Castlevania Dominus Collection Review (PS5) | DestroyRepeat

Castlevania Dominus Collection
Jan
28

Castlevania Dominus Collection Review (PS5)

Castlevania has been a long running franchise that was born in 1987 as “Haunted Castle.” It was panned around arcade launch, but in 1986, “Castlevania” was also released for NES, and was pretty successful because of the install base of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It spawned its own franchise as “Castlevania.” Following the release of Castlevania (NES), Konami released Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest in 1988, and Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse in 1990. In 1991, Super Castlevania IV was released for Super NES. In 1993, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood was released for PC Engine’s CD-ROM system. The sequel, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was released for PlayStation in 1997. Symphony of the Night went on to become a platinum seller, with over a Million copies. That includes re-releases, collection packs, and whatnot.

Right here, if you hear “Metroidvania,” this is where it all began. Because the gameplay of Symphony of the Night is compared with Super Metroid. That’s why people talk about Symphony of the Night. People wanted more. Konami obliged. GameBoy Advance was released, and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was the launch title. Konami followed up with Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance in 2002. Konami then followed up with Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow in 2003.

Fans was having a blast with the 3 new Castlevania games. Probably thinking that, uh… That was the end of Castlevania, Konami said… “Ya want more? Here ya go.” While Konami was experimenting with the Castlevania games in 3D, on other platforms such as Nintendo 64, and PS2 – Konami brought 3 straight Castlevania games that followed the Metroidvania style of gameplay. The first of the 3 was Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for Nintendo DS, which was released in 2005 – about 6 months after Nintendo DS was released. Konami then released Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in 2006. Konami then released Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia in 2008.

Most of these games have been released as collections over the years. Castlevania Requiem: Symphony of the Night & Rondo of Blood was released in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation 4. Castlevania Anniversary Collection was released in 2019 for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC. Castlevania Advance Collection was released in 2021 for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC. Castlevania Dominus Collection was released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S / X, Nintendo Switch, and PC on August 27, 2024, Castlevania Dominus Collection is a digital release, and costs $24.99 USD.

To aid this review, I played through the entire Castlevania Advance Collection, and Castlevania Dominus Collection catalogue of games. Because most of the Dominus games are sequels. Dawn of Sorrow is the sequel to Aria of Sorrow, obviously. However, Portrait of Ruin is the sequel to a Genesis game, called Castlevania: Bloodlines. And Order of Ecclesia – get ready to be surprised – Order of Ecclesia is the sequel to… Symphony of the Night.

Castlevania Requiem was developed in-house by Konami themselves, I wish it was M2 doing it. Fortunately, Castlevania Advance Collection was developed by M2, and Konami re-hired M2 to develop Castlevania Dominus Collection. Today’s review is about Castlevania Dominus Collection.

Castlevania Dominus Collection is M2’s best work yet. I’ve seen most of M2’s collections. They do a great job porting games to other consoles. Notable works include Sega Genesis Mini, Sega Genesis Mini 2, TurboGrafx-16 Mini, Sega Genesis on Nintendo Switch Online, partially on Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, and partially on Mega Man X Legacy Collection. They have more games under their belt, but I think people will know M2’s work via the logo when it splashes onto the screen. You see a M2 logo, you know you have a great collection on your hands. But I say Dominus is their best work.

Porting a Super NES-level compilation like Castlevania Advance Collection seemed a bit easy. But porting a Nintendo DS game or games…? Nintendo DS/3DS is more powerful than the GBA. Dominus plays really well on PS5 from what I’ve played. And I’ve played the whole collection, from the beginning to end. M2 even found a way for mapping some mechanics and even re-working some mechanics to work with PS5.

The last compilation I’ve seen ported from Nintendo DS is the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection. I think there’s a reason for that, beyond the touch controls. I think Dominus is a labor of love from M2. I feel like, when I play Castlevania Dominus Collection, whomever was doing Quality Assurance during development, I feel like they absolutely loved working on the game.

There is an extra game in Castlevania Dominus Collection and it’s circling back to the beginning: Haunted Castle, and the logo is in Japanese. M2 didn’t even change the logo. I don’t think Konami said “put this logo” as the logo. No, no, no. Untouched. Konami is not shy. Boom. I wouldn’t have it any other way. They even put in the japanese, and other languages in the game. Across the rest of the collection. The other thing they added was something interesting; a remake of Haunted Castle – Haunted Castle Revisited.

