Soma Cruz - Appearances

Appearances

See also: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

In Aria of Sorrow, Soma is depicted as a high school student in Japan, living peacefully with his childhood friend Mina Hakuba. He is drawn into Dracula's castle, where he learns of his "power of dominance", enabling him to absorb the souls of the monsters he defeats and use their abilities. As he proceeds through Dracula's castle, he learns that Dracula, the longtime antagonist of the Castlevania series, had been truly defeated, and that a prophecy had been made dictating that Dracula's powers would be passed down to his reincarnation. After defeating Graham Jones, who had harbored the notion that he was Dracula's reincarnation, Soma realizes that he himself is Dracula's reincarnation. As a result, he is confronted by Julius Belmont, the latest member of the Belmont clan, a group of vampire hunters sworn to hunt Dracula until his demise. Soma defeats Julius, and extracts a promise from him to slay him should he fail to subdue Dracula's spirit. With the aid of the allies he encountered throughout the castle, he is able to escape his fate by defeating the manifestation of the castle's chaos.

Soma's second appearance is in Dawn of Sorrow, where he returns into battle to combat Celia Fortner's cult, which seeks to kill Soma and revive the dark lord. Although Soma believes that his powers have been lost, they awaken, and he proceeds to a replica of Dracula's castle in order to confront Celia's cult. In the castle, Soma learns of the "dark lord's candidates", who were born on the day of Dracula's demise and possess supernatural powers as a result. Soma manages to best the first candidate, Dmitrii Blinov, although he inadvertenly absorbs Dmitrii's soul in the process. Soma proceeds to defeat Dario Bossi in two instances, stripping him of his power after the conclusion of their second fight. As a result, Celia slays a doppelgänger of Mina to induce Soma to become the dark lord, but fails due to a talisman Mina gave him earlier in the game. Dmitrii's soul escapes from Soma's body into the doppelgänger, and he increases his powers, having copied Soma's power of dominance. Soma manages to defeat his monstrous form "Menace", and realizes at the end of the game that his fate is his own to determine. Soma additionally appears in the "Julius Mode" found in Dawn of Sorrow, where the storyline follows the assumption that Soma succumbed to his darker nature and became the new dark lord. He is the final boss of Julius Mode.