​Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (NDS, 2005)

• Same teleport system (choose where to go in the map view, teleport between visited warp rooms, frequent teleporter rooms)

• Level design is more linear than in AoS (can sometimes choose to fight two bosses in either order, opens up a bit more after reaching the water area)

• Same improved shop (stays in one place close to a portal, sell or buy anything except for souls and weapons not crafted yet, can't buy back rare items you've found and sold though)

• Good map system (view the map or status screen (press select) on the top screen, can't place markers or notes on the map - would've actually been a good use of the touch screen, some walls within rooms aren't shown on the map)

• Frequent save points which also restore HP and MP, Quick save/sleep feature lets you quickly backtrack but only to the beginning of the current room so it's not that helpful

• More distinction between weapon types (big weapons are much slower and hit much harder)

• No sequence breaking opportunities until you unlock Julius mode (teleport attack + Succubus soul lets you go through walls, Cutall/Cinquedia super attack glitches/oversights let you reach switches on the other side of some doors (allows skipping Rahab+Gergoth+Puppet Master), some more severe ones in new game plus but they also involve glitches)

• Three endings (depends on your equipment during the late game and one choice that you're told about after the fact)

• Switch between two sets of gear and abilities on the fly (X button - need to find the ability for it)

• Some breakable walls (though much fewer than in CotM and you need an ability to spot them meaning it takes up a slot you could've used for something else)

• In-game bestiary

• Can't hold more than 9 of each item at once - still a bit OP though

• Skippable dialogue scenes and staff roll

• Somewhat interactive backgrounds (sit on chairs, can stand on certain enemies (skull dragon turret, plated part of bull))

• Some puzzles (sliding block puzzle that changes the layout of a smaller area, enter mirrors to explore the other side in some rooms - a bit underdeveloped though, no box pushing here)

• Unlockables (hard mode, boss rush and an alternate character (Julius Belmont again and here he can gain two allies - Alucard and Yoko, triple fireball - hard mode?, new game plus)

• Pretty nice transition between the town fountain and the southwestern area (similar to the "rain" in the city of tears in Hollow Knight)

• There's a bunch of lore put in a "library" menu now

• Respawning treasure chests (contain multiple coins - makes it a bit easier to farm for money in some areas; can also farm for souls then buy cheap weapons to sell back as upgraded weapons early on), Can also farm for health at times

• Partial control config (red soul ability is still mapped to up + main attack and that can't be changed)

• Slowly regenerating MP, One HP draining (not that effective) and one HP regenerating soul (works anywhere but is kinda slow and the enemy's drop rate for it is very low)

• Dropped items disappear after a few seconds

• Enemies respawn when exiting the room they spawned in (generally a good thing)

• No battle arena (AoS, CotM), No new enemies added to previous areas (CotM)

Playthrough - Video Review - Mini Review

Influenced by: Possibly Mega Man Zero series

Influenced: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Probably Ore ga Omae o Mamoru, possibly Mega Man ZX, Chasm, Valdis Story, Timespinner, Penguin no Mondai: Saikyou Penguin Densetsu!?, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth