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Description
A years ago, I made a poll asking which handheld Castlevania trilogy was better: game boy advance or DS. And also submited a drawing showcasing how the count appears in the gba installments while making mini review of them. So when told the DS games were actually pretty good, I decided to submit this after finally playing them and...there were a lot of differences as Ayami Kojima's artwork is nowhere to be seen and in each installment the time period goes backwards, different mechanics, etc. but does that makes them better or worse? let's find out (though this has some spoilers):
-Dawn of Sorrow: Since the anime intro you notice that the characters and backgrounds have more "Death Note" look which fits the dark atmosphere, and in the actual game it looks spectacular, same with the sound and th eerie music. Set one year after Aria or Sorrow, Soma is attacked by a cult who wants to resurrect Dracula. While told by Genya Arikado that he shouldn't get involved, he investigates and learns by Hammer (who still does the shopkeeper role and actually fits better here than before) that they are in an abandoned castle, where he also finds Julius Belmont and Yoko Belnadez, who tells him about the Magic Seals and...this is where the flaws start to appear. In order to enter the boss room, you have to use the magic seals why making some lines with your finger in the lower screen and it gets old fast. And if that wasn't bad enough, you also have to use them to defeat the boss for good, and considering how difficult some can be, it get's infiurating as the lines should be drawn perfectly (I think Death defeated me more times because of that stupid gimmick) or the boss keeps fighting. The Castle itself is not very impressive if you played Aria of Sorrow as the area are not as varied and most of the bosses aren't as creative. It's a shame because the story starts promising as we learn Graham Jones (yeah, the previous game's main baddie) was a member of this cult, which already told us a bit more of him and the way Soma encounters previously seen character makes this look promising, but the more you progress in the story, the more it felt to me like one of those "Direct to video sequels". However the extra mode starrng Julius Belmont is better. Sure Aria of Sorrow had one too and it was good as you don't need to defeat enemies in order to get stronger and use all the usual secondary weapons. But here also Yoko and Alucard join you and can access places that couldn't in Soma's story, more traditional Castlevania songs like "Bloody tears" it had more story and in the end (spoiler alert) you get to fight Soma Cruz as we learn this is a what if story that showcases us that Dracula is fully reincarnated in him (end of spoiler). It's just great, but the extra content being better than the main feature... While I wouldn't call it a bad game, It's a dissapointing sequel that really didn't move things forward and I would only recommend it for Julius mode.
-Portrait of Ruin: Set in 1944, there has been news about a castle appearing in one of humanity's darkest hours (in this case, World War Two). So the Church's authorities send Jonathan Morris (the son of John Morris (one of the main characters of Castlevania Bloodlines) who also wields the Vampire Killer whip) and Charlotte Aulin (descendant of Syfa Belnadez who is an expert magician) and Vincent, a priest who will have the salesman role in this game. Since the beginning you notice that you can control the 2 main characters at the same time (though if the one not being controlled gets damaged, the magic is wasted) or just have one being seen, and in gameplay have their differences as Jonathan uses melee weapons and Charlotte uses magic spells and both can learn combined attacks and each other working in team is used to access new areas. We learn that the ones causing this problem are 2 evil vampire girls commanded by another vampire who looks like Lord Voldemort. this alone gives the story a different spin and surprinsingly gets more connected with other games as one ghost appears to help us and give secondary missions and we learn (spoiler alert) that he is related to the two evil girls (spoiler end). And if the castle wasn't a good overworld enough, you also visit different places entering through some portraits; at first this worried me as it sounded a lot like Super Mario 64, but the gameplay, the direction and...everything makes this game have it's own identity. the music (though we only heard one already known song in just one portion) and sound are great. Is there anything to complain? well, the characters design may be too generic anime for some (though I think the monsters look pretty good), some of the humor in Charlotte being called a kid can feel a bit out of place and (spoiler alert) kind of wish that we got a middle ending about Jonathan not being able to master the Vampire Killer considering the implied role that he may have in mentoring Julius Belmont (spoiler alert). And even has 2 extra modes, which I won't dare to spoil. This was a big surprise, really liked how the 2 characters gameplay never felt forced and how it tried to connect other games and possibly the most difficult Dracula fight in a Metroidvania/exploration installment.
