Castlevania Dominus Collection is the latest Castlevania collection released by Konami. Although it has been about ten years since Konami released a mainline Castlevania game, this collection definitely finds its spot in the hearts of fans by bringing back three hard to find Nintendo DS games. Released on August 27th, 2024 the Dominus Collection includes: Dawn of Sorrow (2005), Portrait of Ruin (2006) and Order of Ecclesia (2008). Until now these titles were only playable on the original handheld console. Konami has not only made these three 2D titles accessible again, but also remastered them with quality of life improvements that add to the nostalgia without the usual frustration. In addition to the three main titles, Konami also snuck in Haunted Castle Revisited. This title is a redesigned version of the very first Castlevania arcade game and has not previously been widely released outside of Japan. It is a fun addition to the lineup and lets you get back to the essence of the franchise.
All three games come accessible from a main menu and share the same new quality of life updates. These quality of life updates now allow the player to quickly save from any location (no longer having to backtrack to a save room), and allow access to rewind actions at any time in the game. These two functions make the games much more enjoyable and accessible to longtime players and newcomers alike. Castlevania is a franchise known for its expansive maps and hard to beat bosses, and in the past a missed attack could mean having to replay through hours of progress. With this function you can retry difficult portions of the map or reload before a boss battle without penalty.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the oldest in the collection and continues the story of Soma Cruz as he is dragged back into madness by a cult that is looking to resurrect Dracula. The game mechanic of combining souls to create countless weapons breathes fresh air into the general format of Castlevania games. An improvement from the original Nintendo DS version of the game is that they removed the touchpad stylus drawing in favor of button sequence patterns. Although this was a necessary change to translate away from the touch screen mechanic, it is also a massive improvement to the accuracy and speed of completing magic seals. This turns a rather frustrating section of gameplay into a much more enjoyable one.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin brings a change in gameplay with the addition of a second playable character. The player is able to switch between Jonathan a melee wielding hero and Charlotte the book wielding mage with a press of the button. The game follows their adventure into Dracula’s castle and the reason it suddenly resurfaced. The effortless switch between characters and different attack styles allow the player to change up gameplay and approach each battle differently. Additional puzzles requiring switching between characters is a fun addition, but also becomes repetitive after the first couple of areas.
Castlevania Order of Ecclesia switches from the usual male protagonist to Shanoa, a female magic wielder who is able to absorb the power of glyphs discovered throughout Dracula’s castle. After she is robbed of her glyphs her quest becomes to regain her magic and also fight back the darkness. This title feels most like a throwback to older Castlevania games without the gimmicks of additional characters or weapon combinations, while still offering over a hundred different glyphs to wield.
Overall Castlevania Dominus Collection is a nostalgia packed collection that takes me back to playing my Nintendo DS in the backseat of my parents car. The quality of life improvements make the game more accessible and take out a lot of frustration that nowadays would make me simply move on to playing another game in my library. The quality of life updates, the high quality of the port, and the addition of art galleries from the main menu show the developer’s passion for this collection and their dedication to the fans. Whether this is your first entry into the Castlevania world or your 30th, Castlevania Dominus Collection brings hours of gameplay all packed in one convenient easy to play collection.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5
Pros:
- Quality of Life Updates
- Hard to Find Titles
- High Quality Direct Port
Cons:
- Steam requires a controller to play
- Similar gameplay throughout
- Controller input changes between games