Since, this is a retro review, I’ll make this a cool way to review all the games. Before playing Castlevania Dominus Collection, I have never played any of the Nintendo DS games. I’ve always wanted to, and this was the perfect opportunity to play them.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Gameplay: If you played Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, then you know how to play the game. But for those of you who haven’t, or don’t know how Castlevania works now. It’s a “Metroidvania” game so, for the most part, you are either in labyrinth maze in a network of caves, or a castle. Castlevania games does have caves, but they’re integrated underneath a castle. Dawn of Sorrow maintains the design philosophy of Symphony of the Night brought. However, there are some gameplay innovations that will be covered in other sections.

Difficulty: There is a difficulty spike in Dawn of Sorrow, but this spike is slow, and creeping up to maximum by the end of Dawn of Sorrow. Once you’ve defeated a boss, though – this spike is a different kind of “hard.” I’ll discuss this more in the “Controls” section, but gameplay wise, bosses get harder and harder, and harder after every boss battle. The progress is felt this time around than Symphony of the Night, and Aria of Sorrow. It will feel like you don’t have an effect on the enemy but this improves as you progress, and level up.

Story: I’m not going to spoil the storyline for the game, because Dawn of Sorrow takes place literally right after Aria of Sorrow wraps up. But, I will mention parts of the game: You, Soma, will start battling inept villains who are vying for being the “Dark Lord” of the Castlevania. So, you are battling against two possible candidates.

Controls: As I mentioned earlier, Dawn of Sorrow has some innovations, and it is around Nintendo DS’s control scheme. In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, when you beat a boss, you are greeted with a prompt like a magic seal. On Nintendo DS, you are to use the pen shipped with the handheld. On PS5, you can either use the touchpad or just fail, and beat the boss with 800 HP left. Most bosses’ rooms require a “key” in the form of a magic seal. This system starts off easy, but progressively gets tougher until you reach a spot that seems to be the end game.

Graphics: If you liked Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow – Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has some beautiful scenery. I feel like the developers were trying to get used to the Nintendo DS hardware. I feel like the beginning of the game, they make the least effort, so they expense the final boss battle to new graphics. But, no, they expensed some of their creativity in the beginning, too. Like, when you jump on the van, they made a effect where you jump on it, the snow falls off. When you get to a spot in the game, the atmosphere changes – kinda like in Symphony of the Night, if you reach a waterfall, you are graced with a steamy atmosphere. It blooms the screen – that’s what it creates in some places.

Music & Sound: I play Castlevania games for the gameplay, but if there’s anything that brings me back, or keeps me hooked to Castlevania, it’s the music. Dawn of Sorrow has some interesting music, and crescendos during a boss battle.

Replay Value: There’s more to Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow than just getting all the rooms. You can collect souls in the game. You can use the souls as an attack, or special attack, you can also use the souls to merge weapons with the acquired soul to create a better weapons. The replay value is extended by going to specific rooms that is blocked off by segregating that room with a specific item or ability or soul to get to that location.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Gameplay: Portrait of Ruin actually harkens back to the original Castlevania games. Kinda obvious since Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is a sequel to Castlevania: Bloodlines. There are some gameplay changes, too. You’re not playing as one character anymore, you’re playing as two characters; Jonathan and Charlotte. I hate, and loathe this design choice, it’s distracting, and disorienting. I understand why it was designed this way. It’s designed around Nintendo DS’s innovations. I think this was designed around Nintendo DS’s co-op capability. So, you meet another DS owner, and that player can join in on your game and battle with you. During gameplay, or boss battles. How does this harken back to the original Castlevania games? Well, you’re not playing entirely in a castle anymore. You’re exploring Castlevania, but you’re also entering paintings and you explore small towns, sort of like how you begin Castlevania from the beginning of a castle’s quarters. As you progress, you get from “A” to “B” on a map. You’re now going to different little spots on a map.

Difficulty: The progression in Portrait of Ruin is related to the story, actually. I’ll keep this short, though: Difficulty is either easy or hard depending on the enemies, or bosses you encounter. Each painting has a theme, or attitude it’s going for. I’ll keep this a mystery, because you really need to experience the maps to really understand what the game is.

Story: Portrait of Ruin has a major, major plot-twist as you approach and defeat Brauner. So, I’ll keep this vague: The story is about Brauner, who has two daughters that he looks after. Stella and Loretta stays obedient to Brauner throughout the game, as Brauner brings new bosses to your worldview to keep you distracted as he tries to keep his daughters occupied.

Controls: Besides the two character mechanic, the co-op opportunities, and the character swap feature. Portrait of Ruin feels or felt weird at first. If you use a sword, or mace, there’s a weight to it, resulting in slower swiping of said weapon of choice. As the game progresses, this grew on me, as I continued to play the game.

