Castlevania Dominus Collection

Genre: Compilation / Metroidvania / Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This Compilation is included in Castlevania Collections Bundle, along with Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Castlevania Advance Collection. It is also in Contra x Castlevania Bundle, along with Contra: Operation Galuga.)

Castlevania Dominus Collection, released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation that seems to be presenting itself as containing a trio of games, but which actually contains five – all three Castlevania games released on Nintendo DS, along with the 1987 arcade game Haunted Castle, as well as a brand-new remake of Haunted Castle.

Here is what I thought of all of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow	Metroidvania	1	A-
tl;dr A direct sequel to Castlevania: Harmony of Sorrow, Dawn brings back the excellent “soul” system, along with an excellent new map and an impressive (for portables at the time) mix of 2D pixel art graphics and some subtle use of 3D. The result is a game that is easily one of the best in the series, though it goes a bit too far with the touchscreen gimmicks (I’ll talk about how these are handled on Nintendo Switch farther down). However, despite this, Dawn of Sorrow is still one of the best Metroidvanias ever made, and an absolute must-play for fans of the genre.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin	Metroidvania	1	B
tl;dr In many ways, Portrait of Ruin felt like a step backwards after Dawn of Sorrow. The touchscreen gimmicks are gone, but so too is the souls system, and in its place is a character-swapping system that isn’t nearly as compelling. What’s more, this game segments large portions of its map into self-contained worlds, cutting down on the exploration that is the lifeblood of a Metroidvania. This is still a solid game, but not nearly as good as the game that preceded it.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia	Metroidvania	1	B-
tl;dr While Order of Ecclesia’s glyph system is interesting, it’s over-convoluted and is probably the worst of the three signature gameplay mechanics of the DS games. What’s more, this game doubles down even harder on the segmented world design of the prior game, to the point where sometimes this doesn’t even play like a Metroidvania. This is still a solid game with some fun mechanics and clever boss designs, but it’s one of the worst Metroidvania games in the Castlevania series.
Haunted Castle	Action-Platformer	1	C-
tl;dr Haunted Castle has some decent gameplay that is clearly in line with other classic Castlevania games, but it’s marred by clunky controls, poor hit detection, and an overly-high challenge level, though this last issue is mitigated somewhat by a rewind feature. It’s still more valuable as a piece of history than a game in its own right, but it’s a nice inclusion, regardless.
Haunted Castle Revisited	Action-Platformer	1	B-
tl;dr This remake of Haunted Castle fixes many of the issues that were in the original version, and modernizes the game to be more in line with other Castlevania games. It’s still a little clunky, and the challenge level is still on the high side (with no rewind feature this time), but this is a remake that actually makes this Arcade classic enjoyable by today’s standards.

In short, pretty much everything here is good and well worth playing, but Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is the clear star of this package. I know some players hold it in higher regard than the legendary Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I think it’s held back by gimmicky touchscreen mechanics and the more grindy elements of its otherwise wonderful soul system.

While I found the other two Metroidvanias here to be a disappointment after that excellent game, they are both still quite good and worth playing, they’re just not absolute must-play like Dawn of Sorrow is. And while Haunted Castle is a game that absolutely shows its age, the remake, Haunted Castle Revisited, breathes new life into that game, actually making it reasonably enjoyable to play, not only improving the graphics and sound, but also mixing in some game mechanics from the mainline Castlevania games. It’s not enough to change the core identity of what this game is, but it adds enough to it that it feels like it gives it something that was missing before that always should have been there. That said, it’s very difficult, and it is oddly the only game in this package that doesn’t benefit from this Compilation’s rewind feature… but more on this later.

Before moving on to the extra features and content here, let’s take a moment to talk about the emulation here, because there are some big questions I know some players will have about these games, since the original versions of three of them were all on the Nintendo DS, not only using both screens, but the touchscreen as well.

While all three of the DS ports take a similar solution when it comes to dual screen and touchscreen use, Dawn of Sorrow is the big question mark here, since this was the game that made the most extensive use of the touchscreen. Castlevania Dominus Collection replaces the touchscreen here with a cursor controlled by the right analog stick and ZR to press on the screen. It’s not ideal, especially when you have to make precision moves quickly, although thankfully this game offers another option for the infuriating post-boss “seals” that have players tracing shapes on the screen – if you want, you can instead just tap a series of button prompts. Honestly, this mechanic was so dumb that I would rather they just eliminated it entirely, or at least automated it, but I suppose this works.

