you deal with occasionally. But even at best they come across as unnecessary.

The main thing you’ll be using the touch screen for, assuming you’re playing this in handheld mode, is drawing magic symbols to seal away bosses. Which is required to beat them, if you screw them up you need to fight them all over again. Oh yeah, that’s not frustrating at all.

This is the only time the touch screen elements do feel obtrusive, but thankfully they aren’t too bad to work with. If you play on a controller you use button prompts, so they feel more like quick time events now. Which may or may not be worse depending on who you ask.

The touch screen elements just feel tacked on. However, I will give Dawn of sorrow credit in how it uses the dual screens. Having the map or enemy data on the second screen is a major convenience, and Dominus Collections display options let you have both types on screen at once. It’s a little crowded, but still nice to have a map available without pausing the game.

I’ve been a bit negative so far, but let me be clear, Dawn of Sorrow is not a bad game. It’s still a great Search Action game. The Tactical Soul System still offers a ton to play around with, the level design is great with lots of secrets to find, and the moment to moment gameplay is still as satisfying as it’s ever been. On its own merits it’s great.

But as a sequel it does very little to move the series forward in any significant way. Aside from having two builds you can swap between on the fly, that’s a great new addition that opens up the gameplay a ton.

But does it need to? I’m usually not one to decry sequels for being like their predecessor. It’s a little silly complaining a game in an established franchise is like other games in that franchise. It’s like ordering the same thing at a restaurant over and over and complaining you keep getting the same meal.

Though I think the real issue stems from whether the sequel refines the formula or not. A sequel shouldn’t reinvent the wheel, it just needs to take what its predecessor did and refine the mechanics. This is where Dawn of Souls fails in my opinion. Because while it is a lot like Aria, it also isn’t as good.

For one thing I think the story isn’t as interesting. What made Aria’s story work was the sense of mystery it had. You didn’t know who Soma was or why he was drawn in to Dracula’s Castle, and slowly uncovering that and meeting the new cast of character made the story engaging.

But in Dawn we already know all the answers, so there’s no intrigue to keep you going. In its place is a plot involving stopping an evil cult from resurrecting the dark lord, which is just the plot of Symphony of the Night again.

It’s very standard and not very engaging. The villains are boring, the side characters barely get anything to do, and without the mystery of who he is Soma winds up being a pretty bland protagonist.

Which leads me to a realisation I had with this game, Soma Cruz was a mistake. Taking the main villain of the series that the entire series lore and narrative depend on out of the picture and turning them into a white haired shonen protagonist was the dumbest move they could have made.

Granted it worked in Aria, but it worked because Aria felt like something of a conclusion to the series storyline. By having Soma stay Soma, and not having Dracula return, they gave themselves nowhere to go. Because without a Dracula you have no plot.

Dawn of Sorrow tried to keep it going by introducing the concept of there always needing to be a dark lord to act opposite of God, but the lack of compelling new villains just makes the concept fall flat. There’s a reason they didn’t go back to Soma’s story after this, they couldn’t because it was complete narrative dead end.

I also have an issue with the game’s presentation. Not the graphics or music, those are both awesome. I mean the music is self-explanatory by just saying the series name. Castlevania always has phenomenal music and there isn’t much I can really say about it that others haven’t. I can talk about the visuals though.

The developers really took advantage of the new hardware; the sprites are larger and still animate beautifully, the backdrops look great and thanks to the DS having a backlit screen they can lean into the gothic atmosphere more.

No longer do they need to make things overly bright for playability’s sake. They can now have a darker aesthetic while still also retaining the colour of its predecessor. They even take advantage of the DS’ 3D capabilities. Not a ton mind you, but when it is used it’s used effectively.

I don’t have an issue with the game’s graphics. I will say that there are some obviously reused sprites that sometimes clash with the new ones, but this was common in these games. Even the GBA games had reused sprites; I can’t exactly complain about it here. It’s just something they had to do to get these out faster.

My umbrage really comes down to the art style. I mentioned this in the past, but one of the goals of Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi was to try to make the series appeal more to the Japanese market.

The reason why the series went in a Search Action direction and introduced RPG elements was for precisely that reason, I mean the Japanese love their RPG’s so why not add role playing elements to appeal to them.

This became more obvious in Aria which not only featured more overt anime tropes, but also set the game in Japan. You can’t get more blatant than that.

Except it turns out you can. Dawn of Sorrow takes things even further by just outright having an anime art style. You see it in a lot of the character portraits and even the box art. I am not a fan of this direction.

It just doesn’t look like Castlevania to me. Compared to the beautifully painted character art from Aria, this just doesn’t compare. The old art by Ayami Kojima was gorgeous and captured the gothic horror aesthetic the series thrived in. That screamed Castlevania to me, the art in Dawn looks like a generic shonen anime.

It doesn’t even look stylised like a lot of other games are with anime art styles. It’s anime, with nothing to spice it up or make it interesting. I’m already not the biggest anime fan, but even I recognise when the style is done well. This is not one of those times.

