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LTTP: Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow

D

duk

Banned
Okay this game is pretty cool so far, I just beat the first boss using the first magic seal thingy, now I borrowed the game and it didn't have the instruction booklet so how do I jump high enough to get the sword right after beating the boss? In the levels, I see ledges and things that a bit higher than I can jump, how do I get to them? Do I need special abilities to do that? TIA. :)
 
That boss you bought gives you the flying armor soul. equip that, go to the screen to the left, run, jump, and hold R i think to use the soul. it helps you float to the next ledge.

btw, gamefaqs.com is your friend!
 
Just bought this game last night.

Haven't play a Castlevania game since the NES days, and I am really digging it.

Now I realize why I hate 3d platformers. Some things were better of left in 2d, with a few notable exceptions.
 
Well, Metroidvanias hardly count as platformers, to be honest. :lol

Have fun with you purchase. I'd say you made a good decision.
 
Pureauthor said:
Well, Metroidvanias hardly count as platformers, to be honest. :lol

Have fun with you purchase. I'd say you made a good decision.
Click to expand...

LOL

It's Super Metroid revived! Which I love, I still regard Super Metroid as "one of those games" from my childhood that I remember being hyped for like crazy. That and Final Fantasy 3 (6).
 
I played Aria of Sorrow after Dawn of Sorrow, and I don't agree in the least - for one thing, the castle in AoS blew chunks.

Not to mention DoS' Julius Mode beats the crap out of AoS Julius Mode.
 
Pureauthor said:
I played Aria of Sorrow after Dawn of Sorrow, and I don't agree in the least - for one thing, the castle in AoS blew chunks.
Click to expand...

What was your beef with the castle? Was thinking of picking that game up after I beat DoD and PoR.
 
DoS is like a much more refined version of AoS. Graphically, it's far more impressive, the soul system is tightened up a bit in terms of what they do, and the Julius mode is frigging amazing, almost like getting a whole other game for your money. The only thing that drags DoS down is the Magic Seals, which are an annoyance I tolerate to enjoy the great game. They make it unplayable on the bus though, given the state of the roads in Winnipeg.

"Seal time....<BUMP>...RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
 
Pureauthor said:
I played Aria of Sorrow after Dawn of Sorrow, and I don't agree in the least - for one thing, the castle in AoS blew chunks.

Not to mention DoS' Julius Mode beats the crap out of AoS Julius Mode.
Click to expand...

I agree that DoS > AoS. But I vastly preferred Aria's Castle design to Dawn's.
 
Segata Sanshiro said:
DoS is like a much more refined version of AoS. Graphically, it's far more impressive, the soul system is tightened up a bit in terms of what they do, and the Julius mode is frigging amazing, almost like getting a whole other game for your money. The only thing that drags DoS down is the Magic Seals, which are an annoyance I tolerate to enjoy the great game. They make it unplayable on the bus though, given the state of the roads in Winnipeg.

"Seal time....<BUMP>...RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
Click to expand...

The game really cares more about speed with the seals than accuracy.
 
Pureauthor said:
The game really cares more about speed with the seals than accuracy.
Click to expand...

Naturally, but it still demands the stylus stay on the screen for the duration of the seal-drawing. Winnipeg potholes are huge, man.
 
Segata Sanshiro said:
Naturally, but it still demands the stylus stay on the screen for the duration of the seal-drawing. Winnipeg potholes are huge, man.
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I don't think I've ever seen a single pothole on any road in Singapore.

Our government is efficient to the point of being scary. :lol
 
Pureauthor said:
I don't think I've ever seen a single pothole on any road in Singapore.

Our government is efficient to the point of being scary. :lol
Click to expand...

At 4 lashes per pothole you better believe those b*tches are out there in force fixing those roads.
 
Glad you're enjoying Dawn of Sorrow. BTW, which box art did you get?

Whether you prefer the design of Dawn or Aria, one thing's for certain between the two: Iga and his team finally realized that less is more sometimes.
 
cartman414 said:
Glad you're enjoying Dawn of Sorrow. BTW, which box art did you get?