-Order of Ecclesia: There has been a debate about which gameplay style people preffer for the saga. Some say it should have stayed in the old action 2d platforms that don't take place only in the castle ; others say the exploration/Metroidvania made the franchise more experimental. For this installment those elements were combined and oh boy! they succeed. Set in the XIX century, the Belmonts are nowhere to be seen and some Church related organizations have been working of different ways to fight Dracula or at least stop his return. one of them is the Order of Ecclesia, formed by Barlowe. One of his disciples (Shanoa) was chosen to participate in the ritual to get the powers to fight Dracula back, but the other (Albus) is angered and managed to ruin it and took some of the power for himself. So Shanoa has now to find Albus through different places plagued by monsters, learn what's his deal and the inevitable fight against Count Dracula. Unlike the previous games, where you have your weapon, Shanoa gets the attacks'abilities from the enemies, and some hidden in the levels, and you get to do big attacks combining two attacks. During the story we also go to a deserted town where we have to rescue it' inhabitants and even do them some favors and even buy/sell stuff at the shop. Without giving any spoilers you get to enter Castlevania and it plays more like the previous game on this console, but since in the map you have been visiting different areas, it's not that big, but I honestly, I think this work great. The character portraits of Masaki Irooka are phenomenal, probably the best seen in Castlevania's history (probably the best Dracula's portrait), kind of makes me wish to see characters from previous games in this style, on the bright side, he did the artwork for Kid Icarus Uprising and Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology so kudos for him. The enemies are varied as well as the bosses, even showcasing the most difficult Dracula battle ever, while not the best extra mode, it was really fun. This is for now my favorite game of the franchise (in case someone asks, no haven't played Symphony of the night), the only dull point I can think is some of the secondary objectives (but you don't need to complete them to finish the game so no problem) can be tedious or extremelly difficult. the gameplay is great and probably one of the most emotional endings in video game history. One proof that handheld games shouldn't be underestimated.

Description
A years ago, I made a poll asking which handheld Castlevania trilogy was better: game boy advance or DS. And also submited a drawing showcasing how the count appears in the gba installments while making mini review of them. So when told the DS games were actually pretty good, I decided to submit this after finally playing them and...there were a lot of differences as Ayami Kojima's artwork is nowhere to be seen and in each installment the time period goes backwards, different mechanics, etc. but does that makes them better or worse? let's find out (though this has some spoilers):
-Dawn of Sorrow: Since the anime intro you notice that the characters and backgrounds have more "Death Note" look which fits the dark atmosphere, and in the actual game it looks spectacular, same with the sound and th eerie music. Set one year after Aria or Sorrow, Soma is attacked by a cult who wants to resurrect Dracula. While told by Genya Arikado that he shouldn't get involved, he investigates and learns by Hammer (who still does the shopkeeper role and actually fits better here than before) that they are in an abandoned castle, where he also finds Julius Belmont and Yoko Belnadez, who tells him about the Magic Seals and...this is where the flaws start to appear. In order to enter the boss room, you have to use the magic seals why making some lines with your finger in the lower screen and it gets old fast. And if that wasn't bad enough, you also have to use them to defeat the boss for good, and considering how difficult some can be, it get's infiurating as the lines should be drawn perfectly (I think Death defeated me more times because of that stupid gimmick) or the boss keeps fighting. The Castle itself is not very impressive if you played Aria of Sorrow as the area are not as varied and most of the bosses aren't as creative. It's a shame because the story starts promising as we learn Graham Jones (yeah, the previous game's main baddie) was a member of this cult, which already told us a bit more of him and the way Soma encounters previously seen character makes this look promising, but the more you progress in the story, the more it felt to me like one of those "Direct to video sequels". However the extra mode starrng Julius Belmont is better. Sure Aria of Sorrow had one too and it was good as you don't need to defeat enemies in order to get stronger and use all the usual secondary weapons. But here also Yoko and Alucard join you and can access places that couldn't in Soma's story, more traditional Castlevania songs like "Bloody tears" it had more story and in the end (spoiler alert) you get to fight Soma Cruz as we learn this is a what if story that showcases us that Dracula is fully reincarnated in him (end of spoiler). It's just great, but the extra content being better than the main feature... While I wouldn't call it a bad game, It's a dissapointing sequel that really didn't move things forward and I would only recommend it for Julius mode.
