Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (spoilers)

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I've been playing the game for a little while and I was asked to take pictures of the alternate mode of the game (available after finishing it). Like in Aria of Sorrow it's called the "Julius Mode", but unlike Aria of Sorrow it actually has some interest.

So basically I thought that since I went through the trouble of taking pictures and making a video it'd be better to share it with everybody (and this thread can serve to those wishing to talk about the game, or any Castlevania game). It's all done with a low quality digital camera so bear with me. Most of the stuff below is what I'd consider to be a big spoiler about the end game bonuses, you've been warned.

Soma .

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Special characters .

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Fan service 8)

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And the video, right click save as, it's 7mb and encoded in Xvid.
 
What's your fav one? I really got into Symphony of the Night. I don't know what it was about that game but I just love playing it.

Lament of Innocence was better than the 64 games but it was still lacking something. I'll go out on a limb and blame the repetive level designs.

Curse of Darkness should be interesting as Igarashi said it would be returning to the open environment for the castle instead of the single sections that you are limited to in LoI.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
dwarfkicker said:
What's your fav one?

Simon's Quest, then it'd be this one, Dawn of Soul, with SOTN as ex aequo. Then Super Castlevania IV.

dwarfkicker said:
Lament of Innocence was better than the 64 games but it was still lacking something. I'll go out on a limb and blame the repetive level designs.

I don't care about the 3D games much. I'll probably play the N64 ones someday but other than that I'm fine with the handheld releases.
 
I much perfer the 2D ones myself. But unfortunately I'm stuck with the 3D ones. I'm not too willing to shell out for a handhell for a few games. It's a shame because I've heard good things about Aria and Dawn.
 

Azn He-Man666

Was it you who killed my companions,one after one?
Much appreciated!

While I'm sure the video doesn't do the games full justice, gameplay looks fluid as hell.(As is fitting of the sequel to the formerly best Castlevania game  :carcus: ... kidding)

Anyway, I enjoyed the first two Castlevania's on Nintendo immensely; and Aria of Sorrow is my favorite to date, though from what Aaz has told me DoS sounds very promising.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Wah wah wah said:
the sequel to the formerly best Castlevania game

Actually, AoS is the favorite of a lot of people, that may have played a role in DoS being a direct sequel IMHO.
 
Simons Quest is the shit.. :guts:
Im so glad i got it for 7$ at the pawn shop, in very decent working condition :chomp:
.. the n64 one blows ass, atleast in my opinion. (forget the name) :puck:
your screenshots look promising though ( i like the sidescroller - classic action)
thx for the post
 
My faves are Symphony and Aria. Lament was pretty good, too.

Aazealh said:
Most of the stuff below is what I'd consider to be a big spoiler about the end game bonuses, you've been warned.

Fan service 8)

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It's nice to see that my Caucasian namesake is back in action. :badbone:
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Aaz! From the bottom of my heart...THANK YOU!
I have called every store today within a 10 mile radius and they are all getting it tomorrow because today was the ship date. I am so antsy right now about about this game that I can't even study! I am still scared about looking at the spoiler pics you put up! I AM GOING MAD! MUST RESIST SPOILERS!
ONE MORE DAY! AHHHH!

EDIT: Well! I looked at the pictures and the spoilers you were talking about I have known about for a while. Thanks for the pics! I AM BURNING WITH ANTICIPATION!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
handsome rakshas said:
Aaz! From the bottom of my heart...THANK YOU!
I have called every store today within a 10 mile radius and they are all getting it tomorrow because today was the ship date. I am so antsy right now about about this game that I can't even study!

Hehe, one thing I'd like to bitch about though is how they removed some of the Japanese voices from the game in the European version, and I imagine it's going to be the exact same with the US one. They're not even in the "Sound Mode" so basically they're not accessible at all. I just don't understand why they always do that, not just with this one but all the Castlevania games... I know I enjoy the Japanese voices in game a lot, and it actually pisses me off quite a bit that they systematically remove them for no reason whatsoever.

handsome rakshas said:
Well! I looked at the pictures and the spoilers you were talking about I have known about for a while. Thanks for the pics! I AM BURNING WITH ANTICIPATION!

Well I didn't want to take any risk and end up with people telling me I ruined their experience or whatever else, you know how it is. Anyway I'm glad you like them. The game is pretty cool really, I'm at 99.4% right now, just wandering in the castle and eating souls. :zodd:
 

SaiyajinNoOuji

I'm still better than you
Aazealh said:
Hehe, one thing I'd like to bitch about though is how they removed some of the Japanese voices from the game in the European version, and I imagine it's going to be the exact same with the US one. They're not even in the "Sound Mode" so basically they're not accessible at all. I just don't understand why they always do that, not just with this one but all the Castlevania games... I know I enjoy the Japanese voices in game a lot, and it actually pisses me off quite a bit that they systematically remove them for no reason whatsoever.

My remark isnt so much about the Castlevania game but what you are talking about here... Thats one of the thing that I love about Nippon Inc. The company that ports over the games from Atlus like Disgaea, Brave Saga, etc... they ahve the option for both the different voices! I fucking love it! :guts:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
SaiyajinNoOuji said:
they ahve the option for both the different voices! I fucking love it! :guts:

Yeah, that's cool. It's not even replacing JP voices by English here though, just removing the original ones with nothing replacing them... Hence the stupidity IMHO.

