Since when did Castlevania become part of the Saturday morning lineup?
Castlevania has always been known(except for a few select titles) for its uproarious, almost ludicrously hard side scrolling gameplay, and trust me when I say it is definitely present. But for something on the DS I was wondering when I was going to get to use my stylus in the gameplay. The sword swinging, knife-stabbing, and occasional gun-shooting was there, but it was all handled via the basic D-Pad and face buttons, no touch. All the double-jumping, sliding, and back-dashing were there, no touch. Alright, maybe they are saving it for something big is what I found myself saying. Well, I finally ran into this glyph-like thing hovering in mid-air and the screens brightness went down and I was prompted to follow the lines on the screen with my stylus. Awesome! This must be a way to cast some cool spell or something of that nature! No....it's not. It's just a special way to open certain doors. Of all the tacked on ways to implement touch screen this felt like I had been punched in the dark. There was absolutely no reason to bring in touch screen at all. All of the gameplay all the fans had come to love over this series' prestigious existence was in tact, but absolutely nothing new was brought to the table in this outing. It sincerely felt like Aria of Sorrow 1.5, not even a real sequel. It felt more like an expansion.
The story of DoS is your typical Castlevania affair of having to destroy Dracula, which is perfectly fine. I honestly do not expect the series to go any farther than that story wise. But at least give me something I want to follow before getting to the Lord of Darkness' lair! The story just seems unnecessary with this new group of character's(which are very one-sided) personalities. It is completely forgettable in its execution so there is really no reason to follow it other than to just bypass the long periods of wandering and exploring. Which in this Castlevania, much like the others, is exactly what you will find yourself doing for the majority of the game.
The game's sound is one of the highest points with its haunting orchestrated music and very crisp yelps and wails coming from your enemies as they are quickly(and not so quickly) dispatched. The different sounds that emanate from the dim halls are very fitting for your surroundings and none of the music seems out of place. All in all the sound of the game is most certainly worthy of the Castlevania title.
Visually, in game is typical Castlevania. There are no shortages of zombies, skeletons, fishmen, or bats. It all is animated very well and it should be. The blood spurts that come with slicing across a zombie is very much something you can watch over and over. The animation of Soma is also done very well, wether he is sliding, jumping, slashing or what have you. But, beyond that is pretty much where artistically this game falls falt on its face...hard. The actual characters rendering through the story board dialogue look awful. It seriously looks like they took drawings from a cheaply made Saturday morning anime and just added a little bit of Castlevania to them. The character art is something that this series has always had a leg up on the competition with. The amazingly well drawn portraits that look fitting of a museum masterpiece have been tossed for a bland, anime-inspired cartoon. It really is disheartening that with all the hype the game received, Konami gives us something that is just this sloppily thrown together.
All in all it is typical Castlevania. Don't let the minor setbacks keep you from playing the game because it is still very good. It is definitely the best that the DS has to offer in terms of 2D side-scrolling right now. I just really wish this game would have gone above and beyond, rather than offer a bland, dissapointing adventure that will have you forget about it before you even make it to the credits.