One year after the events of Aria of Sorrow, a relaxed and content Soma Cruz spends time with his childhood friend, Mina Hokuba.  Without warning, they're accosted by a Priestess that goes only by the name of Celia, determined to kill Soma for her own vague reasons.  Arikado, Soma's mysterious saviour from the year prior, once again provides Soma aid in the form of a weapon, telling him to make short work of the monsters before him.  Soma's power of dominance, his innate vampiric ability to absorb and control the souls of monsters, is once again reawakened and he pursues Celia to her base, determined to find and put an end to her schemes, lest she hurt Mina.

This begins the story of Dawn of Sorrow, the direct sequel to the seminal Gameboy Advance title, Aria of Sorrow.  You once again take control of Soma Cruz as he fights to supress his role in life as Dracula's successor, along with his allies Julius, Yoko, Hammer, and Arikado.  As can be expected of a sequel to Aria of Sorrow, the game once again takes the form of what most people refer to as a "Metroidvania".  You are given a free castle to roam, but you can only access certain areas once you have certain abilities or keys.  You're very rarely given hints about where to go, instead having to take mental notes when you reach a dead-end to go back there and check later.  The soul system is also very similar to the first game, providing Bullet, Guardian, Enchant, and Ability souls for Soma to use.  The similarities to the first game end there, however.  Dawn of Sorrow is, in every way, better than its predecessor and, in most ways, even better than Symphony of the Night.

The game makes full use of the DS's 2D capabilities, making the sprites some of the most fluid and beautiful ever seen on a handheld.  Every action has an animation with small touches.  You can watch Soma breathe in the cold snow outside, he leaves a trail of water upon immediately jumping to land, he blows his hair out of his eyes when preparing a bullet soul, he'll spin on the ground after an angled kick if he can't gain traction - you'll never stop being wowed by how amazing this game looks.  To add to that, most of the backgrounds in the game are 3D models, which look stunning as you walk across a room and see the background make a subtle movement.  Bosses are gigantic and well-animated, making even the most grusome boss a sight to stare at.  There are a few missteps - namely that some enemy sprites are exactly the same as they've been for the last ten years, but it's easy to overlook.

The game initially offers only one real mode, the main game, but more modes are unlocked as you progress.  Getting the bad ending, for example, unlocks the Julius Mode, perhaps the greatest extra in Castlevania history.  Getting the good ending nets you Boss Rush, a gauntlet of bosses using the best equipment your save file can muster.  You have Enemy Set Mode and the depectively titled Versus mode from the beginning, as well.  Versus allows you and a friend to race through a hallway of monsters, but you never see your friend, he acts independently of you.  This is kind of annoying, as a versus (there are enough characters to do so) or co-op would have been easy to implement and a hell of a lot more fun.  It can be forgiven for Julius mode, however, where you take control of Julius Belmont as he finds his own journey through the castle.  Soon enough, you'll meet Yoko Belnades and she'll agree to join Julius on his quest.  Perhaps most stunningly, you come across a certain half-vampire that joins Julius, as well.  You have to use all three characters' strengths and weaknesses to get through the castle, as no one character is capable of doing everything themselves.  The game will seem really familiar to fans of Symphony of the Night, due to that one character, but it is closer to Castlevania III, due to the character switching and team work.

Musically, the game has only one better, and that is the aforementioned Playstation title, Symphony of the Night.  Dawn of Sorrow is unfortunately restricted to midi format, but the magic they weave with such a restrictive format is amazing in and of itself.  Each song seems perfect for the situation and you know you'll definitely need a good pair of headphones to really enjoy it.  There are small amounts of voice acting, like Soma cursing his foolishness if he gets hit in the back, or characters saying each other's names in Julius mode, but there dialogue is still text only.  Yes, there's no "But enough talk, have at you!" type lines in the game, but you have to realize that this is probably a good thing.

How well does the game take advantage of the DS's capabilities?  Not really all that well.  It's not really a flaw, mind you, but it sometimes seems like someone at Konami looked at a near finished product and decided they needed to use the touch-screen a bit more.  Most bosses require a seal to defeat, otherwise they regain their power and return to fight.  A prompt is given to you to start the seal, which can be practiced in the menu and is shown to you again before you open the boss door.  There's no reason to be paniced to start the seal, however, as you can literally take as long as you want to put your stylus to your screen.  At one point, I simply left the game there and made a sandwich, coming back to find the seal light continuing to blink.  The game uses the two screens by making one a map or Soma's stats, while the bottom screen being use for actual gameplay.  At first this seems like a bit of a cop-out, but you soon realize how useful it is to have the map on top of the screen or not having to pause to check what souls you have equipped.  Speaking of which, Dawn of Sorrow also takes advantage of the DS's four buttons, using one of the buttons to provide a quick-switch of Equipment.  Are you traveling through an area with an enemy that requires a certain soul set, but that set is bad for everything else?  Simply assign it to an alternate set and switch on the fly.

Overall, Dawn of Sorrow is not only one of the best DS games available, it's also one of the best Castlevania titles ever, which is certainly high praise for such an illustrious series.  It does pretty much everything right.  Seasoned players might blow through the game a little fast, but it shouldn't be judged by the hours you play, but the experience they had during that time.

5 out of 5 souls.  If you like Castlevania or exploratory games at all, I highly suggest Dawn of Sorrow.