Konami has been making waves this year with its upcoming duo of big-budget remakes of Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Castlevania Fans, on the other hand, were rather quiet and seemingly without any signs of a new entry in the long-running Gothic franchise.
Despite this, the publisher has been gradually releasing compilations of its older Castlevania games, starting with the Anniversary Collection in 2019, followed by the Advance Collection in 2021. Now, the Castlevania Dominus Collection brings all three DS entries to the Switch in one convenient package, meaning fans now have access to pretty much every Castlevania game worth playing on a system. Right…? Right? Sigh… Come on, Konami, just give us Symphony of the Night for heaven’s sake.
The three games included here (actually five, but more on that later) follow the same “Igavania” approach as the earlier GBA titles. Time is a funny thing, because in 2008, when Order of Ecclesia launched, there was a general feeling that the style of gameplay popularized by 1997’s Symphony of the Night was starting to feel a little stale (which we think is partly why Konami moved on to the more action-oriented Lords of Shadow saga).
Now, 16 years later, we can safely say that Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia represent the franchise at its absolute peak. Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night may be more highly regarded, but my goodness, we ate Good during the DS era.
Each game runs beautifully on the Switch as well. Dawn of Sorrow, the first of the three games, attempted to utilize the touchscreen functionality without relying on it to strong; and quite successfully, we might add. These mechanics, like the “Magic Seal” system and destroying certain blocks in the game world, can be performed on Switch by either directly touching the screen in handheld mode, or by holding “ZR” and moving the right analog stick. The former is easily our preferred method, but both are valid options. We should also point out that when you’re considering which system to buy Dominus Collection for, you can’t really use a touchscreen on PS5 or Xbox, can you? That’s something to keep in mind.
Portrait of Ruin significantly reduces the touchscreen controls but brings variety to the gameplay by adding an additional character. You can switch between the two on the fly, ask your ally for help solving puzzles, and more. It’s a neat little experiment and we love how seamless the mechanics are; there’s simply no lag when switching between Jonathan and Charlotte. Overall, though, the game doesn’t quite reach the same heights as Dawn of Sorrow, largely due to some iffy environment and enemy design. Still, it’s a title that remains one of the most unique entries in the entire franchise to this day.
And finally, in terms of pure quality, Order of Ecclesia probably falls somewhere between Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. The gameplay is great, and it’s entirely centered around the new glyph system, where you gain new items and abilities through glyphs you get in the game world and after defeating enemies. It’s a challenging entry, and also one of the most unique in the series, though admittedly it does take a bit of getting used to. Many of the earlier environments in particular are entirely linear, as the game tried to expand its horizons to include multiple locales. It’s an ambitious departure from the norm, but many of the locations are limited to straight corridors filled with enemies. Not great, but the experience definitely gets better the further you go.
Unlike the Advance Collection, the three games included here do not support the ability to alter their graphics through filters or smoothing. To be honest, they look spectacular as they are, so this omission did not bother us too much. In fact, we would go so far as to say that they look significantly better than the originals, especially in terms of environmental detail.
What you may You can rearrange the display to your liking, though. By default, the main display is on the left, the map is on the top right, and more info like enemies and stats are on the bottom right. You can play around with this to make certain screens bigger or smaller, and you can even replicate the classic DS layout. This admittedly doesn’t look great in handheld mode, as everything gets pretty shabby, but it’s a good option for a larger TV screen. Much like the Advance Collection, you also have save states and a handy rewind function, accessed via a dedicated menu separate from the games themselves. Nice touch.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a compilation without a few bonus extras, and Dominus Collection compiles a variety of illustrations, manuals, key art, and music samples to enjoy from the main menu. The illustrations are of exceptional quality, and we wish Konami would release a physical book compiling all of the games for GBA and DS. Unfortunately, we’ll have to make do with this for now. Additionally, the settings menu lets you choose which regional version of the three games you want to play: Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin include US, EU, and Japanese versions, while Order of Ecclesia adds a Korean version in addition to the above options.
The most surprising extra, however, are two additional games. First off, you have the original arcade version of Haunted Castle; a sort of oddball spin-off originally released in 1987 and already available on Switch (twice). Thanks to its absurd difficulty level and focus on ripping consumers off of their money, it still plays like crap and is one of the absolute worst entries in the entire series.
Thankfully, Konami has seen fit to revamp the game once again with the aptly titled Haunted Castle Revisited, and it’s apparently as close to a full-fledged new entry in the series as we’re going to get. Frankly, developer M2 has done the impossible with Haunted Castle Revisited: taking a hated entry in the franchise and making it Good. Better than good, actually – it’s great!
Haunted Castle’s graphics have been completely overhauled, with some stunning lighting effects that remind us of some of the best HD 2D games on Switch. But more than that, the gameplay and difficulty have been rebalanced so you won’t be tearing your hair out after just a few seconds of the opening phase. It plays like an NES or SNES Castlevania game, and while it can’t compete with some of the best entries in the series, it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to hold your head up high and say: “Yes, Haunted Castle is good!” – Finally.
Diploma
Castlevania Dominus Collection is probably the best compilation Konami and M2 have produced to date, presenting three exceptional DS games that easily stand the test of time and are just as fun today as they were in the 2000s. Not only that, but with the notable addition of Haunted Castle Revisited, the seemingly impossible has been achieved. This remastered version of a hated arcade oddity, included as a fun little bonus, is fantastic, and while it can’t compete with the very best ‘classic’ games in the series, it’s the closest we’ve had to a brand new Castlevania in years. An exquisite package.
