Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Also known as: Akumajou Dracula: Sougetsu no Juujika (JP) Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo Publisher: Konami Platform: Nintendo DS Released in JP: August 25, 2005 Released in US: October 4, 2005 Released in EU: September 30, 2005 This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article

The direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow doesn’t even try to conceal the fact you are essentially playing as (a potential) Dracula. It improves upon its predecessor, even making the support cast playable in an alternate bad ending.

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Prototype Info

Julius Mode Unused Coding

Since the menu is disabled in Julius Mode, a lot of content that would show in menus would not show in normal gameplay. Using Action Replay codes to equip Julius Mode-exclusive items and abilities on Soma, or using the infamous Succubus Glitch to get as Soma to areas normally exclusive to Julius Mode characters, you can uncover some otherwise unused descriptions.

Abilities Coded as Souls

All of Julius, Yoko, and Alucard's special moves from Julius Mode are actually coded as bullet type souls. They can be equipped on Soma via messing with Action Replay codes or using the Succubus glitch, and they work exactly as intended, apart from the cross Soul playing one of Julius' voices. They have unused data as bullet type souls (as the menu is disabled normally in Julius Mode), though their names are blanked out, and their description reads “NULL” in the English version (blanked out in other languages). Pictured below is Yoko's fire spell.

These souls cannot be used in Enemy Set mode as they don't show up in the menu.

To do: Can they be forced? For that matter, what happens if you force other enemy-less souls (i.e. Doppelganger) in Enemy Set?

Unused Item Coding

It's possible for Soma to equip the Alucard Sword via hacking or a glitch, and it works exactly as intended complete with an A button special attack. It has an otherwise unused description saying: "Alucard's favourite sword." It is equipped by default to Alucard during Julius mode.

There is also an unused "Bare knuckles" weapon with a description simply reading "Bare fists." This weapon is...well, Soma without any weapons, punching things. Pretty redundant as you can unequip him of his stuff with the -- option.

You can also glitch Julius' whip into Soma's game. It works correctly but its menu icon is a knife and it has no description.

Unused Items

There is an unused item called "CASTLE MAP 0". It is probably a leftover debug item since:

• The 1st unexplored map appears when a player starts a new game.
• CASTLE MAP 1 and CASTLE MAP 2 are used for the 2nd and 3rd explorable areas, respectively.

Japanese Version

In the Japanese version of the game, the Julius mode weapons have actual descriptions, of sorts:

Julius' subweapons simply have "J" in their text box.

十字架 = Cross

聖水 = Holy water

グランドクルス = Grand Cruz (Grand Cross)

Yoko's spells are labelled "ヨーコの魔法", meaning "Yoko's magic".

ホーリーフレイム = Holy Flame

ブルースプラッシュ = Blue Splash

ホーリーライトニング = Holy Lightning

These names were made official as of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair,

and Alucard's bat transformation gets "アルカードの技", translating as: "Alucard's ability".

コウモリ = Bat

"Bare Knuckles" gets "素手", meaning..."Bare fists". How succinct.

"アルカード愛用の剣", meaning "Alucard's favourite sword".

Julius's famous Vampire Killer gets "聖なる鞭", or "Holy Whip".

It seems that the development team had all of the Julius mode weapons and powers complete with "official" names primed and ready for the Japanese version, only to get scrapped for the final release. (The names for Julius mode weapons and abilities, with their original descriptions, are actually listed in the official Japanese guide for the game.)

And yes, there's more to the Vampire Killer than just the above. When the Vampire Killer is equipped onto the glitched Alucard in the main game or if it's hacked into his possession in Julius mode, the player can perform an odd diagonal swing similar to the Alucard Sword's diagonal slash (It's not known exactly why, but it's likely it was an unused whip move. In most cases, as it is separate from the regular whip sprites it was probably either part of a whip retract move after Julius' normal attack animation or an undeveloped Super Castlevania IV-style diagonal attack.)

• In Aria of Sorrow Julius has the whip retract animation after a whip swing.
• In Harmony of Despair Julius gains the ability to swing the whip to 8 directions.

Unused Soul Levels

To do: Screenshots, movies, anything! Also, test more souls/levels! Please and thank you!

By using Action Replay or the Succubus Glitch, one can gain more than the maximum of 9 souls for each Monster Soul. As it turns out, doing so reveals that some souls also have unused level-ups. Numbers of souls collected are stored in 4 bits of RAM, which limits their value to 15, even in a glitched state.

