Castlevania Dominus Collection

Review by Mike Finkelstein

After the releases of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and the Castlevania Advance Collection, fans began to wonder what was next for Konami? Were they done packaging their classic games or could they put out more. Certainly there were plenty of Castlevania games that hadn’t come out in the pair of collections, from the Nintendo 64 titles, to the various 3D games, and even the third Game Boy title, Castlevania: Legends. But the grail for some fans certainly would have been a collection that included all three Nintendo DS games. These were the hardest to play at this point, with the Nintendo DS being a very specific type of hardware that didn’t really have compatibility with other systems. Fans hoped, and prayed, and discussed it among themselves how it could work, but no one really expected Konami to make it happen.

And then they did. Developed by M2, who had handled the previous two collections, the Castlevania Dominus Collection was announced and released on the same day, August 27, 2024, to the celebration of fans. And, yes, it’s great. It collects all three Nintendo DS games – Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia – alongside Haunted Castle, which had been missing from previous Castlevania collections, only showing up in the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. Plus, there was a new game, the first new game for the classic Castlevania series in a decade and a half: Haunted Castle Revisited.

Let’s be clear, just the three DS titles alone would have been enough to get fans interested. This collection takes those games and gets them ready for players on any console, playing however they like, with full compatibility. Because of the two screens for these games, getting them to work on modern consoles was considered something of a fantasy, but M2 and Konami figured it out and the solution was simple: just present all the “screens” on a single screen. With the emulation for these games you can present them in a number of configurations, showing the main game window, the map screen, the menu, altogether in various positions. It’s so useful since it lets you see everything all at once with minimal effort.

Better still the games are set up so you can control the main window and touch screens at the same time. Whether you play on controller, with mouse and keyboard, or if you want to use the touch screen of the Switch, the collection allows you to control your way. This even extends to the weird features included in the games that required the touch screen, such as the magic seals in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. These have been reprogrammed so that now you can do button combos instead of having to use the touch screens or other methods to activate them. Make no mistake, casual fans and speedrunners both love this.

It’s really such an amazing thing that M2 and Konami got these three games ported and upgraded for modern play. These games came near the end of Koji Igarashi’s reign over the Castlevania series and these were considered lesser titles of the franchise. The team working on these games had to reuse their engine, and a lot of artwork, to continue producing these games and yet, even under those requirements, they created three fun, interesting titles that continued to show the depth and complexity of the series. To have these lost to most players would have been a travesty, but now with the Castlevania Dominus Collection a whole new audience of gamers can discover these titles and find the love for them.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

I think for most fans, this game is probably the favorite of the set. This was the direct sequel to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, a game that took all the best features of that Game Boy Advance title and added on to them. It’s a pretty game, with some great gameplay, even if it might not actually be as good as its predecessor. That’s not a knock on this sequel, mind you, as it’s just hard to top that third GBA game. It’s one of the greats. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, by comparison, feels like an iterative update instead of a new, more fleshed out, experience.

Some decisions in the game are great, such as the fact that souls can be upgraded by collecting more of the same type. In the previous game you’d get more and more souls from the same enemies and it wouldn’t matter. But here in the sequel souls get more power, more effective, more interesting. The feature isn’t completely fleshed out, as not every soul really benefits (and some souls remain totally useless no matter what you do), but it’s a neat idea (one that would get better explored in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night).

Of course, the biggest complaint people had for this game was the fact that it had touch screen controls that felt more like a gimmick than a necessary choice. Note that most of these ideas were removed from later DS games, so even IGA and Konami realized these shouldn’t have been shoehorned in. Thankfully the collection gets rid of most of that, giving you better controls than the jank of the touch screen.

Overall the collection helps this game to shine, kicking it even closer to being the proper, successful sequel Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow deserved. It’s a great game made even better in this collection.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

While Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow benefitted just by simple improvements, the other two games didn’t have as much that needed to be changed or modified to future-proof them. These were well designed games that could now shine properly on modern hardware. However, the availability of these games for a wider audience had a very interesting consequence: it allowed new people to get into the titles and see how they ticked, finding ways to break the games wide open for players.

In the case of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, this led to the discussion of the Two Charlottes glitch. What this glitch does is that (through some creative double-inputs and touch screen shenanigans, Charlotte could get duped over onto Johnathan, in effect giving the players to Charlottes on screen. One would have all the standard Charlotte gear and spells while the other would use Johnathan’s equipment and sub-weapons.

