Review: Castlevania Dominus Collection Games Still Feel Essential

I miss Castlevania games. I’d love to see an entirely new one. But failing that, I’m also incredibly excited when Konami remembers that people would really like a chance to return to older installments. When it turned out Castlevania Dominus Collection ended up being a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase shadowdrop, I was thrilled at the prospect of playing three beloved older games on the Switch alongside a new remake of Haunted Castle. Turns out, the DS games hold up incredibly well, and Haunted Castle Revisited is an absolute delightful revival of a game most people probably didn’t get to play.

With the four games in the collection, we’re getting glimpses back at different moments in Castlevania history. Chronologically speaking, and in terms of actual age, Haunted Castle’s events come first. Simon Belmont heads off to confront Dracula after his wife is kidnapped. From there, we see Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia’s events. Since there are no Belmonts present, the titular order intended to use the Dominus glyph against Dracula should he return. However, when one of two students steal the three of them, an amnesiac Shanoa must pursue him and retrieve them for her mentor and to save kidnapped citizens. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is another entry without a Belmont, with Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin heading to Dracula’s castle to face another vampire named Brauner who moved into the more famous vampire’s old haunt. Meanwhile, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow takes us into the future with Soma Cruz, the reincarnation of Dracula, dealing with a cult trying to turn him into Dracula. 

While there are unique mechanics in each one, the three Castlevania DS games in Dominus Collection play similarly. In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, we’re heading to the cult’s mansion and journeying through it. As Soma is the hero, his ability to absorb enemy souls is the method of getting stronger, unlocking new abilities, and gaining new types of attacks. With Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, we head into paintings to visit different realms to deal with bosses within and seal them away, and there are often puzzles or situations where switching between Jonathan and Charlotte is needed to progress. In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, we have elements of both previous games present, as Shanoa gains new abilities and attacks by absorbing glyphs found or dropped by enemies in a fashion similar to Soma, but she’s also going across a region and traversing smaller spaces instead of a single, giant mansion.

My first concern when I heard about the Castlevania Dominus Collection is how well it would work on a console like the Switch when Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia were all Nintendo DS entries. Well, it works flawlessly. Which I should have expected, considering M2 was involved in the process. On the Switch especially, it is fantastic. The main “action” appears in a larger screen on the left, while on the right you have two additional screens constantly showing the map and character details. It’s absolutely fantastic to have all this information on-hand at once. And if there were moments that involved touchscreen functionality, there are either now button inputs or an option to use the Switch touchscreen or buttons to make up for those moments.

I also felt like Castlevania Dominus Collection is a perfect example of including a game for someone at every skill level while also showing the progression of the handheld entries in the series. I feel like Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin can be quite accommodating, perhaps even more so than I remembered, due to the nature of the second character and the structure. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is for someone more accustomed to the series and interested in perhaps mastering and finding every soul. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia can be far more challenging than the other entries in this collection, due the way Shanoa’s glyphs work, the MP needed to use them, and the decisions you need to make to keep her alive when first starting out. Meanwhile, if you play them in the order they released (Dawn of Sorrow in 2005, Portrait of Ruin in 2006, and Order of Ecclesia in 2008), we can see the progress in terms of character designs, castle design, gameplay, and execution. So we can see Dawn of Sorrow’s souls influence on Ecclesia’s glyphs. Likewise, we can see how the paintings and smaller locations in Portrait of Ruin perhaps affected Order of Ecclesia’s locations.

Simply put, the three existing games part of the Castlevania Dominus Collection on the Switch? It’s absolutely fantastic. All of them are great. They’re fantastic fun, no matter which order you play them in. It’s a wonderful deal.

As for Haunted Castle Revisited, it’s just a lovely surprise. My experience with it is fairly fleeting, as I’ve only played it a few times when visiting Galloping Ghost Arcade. It retains much of what we remember from the original. There are six stages which you must get through in a timely fashion, with bosses at the end of each one. However, I found it felt a little more forgiving and like a traditional Castlevania experiences in some ways. For example, I found chickens to restore health sometimes, which was especially helpful in the first two stages as I got reacquainted with the title and last level. You can also upgrade the whip and get sub-weapons, which helps with additional tactics when facing foes. Not to mention it looks absolutely fantastic, especially when you play the also-included original Haunted Castle to compare.

Basically, Castlevania Dominus Collection is another fantastic compilation of Castlevania games. The three DS titles returning here are all wonderful games in their own ways, and they play quite well on the Switch thanks to M2’s efforts. Haunted Castle and Haunted Castle Revisited feel like a fun bonus and a way to bring the Belmonts into a collection that otherwise focuses on other heroes fighting Dracula and his forces. It’s a worthwhile bundle of titles, especially on the Switch.

Castlevania Dominus Collection is available on the Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.