Castlevania: Dawn of Dignity (New Portraits Hack)

Original game : Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Platform : NDS

Author : ShadowOne333

Release date : 07 March 2017

Category : Improvement

Patch version : 1.1

Modifications : G

Downloads : 4793

ROM Information

File: 0121 - Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow (U)(Legacy).nds
Length: 67,108,864 Bytes (67.1 MB)
CRC32: 135737f6
MD5: cc0f25b8 783fb83c b4588d1c 111bdc18
SHA1: 47530ff8 7e608f88 105a314f df36dc38 5f8dec94

Hack description

Castlevania: Dawn of Dignity is part of a dual project called Castlevania: Choir of Redemption, which aims to give proper gothic artwork to both Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin.

The main focus for Dawn of Dignity is a graphical hack for Dawn of Sorrow which attempts to get rid of the generic anime-like artstyle that plagued 2/3 of the NDS Castlevanias, in favor of a much more akin artstyle to that of Ayami Kojima to keep consistency with the overall artstyle of the franchise, and also, keep it in line with Aria of Sorrow.

This hack implements different artworks, including official artwork for games releases after Dawn of Sorrow, as well as completely new artwork courtesy of RomHacking.net's user acediez. Be sure to check out his DeviantArt page to see the full new artwork he made for this project!

The graphical changes were made mostly to the portraits found in game for the characters, as well as HUD portraits, and icons which had some sort of anime-like imagery.

Contributions

Contributor	Type of contribution	Description
acediez	Graphics	General and original artwork
DarkSamus993	Original Hacking	Sprite and palette offsets
JohannGralog	Original Work	Original project and artwork contribution
Justin3009	Original Work	Artwork contribution
ShadowOne333	Hacking	Project leader and main hacking

Reviews

Pass	Old_gamer	2020-07-10	Version 1.1
This hack is merely for an acquired taste and it's not for me. The anime style just doesn't fit and the new style is perfect. Fits the mood. I would support a reversal hack on Aria of Sorrow with Dawn's art.

How it should've been.	Necronos	2020-07-09	Version 1.1
Ignore the dumb arguments about "but x sold more so therefore is better" left on a review here and appreciate the fact that Ayami Kojima's gothic style really fits Castlevania as of the last decades and it's here to stay, whether some like it or not. This hack really improves the gothic aesthetic that this game lost with the default generic animey style though. Recommended.

Possibly the best hack ever	Leis Miller	2020-05-10	Version 1.1
The character portraits completely ruined the official release. This "facelift" is exactly what the game needed.

Awesome!	DScythe32	2018-08-13	Version 1.1
This is just amazing, I'm not gonna say that the original artstyle is bad or anything, but this gothic artstyle fits castlevania so much better! I wonder why they changed it from AoS, now if someone could do this with Portrait of Ruin.... anyway, very good and awesome hack!

Is this even necessary?	Mysterii	2017-03-11	Version 1.0
Hell no. I know most people say that it's a matter of preference, but when you compare the sales figures of Aria to Dawn, it's Dawn of Sorrow that won out. And why you may ask? Simple, the lack of Ayami Kojima art. Not to mention that this was the same thing that happened with Rondo of Blood and that game is on such a high pedestal because of the one thing that this hack gets rid of: Anime-styled portraits.

Not perfect, but a major improvement !	gauchomax	2017-03-08	Version 1.0
The numerous downgrades from Aria of Sorrow in terms of aesthetic, atmosphere, mechanics and level design were all jarring, but none were more blatant than the new shonen-inspired look for the cast of characters. The hack corrects this odd choice by redesigning the characters' portrait with a gothic flair, similar to the previous game style. The color palette and the music are still utterly out of place vis-à-vis the original game, but this a step in the good direction to correct the very dubious direction this sequel received.

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