Castlevania Dominus Collection Review

It sounds weird to say, but Konami has been on some sort of a resurgence as of late. From making some wildly unpopular decisions in the past, the company has since announced the likes of a Suikoden Remaster, a Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake, and even a Silent Hill 2 Remake!

Seemingly dedicated to turning things around, the company has recently made a surprise announcement out of nowhere, revealing the Castlevania Dominus Collection, a compilation of three classic titles not seen since the days of the Nintendo DS – Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia.

These titles are some of the greatest games of the franchise, and with the Castlevania Dominus Collection now available for modern consoles, free from the technical shackles of the DS, fans can look forward to experiencing vampire-slaying once again at its finest.

Dual Screen Dilemma

The first thing that comes to mind is how the Castlevania Dominus Collection will handle these games on modern consoles as they were mostly made with a dual-screen setup in mind. Since we were playing it on a Steam Deck, it didn’t make much of a difference, and we would assume it would be the same with the Switch. How about PS5 and Xbox Series owners?

Castlevania Dominus Collection implements an interesting user interface, having one part of the screen with the actual game, and the other part with useful information like the map and monster information. There are a number of options to slightly customize the size of the panels, but the general layout works with the much larger screens of the Switch and the Steam Deck compared to the DS.

It looks a bit unnatural, but having the information without sifting through menus is helpful, especially for this type of game where your choice of equipped weapons and skills are important to keep track of. it’s not that much of a bother, and you’ll get used to it within a few minutes of gameplay. Of course, it would have been nice to just get rid of it and play with just the actual game screen, but sadly, there’s no option to do so.

Vampire Hunting Bliss

The game among the three titles included in the Castlevania Dominus Collection that makes the most use of touchscreen controls is Dawn of Sorrow. The Magic Seal mechanic requires players to trace a symbol on the screen, and doing so on the Steam Deck was not a problem at all. When playing on a device without a touchscreen, you’ll be prompted to perform button prompts in a certain sequence instead, which works pretty well. Just in case tracing symbols isn’t your thing, then you can choose to use this input style too on the Steam Deck.

Dawn of Sorrow gives players control of Soma and allows players to wield the souls of enemies to use as their own, giving them abilities that can be further upgraded. It’s a cool way to incentivize grinding, and it bears saying that the titles included in the Castlevania Dominus Collection mostly share similar systems.

Order of Ecclesia, a personal favorite because of the protagonist, Shanoa, offers the use of a Glyph system where players can gain an enemy glyph to use as their own. Glyphs can be equipped per hand, and essentially, serve the same purpose as the souls from Dawn of Sorrow. Exploration is quite unique because instead of one whole map with interconnected areas, Order of Ecclesia offers several small areas to explore.

Portrait of Ruin is the more unique entry among the three titles in the Castlevania Dominus Collection because it allows players to switch between two characters at any point in the game, leading to some spectacular combo attacks. This is something you don’t usually see in the Castlevania series, so it requires a slightly different approach to combat.

Modern Flourish

Of course, a Castlevania collection isn’t complete without some quality-of-life upgrades, and the Castlevania Dominus Collection has several welcome ones, on top of the ability to play as the various versions (Japanese, European, etc) of each game.

The music player and the gallery offer a good way to quickly experience the fantastic art and soundtrack of each title without having to unlock anything, meaning everything is available right off the bat. While some extras like graphics filters, are not present, it’s not a big deal.

One standout feature was the addition of a rewind function, which allows players to go back in time for a few seconds and repeat a tricky sequence or maybe even dodge that boss attack that would have otherwise killed them. While it does take away the “pureness” of the experience, there’s always the option to not use it instead if you are bothered by it.

The Castlevania Dominus Collection also includes a couple of older entries in the series – Haunted Castle and Haunted Castle Revisited. I’m personally not familiar with both titles, but they play similarly as you would expect any Castlevania entry would. The graphical uplift is welcome and does make playing them much more bearable.

Both titles are odd additions in the sense that they don’t quite fit the overall theme, but it is tough to complain about a couple of extra games that just add more value to an already worthwhile package. The original Haunted Castle game was quite slow and a pain to play, showing its age, but Haunted Castle Revisited proved to be a better experience overall.

Verdict: Buy it!

Overall, the Castlevania Dominus Collection is an easy recommendation as it compiles three fine entries in this legendary series. While they aren’t exactly new entries, experiencing Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin, and Dawn of Sorrow in modern consoles with fantastic upgrades is an offer we would never refuse.

The experience has been translated well, and even without a touchscreen, the essence of these games is still kept and respected, and the addition of the usual bonuses like a gallery and music player is just icing on the top.

*Castlevania Dominus Collection was reviewed on a Steam Deck with a review code provided by the publisher.