Adventures in a brave new land (Nintendo DS)

So I have been playing for a couple of days and I am really pleased with my purchase.

The DS really is a completely untouched resource for me, it feels like finding a little place in your favourite MMORPG where you can gain xp 5 times as fast as normally. I almost get the feeling a GM will come running telling me that I wasn't suppose to have the DS untill level 58.

After playing Castlevania: Dawn of sorrow I made the following observations

As anticipated the touch screen functionality is working OK but doesn't really
add loads to the game.

As anticipated the dual screen is somewhat handy but does not really make or brake the game.

As my own experience tells me blending animations in 2D is very difficult. Try jump + crouch + attack...

Air Control is a science! Dare say otherwise...

Getting the stylus out in time for the rarely occuring touch screen gameplay is harder then performing the actual touch screen gameplay.

Regarding the soul game play...
At first glance I really like it and it does perform well, no doubt...
However I categorize as a player type that can get overwhelmed by decisions and even pushed to ignoring them. I feel this is on the verge of happening with the souls. Besides there beeing a lot of very similar souls (bullet mostly) I feel the system with the soul levels (1 - 9) is perhaps not so great. I think that players are bound to use a soul that have a high level rather then the soul they need, which I feel interfere with the goal creating process... "I think I need an area effect soul.. hmm... PLING cool! my blue laser single shot soul reached lvl 8! "

Regarding free roam...

Free roam force developers to implement teleports or equivalent.

The initial "levels" fail to provide meaning other then "this is one seamless place" when you become more powerful. (I personally do value that seamlessness though)

Particurlarly difficult areas can become a problem if located in between points of interest since the player must play through this area several times when travelling back and forth (and since all enemies re-spaw when you leave the area