Hell yeah. Though at the time, I didn't know he was a Dio homage, but later on when I read JoJo and found out how it all relates, it became much cooler.
Dawn has weaker everything, pretty much. Its only good points over Aria are maybe the bosses, the variety between weapons (how they're used, etc.) and the bonus mode. And the boss music. The boss themes in Aria sucked (except Julius').