I find Castlevania in its current form irresistible.

As much as I love to complain about a lack of exciting new concepts in games, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow continues to refine the formula that makes the portable version of this series so appealing. When you aren’t mentally replacing the main character with one that wears bionic armour, the gameplay remains gripping. The need to collect better armour, weapons and more powerful spells (the souls that first appeared in Aria of Sorrow) drives the game forward. Ever since Symphony of the Night, Castlevania has turned into a kind of “Castleroid”, adopting the exploration to acquire new power to unlock new areas methodology. Though what Castlevania adds is experience points. It gives purpose to repeatedly visiting the same rooms during those long sessions of trying to figure out where to go next. Except this is not really an RPG, because the player has no control over the main character’s stat progression. And yet somehow the entire system manages to work.

Though we are now on the DS, and Dawn of Sorrow upsets the balance by adding some features that are intended to take advantage of the DS’ touch screen. Frankly, these additions are weak and do more to soil the purity of the experience than actually enhance the gameplay. I am of the mindset that if the stylus must be used, it should be directly integrated with the game’s mechanics and not used intermittently – Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Meteos and even Metroid Prime: Hunters do this well.

The first instance of this breach in gameplay are the ice blocks. After killing the second boss in the game, you gain the ability to break these blocks that are either preventing entrance into rooms or require modification to ascend a height before getting the double-jump. Something that I thought would be a lynchpin of the gameworld – this manipulation of the game’s environment using the touch screen – amounts to little more than a parlour trick, as these obstacles are rarely encountered. By the time I reached the endgame sequence, I wondered if it was necessary to include it at all.

The next offender is the Seal system. These are patterns that must be traced on screen in a single stroke once a boss monster has been defeated to banish them forever. With only five seals to learn and roughly 14 bosses over the course of the game, the difficulty ramps up gradually. They can be practiced at any time, but after experiencing this system first-hand I can only describe it as self-sabotage waiting to happen. As if boss battles weren’t already hard enough, they can be undone by a slip of the stylus or simply forgetting part of a stroke. Furthermore, fumbling for the stylus after I’ve just worked my thumbs raw and have only 30 health points to spare tends to build a kind of insurmountable pressure to perform. You will fight bosses multiple times, but not because they are difficult. No. It will be because of these invasive seals, brutally justifying the stylus’ use with this game.

However these intermissions and the brief emotional outbursts that followed seemed to fade into the background of Dawn of Sorrow’s main purpose: to provide a two-dimensional platformer. In this regard the game excels; everything about the gameplay exudes familiarity, and yet the DS’ capabilities for rendering my adventures as Soma Cruz surprised me at every turn, proving once again that a third dimension is not always necessary. Furthermore, what has been impressive about the Castlevania series for Nintendo’s portable platforms is that there has been a noticeable evolution in the game’s visuals. I thought Aria of Sorrow was an incredible advance over Harmony of Dissonance – but l look back now and see a game that looks a lot older than it actually is. Dawn of Sorrow makes me want to see more 2D games on the DS.

Aside from the obvious concessions made for the touch screen, some additions were made to improve on the Castlevania experience last seen in Aria of Sorrow. The Doppelganger ability allows the creation of two sets of armour, weapons and souls to be equipped by Soma, switchable by the press of a single button. This is unbelievably convenient during boss battles, where a heavy weapon and quick weapon would often be required. Also included is a kind of weapon customization feature, which was created with the best of intentions I’m sure. You can fuse souls with weapons, removing them from your inventory of equippable souls. However, this is all limited by the weapons and souls you happen to have – you can only fuse a prescribed soul to a weapon, leaving these “customization” options not very customizable at all.

In a an homage to classic Castlevania, completing one of the three possible endings where Soma becomes Dracula unlocks “Julius Mode”, which allows you to play through the game as Julius Belmont and ultimately take on Soma. There are no souls, no magic seals, weapons or special powers – just Vampire Killer and an amazing remix of the original Castlevania soundtrack.

After finishing the fourth portable iteration of Castlevania The Quasi-RPG, it became clear that the games are directly tapping into the Pokémon subconscious. They are games for the completist: obtain the perfect set of gear, complete 100% of the map, get every soul in the game. I always found it amazing that absolutely every enemy I fought had the potential to give an ability once, or many times over through levelling up an existing soul in my repertoire. It meant when I passed through that corridor for the 20th time, I might get something in return. Killing a lowly skeleton does not encourage an automated response; instead, it maintains interest. I wouldn’t call it infinite replayability, but it comes close. Even after beating the game you can go back to your save game and explore the castle for secret areas and a full set of souls. In the realm of 2D adventures, I get the feeling that Samus Aran has just been overtaken.

i saw them all inside a sheet of flame