Topic: Dawn of Sorrow vs Portrait of Ruin

[Mathias Hyperion]

A follow-up (of sorts) to AlucardTheEternal's "Curse Of Darkness Vs. Lament of Innocence" thread. This might have been done before.

So, out of the two DS Castlevania games, which do you prefer?

I think I like Dawn of Sorrow better. I don't really know why, it might just be because DoS introduced me to Castlevania, and/or because I've got further in it than any other CV game, and/or I prefer the grey and the snow to Portrait's... variety, I suppose. Castlevania should be dark and gothic.

[king metroid]

i enjoyed both games, but i prefer dawn of sorrow more, for some reason.

[elbryan42]

I loved both, but Dawn of Sorrow is the best of the two, definitely.

Much more ispiration in level design and music, a very balanced gameplay and weapon system (love soul fusion) and a truly circular castle, where it seems everything connects to everything else. Boss battles that made my jaw hit the floor in both scale and originality, and more. Dawn of Sorrow is my favorite Castleroid, hands down.

Portrait of Ruin, I dunno, was missing something. It had lots of great points, but the extra "umph" seemed like it was missing. It seemed too much of been there, done that. Let's do the same old thing, abandon all advancement from previous games, and get a product out.

It seems whenever IGA takes the time to make his own games and sequels, a lot more heart and effort is put into it. Look at LOI, HOD, AOS, and DOS. A lot more originality and new concepts.

But revisiting his favorite previous games (CV3, Bloodlines) and it seems like the game's slapped together somehow. Soul fusion/system in DOS/AOS, the spell/subweapon systems in LOI/HOD, the axing of leveling up in LOI in favor of new techniques. All of those are abandoned for generic CV games. IGA has to keep giving us new ideas, or step aside and let someone else do it.

Again, sorry for the long post. Guess I'm in the writing mood tonight.

In the end, IGA's new characters and concepts will always win. So as I said, the answer's Dawn of Sorrow.

[Long John Silver]

Dawn.

Portrait was a soulless product made only to cash in, not a true castlevania game. There was little care put into it, which resulted in multitude of glitches and bugs, the level design was an afterthought so we get a lot of rooms which were simply copy pasted all over the areas just like cod, and its overall mood wasn't really fitting for castlevania at all, not to mention the stupid protagonists made with final fantasy fanboy teenagers in mind.

Like someone once said, remove the vampire killer and any mentions of belmonts, kick drac out and rename wind to irvine and you'll get just about anything that's not castlevania.

[Mathias Hyperion]

Of the few that I've played seriously (for more than 10 minutes and with a view to getting somewhere - that's CV, CV2, CV3, SCV4, SOTN, LOI, DOS and POR) I would say that Dawn of Sorrow is my favourite Castlevania game of all. Although I've yet to play The Dracula X Chronicles, which should arrive at some point this week.

[CVfan13]

I guess I'd have to say DoS, although PoR probably has my favorite castle design. I love the more gothic feel of DoS and the fact that you can play ass Alucard and Yoko make it even more awesome. I like PoR's  extra modes too, but DoS is just the better game.

[Cypress]

Dawn of Sorrow was the first castlevania game I beat and what got me into it but I liked Portrait of Ruin better. It was much more fun and had a slight graphical upgrade. Alot of people are pissed about the mirrored pictures but the even without them the game is long and they were filled with different enemies. If you like to stand around in each room pointlessly I can see how you'd be mad. And the extras were much better. Richter mode and Old Axe armor in lv. 1 hard mode are extremely challenging and sister's mode was interesting. They should have done more with the online but there is always next time.

[The Last Belmont]

PoR, DoS was too easy and short.

[Marty Belmont]

In my humble opinion, PoR mops the floor with DoS.

Mainly because I enjoy all the game's good points and don't try to find every possible stupid thing to complain about.

"Oh No! Maria Renard throws her doves at a slightly upwards angle!"

"Richter has a solo cross attack when it should be dual, even though it does the exact same thing!"

"teh Anime Suxors!"

I personally found richter mode to be a lot more fun than DoS' Julius Mode mode.
 and since I liked the genres used for the portraits, I didn't mind seeing them twice (13th street is one of my favorite video game stages ever)

[knightmere]

POR is much better. DOS has annoying SOMA and friends and a forced soul system which was too much like pokemon.  POR had much more variety in castle design, better story + music, new double team concept, and you could play as richter ftw. 

[Azmodan]

Hmm. Well, they both have their pros and cons. PoR made me grin with some of its bonus content, like seeing both 8-bit Simon and a more detailed version in the greatest five, and Koshiro's excellent contributions to the soundtracks.

And then it has its weak points, which Serio pretty much covered for me.

DoS also suffered from a juvenile storyline, and seeing AoS's cast dumbed down wasn't the best thing ever. But...there's something about it that seemed more addictive. PoR wasn't too bit on the replay value, considering much of Wind's quests I found to be less than stellar.

I had more fun with DoS's Julius Mode than I did with the main game. I'm not certain if that's a good thing or not, but making an entire mode a tribute to CVIII was good enough for me.

[CVfan13]

I had more fun with DoS's Julius Mode than I did with the main game.

I always have more fun with extra character modes. Although the main modes are still non-linear, the order in which you have to complete areas pretty much is. In extra character modes, there are absolutely no limitations. And I like the storyless modes. I always make up the story myself. Of course its a little wierd that I talk out loud for the characters, but I don't mind it. 

[Sonic_Reaper]

I enjoyed PoR way more.  I didn't really get into DoS as much I would have liked.  Pretty much put it down after finishing Julius mode.  Didn't really ever feel the need to go back to it.  And I absolutely abhor the horrible quality of the music in DoS.

[angevil]

Dawn of Sorrow is definitely my choice!

I just loved it when I tried it the first time. My first Castlevania game that I played to the end was Aria so I was looking forward to the sequel. It had much better graphics and I was sold.
What I liked in DOS: the castle map is great, bosses are very nice, some areas are fantastic (I liked Lost Village, The Abyss). I liked the extra game with Alucard, Julius and Yoko - and Soma as the boss in the end. I liked the music very much. The soul system was nice. Controls felt very good - much better than in AOS.
What I don`t like in DOS: shitty anime art, humor&love WTF!?!, characters Dmitrii, Dario and Celia - yuck! and a huge room in water level- I hate to go in every corner, but always need 100% for my satisfaction

I think POR was OK, but not as good. The castle was fine, but some of the portraits are too boring. I don`t like them much. I hate the circus levels - they feel so boring. The idea of various gravity fields is great, but the maps of those levels are horrible and uninspired. And enemy placement also is horrible.

[Rictrunks]

I choose Portrait of Ruin.
It has great soundtrack.
It has great stages. Playable is very good.