But I think my biggest issue with this game is it doesn’t do a lot to really stand out from the rest. The strong foundations that make the series great are here and just as fun as ever, but Dawn of Sorrow doesn’t build on it with its own ideas. Everything it does can be found in other Castlevania titles. Even a lot of the locations and level design feel standard for the series.

If this is the case, why would I play Dawn of Sorrow over other games in the series? Outside of the DS exclusive features, not much. And even then, we have two other DS games that have those same features so even that isn't unique to it.

Dawn of Sorrow when you break it down is just more Aria of Sorrow. Which is fine since Aria is amazing, having more of that is not a problem. The problem is it also feels like a lesser version of Aria.

And a big reason why is the pacing. One of the things I loved about Aria was its brevity. It was a lean seven-hour romp that didn’t overstay it’s welcome. Dawn is a longer affair at nearly twelve hours.

Not too much longer, but you can feel the extra hours. It’s a bit more plodding an experience; the gameplay isn’t as fast paced and the level design isn’t quite as tight. Unlike Aria, this one did feel like it dragged on a little longer than it should have.

I suppose I can’t blame it for having plenty of content. It was a new game on a new system, and they wanted to give players bang for their buck. I just wish the main campaign was just a bit tighter in its length.

Outside of the main campaign you have a couple of additional side modes to unlock. You have a bosh rush which is as it sounds, and the bosses are generally fun to fight so it’s a decent time.

There’s an Enemy Set Mode that lets you create your own series of combat challenges against any enemy you defeated in the main story. It’s a neat extra mode that even let you share your creations with other players via the DS’s wireless connectivity feature. Don’t know if that still works in the collection though.

But the most extensive extra is Julius Mode. This mode lets you play through the entire game as one of the side characters, Julius Belmont. And as a Belmont he offers a more traditional playstyle with the whip and access to the classic sub weapons.

If you played Symphony of the Night and remember the Richter mode in that, this is basically the same thing. With one big new addition, you don’t just play as Julius but can also play as Yoko Belnades with her powerful magic spells and even good old Alucard with his sword, fire balls and ability to become a bat.

This essentially makes Julius Mode a Search Action version of Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse. That is frigging awesome. The only thing missing is a Grant stand in, which was planned but sadly got cut. Poor Grant, always drawing the short straw.

This mode kicks ass. The difficulty can be a bit much, the lack of health items can make some bosses a nightmare, but the different characters and the level of freedom you get make this a fun time. I honestly liked this more than the main campaign. Now I want to see a full Castlevania III remake like this. Why isn’t there a fan game like this yet?

I’ve been a little hard on Dawn of Sorrow, but that’s only because I loved Aria so much that I had high expectations for it. I still like the game; it just didn’t quite match up to its predecessor though that may be an unfair comparison considering I hold Aria in very high regard. If Dawn had added something more and had a tighter pacing, I’d probably like it just as much as Aria. As is, I find myself liking it less.

However, its important to understand the context in which it originally released. This was the first Castlevania game on a brand-new console, and an early release no less. It was sold largely based on it being the same game you loved but with improved graphics and features only available on that system.

When viewed in that context it’s easy to see why it’s held in high regard by fans of the series. it took the formula you loved and translated it to a new system, and considering how limited a new systems software library is at launch, Dawn of Sorrow does stand out as a high-quality release. Especially on the DS where half the line-up was plagued with gimmicky touch screen elements that were far more intrusive than what this game did.

If I had this as a kid, I probably would have loved it. But when reviewing this years later, far removed from that original context and looking at this game when compared to the rest of the series, Dawn of Sorrow is good, very good even, but not great.

I have the same opinion on Dawn of Sorrow as I do New Super Mario Bros. If viewed on its own, it’s a great game that has a lot to offer, but when viewed as part of the larger franchise it belongs to it doesn’t offer much you can’t find in other games that do it better.

At the end of the day Dawn of Sorrow is simply a lesser Aria of Sorrow. Which still makes it better than most. It’s a good Search Action game that’s well worth a play, but only after you play Aria first.

Portrait of Ruin

Portrait of Ruin is one of the more interesting games in the series. While it continues the same Search Action formula as its predecessor, it also sought to shake the formula up with some unique ideas of its own, while also serving as a direct sequel to one of the more underrated entries in the series, Castlevania Bloodlines.

For those unaware, Bloodlines was the Castlevania game released on the Sega Mega Drive. Konami was a supporter of both consoles during the 16-bit console wars; but rather than make one game ported to each system they instead made unique games for both.

The SNES games were usually more in line with what fans expected while the Mega Drive releases were more experimental. Bloodlines was no exception, featuring a more vibrant and violent art style inspired by Hammer horror movie from the 70’s, a more diverse range of locations, and the ability to play as two characters with different move-sets.