So why on Earth would you want to do this? Because Charlotte as Johnathan bases her stats on Intelligence not Strength and all her attacks would get better, even with Johnathan’s equipment and gear, if her INT is better meaning you can do some really good damage, even at low levels, with the power of this weird, combined character. There are also some monsters that react differently to Charlotte, and one boss actually loses some of her danger when fighting Charlotte, so there are actually a lot of benefits to this glitch.

Speedrunners have, of course, flocked to this glitch and are already exploring it (and others) to cut their times way down. Just watching the community come together for this game, all thanks to this collection, is so awesome.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

And then there’s Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. I will admit that this is my least favorite of the three Nintendo DS titles. I don’t think it’s bad, by any measure, but this does feel like another iterative update instead of a more interesting game on its own. Heroine Shanoa kills enemies and collects their abilities so she can get more powerful and explore more of the game. This is, in many respects, just a reskin of the soul collecting from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, except less interesting and less deep.

The game does have some interesting ideas, mind you. It has a massive overworld filled with various areas you have to visit and revisit, leading to a lot of searching and hunting. And then, once you’ve completed the main quest you still have an entire, full-sized, Castle Dracula you have to get through, with its own quests and requirements. The size and scale of the game is crazy, and I think if the core game mechanic of the game were different or deeper I would have liked it better. Something is missing from the game and I’ve always felt that way no matter how many times I revisit it.

But speedrunners have been having a field day with it now. Like with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, this game was broken open soon after the collection came out, and what they found was really odd. The Boss Rush mode, a side feature included in most of these games, could be used to overload the game’s memory and cause Shanoa to get abilities faster than she should, more levels than she should have, and it allows her to skip whole sections of the game in an instant. The game used to be a pretty staid and standard play through for speedrunners but not now. Now it’s one of the messiest runs in the franchise.

I love that. That gets eyes on the game and it gets more people exploring it and enjoying it. Just because it’s not one of my favorites that doesn’t mean I want it to be ignored or forgotten. It deserves some love.

Haunted Castle and Haunted Castle Revisited

But while the Nintendo DS games in this collection are the selling point, and their inclusion is massive, they aren’t the whole story. Alongside these games we have Haunted Castle and Haunted Castle Revisited. The inclusion of Haunted Castle is nice, make no mistake. It’s not the greatest game in the series, being a tough and unforgiving arcade game that didn’t exactly mesh well with the rest of the series, but it’s also a part of the history and having it packed in with one of these collections feels like the right move.

Like, don’t get me wrong, I can see the appeal of Haunted Castle. It’s not an unattractive game for a 1987 arcade release. It’s big, chunky sprites are interesting and the game feels like a weird side adventure, a what could have been for the franchise if the mechanics were balanced a little better. But it’s not a great game by any measure and there’s a reason that it took nearly thirty years for Konami to come back to this game for some kind of follow-up. The game is rough, for all the meanings that implies.

But Haunted Castle Revisited? Wow. Fans had all but given up on Konami ever putting out a new classic ‘vania game ever again. The company seemed far more interested in putting out pachinko and pachislot games, or licensing their series to other developers so they could do crossovers. But here is a new game in the series, freshly made and dropped with the rest of the collection as if it was no big deal. And it was done by M2, who along with these collections also made another reimagining in the series: Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirthA loose remake of the Game Boy game for the Wii, taking inspiration from many of the later games in the series..

Clearly Konami has faith in M2, having been working with the company for years now and letting them be the historical shepherd for Castlevania, and playing through Haunted Castle Revisited I can see why (even if the continuity nerd in me really wishes it was also a ReBirth and not a Revisit instead). This is a fantastic inclusion in the series, a remake that takes the ideas that were interesting in Haunted Castle while updating the graphics, sound, and playstyle to better suit the developments in the franchise since the original arcade title was released in 1987. This remake doesn’t deviate as far as M2’s previous game strayed from The Castlevania AdventureThe first Castlevania portable title, it manages to squeeze in the basics of the series onto the four-color Game Boy... but only barely., but that’s not a bad thing. It fleshes out and enhances while still feeling connected to Haunted Castle. It’s a perfect compliment.

In Closing

And I think that really sums up this experience. The Castlevania Dominus Collection takes three pretty solid titles and packages them the way they always should have been, alongside a classic entry and an all new game. There’s so much to love here that I just can’t say enough. This is Konami and M2 once again knocking one of these collections out of the park, delivering another love letter for the series to fans of all stripes.

So if you love Castlevania (and you’re on this site so I assume you do) you have no excuse. Go get this collection. It’s got a ton of great games to enjoy over and over again.