Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow | Better Than Aria? 

Which Soma Cruz adventure did you like more Aria Of Sorrow or Dawn Of Sorrow? And if you want to see all my other Igavania vids, go here :D ru-vid.com/group/PLYwJcYYZUDNr8T4G2bT4SUbp3bT4Vww1H

They gave Dark Lord Soma a unique voice line for each Julius mode character depending on who confronts him! Truly an epic boss battle.

I just find it impressive Konami made the handheld Castlevenia games back to back to back like this. Bringing out a new one roughly about every 1,5 years and having them all be consistently good. They all follow the template of Symphony of the Night and they all do it justice as well as each one standing out from the others in some way or another.

The magic seal system seems like something nintendo pressured konami to do to show off the new fancy touchscreen technology.

I get Iga's logic with the art shift, I really do (Dawn was my first CV, after all), but I really wish he hired an anime character designer that fits Castlevania's gothic aesthetic instead of the generic dime-a-dozen look we got. Someone like Atsuko Nakajima or Hideyuki Morioka would've done wonders in translating Ayami Kojima's art into a traditional anime style. At least the opening movie was cool.

Apply both the auto-seal patch and luck fix patch to the rom - boom - makes this game 100x more enjoyable!

most people ignore that the portraits in DoS are also far more expressive and varied than in AoS. Soma for one has like 10 portraits rather than 2, and most of them are actually made for game rather than AoS where pretty much all portraits are extremely compressed character artwork, which leads to some hilarious moments such as when Yoko was stabbed and both Soma and Yoko still used their usual portraits.

imagine aria of sorrow gets an anime adaptation. castlevania fans are going to be crazy

It's great, but Aria had a better story and characters. Graham is the better villain, turning into Dracula with the secret is really cool, I do like fighting Soma in Dawn though, that was like the coolest thing ever

Great video! I love this game a lot. Very classic. Wish they made more like Dawn

Me still waiting on that portrait of ruin video

The release of the Castlevania Advance Collection led me to look for relevant videos about the series, and that led me to you. I’ve been going through your videos, and I must say that they are informative, well-written, well-edited, clever, and even funny at times. You are doing incredible work on this channel, and you deserve a bigger following. I hope it finds you. I will certainly be talking you up. :)

Just found your channel and just watched the whole Igavania playlist. Hope life is going well and can't wait for your Portrait of Ruin and Order Of Ecclesia video

One of the best Castlevania games imo. The art style and touch controls never bothered me.

Dawn of Sorrow is probably my personal favorite and now that Aria of Sorrow got a rerelease on Switch I PRAY that Dawn gets a rerelease. I will die happy.

I liked Dawn of Sorrow, being my intro to Castlevania. But i really liked playing Portrait of Ruin, i played Order of Ecclesia for one bit but that game felt a bit harder than i thought

You're reaction to the touch screen is hilarious 😂 I had forgotten but now I remember how I started to dread those parts 😅

Thank you fot making these videos. I miss these games, special CoD, and I'm surprised not many people talk about them

Everyone: the anime art style for DoS and PoR sucked! Rondo of blood: ...

For the record, I never really was bothered by the magic seals that much. They are gimmicky, but they didn't ruin the experience for me. The one issue that I had with it was remembering which seal needed to used on what boss! Regarding the enemies not leveling up at the same level as Soma, out of all of the Iga Castlevania games, I believe that Order of Ecclesia corrects this issue.

As someone who ADORES magic seals, i didnt mind it at all. It was easy to remember and awesome to pull off correctly. As a child it felt like you have to do some actual precise magic.

Dawn is a great game but something about it doesn't feel right. I think Soma moves to slow, what I think happened is they wanted to keep him the same speed as he was in Aria but the castle in Dawn is way bigger, not only that dawn is harder then Aria in the sense that the enemies take longer to kill which makes traversing the castle without the panther soul even more tedious. Also it seems there is a lot more dead ends and geometry to move around then in Aria but this is hard to quantify. If they ever do a re release I think an option to make Soma walk faster would make new players like it more without altering the game to much. Also the pacing and the flow of exploration doesn't feel as good as Aria but this is hard to substantiate. I love Dawn of Sorrow don't get me wrong but I honestly prefer Aria.

