We've been having a great time with Castlevania Dominus Collection since it shadow-dropped onto Switch last month, regaining our muscle memory as we whip back through Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. Though those who have seen the first of these titles right to the end, the real end, might notice that the muscles aren't kicking in like they used to on the final boss fight. Surely we haven't become worse at games with age? Well, maybe not.
As flagged on Twitter by @JupiterClimb, Dawn of Sorrow's secret 'Julius Mode' is now home to an added challenge in the final fight as the big bad's attacks aren't as easily evaded as they were back in 2005.
The move in question is the boss' jumping 'Larva' attack, one that was previously easily dodged by running underneath unscathed, but now requires a little more parkour to overcome. It seems the pesky projectiles now spawn much sooner in the animation (seen in the following comparison from @potsu_shoyu), so dashing under them is no longer an option.
According to @JupiterClimb, those who want to avoid this bug-spitting onslaught will now need to either hurdle Dracula as Julius or Alucard, or slide under the attack with a well-timed dash from Yoko or Julius. Of course, Alucard's Bat Form is also an option, but where's the fun in that? You'll find some of these techniques in action below:
Even the original creator of Dawn of Sorrow's Julius Mode, Shutaro Iida (@CurryHermit on Twitter) was surprised to see the original technique removed on Switch. "I created this mode, including the boss," he said (via Google Translate) in a recent tweet, "so I'm a bit curious as to why the behaviour is different."
Regardless of these changes, we still had a fantastic time with Castlevania Dominus Collection — the boss is still beatable, after all. We awarded it a 9/10 in our review, calling it "quite possibly the best compilation that Konami and M2 have produced to date".