One of the most pleasant surprises in Nintendo’s Partner Showcase last week was Castlevania Dominus Collection, a compilation of titles I’d almost given up hope on seeing this generation. The Nintendo DS’ holy trinity of Metroidvanias has returned, and each game still shines bright in the night.
From 2005 to 2009, Konami released three dense new Castlevania games: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. Dawn of Sorrow was a sequel to the equally stellar Aria of Sorrow on the Game Boy Advance, continuing the story of Soma Cruz; Portrait of Ruin pivoted to a less conventional dual-protagonist system; and Order sought to reimagine Soma’s skillset in a different context, with a new heroine, Shanoa.
Each was an incredible epic to have on a handheld console long before the Switch revolutionized that particular market, though in the 15 years since, they’ve been somewhat trapped on the DS. Thankfully, Castlevania Dominus Collection springs this brilliant trio from their purgatory for a modern world where the “Metroidvania” format is thriving.
With this key functionality sorted, each game in the Castlevania Dominus Collection is still fantastic by today’s standards.
Obviously, the biggest hurdle in achieving DS remasters like this has been the touch screen. Konami found some rather elegant compromises that keep these gameplay elements intact without becoming cumbersome: the right trigger and analog stick summon a virtual cursor to replicate a finger or stylus on the DS touch screen.
Dawn of Sorrow features the most prevalent use of these controls in Castlevania Dominus Collection since, as the oldest of the three, it had the most obligation to prove the system’s worth. At first, I was skeptical of how the new input method might work, as I looked at the first major instance where progress requires juggling Soma’s controls with one hand and shattering certain blocks in his path with the other hand. While it seemed a little daunting, it proved pretty natural in practice—using your controller’s right stick is pretty similar to drawing on the touch screen for right-handers.
A different approach is offered for the divisive minigame at the end of Dawn‘s boss fights, where the player must quickly scribble a magic seal once the boss is sufficiently weakened. Instead of using touch screen mimicry, each seal has a pattern of button inputs. This change is even more welcome, even if it does require a few moments of practice in the menu to get the later seals down.
With this key functionality sorted, each game in the Castlevania Dominus Collection is still fantastic by today’s standards. Dawn of Sorrow feels a little more traditional in form, while Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia breathe some life into the scenery with considerably different locales, like the various portrait worlds of the former and the village of the latter. All strike a good balance between backtracking and breaking new ground, juggling the genre’s biggest bugbears with satisfying character development through RPG-esque equipment systems. It’s the monster designs that stand out most, however, with some truly gnarly and memorable boss fights throughout the whole collection.
Arguably, each gets better as the “trilogy” goes on. Dawn tested the platform’s waters, Portrait tried something novel and new, and Order put all the pieces together into a complete thesis (and ultimately laid the foundation for producer Koji Igarashi to branch out with Bloodstained). I’d have paid the same price of admission for them individually, so having all three in one package is a steal.
As we might expect from a modern repackaging of an older game by now, there’s a standard suite of quality-of-life updates and other bonuses. The Castlevania Dominus Collection has a requisite rewind feature (which is perfect if you flub a magic seal input) and a handy menu which can be summoned with the left trigger to quick-save or adjust options. From the main menu, players can also access other regional versions of the games, though these are mostly included as a token gesture; there aren’t many substantial differences between the regions.
(Longtime series fans may want to check out Haunted Castle, the 1988 arcade classic, and Haunted Castle Revisited, a remastered version. However, it’s a thematic departure from the rest of the collection, and one wonders why they weren’t included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection or even the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection.)
Now, touch controls aren’t the only fly in the ointment when it comes to porting Nintendo DS games to modern systems—there’s also that unique dual-screen setup. Castlevania Dominus Collection takes a noble stab at solving this problem by putting the action on the left 2/3 of the screen. The maps and a bestiary entry use the remaining third, making it easy to check your location and stats at a glance.
It’s a pretty good solution overall, though realistically I caught myself looking at only the map. I could’ve done with an option to take these extras out of the equation altogether and let the gameplay have the full spotlight. The games look great on either the big screen or the PlayStation Portal—in fact, the evocative, pixelated designs truly shine in this scale… except for Order‘s cutscene avatars, which appear smeared or blurred.
This approach works for these games. Other DS classics, on a case-by-case basis, would need very different screen setups or even more touchscreen support to be functional. Nonetheless, I’m excited to see these three iconic games returned to modern audiences, many of whom may be playing the series for the first time after discovering the indie darlings it spawned, and with any luck the floodgates will open for the rest of the DS library.
Ultimately, any fan of Metroidvanias should be adding the Castlevania Dominus Collection to their collection, pronto. Not only does it offer three solid games in one cheap collection, it turns the spotlight of history on classics that helped inspire the current rich environment for the genre.