The seals legit made it impossible for me to pass. I was too slow as a kid which is funny. Glad im not the only one

Dawn of Sorrow was a great game but to be honest I didn't like its castle nearly as much as aria's, I also preferred how much meatier the sound was in aria. Even though the story is better executed than in aria I always felt that aria was a better overall epilogue to the series than dawn, idk aria feels like the ending to the eternal struggle between the world and Dracula while dawn felt like another day in the life of a teenager with superpowers.

Love your channel, hope to see more videos

One of my favorite Castlevania games. It's in my Top 3. GREAT VIDEO! Were you originally going to call it "Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow | Better Than Symphony?" as your narration suggests?

Aria of sorrow has mostly comfy boss battle while dawn of sorrow has annoying seals in every boss battle, In aria of sorrow soma feels quick, while in dawn of sorrow he feels slow(mostly while using the big swords). In aria of sorrow hammer theme sounds like soldier music(wich fits really well for him). While in dawn of sorrow hammer theme sounds like christmas music(very out of place because he is not santa claus). Dawn of sorrow is not bad, but i prefer aria of sorrow.

"Younger gamers tend not to like Miss Kojima's more aesthetic style so much" you were so wrong Iga, 14 yo me loved it and I still do. Evil Soma even appealed to teen angst dead on.

Dawn of Sorrow is my favorite Castlevania game, period. I have no issue with the art style as I like both beautiful gothic from Miss Ayami Kojima and the more simple Anime style, there is no better or worse it's just different style. And as an artist I also has zero problem with the Seal system for I can draw it easily (But I agree it is too gimmicky the game doesn't need it, and shouldn't have it as it only hinder players who don't have certain skill that out of needed to enjoy action games). Other aspects of the game are just great, no complain.

Dawn was my first Castlevania, so I had no idea about the artstyle change and thus didn't mind it. And personally, I love the magic circles xD I think they added a good bit of flavour to the game, having to not only weaken the boss, but having to seal it away too was awesome. And I got so in tune with them that I tried to go as fast as possible lmao Totally get that it's not for everyone, tho! All the other points I agree with fully 😄

Dawn of Sorrow is IMO the best Igavania, with a caveat, a no-touchscreen rom hack. Game is 100% better off without that gimmick. Also I didn't hate the cheaper aesthetic, but that's just me. In any case, DoS feels like a definitive refinement over Aria, and even SotN. Gone are the hardware restrictions and the less refined decisions of the first Igavania. DoS is the realest deal IMO. Also Julius mode is just... *chef kiss*

If you emulate Aria of Sorrow, I highly recommend entering in the cheat that does the seals for you. Makes the experience much smoother.

I think alot of effort went into making this, and I really hope you continue to grow your channel.

The lord has returned

i love dawn of sorrow but the horrendous seal system stops it from being my favorite, The final boss didnt have it and neither did Julius mode its almost as if they relaized at the last minute how bad it was

Feel it’s worth mentioning that Dawn’s soundtrack was co-composed by Masahiko Kimura, who also worked on the N64 Castlevania soundtrack, and that all of the tracks mentioned in this video are by him. It is weird to me how available information is now for credits on video games, and yet how inaccurate the attribution of authorship continues to be, especially as it regards games’ music.

I love both Aria and Dawn of Sorrow... but I really love the evil laugh of Dark Lord Soma...it´s charming and terrifing at the same time...

Can't wait for portrait of ruin! Played it back when I was a kid, had no idea it was part of a trilogy or that there were gba games. I remember liking it a lot as a kid

Dawn of Sorrow had cool soul combinations. Order of Ecclesia was really fast paced and had the dual weapon system. Portrait of Ruin was really fun having two characters to fight with throughout the game

Great quality content! Just binged your entire series! Hope you haven’t given up and will make more!!

