Castlevania Dominus Collection Review – Review

It feels like this generation, more than any other, we’re blessed with a bounty of retro compilations that allow us to relive or discover classic games. Castlevania Dominus Collection gathers not only the three Nintendo DS games, but it offers two bonus games: Haunted Castle and Haunted Castle Revisited. A bevy of achievements, art images, and music tracks mark another worthwhile set of re-releases from Konami.

The first of the Castlevania trio, Dawn of Sorrow, is a sequel to Aria of Sorrow, which appeared in the Castlevania Advance Collection. It will likely feel the most recognizable to those coming from the GBA trilogy or Symphony of the Night, whose absence from the eShop continues to be inexplicable. Protagonist Soma Cruz uses whips, swords, lances, and other weapons, in addition to an ever-growing arsenal of magic, to navigate a replica of Dracula’s castle. Defeating enemies will sometimes yield souls that turn into abilities and buffs you can equip. The frequent save rooms, teleport pads, and enjoyable boss fights make for a fun, if overly familiar experience. It’s solid but stands out a bit less compared to the other two DS games.

Portrait of Ruin is the first Castlevania title (I believe) to feature two protagonists whom you can switch between and even use both simultaneously to solve puzzles and take down creatures. This is its primary gimmick, but its secondary one involves adding smaller zones to the larger castle setting. Heroes Jonathan and Charlotte can hop into large paintings scattered about Dracula’s castle to find new items, abilities, and bosses to defeat. The paintings take you to a haunted fair, a mummy-filled pyramid, and an abandoned city, among others, and their addition adds nice flavor to the tried-and-true Metroidvania experience. The final boss gauntlet is an absolute doozy, and being either incredibly skilled or well stocked with potions seems required to pass this ultimate test.

Order of Ecclesia is the most interesting of the trio for the ways in which it takes the usual formula and twists it around. It adapts the ability-granting soul system of Dawn of Sorrow by swapping souls for glyphs, which drop from enemies and become weapons or bestow skills. You can even equip weapons in two different hands (on two buttons), allowing for a quick succession of thrusts or stabs, for instance. What genuinely separates Ecclesia from Dawn and Portrait is its inclusion of a world map, complete with a hub town and individual levels you can select. These levels have their own maps as well, with some of them functioning in a similar way to the interstitial stages of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The character sprites during dialogue exchanges do look pretty rough in the transition from DS to Switch screen, but some of the abilities that protagonist Shanoa wields are really neat. And she needs all of them for what may be one of the hardest Iga-developed titles in the Castlevania series.

The transition from Nintendo DS to Switch was definitely one of the concerns before the announcement of Castlevania Dominus Collection, I think that those fears are mostly allayed by the final product. The touch screen functionality has been relegated to a cursor controlled by the right stick, and the second screen is simply reproduced on the right side of the Switch or TV screen. In handheld mode, the map screen is admittedly quite small by default, but there are five screen settings to choose from that can address this potential issue. Making matters more welcoming for new players or those seeking a slightly less challenging search action romp are save states and a rewind feature, and I feel no shame in admitting that I almost broke the latter trying to finish Portrait of Ruin. Not today, Death!

Well, maybe today after all. The two bonus games mentioned earlier take Castlevania back to its roots. Haunted Castle is a title I had the misfortune of experiencing back in 2019 with the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, and even save states and rewind do little to make Haunted Castle less of a nightmare. The more interesting inclusion here is Haunted Castle Revisited, which is much prettier and more playable than its predecessor. For some reason, it doesn’t have save states or rewind, but it ends up being fairly short and largely forgettable if you’re a Dracula-slaying veteran. It’s an interesting novelty but more of a distraction compared to how satisfying the three DS games are.

Konami stays winning with their compilation releases, as Castlevania Dominus Collection brings even more Metroidvania goodness to Switch players. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia in particular feature some absolutely banging music tracks. While we aren’t hurting for Metroidvanias on the eShop, the ones on offer here are among the finest in the genre and are all well worth the time it takes to go through them. We’re not quite into the spooky season yet, but you’d do well to add this package to your wishlist so that you’re prepared with the proper amount of skeleton-smashing entertainment ahead of Halloween.