ROM Hack - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Definitive Edition

Hack description

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Definitive Edition combines various improvement/bugfix patches and QoL level edits to create the best way to play Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Included in this hack are:

- Castlevania: Dawn of Dignity:
This hack replaces the game's anime portraits with portraits similar to the ones featured in Aria of Sorrow, drawn by Ayami Kojima. Some portraits are taken from other official Castlevania games, while a handful were drawn from scratch by acediez.
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Fixed Luck:
This hack fixes the Luck stat, which originally had next to no effect on the drop rate of Souls, to actively influence the drop rate based on height.
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow No Required Touch Screen:
This hack removes the dependence on touch screen elements in the game. It removes the Seal drawing mechanic, skips the name signing at the start of the game, and enables you to break ice blocks with melee weapons.

- An issue in the original game is that, once the player uses the Souls of Gergoth, Death and Abaddon to forge new weapons using the Weapon Synthesis mechanic, these Souls no longer count towards the 100% Soul collection, making the Chaos Ring unobtainable unless he starts a New Game+ file and obtains these Souls again. This has been fixed by allowing the player to collect these three Souls twice per run. These Soul canisters are only there when you don't have the respective Souls in your possession. If you (somehow) missed a canister and beat the respective boss, the canister will only return once you remove the Soul you obtained from your inventory. Craft a weapon with the Soul, and the Soul in the canister will return without issues.

- In the original, the Black Panther Soul, which gives you a huge speed boost and costs next to no MP, is found in one of the very last rooms in the game. This makes the Soul pretty useless. This hack places the Black Panther Soul in the room behind the Throne Room, a choice reminiscent of Aria of Sorrow.

- This hack makes the Alucard Sword obtainable without the player having to resort to the use of glitches.

The Readme file of this patch contains two cheat codes, a Level 1 cap and a remove money code. These serve to enhance the replay value of the game, not to make the game easier.

Contributor	Type of contribution	Description
Thirteen 1355	Hacking
acediez	Graphics

Reviews

Many needed changes into one!	estoybien	2020-09-29	Version 1.0
I've never liked the new designs. I've always felt that the touch screen thing was a letdown and seals sucked big time, those aspects only served to interrupt gameplay. So there we have it, the definitive edition as stated. Still, I think aria of sorrow is a better game, but this at least makes up for a more solid followup, correcting also a few needed things. It would be great though, that this patch could be applied also to the European rom, because of this one being multi-language. Thanks!

So much Yes!	caminopreacher	2019-12-19	Version 1.0
This is so great. Normally, I'm more articulate with my reviews, but I am at a loss right now. This is basically perfection. The only thing I can think to add would be making Alucard's Bat Form a R button, blue soul type attack instead of an UP, ATTACK, red soul attack. But I digress. Gonna go play it again now!

Great Update	G30FF	2019-05-25	Version 1.0
This is an excellent hack that improves the game experience substantially over the base game. The portraits are lovely, and including the touch screen mod is wonderful. Great work!

Good Quality of Life	PRG	2019-05-01	Version 1.0
Adds some really useful quality of life that improves aspects of the game, including adding in other patches into one thing. One thing I would suggest is a separate patch that allows you to keep the original portraits, as I prefer the originals for Dawn of Sorrow, as they're expressive.

Definitely deserves it's name	MagicalFlyingD00d	2019-03-24	Version 1.0
This hack is so freaking good, it fixes all the gripes I had with game! It's so much better to have the Black Panther soul before going to the last areas just like in Aria. One thing that I'd like that they add is, separate patches for the custom portraits, and new stuff like the animations and items/souls.

As it should have been	bxbcore	2019-02-27	Version 1.0
This game should seriously not be played without these fixes - it punts a flawed game over the fence into something awesome that feels like a true successor to Aria of Sorrow, instead of a confusing, gimmicky mess. Seriously - look at the default portraits in DoS. That aspect alone is enough to recommend this patch. And, dear lord, don't get me started on the touch screen. Nothing SCREAMS FUN like having to pause what you're doing to unsheathe the stylus to trace MAGICK SYMBOLS. The removal of the touch features were handled with immaculate grace. Kudos to all the original authors and to Thirteen 1355 for compiling them in an easy-to-use patch (plus the bonuses that Thirteen added w/ Alucard sword, etc.)!

How Konami Should've Made This	Ziko	2019-02-26	Version 1.0
It baffles me that Konami messed up big time with this game. It was rushed out, played very poorly in the sense of relying on the touch screen, and overall it was harder than it should've been. This set of patches fixes all this by essentially fixing all the junk that Konami's devs couldn't have been bothered to back then. The luck stat works almost too well as I've managed to not only get souls much easier but have a stockpile to upgrade weapons to be better prepared for what the game throws at you. I just cleared the Alchemy Lab and pretty much had an easy time of it killing roomfuls of baddies in one blow of most of my weapons. Dawn of Sorrow: Definitive Edition is heavily recommended from me as I am a hardcore Castlevania fan and this game is worth a shot again now that all the issues listed have been addressed.

GuestLog in