Just caught up with your whole retrospective and I loved it. Mad respect for getting this far with massive gaps in upload, I know life can get rough. While I've played most the classic games, the only Igarashi game I beat (and completed) was SotN. I was interested in trying his other ones and you've definitely made me more inclined for some of them, especially with Curse of Darkness which I previously wasn't too interested in. I'm a little less excited about Harmony of Dissonance now but given that it's Igarashi's first game after Symphony I don't wanna skip it.

After replaying them all recently, I must say that Dawn of Sorrow is probably my favorite Iga Castlevania!

Soma: -.- Death: So... Any chance you want to be my master?

Just binged this whole series (and subscribed) very well done retrospective 👍 very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts on portrait and order

Never was a fan of this one at release and vastly preferred Aria. But finding a rom patch that removed seals and switched character art to Aria's portraits and playing on a giant tablet made me really love this one. Those seals were a dealbreaker but such a good game hiding underneath

The art-style of the game looked very 90's anime I'd say it was part of the charm.

At work now but you know I'll enjoy this I'm going to wait and enjoy this when I get home.

My first castlevania. And i also got a feel of nigh omnipotence as every enemy i kill and capture.

Ugh, i really like the Portraits and the Anime Style.

i would say in terms of level design, aria of sorrow do better, IMHO the area that its well worked its the lost village and part of the condenmed tower, but the rest of the maps feels like random platformers designs which made me wonder if dawn of sorrow was rushed. on the other side gameplay its more polished than aria of sorrow and many souls have new combinations (but still wonder what kind of soul attack would be that "werewolf projection" that i found in some sprites sheets of soma), plus the julius mode now have 3 characters to use. definitively improved many things from aria of sorrow, but in my view, the order of the DS metroidvanias in term of level design its: 1.- portrait of ruin 2.- order of ecclesia 3.- dawn of sorrow

Order of Ecclesia is better than both.

There's a SERIOUS argument to be made that any one of the DS games, Aria, or Symphony is the single best Igavania (or even Castlevania) game in the franchise. That speaks volumes about both the quality of the series and the skill of Igarashi and his team.

Wow, thanks RU-vid algorithm. I really enjoyed this video

Dude made q bunch of good castlevania videos and simply vanished

Can't wait to watch your Portrait of Ruin video. Hopefully you'll consider an Order of Ecclesia video as well.

One thing I didn’t like about Soma’s sprite was the Go-Go boots

and here i thought thoseGODAMN SEALS only sucked for people with hand problems like myself.

I dunno if the magic seals were more difficult on the DS, but I had no problem with them emulating on my phone. I only missed a seal once my entire playthrough.

I think we all agree that the gothic painted style of Aria is vastly superior to the anime aesthetic of Dawn, but I think you're overdoing it a bit. The anime renditions of the characters aren't bad at all. They're pretty high quality, actually. If it wasn't a Castlevania game I'd have no complaints about it. My favourite DS RPG, Infinite Space, has a similar art style and it works wonderfully there as that game plays out like an anime series. And yes, the magic seals need to die in a fire (I hope they don't even try to figure out how make them work on PC and just do away with them entirely for the DS collection). They're the one part of an otherwise fantastic game that I absolutely hate. Spot on how the touch screen should have been used for giving the map additional functionality instead. I definitely agree about Julius Mode as well. My only complaint there was the lack of Hammer as a stand in for the pirate Grant. But I was too thrilled with everything else about that mode to dwell on that missing ingredient too much. I heard he was intended as a Grant type companion for Julius Mode, but was cut for time or technical reasons. Not sure if that's true but it sure would be nice if the upcoming PC port corrected that.

The magic seals were awesome to be honest, i dont understand the hate, felt like actually trying to seal the demons with magic

Played symphony before this and you can definitely see the evolution.