It’s one of my favourite games in the series, so knowing this was a sequel to it made me interested in checking it out. Thankfully it kept a lot of what I liked about Bloodlines while expanding on them with ideas of its own.

The story follows Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin as they investigate the rise of Dracula’s Castle. The castle having been risen due to the evils caused during World War2.

That’s an interesting set-up, Dracula rising during WW2. Surprised that wasn’t made into a movie. I know the Hellsing series did something similar but that was only in flashbacks.

As the pair investigate, they discover the castle has been taken over by another vampire called Brauner. A vampire who turned after he lost his daughters in the first World War and is trying to get revenge on humanity for, well, constantly getting into wars.

Already I really like this story far more. The villain is much more interesting with a great backstory, and a unique power of being able to create worlds through paintings. In fact, it’s through these paintings that he’s able to seal Dracula’s power.

So the only way for Jonathan and Charlotte to stop him is by entering the paintings themselves and defeating whatever monster is powering it. They’re helped along the journey by a priest named Vincent who sells them items, and the ghost of Eric Lecarde, the second playable character from Bloodlines, whose daughters have been brainwashed by Brauner to replace his own.

I like the two main leads, Jonathan has a decent arc of living up to his role as current wielder of the vampire killer and letting go of his anger at his deceased father, while Charlotte… doesn’t have an arc at all.

That’s the thing. While there are two protagonists, it really feels like it’s Jonathan’s story. He’s the one with the character arc, and the only one with a connection to Bloodlines. Being the son of John Morris who was the main character from that game.

Fun fact, John Morris is the son of Quincy Morris, one of the characters from the original Bram Stoker Dracula novel. Yes, the Dracula novel is somehow canon to Castlevania lore. Castlevania is weird.

Charlotte is likable enough, but she’s purely a supporting role. It’s a shame they didn’t do much more with her. I was going to say it’s weird she isn’t connected to the Belnades clan or other magic users in the series, but considering Bloodlines was meant to focus on characters outside the main cast I can see why for the sequel they’d want to keep her separate.

The story is a lot of fun, but it doesn’t go as far with its ideas as I would like. The whole thing of Dracula’s rise being caused by WW2 is a cool concept, but it doesn’t play into the game much beyond the opening text crawl. So a lot of its concepts feel shallow in execution.

I‘m also iffy on them trying to tie Bloodlines in to the larger Castlevania story. I always felt Bloodlines worked better as its own little side story unconcerned with the larger narrative of the series.

Some of the explanations they came up with don’t make that much sense either. The reason the Morris family has the Vampire Killer is because there’s some prophecy that the Belmonts can’t wield it until the final battle with Dracula in 1999, but they still need people to stop Dracula in the meantime.

I hate prophecy stories like this because it’s just a cheap excuse for lazy storytelling. They should have just left Bloodlines as a side story; I think them trying to make a coherent timeline only made things more confusing. It’s like with Zelda, stop trying to connect everything and let the games be their own self-contained narratives.

But I don’t play these for the story anyway. At least the story was fun and didn’t get in the way of the gameplay. It’s a shame Castlevania didn’t dabble in environmental storytelling because that works best for search action games like this. Tell the story through the gameplay, it’s much more natural that way.

The graphics and sound here are still good. I don’t think the music is as good as Dawn of Sorrow, but it still has some good tracks that keep up with the series high par of quality.

Graphically it’s very good and still makes good use of the DS’ 3D capabilities while keeping the strong 2D sprite work and animation these games are known for. It’s not a huge leap graphically from Dawn, but it’s still a good-looking title.

Sadly, it keeps the anime style of Dawn, though the art is a little better here. It is still generic, but the designs are a lot better at least. I still don’t think it works for Castlevania, but thankfully this is the last game to try this style. Well except for Judgement but that’s a story for another day.

Gameplay wise it doesn’t stray too far from the basics. It still has the same loop of exploring, fighting enemies to get stronger, finding upgrades and equipment and using said upgrades to progress further. It isn’t broken, they didn’t fix it, and it’s still satisfying.

But while the core remains the same, everything around it has been shaken up. For one thing the level design is a little different. The main castle still has plenty of areas to explore, but it is noticeably smaller than it was before.

This is because the game is now split up into different sub areas. Within the main castle are a series of paintings you can enter that all act as a sort of mini dungeon to go through. Each of which have their own unique settings like a Victorian England town or a demented Circus with a strange gravity of its own.

By this point the old staples of the series were becoming a bit played out; seeing these wildly unique locations helped bring more visual variety to the proceedings. Which is something that Bloodlines did very well, so it got that down at least.

You might think going these separate worlds would make navigation a nightmare, but it really isn’t. For one these other locations are much more compact than a traditional Castlevania world and are much more linear to boot. So, getting through them isn’t too difficult.

Second, the game is very generous when it comes to fast travel stations. There’s a lot of them and most are situated near the paintings, with the paintings themselves having their own fast travel stations. Making back tracking a lot easier.

