Dawn of Sorrow was the most disappointing metroidvania I've ever played

[Kaathe]

Finally got around to beating it.

Have played all the metroidvania now.

This game sucked. Map was bland, bosses were boring, no dracula boss, supporting cast sucked, and final boss was horrible.

I really enjoyed Soma's first game but this one was shocking.

Compared to Portrait of ruin and God tie order of ecclesia this game sucked.

[Deathscare]

Publicado originalmente por MattCryptid:

I felt that DoS starts dropping in quality after Wizardry Lab. The beginning is good though, and some of the QOL it adds is nice.

Yet it just didn't have that feeling of being a culmination of what came before it like Aria did, nor did it have me being in awe of its' world like Symphony did.

The DS trilogy in general doesn't elicit the same interest from me for some reason, maybe it's the lower budget, or some of my specific nitpicks. Still good games though.

The game drops in quality after wizardry lab? Lmao, that is quite the take.

[Hier kommt die Sonne]

Yeah, Dawn of Sorrow kinda sucks. The exploration is super unrewarding due to the weapon synthesis system. Farming for souls is a chore and it suffers from artificial difficulty (150 damage for touching the boss? Come on). I also think that reusing many of Aria's concepts, items and even room layouts gave this game no surprise factor at all.

[Soren]

Publicado originalmente por Cleric:

Yeah, Dawn of Sorrow kinda sucks. The exploration is super unrewarding due to the weapon synthesis system. Farming for souls is a chore and it suffers from artificial difficulty (150 damage for touching the boss? Come on). I also think that reusing many of Aria's concepts, items and even room layouts gave this game no surprise factor at all.

I kind of agree with the weapon synthesis criticism. Can't say I agree with artificial difficulty or reusing Aria's concepts though. Budgetary concerns give most reused assets a pass in my book. The handheld games didn't sell much after a while, so they had to be cheap to produce by proxy. Difficulty wise I felt DoS was easy-ish.

Instead, my main criticism was the art for the game was downgraded. The gothic style of the first game was better imo. The touch controls of the original DS version were kind of gimmicky (unfun too), and like you said the weapon synthesis wasn't that great for exploration rewards, and the luck stat being useless hurt soul farming. I suppose this port fixes the touch screen controls problem at least.

[0wnz0r]

tru tc, aria was MUCH better. n OoE best igavania hands down, in every regard.

[Deathscare]

No, Dawn of Sorrow used a more realistic gothic and medieval style while many of aria of sorrow's aethetics were more on the futuristic side. And Dawn of Sorrow is definitely more polished than aria of sorrow in every sense aside from the abysmal drop rate.

[Soren]

What about the anime art style on character portraits and what have you? A little goofy no?

[Deathscare]

Publicado originalmente por Soren:

What about the anime art style on character portraits and what have you? A little goofy no?

Both of them use anime art styles, so I guess that makes them both goofy based on what you said.

[Soren]

Publicado originalmente por Deathscare:

Publicado originalmente por Soren:

What about the anime art style on character portraits and what have you? A little goofy no?

Both of them use anime art styles, so I guess that makes them both goofy based on what you said.

One is using an anime art style akin to modern day anime or what we can say is popularised in anime via Akira Toriyama or whatever. Simplistic animation. The other has gothic undertones in it's animation as well as being more animated in depth. The cover art of the two games is a huge contrast basically. I can go putting screenshots of them both side by side if you want to deny this further.

[Deathscare]

Publicado originalmente por Soren:

Publicado originalmente por Deathscare:

Both of them use anime art styles, so I guess that makes them both goofy based on what you said.

One is using an anime art style akin to modern day anime or what we can say is popularised in anime via Akira Toriyama or whatever. Simplistic animation. The other has gothic undertones in it's animation as well as being more animated in depth. The cover art of the two games is a huge contrast basically. I can go putting screenshots of them both side by side if you want to deny this further.

Gosh, once you can look past the pop in character frames that pop up while they are conversing. And mostly what I meant being the sprites and the game's environments.

