Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Retrospective

[EvilBob46]

GameDaily has an article (http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11301&filter=toppers) talking with Product Manager Matt Knoles about the recently released Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS. He discusses how the game's sales have exceeded expectations (comparing favorably to those of previous portable Castlevania games, despite of the much lower user base of the DS compared to the Gameboy Advance). He was also pleased with the game's universal critical acclaim. (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/922145.asp)

There have been rumors of another Castlevania game being in the works for the DS. Hopefully those rumors are going to materialize, given Dawn of Sorrow's success.

[Adam Blue]

It's good that this game sold well, but does anybody agree with me that it was way too easy? Even the level design and music was mediocre compared to previous titles. This is coming from a HUGE CV fan.

[anclunn]

I liekd the GBA one more personally,,, until I tried the DS's Julius Mode. Now THAT's replay value!

[IndependentGMR]

I thought it was pretty good.

[card930]

Adam, THANK YOU. I thought I was the only one who felt this way. I did like the music for the most part, but the game was a cake walk. The castle is very uninspiring, and, at least to me, it felt like i was fighting my way through about a total of 8 different enemies.
Go back, everyone, plug in your PS1, and load up Symphony of the Night and just see how challenging a game like this is supposed to be.

[Deadend]

How about they just port Symphony of the Night to the DS? It's going on 10 years soon. Or maybe they don't want to, as it will make the last 3 'big' Castlevania games look like crap.

[Lynxara]

SotN would make a much better PSP port. Going to DS would neuter the music (at the very least), but a PSP port could be perfect.

[agentgray]

Yeah. I even read somewhere that DoS was driving sales of the DS.

[Lynxara]

I know at local DS display kiosks, they tend to have one machine demonstrating Mario Kart DS while the other demonstrates Castlevania: DoS.

[Worldcrafter]

I can hardly find a copy of Castlevania DS around here, but I think most stores just don't seem to be carrying it.

[Stormwatcher]

Castlevania DS just rocks. Don't be so sourpuss. A game supposed to be played at the subway, during car and plane trips and so on CAN'T be as demanding from the player as one you play for hours and hours at home.

[Lynxara]

I don't know, some of the early Game Boy Castlevanias are among the hardest in a hard franchise... anyway, SotN is gigantically easier than DoS to begin with, so it's hardly a portable game thing. The exploration 2D Castlevanias are all been pretty forgiving, all the power-ups and the level-up options give players a lot more ways to win.

[johnperkins21]

Please allow me to beat this horse who seems to have stopped breathing.

Could someone please tell the developers of this great franchise to stop making 3D games? What I wouldn't give for a Castlevania game on the 360 or PS3 that is 2D and simply builds on what SotN did so well. So please make this game. There is no way that they really think it won't sell. Almost nobody likes the 3D versions and as evidenced by the Gameboy success almost everyone loves the 2D versions. How is this not getting through to the guys who green light these projects?