The level design isn’t perfect. Some of the paintings are a little too linear for their own good with too many dead ends. You do find something at the end of said dead ends, but it does mean having to go back through them which in some instances involve going through enemy gauntlets and tricky platforming segments.

It can be a hassle getting back to where you need to be, especially with how tough a lot of the game is. Dawn of Sorrow was a decent challenge, but Portrait of Ruin is way harder. You really need to be careful and not try to rush through things because death can come quick and easy.

Not helped by you, once again, not having invincibility frames. I’m beginning to realise this is intentional. It’s not a flaw in the design it’s a part of it. They want you to get juggled by enemies. I kind of understand why though, you have a lot of health by the end game and if you had invincibility frames it would be too easy to tank through everything.

I understand the reasoning, but I don’t think it’s the right solution. I’d rather have a smaller health pool with I-frames, it would keep the same challenge but feel fairer. That’s how I would I have done it, but it is what it is at this point.

Thankfully the moment-to-moment gameplay, the combat and platforming, is still excellent. But this is also where the biggest changes come in. The Tactical Soul system is gone in favour of having two separate playable characters that you can swap between at any point.

While you lose a lot of player expression with this, the new system works great. Both characters are fun to control and have different play styles. Jonathan is a physical fighter with higher attack and defence and a ton of varied weapon types and sub weapons to pick from.

Charlotte by comparison is the mage. She lacks in physical attacks and defence but has higher magical attack and a plethora of powerful spells for both support and damage dealing; as well as having a faster magic regen that let’s he get spells out faster.

Both have their strengths and weaknesses and you’ll be swapping through them frequently to deal with differing dilemmas. Jonathan has higher strength means he can dole out damage faster with his basic attacks and he takes less damage. But he can’t take advantage of elemental weaknesses, and his sub weapons aren’t nearly as powerful as the magic Charlotte gets.

Charlotte meanwhile is almost entirely dependent on her magic. She can dole out heavy damage with elemental weaknesses and can wipe out entire screens of enemies but takes more damage and her magic has a charge time to get the best results, which leave her open to enemies. So she works better at a distance, while Jonathan is better for close quarters.

Now you do have an option of having both characters on screen at once, which is needed to solve some light puzzles or in exploration, but you can also use this in combat. By summoning the second character they’ll attack enemies alongside you.

Sounds useful, and in some instances it is, but I barely used this. The AI isn’t the most helpful and whenever the partner gets hit you lose magic, so you won’t be able to use you’re secondary abilities much. Which for Charlotte is a death sentence.

Besides there’s another option of using the other characters sub-weapon/magic with the R button that’s a lot more practical. So I’d recommend just using that option in combat instead.

The game uses the two-character mechanic well enough with some interesting puzzles and set pieces, at least early on. Later in the game these segments don’t show up as often, which is a shame because they’re some of the more memorable moments in the game.

You also have Dual Crashes. Powerful abilities that use both characters. These are devastating but cost a lot of magic so it’s best to use these sparingly, like during boss fights. You can equip a different one on each character too, so you can mix and match what you like most.

So, I like the system overall. The two characters are fun to play on their own and they have a ton of different abilities that let you handle the game in different and creative ways. For example, I had issues with the Frankenstein Monster fight because of the number of projectiles he had, so I used Charlotte’s spell that negates projectiles and double teamed him with both characters at once.

It's fun coming up with strategies like that; finding the method for dealing with the bosses is part of the fun. But the problem is that there are so many abilities, equipment and weapons to pick from and only a handful of them are that useful.

This game has a bit of a bloat problem with its design. There are way too many options to pick from and the balance just isn’t there to support it. Charlotte has a lot of magic spells, but once you get Chain Lighting it’s pretty much all you’ll use because of how broken it is.

I’m not kidding. Chain Lighting might as well be the win button because it decimates everything. The only thing it doesn’t work on too well is bosses, but the other 95% of the time it’s not worth using anything else.

Some spells are also so situational you won’t use them at all besides the one time you do, and in one instance it’s a frigging pain in the ass to pull off. In order to get the true ending you need to use the Sanctuary spell to cure Lecarde’s daughters. The spell is hidden by the way and in a location that requires you to go out of your way to find. So even just finding it is a hassle.

The spell takes forever to charge up too. So you’re just a sitting duck begging to be killed. The only way I was able to do it was using Jonathan’s block ability and turtling in the corner until the spell was complete. It worked but I’m pretty sure I just got lucky. This boss sucks.

Thing is, that spell, all it does is cure status ailments which are rare and easy to bypass anyway. Just swap characters until it goes away or use an item. So outside that one boss and curing the merchant I never used this thing.

Jonathan isn’t exempt from this either. He has a lot of weapons, but the only one you need are the whips. Good damage, the best range and they have more moves than the rest. It really feels like they want you to use the whips so why not make it the only option. He already has plenty of sub weapons to pick from, so it isn’t like he lacks in selection.

