Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: Dawn of Sorrow - Extra Items

Have you ever been playing Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and wished you could use Alucard's sword from Julius Mode? Or maybe you somehow got the Alucard Sword in Soma's inventory and noticed how lackluster and slow it is?  Well, Jo Li had those same thoughts… and did something about it!

In the "Extra Items" hack, the player can find and equip the famous Alucard Sword found buried within the game code, as well as several other things that might help Soma in his quest to defeat Celia Fortner and put an end to Dracula's curse once-and-for-all!  But that's not all!  The Alucard Sword has been upgraded to swing faster than it used to, reflecting how it appeared in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  Alucard can swing that same blade just as quickly as he did in Symphony, too, leading to a much more fluid experience with the half-vampire prince!

It may not be new, but it's surely improved.  Enjoy the same classic game as before, but with just a couple of extra items and a faster Alucard Sword!  Isn't technology awesome?

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow "Extra Items"
A Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow ROM Hack
by Josephine Lithius (Jo Li)
--

[1. (INDE) INDEX]

1. (INDE) Index ------------------------------- How this document be sorted.
2. (INDU) Introduction & Questions ------------ Confused? This should help!
3. (COTE) Archive Contents -------------------- What comes in the ZIP file.
4. (HOTO) How to Use -------------------------- How DOES one work this thing?
5. (NOBU) Known Bugs -------------------------- You BET there are bugs.
6. (SPTH) Special Thanks ---------------------- You people are the BEST <3
7. (COFO) Contact Information ----------------- Do what you must, if you must~
8. (CORI) Legal Stuff ------------------------- Boring, but necessary.
--

[2. (INDU) INTRODUCTION & QUESTIONS]

- "What is 'Extra Items'?"

This ROM hack is exactly what it sounds like; this hack adds "extra" items
into the main game -- specifically the Julius Mode-specific items 'n "Souls".
I also did a tiny bit of tinkering with some relevant stuff. For, ya know,
the sake of completion.
(You can see what, exactly, in the spoileriffic change log.)

- "That's kind of a boring name for this hack."

Well, it's kind of a "boring" hack, so I think it fits~

- "What do you mean 'Julius Mode-exclusive'? There are no items in that mode."

Funny thing about the extra modes in Castlevania DS games? A lot of the
unique attacks and abilities for the extra characters are actually coded in
as equippable things. In this case, Julius has an actual Vampire Killer
weapon equipped while Alucard has his Alucard Sword. All THREE characters'
abilities are also coded as "Souls", which means Soma can use it all if they
get added to his inventory.

More information about this can be found here:
https://tcrf.net/Castlevania:_Dawn_of_Sorrow

- "ROM hacks like 'Definitive Edition+' already do most of what you've done
with this ROM hack. Why did you make / release this?"

Oh, I'm aware of all the superb hacks out there -- particularly the ones
which give Soma the Alucard Sword or Vampire Killer. I suppose I just wanted
to make Alucard more like his SotN incarnation, myself, without making too
many other massive changes to the game. It's not flashy, it's not complex,
and it doesn't really fix any bugs. It's just a plain, simple hack with
small-but-significant changes. And that's all I wanted.

- "Why did you call Julius' cross boomerang a 'Crucifix'?"

Around the time that this game was made, Konami kind of went back-and-forth
between calling it a "Cross" or a "Crucifix". I went with the latter to
differentiate it from the "Grand Cross" sub-weapon a bit more.

- "Why are these sub-weapon 'Souls' scattered around the castle?
Did Soma dominate his friends' souls or something?"

Dracula's magic works in mysterious ways? Remember: just because Dracula
is inherently "dark" and "evil" doesn't mean that his FOLLOWERS are.
Aliorumnas, for example, is a demon witch who uses both Curse and Holy.
It's not TOO far-fetched that the power of Dracula might spawn souls with
similar abilities to the "heroes" of the time.

- "Is that really your best excuse for adding those things to Soma Mode?"

Yes. d:

- "Will you be making versions of this for the Japanese and European releases?"

If there's a high enough demand. This honestly wasn't too complicated,
thanks to LagoLunatic basically decompiling the games for everyone~!

- "Will you consider making separate patches for the various changes?"

Again, if there's high enough demand. Honestly, all the changes made
shouldn't interfere with one another, or even standard gameplay, enough to
warrant it? But, we'll see!

- "Why are all your ROM hacks labelled 'JDC'?"

Those are my real life initials. And? it's kind of a holdover from my days
of composing MIDI music, where I'd prefix everything with "JDC_".

- "Where's the Vampire Killer? I can't find it."

Well, you know the old saying... "Never bring a gun to a whip fight."
("NO ONE says that, you weirdo.")

- "WHERE THE [oops] IS THE ALUCARD SWORD, I CAN'T FIND IT!!"

Why so SHORT about a SWORD~? There's no need to be such a MENACE~

- "Okay, but seriously, where are the Vampire Killer and Alucard Sword?
Preferably without the wordplay riddles, please?"