Note: Only Souls that do something apparently different are listed here.

Formation of four bats out of three. All four bats can attack.

	Max Level	Beyond Max
Skeleton	3/3: Throw a giant bone	4/3: Throw a small skull (not the same as Yorick!)
Ripper	3/3: Throw a giant, enemy-piercing knife	4/3: Same, but knife does not pierce 5/3: Game crash
Disc Armor	2/2: Throw a big, bladed disc-on-a-string	3/2: Same, but disc becomes invisible
Bat	3/3: Summon 3 bats to strike enemies	4/3: Summon a fourth bat
Spin Devil	5/5: Create a wide tornado	6/5+: Create a slightly wider tornado per-level
Buer	5/5: Be circled by 6 flames	6/5+: Be circled by an additional flame per-level

Alucard's Fist Animation

Alucard has his punching animation from Symphony of the Night available should the player hack a fist-based weapon onto him, then perform the special attack of such weapon. (The game loads Alucard's sword animation for regular attacks of most fist-based weapon.)

Unused Text

A text dump has unused text for a part where Hammer would be playable during Julius Mode. The poor guy doesn't join the fun in the final version.

English

Japanese

Julius Belmont: You. Why are you here? Hammer: Why? I'm here for Soma! My man's in trouble, I tell ya! Julius Belmont: But it's of no concern to you. Hammer: Heck yeah, it is! Soma's my pal, after all. Laying his life on the line for a pal... That's what a man does. Julius Belmont: Wrong. An ordinary human is no match for a foe like this. Being a man has nothing to do with it. Hammer: Hey, bud, I served in the military! I know weapons a whole lot better than you! And I'd like to think I've got enough sense to retreat if it gets too crazy. Julius Belmont: Fine, then. But if you ever fear for your life, get out immediately, understood? Hammer: Loud and clear. You have my word.

ユリウス・ベルモンド: お前、何故ここにいる？ ハマー: 何故って…。 蒼真が大変な事に なってんだろ？ ユリウス・ベルモンド: だが、お前には関係の ない事だ。 ハマー: 関係大ありだ。 ハマー: 蒼真は俺のダチだ。 ダチのために命を張るってのが 男ってもんだろ？ ハマー: 違うか？ ユリウス・ベルモンド: 違うな。 ユリウス・ベルモンド: 相手は普通の人間が 立ち向かえる相手ではない。 それを男気とは言わん。 ハマー: 俺は元軍人だ。 銃火器の扱いはあんたより上だ。 ハマー: それに、自分の引き際も わきまえているつもりだ。 ユリウス・ベルモンド: そうか…。 いいだろう。 ユリウス・ベルモンド: だが、命の危険を感じたら、 必ず逃げてくれ。 ハマー: わかった。 よろしく頼む。

A conversation between Hammer and Soma. It would be possible that at one point of development, Hammer also had his own dialogue with Evil Soma, but was eventually scrapped.

Notably, Soma's portrait pointer in this short dialogue points to portrait #0x00, which is Soma's normal portrait, while Evil Soma uses portrait pointer #0x05.

English	Japanese
Hammer: Soma!! What's the matter, huh? Snap out of it! Soma: ... Hammer: Damn it!	ハマー: 蒼真！！ どうしちまったんだ？ ほら、帰って来いよ。 ソウマ: …。 ハマー: ちくしょーっ！

A conversation where Yoko talks to Soma about Julius's hinting at an unused piano puzzle. The piano is only mere scenery in the final game, though the idea for a piano-based puzzle was later revisited in Harmony of Despair.

English	Japanese
Yoko: He says that keyboards let you find hidden objects by playing notes in sequence. He didn't say what the patterns were, though.	ヨーコ: 決められた順番に音を 鳴らす事で、隠された物を 見つけられるそうよ。 何を鳴らすのかまでは 聞いてないけどね。

Unseen Enemy List Entry

The enemy list entries for the Julius-exclusive Evil Soma (No.117: Soma "The Dark Lord") and his second form ("Dracula") were blanked out in the final version's enemy list, but can be triggered by hacking or glitching Soma into the Julius mode final fight.