Found your video on Reddit and had to watch. Now I’ve been going back and watching your other content and it’s fantastic. Definitely subbing

Julius Mode is hype

I loved Dawn. I really did. But it didnt feel like Castlevania in the same way Aria and Symphony did. It was too upbeat in ways that it shouldnt have been although it did have some legitimately disturbing content. Aria felt consistently unsettling and I appreciated the general lack of gimmicks. To me, it was the better game.

Childhood Memories 😢

I'd personally prefer Aria , but i like if Soma has another game , and make it a crossover timeline ; which also gave the other timeline characters ( Potrait of Ruin , Order of Ecclesia ) a spotlight too.

Love both but symphony of the night is the best for nostalgia tho these have better controls and magic

For me Dawn was bit of a chore to play. When I finally played it through on emulator (no romhacks), I just brute forced it through. Something just bothered me with it. Maybe it was the flow?

Blame the seals on the fact that they were only added because Nintendo wanted early ds games to have a touch screen gimmick that was integral to the game.

*Aria of Sorrow was better in almost every way. Three were some things that Dawn did better overall Dawn was a downgrade.*

You know what's cool for the sequel ? Alucard's thought of being the Dark Lord if necessary. In Julius mode , Alucard was one of the fighter who fought Dark Lord Soma. This time , reverse the role ; Soma fought the Dark Lord Alucard instead. Alucard from antagonistic pov sounds interesting to do.

The art style always reminded me of rondo of blood.

With the patches applied, this is a top 3 CV game

Apparently Hammer was originally going to be the playable Grant equivalent for Julius mode, but they cut him out for whatever reason. Yet another case of Grant being forgotten.

play the modded version no touch screen CV DoS DE+ (v1.3) (full, new portraits).nds fixes art too your welcome

There was another video that elaborated on why Iga changed the art style for this game. While the GBA Castlevania titles were well received, they underperformed in sales and Iga couldn't understand at the time on why that was. So instead of using the gothic-style artwork for the box cover and cut scenes he opted to change to an anime-style to see if that would drive sales. Lo and behold the game became a hit, because more parents bought it for their children. Also, the game is very fun almost on par with SOTN imo.

I liked the gameplay of DoS, though the graphics were a bit too cutesy for me. But the story and gothic concept of AoS was WAY EPIC

Why didn't you show the difference between the Aria and Dawn animations in the video when you were talking about it?

Great video!! This was my first Castlevania.

Also there is rom hack with no seals and Ayame Kojima art

Hope to see a fangame that uses Dawn's characters as prequel/early story and Aria's Characters as Main Story, the Present Story line is kinda butchered, it should be able to re-organize the 3 Dark-lord Candidates and Graham into a better Stream-Line.

So wait THIS is the Dark Souls of Castlevania games?

I always thought it was common sense that Dawn is better (despite the touchscreen gimmick). Harder (in contrast to Aria's babyish difficulty), more detailed sprites and backgrounds, better music, etc etc.

Idk why people hated the Seals. it was a pretty cool system

have just returned to the franchise as I wait for the 4th season of the Netflix series, while watching memes and I came across to this video. Haven't played the game myself, BUT I CAN TELL THE SEALS ARE PAINFUL, that little voice acting bit for the fiction at the end is cute! Please keep up the effort! P.S do you have the link to the fiction? Because it seems like I can't find it anywhere in the net

Another excellent video, glad you are back! I think Dawn is certainly my least favorite of the DS Igavanias, but that is not to say it is bad. DoS certainly did better than AoS in my opinion by simply expanding on the core elements that Aria had, but I couldn't agree more with the touchscreen issue and the art style change. It's still an undoubtedly solid entry in the series with plenty of both main-game and new-game content (I really enjoyed all of the weapons you could get with soul-synthesis and that each weapon type sort of had its own late-game variant, and Julius mode in this is the coolest. I loved getting to play as Alucard! The special final boss and the interaction between the different characters was so cool as well.) Can't wait to hear what you have to say about Portrait of Ruin... probably my favorite Igavania!

