Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow (DS) is so great!

[-hellvin-]

The last two bosses were pretty damn tough at the end but it was all about Julius for me. On Abbadon, I just whipped him to death and held the whip button down when he summoned the locusts. There's one type of formation though where the come from above, and I did his burning cross attack which RAVAGED the boss' health. Oh the final boss I pretty much did the same thing...whipped him like mad and abused that burning cross attack...did so much damage ;D.

Such a damn good game! First time I've actually gone through the "classic" castlevania style all the way through in a SOTN style title. The CVIII character switching was awesome. I think this is the best 25 bucks I've spent this whole year!

[MarkMan]

-hellvin- did you try entering the final room in Julius mode with each of the three characters? Nothing too big, but interesting nonetheless... When you enter as Julius his response seems much more wicked lol.

[Avatard]

Honestly I didn't like the music as much as other castlevania games. It was all well done and a few songs were pretty cool but I just didn't find it in the same league as SoTN, musically.

[mr_pollock]

Playing Dawn of Sorrow made me want to start playing Aria of Sorrow again. Haha.

I love you all.

[Sotenga]

Man, Menace made a worthy final boss the first time I fought him... because he was the last guy, I wasn't going to spare any expense on healing items. I do believe I used almost every one I had in my inventory... and I STILL lost against that amalgamous bastard! Mostly because of those damn black floating sharp thingies... not to mention that Menace kept stomping/punching/trapping me against the lower-left corner. Hugeass bastard he was! Then I got a tip from the friend that the Death soul would help keeping those floating thingies off... and it DID help! I whupped his ass in a close struggle. An excellent final boss that proves that Dracula doesn't have to be the last challenge in every Castlevania, even though Aria of Sorrow and Lament of Innocence kinda proved that already. And that statement isn't even true regarding this game...

But anyway, DoS really kicks ass. Hell, I'm playing through it again (on the Hard Mode this time, realizing that I somehow didn't choose the Hard Mode when I elected for a new game the first time I beat it ), and it still rules. Although I do long for a 2D linear CV title of the olden days, that's not to say I dislike the "Metroidvania" style of games. If they continue to rule so much, I can't protest too much.

[ShinobiMan]

I'm currently playing Hard mode with 71% of the souls captured, including 2 Death souls I obtained from a friend, allowing me to forge the Death Scythe without losing the opprotunity to have 100% souls.

Loving the game still. Looking forward to a followup next year.

[Gamereviewgod]

Wow. This game just doesn't stop. I beat it with all three endings and I'm still going.

I need a piece though that I can't get to. If you have IGN Insider, look here:

http://guides.ign.com/guides/695639/page_5.html

It's the two secret rooms at the top. I broke though the ceiling to get Satan's ring and a sword. I can't break the floor beneath it though. What am I doing wrong?

[Sotenga]

I need a piece though that I can't get to. If you have IGN Insider, look here:

http://guides.ign.com/guides/695639/page_5.html

It's the two secret rooms at the top. I broke though the ceiling to get Satan's ring and a sword. I can't break the floor beneath it though. What am I doing wrong?

That's because the entrance to that particular secret room is in the same room as the one you managed to access. It's actually found to the left of the large area below the stairway leading up to Dario's/Aguni's room. You'll probably have to super-jump to get up to the breakable wall in that point, no biggie.

And after getting 100% of the map, look around in the frozen area of the Abyss to find the luscious Chaos Ring, which recovers your MP at a ridiculous rate. It's almost like having infinite MP!

(And off topic, the Chaos Ring can also be found in Aria of Sorrow somewhere in the Chaotic Realm after getting 100%)

ADD: And if I did a craplike job of explaining, here's a handy-dandy arrow for reference!

[/url]

[Gamereviewgod]

Thanks. It's not made that way on IGN's map. Figures.

[MarkMan]

You need 100% souls for the Chaos Ring.

Once you start the game over you can pretty much beat the entire game in about 30 minutes with glitched items/chaos ring...

Chaos ring is too powerful!

[Cauterize]

I recently joined the Castlevania club by picking this one up earlier in the week...
It plays like a dream! I knew it would as ive been a huge fan of the GBA Games too which are also jaw-dropping!