This makes menu navigation cumbersome. If you want to swap out anything, or even just check a new equipment you got, it means scrolling through pages of stuff you don’t want or need. It isn’t so bad with equipment since you can just sell that, but no such luck for Sub-Weapons or magic; you’re stuck with that shit whether you like it or not.

If I’m being fair, this has been an issue with Search Action Castlevania games since the beginning. They’ve always a little bloat to their design, and it’s an issue that they never really fixed. Even Igarashi’s spiritual successor, Bloodstained, had this problem. To a much worse degree but that’s a discussion for another day.

Point is, I can’t be too harsh on Portrait of Ruin for this. It’s just a quirk of the series at this point. So why then does it bother me more here? It’s not like Aria didn’t have this issue, it did, but it didn’t bug me much there.

Maybe it’s because Aria had so many different options and abilities to pick from that it made it fun to try everything out. It wasn’t that balanced, but it had more than enough viable options that made experimenting with them enjoyable

Portrait also has plenty to pick from, but not too an insane degree like Aria, and while there are plenty of viable weapons or spells to pick from, some are so overpowered it’s not worth using anything else.

It could also simply be that because Portrait is trying to be different from past games that it’s adherence to the formula holds it back. If you’re going to try something different go all the way with it; don’t rely on an old formula if it doesn’t fit the game you’re trying to make.

If you are making a game with two playable characters you don’t need a ton of different weapons to add variety. You already have that with the two different playstyles. But because previous games had tons of weapons, I guess they felt that this one should to.

It shows how formulaic the series was getting by this point. I like the formula for these games don’t get me wrong, but it’s far from perfect and the fact that a lot of its issues are still not being addressed six games in is starting to hurt it.

Portrait of Ruin is still a game I like. I like the character switching mechanic, its environmental variety was a breath of fresh air, and the gameplay loop is still satisfying. I don’t like it as much as Aria, but I liked it more than Dawn if for no other reason then it being a bit more unique.

It also cuts a faster pace than Dawn too. It’s a little shorter with it clocking in at just under ten hours, which is perfect for games like this. I do still think it loses a little steam by the end, but that could be due to it reusing the areas for the final four paintings you visit.

This is also depending on whether you do any of the side content. There’s a lot of side missions you can do for Lecarde that give you more abilities or upgrades. Most of these aren’t too bad, but some can be easy to fail if you sell the wrong item, and others require a bit of grinding.

I wouldn’t recommend you do all these unless you are a completionist. Just do what you can and don’t worry too much about them. There is a new game plus option that is better for these anyway, they feel designed with that in mind.

There’s also a secret area only available if you fully complete each map. I didn’t get it unfortunately, but I did come close. I think I missed a secret area, and I can’t be bothered to go through the whole game to find it. I was already tapped out by the end anyway. Still, it’s there for completionists and it’s always nice to see them get rewarded.

As for other modes, there’s the traditional boss rush, as well as two unlockable modes from beating the game. The first is Sister mode where you play as Lecarde’s daughters in a prequel story.

I didn’t play this beyond the first ten minutes. It’s a mode that entirely uses the touch screen and it felt awkward playing it with a controller, and I can’t play touch screen games due to my disability, so I can’t opine on this unfortunately.

I did play a lot more of the other mode, which is Richter mode. Yeah, they brought back Richter mode from Symphony of the Night, with the added bonus of having Maria from Rondo of Blood joining in on the action.

This is a fun mode. Richter is a much faster character, so it cuts a quicker pace, and it was nice seeing Maria and Richter team up again. You need to beat a super hard optional boss to unlock this, but it’s worth the effort.

Portrait of Ruin is a fun time, but the cracks in the formula are becoming more noticeable. I guess that’s what happens when you release five games within a year of each other. They needed more time to breathe.

We only have one game left, and it also happens to be the final Search Action game with this formula. Let’s see if they end things on a high note.

Order of Ecclesia

The third and final Castlevania game on the DS, Order of Ecclesia also happens to be the final mainline Castlevania game to be produced by Koji Igarashi. After this game Konami would reboot the franchise with the Lords of Shadow games.

This makes Order of Ecclesia a special entry in the series. This was an end of an era of sorts; even to this day we haven’t seen Konami return to this formula despite fans asking them to do so. Igarashi would with Bloodstained but as far as Metroidvania was concerned, this was the end, or at least in this particular style.

So, did they end it on a high note? For the most part I’d say yes. While there are some clear flaws that hold the game back, this is still a great entry that finishes Castlevania’s run on the DS with a bang.

The story this time around focuses on the titular Order of Ecclesia. A secretive order created with the sole purpose of finding a way to eliminate Dracula after the Belmont clan vanished into history.

To that end they’ve created a special Glyph called Dominus (oh that’s why the collection is called that) and a special member of the order, a woman named Shanoa, is chosen to wield it. But this position was promised to another member called Albus who isn’t too happy having something promised to him being taken away.