Whether you prefer the design of Dawn or Aria, one thing's for certain between the two: Iga and his team finally realized that less is more sometimes.
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I got the box with a picture of a box version. Corny.
 
It wasn't until I put myself to find all souls and play Julius Mode that I realized that DoS is definately my favorite Castlevania.
 
I was like 1/3 of the way throught DoS when SOTN came out on Xbox Live...have to say I am enjoying SOTN much more. Gunna be hard going back to DoS.
 
Yeah, I agree... SOTN is still the best metroidvania, and Rondo the best classic castlevania.

DoS is good, in fact I like it better than PoR for some reason.
 
cartman414 said:
Whether you prefer the design of Dawn or Aria, one thing's for certain between the two: Iga and his team finally realized that less is more sometimes.
Click to expand...
Adding souls to collect for every single monster in the game (each with their own special player attacks and animations), Julius Mode, and a plethora of equippable weapontypes is "less"?

As for why I prefer Aria, I liked the story and castle design better, and the souls required a lot less grinding to obtain. Getting 100% souls in Dawn is a complete nightmare, even with maxxed luck (Joyeuse, 777 Armor, etc.).
 
SOTN's more linear castle progression is kinda nice actually. It definitely tougher than all the other Metroidvanias bar CotM too, but not really hard in itself.

Actually, I think CotM's probably my favorite Metroidvania... coincidentally, it's also the one Iga didn't make. :lol
 
I hated PoR but DoS was really enjoyable. I just finished SotN a week ago and I have to admit I was longing for the soul stealing aspect. It is the deepest gameplay mechanic I have found in the most recent iterations of the franchise.
 
jarrod said:
SOTN's more linear castle progression is kinda nice actually. It definitely tougher than all the other Metroidvanias bar CotM too, but not really hard in itself.

Actually, I think CotM's probably my favorite Metroidvania... coincidentally, it's also the one Iga didn't make. :lol
Click to expand...
CotM was my least favourite, but I think that's more down to playing it on an original GBA, where you couldn't see shit, than any fault of the game itself :)
 
TreeFrog78 said:
CotM was my least favourite, but I think that's more down to playing it on an original GBA, where you couldn't see shit, than any fault of the game itself :)
Click to expand...

I felt the same way until I played it again on the SP, im playing it again for a 4th time right now on the GBmicro, its better than HoD, not as good as AoS, IMO
 
gregor7777 said:
I feel like I really missed out on some games I would have enjoyed.
Click to expand...
Circle of the Moon and the CV Double Pack (Harmony and Aria) aren't that hard to find. You can play them on your DS, too.
 
Shig said:
Adding souls to collect for every single monster in the game (each with their own special player attacks and animations), Julius Mode, and a plethora of equippable weapontypes is "less"?

As for why I prefer Aria, I liked the story and castle design better, and the souls required a lot less grinding to obtain. Getting 100% souls in Dawn is a complete nightmare, even with maxxed luck (Joyeuse, 777 Armor, etc.).
Click to expand...

I was actually referring to castle size, and how it was more compact starting with AoS in comparison to its predecessors. Aria and Dawn both have that advantage over them.
 
i just gotta chime in and say how great circle of the moon is.

best music and castle design for the portable vanias, plus the card system great.

sotn>com>aos>dos>>por>>>>>>>>>hod
 
I only played SotN until I got the first (?false) ending where you defeat R-dude. It was enjoyable enough, but nothing mindblowing. The game didn't compel me enough to go through the hassle of getting the '2nd' castle. Which, in hindsight, might have led to my enjoying the game quite a bit more. This was my first Castlevania.