Check the Changelog. No riddles. It's right there.
But if you wanna try and figure it out, don't check the changelog~
--

[3. (COTE) ARCHIVE CONTENTS]

- [Patch] (folder)
- JDC_CVDoS ExItem-vxxx.bps
The most current version of the patch in "beat" format.
- JDC_CVDoS ExItem Changelog.txt
Welcome back to the stage of history?
- JDC_CVDoS ExItem Readme.txt
^ You are here. (:

REGARDING THE CHANGE LOG:
THE CHANGE LOG CONTAINS SPOILERS AND MAKE NO ATTEMPTS TO HIDE THEM!
Most changes probably won't be real game-breakers, so you can probably ignore
the text file if you want to play the game and try to figure out what's brand
new content and what's just rehashed stuff.
--

[4. (HOTO) HOW TO USE]

Things You'll Need
- The BPS file that SHOULD have come with this TXT file
- A Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (USA) ROM
Size: 67,108,864 bytes -- CRC32: 135737F6
(I will NOT provide this! Sorry~)
- A program to apply BPS files to ROMs
- A Nintendo DS emulator or flash cart to play the game

Suggested Programs
- PATCHING: Floating IPS (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1040/) or
beat (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/893/)
Floating IPS is easy to use and very reliable. Since there's no real
"versions" of a ROM, like headered and unheadered, beat would probably
work just fine, too. I just prefer FLIPS.

- EMULATION: melonDS (https://melonds.kuribo64.net/)
Since I don't have a state-of-the-art, $1,000.00 computer, I tend to favor
lightweight stuff. melonDS, if set up right, runs ALL games I've played
at 60 FPS consistently with very few glitches. Not too shabby!

How to Apply the patches to the ROM, The Simple Way
- Toss your UNMODIFIED ROM and the BSP patch from this archive into
into the same directory as your patching utility of choice.
- Open your patching utility. Direct it to the ROM and patch.
- Do the command that makes the ROM patched. (Varies by-program.)
- If everything went well, your Dawn of Sorrow ROM should be patched.
NO CHANGE IN SIZE SHOULD OCCUR. If it does, something may have gone wrong.
- Enjoy!

IF ROM DOES NOT RUN, you more than likely tried to apply the wrong patch to
the wrong ROM or wrong type of ROM.
--

[5. (NOBU) KNOWN BUGS]

_ALL VERSIONS_
- Soma looks odd -- sometimes VERY -- when using the "Julius Mode" stuff.
The player was never intended to use any of this stuff as Soma, so it's
understandable that the animations don't really line up. Even so, NOTHING
BAD SHOULD HAPPEN. Everything WORKS fine in both game modes, and the game
can play through like normal. It just LOOKS a little funny with Soma.

- When playing Julius Mode, the Soul-Keepers that contain Julius Mode souls
STILL APPEAR WITHIN THE MAPS even if all three characters are collected.
No sure why. However, they're just empty decorations in Julius Mode.
Harmless, but kind of annoying?

- This ROM hack is probably NOT COMPATABLE with other ROM hacks.
I don't know -- I didn't try.
--

[6. (SPTH) SPECIAL THANKS]

- ROMhacking.net
For an having an awesome community and a treasure trove of hacking
materials, resources, help, and pretty much anything you could want!

- LagoLunatic (https://github.com/LagoLunatic/)
This fella is a MAD GENIUS when it comes to not only Castlevania GBA / DS
games, but also a certain few others, such as Zelda: Wind Waker. If not
for all the hard work Lago did, this would not have been nearly as easy!

- The Kuribo64 community (https://kuribo64.net/)
As stated in the site description, they are "a little community centered
over ROM hacking". They're also responsible for the great Nintendo DS
emulator, melonDS, AND a couple of spiffy Super NES emulators FOR the DS
family of handhelds! Pretty nice stuff!

- JupiterClimb (https://www.twitch.tv/jupiterclimb)
Professional (?) speedrunner of all things "IGAvania" and all-around super-
duper guy. His interest in Castlevania DS games and the like got me back
into playing these, as well as introduced me to LagoLunatic's randomizer
and editor. Jupiter's also inspired me to do different challenge runs,
but that's neither here nor there. He's just a great guy! Check him out!

- Oersted (https://www.youtube.com/c/Oersted-LAL)
Strangely enough, it was actually this person who indirectly inspired me to
continue working on this project. Their "ten-minute hacks" for
JupiterClimb, while simple, are a lot of fun. They also alerted me to
a(nother) small oversight Konami made with the Alucard Sword -- albeit,
by accident. Either way, they're pretty chill and awesome.

--

[7. (COFO) CONTACT INFORMATION]

So, yeah. If you need to contact me for any reason, you can find me
on the ROMhacking.net forums (http://www.romhacking.net/forum/) as
"Josephine Lithius". You can also find me at the following places:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoLiKMC
- Tumblr: https://jolikmc.tumblr.com/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JosephCollins
--

[8. (CORI) LEGAL STUFF]

"Castlevania", "Dawn of Sorrow", Alucard, Julius Belmont, Yoko Belnades,
the Vampire Killer, and related ideas and concepts created by MANY people and
? Konami Holdings Corporation

This ROM hack was created by Josephine Lithius and is distributed as a
"Public Domain" work which MAY BE SHARED AND DISTRIBUTED FREELY so long as the
contents -- including copyrights and contact information -- are NOT MODIFIED.
Pretty please?

This ROM hack was originally released EXCLUSIVELY to ROMhacking.net. If
you found it anywhere else, THAT'S PERFECTLY FINE! I don't mind! Just know
that the version at ROMhacking.net is ALWAYS going to be the most up-to-date!

Use of this ROM hack IS ALLOWED under a public-domain-equivalent license,
so go nuts. If you RELEASE you ROM hack with this modification, though, it
would be a REALLY nice gesture if credited me for the original changes.
You don't HAVE to, but it'd be peachy-keen~


Database match: Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow (USA)
Database: No-Intro: DS (all) (v. 20210227-111036)
File/ROM SHA-1: 47530FF87E608F88105A314FDF36DC385F8DEC94
File/ROM CRC32: 135737F6