Dawn of Sorrow was the first Igavania I owned. After playing Aria of Sorrow all the way through soon after, I liked that one much more. But DoS felt important enough to me that I gave it to a dear friend before moving away. It has a charm Your videos encouraged me to revisit it. My feelings haven't changed. The map & level themes feel disjointed, the soul drop rate feels lower (either due to math or because of the enemy variety), and something about the enemy & encounter design feels wonky somehow. Like, in Aria, there are so many ways your movement is recontextualized, like fighting Barbarosas when moving horizontally vs. vertically. Or early on when you fight armors and skeletons cordoned off with Une-infested pits. DoS has more crazy options for your offense, but there are very few enemy arrangements which force interesting movement. One area that hasn't been topped since Dawn of Sorrow: NASTY GORE AND HORROR. Blood, chunks, too-tight skin, MEAT... I'm particularly fond of the Homonculi. When I first saw one swim off their tube and drown, I yelled "EWW!" It rules. And the variety of weapons is choice. This latest run, I got a Skelerang soul, and I went through most of the game with a scythe. It felt like my playthrough was unique! And I guess that's what's good about the low drop rate for souls; you're forced to improvise some during replays if you want to speed through.

I found the level design much better in Dawn of Sorrow.

I tried Dawn of Sorrow and I am in agreeance with the boss seal system. It turned me off, but I can at least enjoy the classic metroidvania style of DoS in Harmony of Despair. However with that being said, here I think are the strengths of Aria over Dawn: 1. Better visual art style for the portraits. I have nothing against anime, but the classic art style has way more of an impact on me. 2. Better enemy design. Again, I don't think the DoS enemy designs are bad but I think the AoS has more of a realistic feel to me imho. 3. Better weapon design. I do like a few on the new entries for DoS but AoS oversized great swords like the Claim Solais are hard to beat in terms of design. Maybe since I grew up with Sotn, I think AoS just resonates better with my experience with the Castlevania franchise over the anime art style. I did really enjoy Portrait of Ruin despite it being the underdog of the franchise.

3:36 is that a...

- Reads Title - Yes... this is one of those facts you can just see by watching and comparing games. With gaming experience you actually get to a point in which you can just sense and judge which thing is superior, is like a sense. Call it a Gaming Sense

I feel your pain with the stylus man

I love dawn of Sorrow despite what others may say.

Im sorry, i thought sealing the bosses was brilliant

I'm a new subscriber on your channel, been wanting to fill the void with Castlevania content, and not a lot of channels cover these great beloved games, can't believe you even went through the PS2 games, which in my opinion is one of the greatest game I've ever played (mostly CoD), i mean the content in it was so generous i could have at least spent more hours in it than any other game that has come in previous years. Recently subscribed and hoping for more content to come! Great video editing and all around well put criticism, can't wait for your video on Portrait of Ruin, one of my favs to come out of DS. Cheers!

Dawn of sorrow, as a game, is really good. The first one to use the DS revamped engine, which makes it very close to sotn. The story, i'll be honest, goes from serviceable to bad. I hope someone using dsvania editor remakes AoS using DoS engine. That would make it so much more perfect. One day... Ps: one thing i thought was pretty cool, is the fact that it is supposed to be a replica of Aria's castle. If you look at the placement of areas, they're located mostly at the same area of their equivalent, like the garden in the middle of the castle.

I remember playing more on the Julius/Trio mode than the Soma mode...all because of the seals...

Wait people hated this game this is like my favorite game ever I’m about to get it tatted on me💔

the only thing to keep this game alive is to have some fan made rom hacks

konami should be re-releasing all the ds games in castlevania ds collection im sure its coming but when dont know and i will be more then happy to buy that collection all these castlevania ds games are a must have and i will pay to buy a collection for the ps4 and other consoles .!!