They have descriptions in the Japanese version:

	English Name	Japanese Name	English Description	Japanese Description
(Evil) Soma	Soma	まおうそうま	NULL	魔王に堕ちた蒼真
Dracula	Dracula	ドラキュラ	NULL	かつて蒼真であったもの

Unused Castle Maps

The final version of the game only uses unexplored (castle) maps for three areas of the game: The Lost Village, Wizardry Lab and Garden of Madness. You automatically start with the first one, and you can purchase the other two.

There is data in the game for all areas having unexplored maps. Most of them tend to be far more complete than the three you have access to; mostly the hidden rooms are not shown.

• 

  Demon Guest House

• 

  The Dark Chapel

• 

  Condemned Tower & Mine of Judgment

• 

  Subterranean Hell

• 

  Silenced Ruins

• 

  Cursed Clock Tower

• 

  The Pinnacle

• 

  The Abyss

Notes:

• Mine of Judgment and Condemned Tower share the same unexplored map block, despite being two separate areas.
• There is a hex value gap between The Pinnacle and The Abyss, going from 02 to 08. It's possible 04 was intended for Mine of Judgment.

Unused Graphics

The Konami Screen never calls Konami's KCET department in the DS Castlevania games.

The stopwatch sub weapon is stored along with Julius mode HUD, but was not used in the final version. The reason why it got scrapped is unknown; Probably because Soma's time stop bullet soul ability has a more "devil-ish" theme which is not suitable for re-using it as sub weapons.

A golden object that didn't make an appearance in the final game. No hitbox properties exist.

Soma never gives the player a view of his back when standing still in the final game.

A (presumably) Werewolf soul variant that was abandoned fairly early in development progress.

Malphas never meets the player upside-down in the game, nor in Symphony of the Night.

Malphas never transforms into raven form, nor in Symphony of the Night.

Road Blocker variant inside a room. Used in demo versions as road blockers that prevent player's action toward buggy/unimplemented area.

Symphony of the Night Leftovers

Alucard's old air kick motion	Alucard's new air kick motion

Alucard got a "new" air dive kick motion that was, originally, his air diagonal attack with bare hand from Symphony of the Night, which left the old air dive kick motion unused.

Alucard's stone animation #1 from Symphony of the Night. In Julius Mode Alucard can't be turned into stone nor affected by bad status. The original graphics are intact but the palette can't be loaded properly.

Alucard's stone animation #2.

• 

  Complete sprite dump of Alucard. Note there're several developer messages in between each few sprites. There're several other palettes that were probably deleted.

Among the Fleaman graphics is an animation of the Flea Rider enemy from Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. This holds true in both Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia.

The Black Panther graphics contain the melting graphics used in Symphony of the Night. In Dawn of Sorrow, the Black Panther stays as a regular panther rather than dissolving into liquid.

Imp's graphic assets contains the balloon enemy from Symphony of the Night. Balloon itself didn't make an appearance until Order of Ecclesia.

Slogra's vertical stab from the air, leftover from Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night. He did team up with Gaibon in the DS games but they never perform combination attacks, nor had an appearance as a boss.

• Hitbox intact.

Gaibon's old shooting pose on the ground, only used as a boss-mode-only attack.

• Hitbox intact.

Gaibon's old pose when he's defeated on the ground.

Evil Soma's second form has graphic data of Dracula's fatal rain attack (during his second form, from Symphony of the Night prologue battle), with hitbox intact.

Dracula's old fireball attack.

• Hitbox intact.

Unused/Symphony of the Night Palette

	Used Palette	Symphony of the Night Palette	Unused Palette
Dracula
Orobourous/Quetzalcoatl
Warg

• Old Symphony of the Night prologue palette of Dracula remains in the graphic file.

• Old palette for defeated familiar-like Orobourous in Symphony of the Night is still accessible in Quetzalcoatl's graphic data.

• The Warg retains its original palette from Symphony of the Night. Dawn of Sorrow uses the palette associated with the Fire Wargs, which is supported by its file name "fenra". "fenra" is short hand for Fenrir, which is the Japanese name for the Fire Wargs, compared to the standard Wargs called "Anfauglir" in Japanese.

Regional Differences

• The Japanese version has more numerous voice samples. For example: When you enter Hammer's shop, he says "welcome" ("Irasshai") along with a few other comments after you buy and sell items ("Is that all?", e.g.). The same goes for bosses. In the international versions, the voice samples that have no suitable English substitutions were taken out.
• In the Japanese version you can't skip past cut-scenes during the first playthrough. In the international versions you can by hitting "Start." This became the tradition of all three DS titles.