Please not this preview is a wee bit outdated, and I'll try and add new content to it eventually.

Title: Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
Developer: Konami
Platform: Nintendo DS
Release: October4 2005

Story: Set precisely one year after AoS, a cult believing that their God is perfectly good, which means that there must be a perfect evil. The leader of this cult, Celia Fortner, is doing everything in her power to slay Soma for this reason. Soma ventures off to the Cult's headquarters before the cult can come after him and lands himself in Castlevania again.

Gameplay: The core gameplay from AoS is staying the same, traditional 2D side scrolling, a maze-like castle, tons of secrets, numerous weapons. And the best part of the returning: the soul system.  Many new weapons and enemy souls are in this sequel.

New Additions: The top screen will play the role of map and player status screen. Having this new always-visable map will be one hell of a handy addition this time.  The stylus/touch screen is being used to a minimal, playing a role of a "seal" during boss fights. Once all of a bosses health is drained a "seal" appears and a pattern is drawn, you must draw that pattern again to "seal" and defeat the boss. If you mess up the pattern, the boss regains a bit of health and the fight continues.

Audio/Visual: Series Composer Michiru Yamane (creater of the SotN soundtrack) will reprise her role for this game. The same high quality 2D experience awaits again, much sharper graphics this time around, much similar to Symphony of the Night but seemingly a mite sharper.

Wonderful Possiblities: Not a whole lot announced at this point, but CV series producer Koga Igarashi says:

"I don't want to have two Somas running around together, but I'm hoping to find space for a versus mode if time allows."

Even if that doesn't occur, he promises that the DS' wireless capabilites will be used for soul trading and the exchange of customized maps.

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Final Comments: As stated earlier I hate Nintendo for doing this to me, but it should be one hell of a game. I'm looking forward to this more than any game for quite some time [with the possible exclusion of Halo 2's wait period]. I'll keep you all informed as new information comes up.