This was the first game i had paid full price for in about 2-3 years, maybe more...
Along with the fact that this is purely awesome, There is a rumour going around in Leeds via the game shops that Castlevania DS has a limited print run...

Im not sure if i believe it, but i didnt wanna take a chance so i snapped it up...
Gamestation, CeX and Playtime had sold out so I luckly got one from Virgin Megastores...

The Lady in playtime told me that a Representive for the DS stocker (Something along those lines) Mentioned that the first batch of Castlevania's is gonna be the ONLY batch...

Believe or Not Believe.... Anyone have any further info?
(I havent read the whole thread to see if anything related was on there as ive seen a few spoilers and had to quickly look away... so appologies if so...)

[MarkMan]

Much like the GBA Castlevania titles... I wouldn't be suprised if DoS was a single printing...

[Sotenga]

You need 100% souls for the Chaos Ring.

D'OH! I knew it either had to be the map or the souls... 100%, yes, but of what? My bad.

So what are some of your favorite weapons and souls? The Claimh Solais is just BEAUTIFUL. I also use the Valmanway quite a bit. As for souls, Abaddon's is just way too friggin' powerful. The Imp soul can be a bit useful, as it reduces the life of some of the stronger enemies... I'm not quite sure how it works, though. Death's soul is hell on the enemeis, and it definitely helped me to beat Menace. Nine Ghost Dancer souls have helped me a lot with getting the other souls, it has. Persephone's soul is still cool with the skeleton vacuum, and if you max it out, you get a cute l'il maid to do the work for you!

[MarkMan]

I love Valmanway/Black Panther.... I just run around slashing all day lol... I wish the Valmanway was like it's SOTN version... the Crissagrim...

[Gamereviewgod]

This may help some people. A map of the game made from SCREENSHOTS! Someone on Gamefaqs found it.

http://www.classicgaming.com/castlev...DoS/dosmap.jpg

Dial up, I wish you luck.

With that, I got 100% of the castle a few minutes ago (has 99.9 for about two hours until I realized I missed a save point). I'm struggling with the boss mode. The fish is pissing me off and ugly thing that's crouched over and tries to suck you up before shooting a beam. I'm trying to level up in the main game, but I'm just not doing enough damage yet. I really want the nunchucks!

[Sotenga]

I love Valmanway/Black Panther.... I just run around slashing all day lol... I wish the Valmanway was like it's SOTN version... the Crissagrim...

I guess they had to tone it down, as the multihits that one slice gave probably made it way too overpowered... ah well. I'm sure you already know this, but a fun fact here to anyone doesn't: For some reason, the Valmanway was the original Japanese name of the Crissaegrim. No idea why they changed it to Crissaegrim in the American version.

With that, I got 100% of the castle a few minutes ago (has 99.9 for about two hours until I realized I missed a save point). I'm struggling with the boss mode. The fish is pissing me off and ugly thing that's crouched over and tries to suck you up before shooting a beam. I'm trying to level up in the main game, but I'm just not doing enough damage yet. I really want the nunchucks!

Aw, the Nunchakus are sweet in this game. They're like the Valmanway, but with a bit of a shorter range. On the other hand, Soma swings them as fast as you can press the attack button. The Valmanway has a slight delay in this game. They're both great weapons, though. Anyway, I recommend either having nine Golem souls and the strongest weapon that Yoko could possibly make for you (I think I used the Golden Axe to sweep through it at first), or nine Lilith souls and a real damaging Bullet Soul like the Great Axe Armor or Abaddon.

Hmm... what is your current level? If you're strong enough, I recommend passing back and forth through the Abyss. I can't guarantee this, but if you kill everything from the beginning to the save point before Menace, I'm sure you'll gain a level. Maybe equip the Mothman soul to gain more points per enemy. Maybe you can skip the Iron Golem in the space part, though... but he is worth a buttload of experience. Tough to kill, though, and it can be hard to defeat him without a combination of the Imp soul and the Terror Bear weapon won in the Boss Rush.

[Gamereviewgod]

I'm on level 56. My weapon of choice is the Japanese sword fully powered up. It's strong enough to take out the first boss in two hits. After that, it's pretty rough going.

[Avatard]

I use the Rycuda soul constantly, get it up to lvl 9 and zap away. Gets rid of all those pesky medusa heads because it zips around like chain lightning killing everything.