However… wait a minute, the Nintendo Switch actually has a touchscreen! And lo and behold, it works perfectly here, meaning that if you’re playing this game in handheld mode, you can just directly tap on the screen when it requires your input, and honestly I think this method works best. As a result, I would say that the Nintendo Switch version of the game is going to be superior to the version on other platforms due to this feature.

As for the dual screens, these ports have multiple potential screen layouts, including one screen vertically above the other to simulate the way the original releases looked. However, I think the default is preferable – this has the action on a large screen to the left, with stats shown to the lower-right, and a map shown to the upper-left. This worked so well, it almost felt natural, like this was always how these games were meant to be displayed.

Before we get off the topic of emulation, I do have to point out one glaring issue I noticed in Dawn of Sorrow, where there was an ugly flickering in the background of the first few screens of the map. Oddly, this only appeared in docked mode, and looked just fine in handheld mode, and once I left this section to explore the rest of the map I didn’t notice further glitches. Still, it seemed noteworthy enough to mention.

Now, on to the extra stuff added here. First, in terms of options, each game lets you reassign buttons as you like, and as I mentioned before, all of the games except Haunted Castle Revisited now have a rewind feature, which is nice. This collection includes the American, Japanese, and European versions of all DS games, as well as the Korean version of Order of Ecclesia.

In terms of extra content, there’s a music test mode for all five games, as well as the ability to build a custom playlist. The DS games also have a full gallery of production art, promo art, as well as full case scans and instruction manual scans in multiple regions. Short of an Atari 50-style making-of documentary or director commentary, I feel like this is a pretty satisfactory set of extras here.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with Castlevania Dominus Collection, and think it compares well with both previous Castlevania collections on Nintendo Switch – it has fewer games than Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and they’re not quite as classic as what was in that bundle, but I would argue that the overall quality is higher here. On the other hand, I don’t think the Metroidvanias in this bundle are as consistently good as what was in the Castlevania Advance Collection, but they’re still pretty good, and I think Dawn of Sorrow edges out Aria of Sorrow to be the best Metroidvania-style Castlevania game on Nintendo Switch (at least until Symphony of the Night gets ported over). Also, I think Haunted Castle Revisited is a much more delightful extra game than that collection’s Castlevania: Dracula X.

If I had to choose one of the collections to be considered the best… I feel like I would lean slightly in the direction of the Castlevania Advance Collection. But honestly, all of them have something to offer.

Okay, after going through all of that… yes, if you enjoy Castlevania games or Metroidvania games, this is a must-have bundle on Nintendo Switch, and even if this was just Dawn of Sorrow I’d probably be telling you to get it, but with all five games here this is absolutely a bargain. What’s more, thanks to the inclusion of the touchscreen, I think the Nintendo Switch version specifically is going to be the best way to play these games. Toss in a lot of bonus content and extra options, and you have a truly excellent retro collection that is an absolute delight on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Castlevania Dominus Collection is a Compilation containing three Metroidvania-style games in the Castlevania series from Nintendo DS, along with the arcade Action-Platformer Haunted Castle and a brand new remake of that game, Haunted Castle Revisited. The original Haunted Castle is clunky and dated, but everything else here ranges from good to outstanding, with Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow being one of the best games in the franchise. This collection does a good job with the dual-screen and touchscreen elements of the original games, and adds a bunch of features and bonus content, overall making for a great package that’s a must-have for any fans of Metroidvania games and the Castlevania series specifically.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Compilation/Collection – Castlevania Dominus Collection goes above and beyond in so many ways it’s absurdly impressive. This would have still been great if it were just a straight port of the three Nintendo DS Castlevania games, but this bundle tossed in the original Haunted Castle, as well as a much-improved remake of that game. There are numerous ways to display the games, there’s full touchscreen support in handheld mode, there’s a wealth of extra content… in short, Castlevania fans were absolutely spoiled with this wonderful collection, making this a highlight for 2024.

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