I've only played DoS and PoR, and I have to say I've enjoyed them more than (what I've played of) SotN. A large part of it has to do with the games' systems. Playing around with souls was quite fun in DoS, particularly in developing different tactics against bosses. The dual characters in PoR with their individuals strengths also led to very fun boss battles. SotN, on the other hand, mainly consisted of using your primary weapon and *one* subweapon. I found this too limiting. Now, I understand that you apparently learn spells later on, but shrug. I should probably give SotN more of a chance sometime. The XBLA version is a good excuse. That being said, I did play for maybe ?5+ hrs (which seems to be the length of a Castlevania game anyway), and I wasn't too impressed - though that may also have something to do with my expectations after people hyping it as being so awesome.
 
nesmar said:
i just gotta chime in and say how great circle of the moon is.

best music and castle design for the portable vanias, plus the card system great.

sotn>com>aos>dos>>por>>>>>>>>>hod
Click to expand...

If only the card drops weren't so difficult, and that you didn't have figure some of the combos for yourself. Didn't care much for Nathan's walking speed either.
 
konamisbestestfy5.jpg


LOL... great thread about the new boxart.
 
Great game, but I'm stuck. Gamefaqs isn't helping. I just beat the water boss, Rahab so now i can walk underwater. Gamefaqs tells me to go to the condemned tower and fight Gergoth (the giant mouthed beast that sucks), I have no problem killing him but the magic seal DOESN"T WORK!??! wtf. I've exhausted all my options, done so much exploring and grinding and I still don't know what to do. Help please
 
Great game, don't really know if I like it better than Portrait of Ruin though. I'd say they're about equal, though I enjoyed the variety in PoR.

I can't wait for Konami Capcom to release the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood with the original + SOTN.
 
muttyeah416 said:
Great game, but I'm stuck. Gamefaqs isn't helping. I just beat the water boss, Rahab so now i can walk underwater. Gamefaqs tells me to go to the condemned tower and fight Gergoth (the giant mouthed beast that sucks), I have no problem killing him but the magic seal DOESN"T WORK!??! wtf. I've exhausted all my options, done so much exploring and grinding and I still don't know what to do. Help please
Click to expand...

Try practicing in one of the pause menu option.

This and PoR are the best DS games available now IMO.
 
After replaying it I have come to realize I really don't like the soul system all that much. It's great to see all the different graphical effects and cool tricks you can do, but they add little or no depth to the gameplay. What irks me the most about it is, that in order for the souls to become stronger, you need to get more of them. On your first playthrough this can be a chore, since your luck isn't high and monsters with ** or *** rarity require a lot of entering/exiting a room. Even now on my new game + I have the Joyeuse sword, Lucky 7 armor, a luck ring and +9 luck from the Ghost Dancers, and it still takes me a while to get a certain soul. And the new game + is actually good for just that: catching them all and completing your soul library. Even on my first time through the game (haven't played AoS), I found the system to become quite boring after a while.
Then you play Julius mode and that's where DoS shows its true colors. A Belmont as main character, the classic whip and secondary weapons, and support characters. You didn't have to draw seals and the bosses were more of a challenge. That is if you didn't level grind, which you shouldn't. I really started to love this game when I beat that mode.
 
I'm playing through Dawn of Sorrow for the first time now too (though I bought it a while back and it was in the backlog so I have an original box - yay!!).

In any case, it's fun, but I'm really starting to tire of the whole anime, Metroidvania formula at this point. It's becoming a serious exercise in tedium rather than being something new and refreshing like it was with SotN at the time (well, for Castlevania anyway). Honestly, whenever I play I have this overwhelming urge to find some way to play Castlevania 3 on the NES more than anything else.
 
teiresias said:
I'm playing through Dawn of Sorrow for the first time now too (though I bought it a while back and it was in the backlog so I have an original box - yay!!).

In any case, it's fun, but I'm really starting to tire of the whole anime, Metroidvania formula at this point. It's becoming a serious exercise in tedium rather than being something new and refreshing like it was with SotN at the time (well, for Castlevania anyway). Honestly, whenever I play I have this overwhelming urge to find some way to play Castlevania 3 on the NES more than anything else.
Click to expand...

For me:

Anime Inspired Art - really wish we could get away from it.

Metroidvania - love it, keep it coming
 
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