If the arrival of pumpkin spice everything has somehow gone unnoticed, let us be the first to inform you that it is officially the Halloween Season. While cinnamon and nutmeg are usually the sole heralds of the beginning of the certified best time of the year, they are joined in 2024 by another horseman of the haunt-pocalypse. Castlevania Dominus Collection, a collection of Castlevania titles originally released on the Nintendo DS, has descended upon Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Steam, and Xbox Series X|S. The past tense is intentional, because the collection dropped at the same time as the reveal trailer, on August 27.
The three main games featured in the collection are:
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, the sequel to Aria of Sorrow;
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the distantly-related successor to Castlevania: Bloodlines;
- and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, which isn’t directly related to any other Castlevania title.
All three titles are well regarded by fans, and it’s difficult to gauge if any one in particular stands above the rest, making this a powerful selection of games. The fourth, not-so-main game included in the collection is Haunted Castle Revisited, a remaster of the first Castlevania arcade title—although the game can also be played in its original format.
The collection includes many extra options for playing its games, including a helpful quick save option and an even more powerful rewind feature. While its most obvious use would be to rewind if you die to a boss, it can also be helpful if a dropped item despawns, or if you make a wrong turn in Dracula’s labyrinthian castle. Since the collection’s three main titles were originally released on the Nintendo DS, they each make use of two screens. The Dominus Collection offers multiple options for how the numerous screens can be displayed while playing. It also makes what would normally be touchscreen controls executable through controller inputs instead.
It also wouldn’t be a Castlevania collection without an art gallery or music player. The Dominus Collection offers the option to make playlists with its music, and the art gallery will feature official art as well as “never-before-seen concept art,” offering a fun look at the processes that went into making the games’ beloved characters.
While Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin have ties to other games in the Castlevania series, they can easily be played on their own. Anyone interested in the older games can find them as part of separate Castlevania collections: Aria of Sorrow is included in the Castlevania Advance Collection, and Bloodlines is in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. Since there’s no need to wait to pick up the Dominus Collection, there’s no need to play any of the older titles unless you really feel compelled to, although it may make for a fun marathon leading up to Halloween proper.