In anger he interrupts the ceremony and steals Dominus for himself. Which results in Shanoa losing all memories and emotions. After a few months of training to regain her skills, she sets out to find Albus to take Dominus back. But along the way she starts to suspect that there’s a bit more going on than the order is telling her.

I liked the story in Order of Ecclesia. The mystery behind Albus and Ecclessia was interesting. They set up Albus as a typical jealous rival character but slowly reveal that there’s a bit more going on with him. It plays with your expectations in a fun way.

Shanoa wasn’t the most interesting protagonist, but that’s also kind the point. She’s supposed to be a kind of soulless doll due to losing all her emotions, which makes her difficult to relate to. It’s hard to make a character like that compelling, especially in a game like this where there’s no voice acting.

But I did like Shanoa as a character. They made a good call showing her before she lost everything. It’s brief but it still makes it easier the empathise with her. I wish her regaining her emotions was a bit more of a gradual thing, it only happens at the very end, but it was still satisfying to see play out.

This was actually a lot more emotional than I was expecting. There are some effective moments between the characters and a running theme of family and loss that leads to some tragic developments. It’s the darkest story in the collection by far.

My only issue with the story is the late game twists aren’t handled the best. They’re simultaneously too obvious and yet come completely out of nowhere. Like it’s very obvious where they’re going with one character in particular but it happens so suddenly with so little build up it didn’t feel earned.

The pacing is also a little off, but that’s mainly down to the games structure which I’ll talk about in a bit. You can go a long time without any major story progression. Overall though I’d say it was a good story, but it also felt like it was meant to lead to something more.

Order of Ecclesia feels like it’s trying to be a bit of a soft reboot. Moving away from the Belmont storyline and going in a new direction. I don’t know if that was the plan, but considering how removed the game is from the other games and how much Bloodstained took from this game it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.

It’s a shame the series ended here, or at least the original timeline did. It would have been nice to see how they would have expanded on it going forward. But for what we got, it’s a good send off to the original series even if I wish we saw more of it.

Presentation wise it’s about on par with previous DS games. The music is still awesome, it even includes songs from the first Castlevania as a bonus, and graphically it still looks great though it ditches the use of 3D for a pure 2D experience.

It does lose a little flair from this, but the 2D art and animation is still gorgeous to looks at. Speaking of art, Order of Ecclesia finally ditches the anime art style of the last two games and returns to the classic art style the series was known for.

It looks a lot better. The character portraits are done in a nice painted style that still allows for a lot of expressions. They look a little blurry blown up to full screen, but I still vastly prefer this style over the generic anime art of Dawn and Portrait.

As far as the moment-to-moment gameplay goes, once again, not much has changed. The action is still what you would expect, but there is one big change in the form of the Glyph system.

This is a sort of rework of the Tactical Soul system from the Sorrow games. Only instead of it just being used for secondary abilities it’s used for everything. Even your basic weapons are now part of the Glyph system, your equipment now only focusing on your armour and accessories.

Here’s how it works; you have two kinds of Glyphs, arm glyphs which are your standard attacks and magic abilities and back glyphs that act as support abilities like buffs, traversal options and even summons and transformations.

You can only equip one back glyph at a time, but also two arm glyphs. Each arm glyph is controlled with the Y and X buttons, or your console equivalent, and each can be alternated between.

You can swap between each to create combos. Combo two weapon glyphs together, combo two magic attacks together, or combo a weapon into a magic attack. You’re free to use any combination you want, and experimenting between them to find the combination that works best is a lot of fun to do.

Although there are a few things to consider when assigning glyphs. The first is the actual attacks themselves. Some attacks obviously work together much better than others, but you’ll also want to keep in mind enemy weaknesses as well.

For example, skeletons are resistant to ice and slash-based attacks but weak to fire and bash ones. So if you have a sword or cutting weapon you like using you might want to also equip a fire based attack to deal with skeletal foes or simply switch to a hammer glyph. You have a few different options of how to take advantage of the weakness system.

You have access to three different glyph loadouts you can swap between, so you can have different set ups for different situations. Giving you a little leeway in which glyphs you want to use.

The second thing you’ll want to keep in mind is each glyphs MP use. All glyphs, even weapon attacks, use magic and using them in combo attacks can drain your MP very quickly. It recharges quickly too, but if it runs out you won’t be able to defend yourself.

Finding the balance between attacking and recharging isn’t too hard, but with some magic glyphs costing way more magic you also want to balance the kinds of attacks you use. You could just use the more powerful stuff but that leads to longer recharge times and means you fire them off at a much slower rate.

So it might be best to focus on weaker glyphs that can keep up the offensive for longer periods. There isn’t a right answer to this, it’s all a matter of how you want to play the game. bringing back a lot of the player expression the Sorrow games had with a different spin.

