it. Kojima's hiatus from Dawn of Sorrow allowed her to concentrate upon her character designs for Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. Audio Michiru Yamane and Masahiko Kimura composed the game's music. Yamane, a longtime composer of music for the Castlevania series, had worked earlier on the music of Castlevania games such as Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow. Kimura had developed the music for Castlevania on the Nintendo 64. In an interview, Yamane noted that she made the music "simple" and "easy to recognize", similar to her work on previous Castlevania games. She drew a parallel between her work on Castlevania games for the Game Boy Advance and her music for Dawn of Sorrow. In the same interview Igarashi said making music for handheld game consoles, regardless of the type, is largely the same, although he accepted that the DS's sound capabilities were better than those of the Game Boy Advance. Release In Japan, the game sold over 15,000 units in its first week, acquiring the number ten slot in software sales. The game sold over 164,000 copies in the first three months after its release in the United States. The game was re-released in Japan in June 2006, and later in North America during 2007 as part of the "Konami the Best" line. Reception Dawn of Sorrow has received critical acclaim from many video game publications, with several hailing it as the best Nintendo DS game of 2005. Japanese gaming publication Famitsu gave it a 33 out of 40 score. Many reviewers noted that despite being highly similar to Aria of Sorrow, it managed to define itself as a standalone title. GameSpot commented that Dawn of Sorrow succeeded in continuing 2D games as a definite genre, and it "keeps that flame burning as bright as ever". GameSpot also considered it for the accolade of best Nintendo DS game of 2005, with the prize ultimately going to Mario Kart DS. Editors at IGN awarded Dawn of Sorrow the prize of best adventure game on the DS for 2005. The gameplay, and the Tactical Soul system in particular, received praise from reviewers. The sheer depth of the abilities of the numerous souls found in the game was lauded, and IGN believed the ability to have two customizable "profiles" of different abilities was "an extremely handy idea". The relative difficulty of the game and its length was also brought into question,