[Hier kommt die Sonne]

Publicado originalmente por Soren:

I kind of agree with the weapon synthesis criticism. Can't say I agree with artificial difficulty or reusing Aria's concepts though. Budgetary concerns give most reused assets a pass in my book. The handheld games didn't sell much after a while, so they had to be cheap to produce by proxy. Difficulty wise I felt DoS was easy-ish.

Instead, my main criticism was the art for the game was downgraded. The gothic style of the first game was better imo. The touch controls of the original DS version were kind of gimmicky (unfun too), and like you said the weapon synthesis wasn't that great for exploration rewards, and the luck stat being useless hurt soul farming. I suppose this port fixes the touch screen controls problem at least.

Indeed, creating new assets is expensive and time consuming. However, it's not the use of the same sprites from previous games that bothers me the most, but things like having the Satan's Ring above Dracula's room, or the Eversing by the waterfall. One could argue that it's a homage or a reference to Aria of Sorrow, but to me it feels uninspired and like they couldn't think of something more creative.

Now that you mentioned the touch screen controls, the port partially fixes it in the seals quick time event (which sucks either way), but you still have to use the mouse or the right analogue to break the crystal blocks in some rooms.

[Deathscare]

Publicado originalmente por Cleric:

Publicado originalmente por Soren:

I kind of agree with the weapon synthesis criticism. Can't say I agree with artificial difficulty or reusing Aria's concepts though. Budgetary concerns give most reused assets a pass in my book. The handheld games didn't sell much after a while, so they had to be cheap to produce by proxy. Difficulty wise I felt DoS was easy-ish.

Instead, my main criticism was the art for the game was downgraded. The gothic style of the first game was better imo. The touch controls of the original DS version were kind of gimmicky (unfun too), and like you said the weapon synthesis wasn't that great for exploration rewards, and the luck stat being useless hurt soul farming. I suppose this port fixes the touch screen controls problem at least.

Indeed, creating new assets is expensive and time consuming. However, it's not the use of the same sprites from previous games that bothers me the most, but things like having the Satan's Ring above Dracula's room, or the Eversing by the waterfall. One could argue that it's a homage or a reference to Aria of Sorrow, but to me it feels uninspired and like they couldn't think of something more creative.

Now that you mentioned the touch screen controls, the port partially fixes it in the seals quick time event (which sucks either way), but you still have to use the mouse or the right analogue to break the crystal blocks in some rooms.

You're only thinking of this as from the view of a someone who has been playing the games from a long time before dawn of sorrow's release. I didn't know any of these things when I was playing dawn of sorrow. I didn't even play aria of sorrow first as I didn't get that game.

[Soren]

Publicado originalmente por Deathscare:

Gosh, once you can look past the pop in character frames that pop up while they are conversing. And mostly what I meant being the sprites and the game's environments.

Well, I'm not talking about the reused/updated sprites from the first game. Because if they're reused how can I even say they have different art styles? I'm talking about the character portraits, the cutscenes, and the concept art. Especially the concept art in the collections here.

[Deathscare]

Publicado originalmente por Soren:

Publicado originalmente por Deathscare:

Gosh, once you can look past the pop in character frames that pop up while they are conversing. And mostly what I meant being the sprites and the game's environments.

Well, I'm not talking about the reused/updated sprites from the first game. Because if they're reused how can I even say they have different art styles? I'm talking about the character portraits, the cutscenes, and the concept art. Especially the concept art in the collections here.

I'm not sure which concept art you're referring to as it's a mixed bag of spoofs, mock ups, various art styles, and game manuals.

[Hotel Security]

I remember liking Dawn more than Aria but they're both pretty close.

And I have no idea how OP could rank HoD higher than Dawn. That's crazy.

[Kaathe]

Publicado originalmente por Hotel Security:

I remember liking Dawn more than Aria but they're both pretty close.

And I have no idea how OP could rank HoD higher than Dawn. That's crazy.

Because it's better