Besides alternating between glyphs to perform combo attacks, you can also combine the power of each glyph into a single attack called a Glyph Union. These are essentially your sub-weapon equivalent. They’re very powerful attacks that change depending on the combination of each glyph used.

If you use two glyphs of the same type, like two ice glyphs or two sword glyphs, you get a more powerful version of that glyph. Or you can combine a magic glyph and a weapon glyph for powerful weapon attacks with elemental properties.

Bear in mind that not every combination will give you a unique attack. Some won’t go together at all and just give you a generic punch that doesn’t do much damage. Just another thing to think about when deciding which glyphs to use.

These can be really helpful, but it’s best not to use them too often. Glyph Union’s use a separate resource called hearts, and unlike magic this doesn’t replenish automatically. It only replenishes by collecting hearts from broken lights, just like every other Castlevania game.

The problem is that each heart only counts for one point, and Glyph Unions cost quite a few hearts to use. Even basic ones can cost 15 hearts. It can take a while to replenish hearts, and while you’re replenishing hearts you won’t get money, and you need that money because this game can get pretty tough, so you want to keep those healing items stocked up.

Because of this I usually saved Glyph Unions for boss fights. You don’t really need them for the bulk of the game; your main attacks should carry you through if used correctly. Still Glyph Unions can be useful in getting out of a tight spot.

The Glyph System is great. It keeps the experimental nature of the Tactical Soul system but simplifies things. Still giving you plenty to mess around with but removing a lot of the bulk that Tactical Soul and even the equipment had in previous games.

You only have a handful of weapon types to pick from and each only has three variations of increasing power. It’s much easier to keep track of everything while still having plenty of options. Overall, it’s a good system that rewards creativity.

You’ll find Glyphs in a couple of different ways. You can get them from defeated enemies like how you got souls in the Sorrow games, but you can also get them by stealing them from enemies while they perform a glyph attack themselves. I like that, it’s a creative way of gaining new abilities and there’s even a boss that can only be killed by doing this.

Besides that, you’ll also find them in the levels. There are statues dotted about that can be broken to receive a new glyph, or you can find them in out of the way areas. Usually locked behind a minor puzzle or platforming challenge. like any good Search Action game it rewards you for being curious and exploring as much as possible.

If you were paying attention, you’d notice I said levels plural. That’s because Order of Ecclesia has a very different structure to prior entries. Instead of being comprised of one large area to explore, the game is now broken up into several smaller levels.

It’s like what Portrait of Ruin did only taking it to its logical conclusion point. The levels are broken up via a world map that lets you go back to those levels whenever you want if you missed anything.

In between levels you can visit the town area, Wygol Village. Here you can stock up on hearts and healing items, buy new equipment, save or take a side quest from one of the villagers. Although you will have to find these villagers first, which you’ll want to do as finding them all is the only way to get the true ending.

I’m of two minds of this structure. On the one hand having these more bite sized levels can make it easier to get into Search Action games. Shantae and the Pirates Curse, the game that got me into the genre, uses this same structure.

It also leads to better variety in the levels. Like in Portrait of Ruin having areas set outside the standard castle let’s it be a bit more creative with the level ideas. It isn’t done as well as that game, but there’s some fun locations here you wouldn’t see otherwise.

The problem with this level-based structure is how linear it makes everything. While the game still has plenty of side areas and secrets to find, the overall structure of each level is designed in a way that there’s often one way to get to the end. In some cases, levels are little more than a single pathway with some enemies in the way.

I know that a lot of the Castlevania games, even the Search Action kind, are linear. There’s usually only one real path forward to the ending, but even then, there were still multiple areas you could explore at any time, and you were free to go through them in whatever order you wanted.

In Portrait of Ruin alone after you beat the first painting there’s two paintings you can then access, and what order you do them in is entirely up to you. That kind of Freedom isn’t in Order of Ecclesia. You can only do the levels in the order dictated by the game.

While I personally don’t mind this approach, it does lose a lot of that sense of exploration these kinds of games thrive on. As I’ve said in the past that feeling of exploration is vital in Search Action games.

It’s not just about finding upgrades that makes it rewarding, but simply finding the way forward using your own curiosity. But because levels in Order of Ecclesia are so linear you never really need to look around to find your way, so the exploration isn’t nearly as satisfying.

It also means there’s less opportunities for sequence breaking, which is something Search Action games are famous for. It’s what makes them so popular with speed runners. Making this game the worst when it comes to that.

The thing is though, the game drops this approach in the third act. You do visit Dracula’s castle in the final stretch of the game which acts as a sort of return to form, but this is also the most linear Dracula’s Castle has been, so it never loses that sense of linearity.

Speaking of Dracula’s Castle let’s talk about the games pacing. Order of Ecclesia starts out pretty good with how it’s paced. The levels weren’t too long, the story was developing smoothly, and upgrades were doled out at a frequent rate.

But then about halfway through the game slows down significantly. Levels become longer, enemies get tougher and take longer to defeat, upgrades become more infrequent, and the story has long stretches where not much really happens. it feels like the pacing takes a nose dive in the second act.

