"Portrait of Ruin, great for Castlevania newcomers and fans alike."

Story:
The year is 1944, the second World War is taking place and the agony of the souls of the dead conjure up a certain castle....
Jonathan Morris, grandson of Quincy Morris struggles to prove himself worthy of the Vampire Killer whip inherited from his father. He arrives at the castle along with Charlotte Aulin, a famous spellcaster from the church. Together, they must fight their way through Dracula's Castle and uncover the secrets of a mysterious painter turned vampire, two vampire sisters, and a strange ghost binded to the castle.

The story may seem dry at first, but I guarantee you it will get better and better with surprises everywhere.

Gameplay:
Portrait of Ruin is just like any other 2D side scrolling Castlevanias, there's a vampire hunter with a whip and he moves through a castle killing stuff. Except the major difference in PoR is that you can play as two characters simultaneously.

Most of the time, you will allow the AI to control the second character, but extremely skilled players can use the stylus to control the second character while normally controlling the first. Despite this innovative addition to the CV series, the dual player mode seems to be quite lacking. The second character will avoid running straight into enemies but will not bother to dodge enemy projectiles. The second character also seems to like to attack enemies at the wrong time. Meaning, when he/she attacks, he/she will likely bump into another enemy or something. Basically, the ally AI in the game is not perfect (in fact, it's sometimes plain annoying) and through most of the game, you will only play as one character.

The enemies on the other hand, have been given a dose of ass-kickage pills. Enemies will avoid your attacks and attack you when you least expect it. For example, I was jumping around and all of the sudden an arrow from a Skeleton Archer comes right at me and head-shots me. I never even saw the enemy, but it's AI saw me and nailed me. Some enemies in this game are just plain, well, strong. Take the Amducias for example. This is supposed to be a normal enemy that you will encounter near the end of the game but in my opinion, it's more of a boss. I walked into the room and thought, oh great, another huge monster that's all looks and no power. I attacked it a few times and strangely it didn't die yet. Before I had the chance to nail it with a Dual Crush (I'll explain this later), it used a shocking attack that killed me within seconds. Totally unexpected, since most enemies I faced were weaklings then all of a sudden they get as strong as hell. Another thing I need to mention is for people who played Dawn of Sorrow before: Do not assume that enemies are weak in PoR because they were in DoS. If you don't believe me, just try brawling with some Cave Trolls (remember those lame monsters?), then say hello to the Game Over screen while I laugh at you.

As if the enemies were bad enough, the bosses in this game are completely beefed up presumably due to the DoS's bosses being too easy. There's a save room before every boss you face. It will be your best friend for fighting bosses. Oh yeah, again, expect to see the Game Over screen a lot when fighting bosses.

The skills in this game are also a bit different than previous CV games due to the two character system. The fighter, Jonathan, can use "skills" which basically are subweapons such as Knives, Crosses, Holy Water, and some ninja weapons as well. The magic user, Charlotte, uses a variety of magic "spells". These can include the basics such as fire, ice and also supportive spells that can boost your stats or make you walk faster. Lastly, there are "dual crushes", which are special attacks that require both characters to use. These are usually the heavy hitters and use up a lot of MP and have cooldown times. Some dual crushes include 1000 Blades, Meteor, and Lightning Cross (you might have seen those in previews of PoR).

The items in the game are mostly random healing items though some are quest items (I'll talk about this later) and have no other use. A new introduction is the Magical Ticket item, where you can use it to teleport back to the shop if you're being owned by enemies and have no HP restoring items. Also, there is a record player item in PoR along with 5 records that allow you to change the background music.

Unlike DoS or Symphony of the Night, you actually use whips in this game. There are around 10 whips that Jonathan can equip, each having it's own special ability such as petrification or fire-attributed. Instead of having all the whip skills (such as spinning whip) available at the beginning, you have to complete quests to learn them. Don't worry though, Jonathan can still use swords and axes, etc. But overall, there seems to be a decrease in the number of weapons but there are a lot more equipment and accessories (you can now equip headgear and shoes).

As for the castle, there are now 10 different areas to explore. The first and largest is Dracula's main castle, and another 8 areas are located inside paintings that will bring you to a variety of different places including a desert and pyramid, a forest, and a topsy-turvy circus tent (don't ask). The last area is a secret and I won't tell you what to expect in there.

The last thing I wanted to talk about are the quests. Quests are the new addition in this game. You talk to a ghost stuck in the castle named Wind and he gives you items he owned while he was alive if you do his quests. There aren't that many but each one of them is actually fun to try to figure it out (the directions are usually vague). A few of the quests require you to bring items, some require monster killing, while others are just wacky, such as punching meat in a butchery, buying cake from a cash register, or listening to a ghost play the piano. There is also a secret area in the game that can be unlocked only by finishing a certain quest, but I wont spoil that.

Graphics:
I'd have to say there's not much improvement in this area, but the graphics are still excellent for the DS. The background is very nicely drawn and very realistic. For example, in the Pyramids you can see hieroglyphics on the walls and painting of Egyptians gods. You can tell that a lot of work was put into making just the background graphics for this game. The enemies also look pretty neat and freaky, though some are just direct rip-offs from DoS. The most stunning visuals in the game come from Charlotte's spells, dual-crushes, and boss spells, however this tends to lag the game a bit so apparently the graphics are just too good for the DS to handle. =)

Music:
All the music in PoR is new and matches with the painting theme. For example, just by listening to the music that plays in the desert/pyramid level, you could tell that you're listening to Egyptian music. In the circus level, the music supplements the theme, by sounding like circus music. The new boss battle theme is great as well. And if you don't like an area's music, then you can just change it if you have a record player and records.

Sound:
Yes, this is the first Castlevania game to have English voice-overs. The ones for the main characters and enemies are well acted. However, the voices for Wind the ghost and Vincent the shopkeeper are slightly odd. Wind always has a stern look on his face, yet when he talks he sounds like a gym instructor. Vincent on the other hand, always has a sad look on his face, yet he sounds pretty happy. Otherwise, it's a great start for English VOs in Castlevania and if you really can't stand it, you can change it to the Japanese VOs.

Multiplayer:
This is also the first Castlevania game to feature real multiplayer, made capable with the two character system. However, there is no co-op story mode, just co-op boss rushes and a shop system that I really don't understand, but apparently you can sell and buy items from other players if you accidentally sold yours. The co-op boss rush is actually pretty fun and you can do it on WiFi with or without a friend code. The boss rush requires skill from both players and not just good equipment.

Replayability:
There are many options and secrets that will make the game playable even after you beat it. However most are spoilers so I won't mention them, but be prepared to give up at least 50 hours if you really want to say you've beaten this game "100%".

Overall: 10/10
2D Castlevania makes yet another triumph, and 2D is the way CV is meant to be.
Portrait of Ruin will be a really fun game whether you played Castlevania before or not. Buy this game immediately, if you try to rent it, you'll end up spending more money since you'll want to keep this game for as long as possible. =)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/06