Graphics: Against Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow? Well, with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Konami got used to the Nintendo DS hardware, and learned how to push more power out of it. And you see it in the graphics. There’s more detail and colors on the screen than Dawn of Sorrow, and the graphics do pop at your screen. Special effects are prominent than on Dawn of Sorrow. This is Konami improving on what they did with Dawn of Sorrow.

Music & Sound: Oh boy. I hope you are ready for music and sound in Portrait of Ruin. Sound is loud, and pops at you. But music? Music is the highlight of Portrait of Ruin, throughout the whole game. And it climaxes at the final boss battle(s).

Replay Value: The overworld of Castlevania is huge, and it has paintings that you enter extend the playtime. But once you’ve cleared all 900+ percent of the game, what’s next? You can play the boss rush, Richter, and Stella/Loretta mode, and that’s it. Replay value is a bit lower than Dawn of Sorrow. The soul extraction system actually extends the game. You want to get almost everything. It’s how the playtime is extended on Aria of Sorrow. One of the achievements is getting all the souls, I think they missed the opportunity to do the same in Dawn of Sorrow, in my humble opinion.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Gameplay: Once again, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia harkens back to the original Castlevania games. This time, you’re not starting out at the castle’s quarters. You’re starting in a monastery, and you have a world map, now. You will progress through these locations, and sometimes you may even unlock a new location via a particular location on a map. You are playing as a single character, once again, but for the most part – the game harkens back to the original Castlevania games.

Difficulty: The difficulty in Order of Ecclesia takes its sweet time, but has difficulty spikes from time to time. Especially with some bosses, as early as the first boss battle against the skeleton. As you level up, Shanoa obtains new moves, new abilities, new weapons, and whatnot. I will not mince words, Order of Ecclesia is frustratingly difficult in some places.

Story: For the majority of the game, you are rescuing villagers while you try to find glyphs and compete against Albus to complete the “destiny” of harnessing the glyph(s) to seal away Dracula again. But there’s a major plot twist, and extends the game.

Controls: The controls in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia are responsive this time around than the other games. It feels fluid in your hands. There are two attack buttons in Order of Ecclesia, because they act as of “Glyphs” which are sometimes magic, and sometimes weapons. You use the glyphs as a “addition” weapon, because once you use both glyphs at the same time, your weapons or magic become more potent, and more powerful. To get these glyphs, you are to find them, via secret locations or via drops from enemies, or hard to reach locations in the game. To “get” the glyphs, you need to absorb them.

Graphics: Once again, as developers get used to Nintendo DS, they harnessed the power of Nintendo DS. Order of Ecclesia brought some improvements such as more color and detail. Furthermore, Order of Ecclesia brought improvements to the animations, especially with Shanoa. Each Shanoa animation was carefully crafted to fit into the moveset of the character. When Shanoa jumps, she jumps in a bowling ball way, and has a separate animation when you finish rolling – when Shanoa finishes her jumps, her hair and dress weaves with her jumps. Almost like the developers actually wanted Shanoa to have the best animation(s) in the game.

Music & Sound: Once again, music is the highlight of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. You will find some epic music permeating throughout Order of Ecclesia as you explore the maps, and battle enemies or bosses.

Replay Value: This time, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has more replay value more than searching all the maps, it also encourages you to absorb all the glyphs, kinda like the souls extractions from Dawn of Sorrow. It encourages you to use different kinds of glyphs, and has two completely optional maps that are similar to the Battle Arena in Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, and the “Nest of Evil” gauntlet. Once you complete Order of Ecclesia, you unlock Albus mode, and the traditional boss rush mode.

To see my gameplay, I have playlists available to view: Castlevania Advance Collection and Castlevania Dominus Collection. Most gameplay I’ve posted, is directly, straight from the actual PlayStation 5 console via backwards compatibility in either 1080p or 4K depending on the gameplay. No loss of frames, no loss of pixels. Clean, and crisp.

Carlos’ Verdict

All in all, Castlevania Dominus Collection is M2’s greatest work yet. It showcases M2’s ability to bring a beloved game or collection of games to an entirely new generation of gamers. If you are a new Castlevania fan, or a long-time fan of the series like I am, I highly recommend this collection. My experience with the collection was a delight, as a player who has never played the Castlevania games on Nintendo DS. There was almost no issues, no glitches, no problems with each game.

If I have never played any of the Castlevania games on Nintendo DS, I’d recommend Castlevania Dominus Collection.

About Carlos Morales

I've been writing about Video Games since 2001. I have become a well-known, recognizable name in the industry. I started CarlosX360.com in 2006, and has accumulated over 1 Million Users, and 4.5 Million Pageviews worldwide. I'll always be most passionate about this wonderful community.

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