It also doesn’t help that there’s a lot more of a grind involved if you want to complete the villager quests. This isn’t required or anything, but the rewards you get from them are so good you’ll want to do them.

While these side missions drag the pacing down, they are at least optional. The main story has no excuse; the entire second act is a slog to get through. Things do pick up in Dracula’s Castle, but by that point I was checked out.

I think the game was too actually. It started doling out the upgrades at a faster pace again, but by that point I had already completed most of the side quests and the story had already mostly wrapped up. The Dracula Castle sequence felt it dragged the game on longer than it needed to.

It’s funny because Order of Ecclesia isn’t that much longer than the other two games in the collection, but it feels a lot longer. I don’t know if the game took too long to get going or what, but the pacing here isn’t as tight as it was in Dawn or Portrait.

Outside the main campaign you also get the usual side modes. Boss Rush returns, of course, and you have a mode that lets you play as Albus. Albus is a fun character to play as; he uses a gun with a more projectile based playstyle, and the arcade structure of his mode works a lot better with the more linear level design.

I still liked Julius Mode more as far as these side modes are concerned, but Albus mode isn’t too bad. I certainly liked it more than Sister’s mode in Portrait of Ruin since it doesn’t use the touch screen nearly as much.

The last thing I want to talk about is the difficulty. Order of Ecclesia is a tough game, easily the hardest of the DS Castlevania games. Thing is though that largely comes from a lot of difficulty spikes.

Most of the game provides a decent challenge, but some sections of the game can be an utter nightmare. This is why you want to cover as much ground with the glyphs, because if you don’t have their weaknesses certain enemies can just outright obliterate you.

Mind you even with their weaknesses some of these enemies are a pain the ass. A lot of the more acrobatic foes like the Cave Troll were particularly bad. Which is weird because I didn’t have much of an issue with them in previous games.

Maybe it’s because the glyph system isn’t as broken as the ones in previous games. That seems about right. There certainly aren’t as many busted abilities when compared to the other games. I guess that can be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask.

I suppose if you want games that are challenging but more fun to break then Dawn or Portrait are more for you. But you want a more challenging experience that’s a bit more balanced then Order of Ecclesia is the game for you.

Sadly, not all that challenge is fair. The issue of the lack of invincibility frames is still here and it’s still annoying. One sad thing I realised when playing through these games is, despite some quality-of-life improvements and gameplay tweaks, the games never actually got better as they went on.

A lot of the underlying design issues never got addressed. The lack of invincibility frames, the grinding required due to the low drop rate of items, even the bloat in design wasn’t fully addressed here. I don’t know if it was the lack of time or what but these games never got the true refinements they needed.

But when judging Order of Ecclesia on its own I liked it. This seems to be the most divisive game in the collection. From what I can gather a lot of fans were split on the changes made to the games structure. Some love it and think it’s the best on the DS while others consider it the worst.

For my opinion, I think I do like the game the best. I like the art style more, the Glyph System was fun and it did try to remove a lot of the bloat from the design. Combine that with a more engaging story and I think this one just edges out Portrait as the best.

It has its issues with pacing and level design but those weren’t enough to kill my enjoyment. I do appreciate the game for at least trying something new in a series that admittedly was becoming a bit formulaic.

Conclusion

And that’s it, that’s every game in the Castlevania Dominus Collection reviewed. How is the collection overall? As far as the presentation and gameplay is concerned the collection is spot on. Emulation is as near perfect as you can get, and it has all the extra’s you could want.

The game lineup itself is also very solid. All three titles are excellent in their own right and have something different to offer. Even Dawn of Sorrow, when viewed just as part of this collection, is different enough from the others with the Tactical Soul system.

While they each have their flaws, including some that are shared across each game, they also have individual strengths. I can imagine everyone will differ on which game is their favourite, but each is so good there’s no clear winner on which is the best. It’s all down to preference.

The only game in the collection I would consider bad is Haunted Castle, and even that’s made up by the excellent remake. So there really isn’t a bad game in here.

Compared to the Advanced Collection where the games quality was a bit all over the place, I’d say Dominus Collection is an overall better package. Even if I don’t think any of the games are as good as Aria of Sorrow, the quality is more consistent between titles.

So whether you’re a new fan looking to experience these games for the first time or an old veteran looking to play the games again, the Castlevania Dominus Collection is an easy one to recommend.

Sadly, these games would be the last done in the Search Action style. While each reviewed well, they were seeing a diminishing return in sales. Whether it be because of how fast they were being pumped out or the fact that the games didn’t change much, the sales seemed to go down with every release.

Combine that with Iga’s failure to tap the Japanese market and Konami would reboot the series with a western developer. But that’s a story I already went over before. So, if you want to see what happened next in the series be sure to check out my reviews of the Castlevania Lords of Shadow trilogy.