By the way, to handsome rakshas or anybody else planning to get DoS, I heard that if you start a new game with Aria of Sorrow inserted in the GBA slot you'll get the rare ring from the beginning (you find it later on anyway but it's still nice).
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Aazealh said:
By the way, to handsome rakshas or anybody else planning to get DoS, I heard that if you start a new game with Aria of Sorrow inserted in the GBA slot you'll get the rare ring from the beginning (you find it later on anyway but it's still nice).

Yeah i heard about that, thanks for the tip. Its a damn shame about the removal of the japanese voices since Aria did such a good job keeping them in. Oh well...

IGN just put their review up.....9.3.....wow!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
It's been confirmed that a new Castlevania is in development for the NDS, release date being 2006 (from the "Nintendo DS conference 2005"). Also, for those interested, Sega and Treasure have confirmed a full online support for the DS version of Bleach. And Square Enix is working on "Mario Basket 3 on 3" for the DS. Hehehe, neverending goodness! :carcus:
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Aazealh said:
It's been confirmed that a new Castlevania is in development for the NDS, release date being 2006 (from the "Nintendo DS conference 2005"). Also, for those interested, Sega and Treasure have confirmed a full online support for the DS version of Bleach.:

Great news indeed! From playing Castlevania for the majority of yesterday I must say it is awesome. Soul Collecting has become an obsession. The problem is that I'm at school right now and I have a very important exam in an hour and I was supposed to have studied for it yesterday. Rather than learning about articulations and movements of the human body I chose rather to study Soul Eating and Weapon Synthesis. Oh boy.....I'm screwed.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Also, going along with the Final Fantasy III and FF Crystal Chronicles releases on NDS, Square announced that FFV and FFVI would come out on GBA (FFIV is already in development for GBA). Guess the next is FFVII for NDS? :badbone:

Add to this the fact that Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series, unveiled his first project of a game for the NDS, called ASH. It'll be a mix between RPG and tactical RPG. The composer for the game will be Hitoshi Sakimoto, who did the FF Tactics OST.
 

Ko Ninja

¯\(O_o)/¯ クー
I'm not sure how many of you might catch on to these things, or even care for stuff like this, but I'll post it here anyway. Whenever I play games, I can't help but try and find ways to increase my options through skills (damn cheat code devices nowadays :miura: ). Similar to tech as in the original Ninja Ryukenden (aka Ninja Gaiden) of instant slashing or just frame wall jumping, or hell even just glitches of falling through the walls when moving towards the right. . . but that's a different story.

Anyway, back to the point. In Castlevania I came up with a few quicker ways of doing stuff. (Hopfully some item doesn't give you 'no lag time slash ability' or something and I'm just bothering you guys with useless info).

1. When you can double jump, you also have the ability to do the dive kick, but you have a slight recovery time on landing. If you have the "Flying Armor" soul equipped, just hold it for a second while you're in the double jump as you dive kick, and you can let go as soon as the animation starts (it's not even a noticeable amount of MP Usage at all) so when you land, you can instantly move on without any landing frames or do another double jump into dive kick succession using the same tech to move down longer hallways a bit quicker. Usesless? Maybe. . . .Be nice :judo:

2. This one may be more useful for you guys/girls. I've only tested this with the "Knuckle" & "Katana" types at the moment. If you have a Katana weapon equipped I'm sure you can't help but notice the lag time you get while you're standing there swinging or jumping and swinging. You can get a super fast double slash out (works best against grounded enemies, of course) by just barely tapping the jump button so you hop off the ground and on your brief falling frame animation press the attack button just as you're about to touch the ground, releasing your air slash. As soon as Soma lands, he returns to neutral frame animation which means you can slash instantly again. Double slash = Always good. Or, if you're fighting a "bigger baddy", you don't have to do the double slash. You can just use the same tech over and over again for quick slashes in succession. Barely jump, wait for fall animation, tap attack before grounding, anticipate the quick landing, barely jump again - wash, rinse, repeat. This doesn't work as well for Knuckles, but the first tech of jumping in for the double punch is still quicker, though barely noticeable, and besides it works well for a : jump in double punch into punch sequence combo. Who knows, maybe that extra milisecond saved you?
:SK:

Unfortunately, goofing off and having lots of work has left me at only 34% completion so far. I envy you guys for having beaten it (Aaz) or gotten far (Handsome Rak). :serpico: I've been trying to find a way for the Two-Handed swords to swing quicker. Well, hope that helped some or at least interested you. If now? :troll:
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Ko Ninja said:
1. When you can double jump, you also have the ability to do the dive kick, but you have a slight recovery time on landing. If you have the "Flying Armor" soul equipped, just hold it for a second while you're in the double jump as you dive kick

Hehe, not bad, but you'd have to always equip the Flying Armor soul, which I personally didn't use much except for when it was absolutely needed. However I like to use the dive kick on flying enemies after having double jumped to reach high places.

Ko Ninja said:
You can get a super fast double slash out

That's a pretty "common" trick as far as I know. I mean, I was already doing it in SOTN and I always assumed everybody did. Works in AoS and DoS too and I think that's one of the major interest of these weapons (the one hand slashing). About katana in DoS, there are some really cool ones with nice animations later on. :void: I've been more of a big sword user in AoS and DoS though. In my neverending quest for Dragon Slayer look-alikes I didn't use any other weapon outside of testing them.

Ko Ninja said:
I've been trying to find a way for the Two-Handed swords to swing quicker.

Well, if you find a way, tell me. :guts:
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Good tips!
I've been using the fast katana slash a lot when I'm leveling or soul collecting. I just find the axes too troublesome outside of boss battles. Plus, I love the attack animations on the katana class swords. Makes Soma look like a samurai.
 
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