-Portrait of Ruin: Set in 1944, there has been news about a castle appearing in one of humanity's darkest hours (in this case, World War Two). So the Church's authorities send Jonathan Morris (the son of John Morris (one of the main characters of Castlevania Bloodlines) who also wields the Vampire Killer whip) and Charlotte Aulin (descendant of Syfa Belnadez who is an expert magician) and Vincent, a priest who will have the salesman role in this game. Since the beginning you notice that you can control the 2 main characters at the same time (though if the one not being controlled gets damaged, the magic is wasted) or just have one being seen, and in gameplay have their differences as Jonathan uses melee weapons and Charlotte uses magic spells and both can learn combined attacks and each other working in team is used to access new areas. We learn that the ones causing this problem are 2 evil vampire girls commanded by another vampire who looks like Lord Voldemort. this alone gives the story a different spin and surprinsingly gets more connected with other games as one ghost appears to help us and give secondary missions and we learn (spoiler alert) that he is related to the two evil girls (spoiler end). And if the castle wasn't a good overworld enough, you also visit different places entering through some portraits; at first this worried me as it sounded a lot like Super Mario 64, but the gameplay, the direction and...everything makes this game have it's own identity. the music (though we only heard one already known song in just one portion) and sound are great. Is there anything to complain? well, the characters design may be too generic anime for some (though I think the monsters look pretty good), some of the humor in Charlotte being called a kid can feel a bit out of place and (spoiler alert) kind of wish that we got a middle ending about Jonathan not being able to master the Vampire Killer considering the implied role that he may have in mentoring Julius Belmont (spoiler alert). And even has 2 extra modes, which I won't dare to spoil. This was a big surprise, really liked how the 2 characters gameplay never felt forced and how it tried to connect other games and possibly the most difficult Dracula fight in a Metroidvania/exploration installment.
-Order of Ecclesia: There has been a debate about which gameplay style people preffer for the saga. Some say it should have stayed in the old action 2d platforms that don't take place only in the castle ; others say the exploration/Metroidvania made the franchise more experimental. For this installment those elements were combined and oh boy! they succeed. Set in the XIX century, the Belmonts are nowhere to be seen and some Church related organizations have been working of different ways to fight Dracula or at least stop his return. one of them is the Order of Ecclesia, formed by Barlowe. One of his disciples (Shanoa) was chosen to participate in the ritual to get the powers to fight Dracula back, but the other (Albus) is angered and managed to ruin it and took some of the power for himself. So Shanoa has now to find Albus through different places plagued by monsters, learn what's his deal and the inevitable fight against Count Dracula. Unlike the previous games, where you have your weapon, Shanoa gets the attacks'abilities from the enemies, and some hidden in the levels, and you get to do big attacks combining two attacks. During the story we also go to a deserted town where we have to rescue it' inhabitants and even do them some favors and even buy/sell stuff at the shop. Without giving any spoilers you get to enter Castlevania and it plays more like the previous game on this console, but since in the map you have been visiting different areas, it's not that big, but I honestly, I think this work great. The character portraits of Masaki Irooka are phenomenal, probably the best seen in Castlevania's history (probably the best Dracula's portrait), kind of makes me wish to see characters from previous games in this style, on the bright side, he did the artwork for Kid Icarus Uprising and Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology so kudos for him. The enemies are varied as well as the bosses, even showcasing the most difficult Dracula battle ever, while not the best extra mode, it was really fun. This is for now my favorite game of the franchise (in case someone asks, no haven't played Symphony of the night), the only dull point I can think is some of the secondary objectives (but you don't need to complete them to finish the game so no problem) can be tedious or extremelly difficult. the gameplay is great and probably one of the most emotional endings in video game history. One proof that handheld games shouldn't be underestimated.