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[kunonabi]

So after blowing through the GBA collection I started with Dawn of Sorrow here. I vaguely recalled that I didn't like Dawn as much as Aria, and after playing through both of them back-to-back I can see why I felt that way. It largely comes down to one key design mistake in Dawn: having to consume souls to upgrade weapons. So much of the fun of exploring every nook and cranny of the map in Aria was how often it would reward you with a cool new weapon or accessory, and it never felt like anything you picked up was underpowered to the point of being useless (except gear that enhanced Luck, which is a functionally worthless stat in both games). By contrast, in Dawn practically every weapon found through exploration is acquired at its lowest tier, which means it will probably be way weaker than whatever weapon you managed to upgrade with the highly specific souls it required. I ended up using the lance type weapons for 80% of the game because it was the only weapon type I was getting the souls for without going out of my way to farm them. It also repeats Aria's mistake of gating the true ending behind having 3 specific souls, only it's worse this time because the enemies carrying those souls are more rarely encountered and have lower drop rates.

On the plus side, Julius Mode in Dawn of Sorrow rules.

Dawn just feels like a redundant cash grab in general.

 

[Zephyranthes]

Finished Portrait of Ruin. I seem to recall people saying that it was one of the weaker CV titles, but I rather enjoyed it myself. The partner system is unique and well implemented, and the game does a good job of giving you reasons to switch between the two characters: whether it be enemies having gender-specific attacks or just being easier to deal with using one over the other. I also like the portrait domain gimmick as an excuse for the game to let you explore some wildly different locations than you'd normally see in a Castlevania game. The endgame section where you go through the remixed portraits is kinda lame, but it makes up for it by having one of the coolest final boss fights in the series. Unfortunately the post-game modes are really weak, especially compared to Dawn's.

 

[tusharngf]

Finished all 3 games ...took me around 55 odd hours and missed some bosses in the Order of Ecclesia

 

[simpatico]

Dawn is easily my favorite of the collection. Maybe only behind Symphony overall for Iga's. I didn't think the grinding was too bad and I don't even play many genres that have grinding. I never had to resort to multiple session grinds and I don't think I ever spent more than 10 minutes on any one uber rare. The Symphony drop grinds are galaxies worse than anything I went for in Dawn (true ending and weapons I liked).

 

[Zephyranthes]

Done with Order of Ecclesia, which I found to be the most challenging of the GBA/DS games by far. Difficulty aside, though, I didn't end up digging it as much as I thought I would. Shanoa's design is cool, but I think her kit is lackluster compared with Jonathan/Charlotte or Soma. Most of her weapon glyphs have the same basic range and arc, with their main functional difference just being damage type, so they don't really feel distinct from one another. I like the move back to having separate levels instead of just the one large castle map, but it feels like a wasted opportunity when their design is so bland and repetitive...a few of them are just entirely flat zones where you fight the same 2 or 3 enemies over and over. On the plus side, it does have one of the better CV stories, and some of the bosses are really cool.

My ranking of the two collections:
1) Aria of Sorrow
2) Portrait of Ruin
3) Circle of the Moon
4) Order of Ecclesia
5) Dawn of Sorrow
6) Harmony of Dissonance

 

[cartman414]

Dawn just feels like a redundant cash grab in general.

Disagree. Even though it was sort of a mission pack, it further refined various mechanics from Aria (looking past the soul grinding, which could have been pulled back a bit).