"Best Castlevania yet? I think so."

Castlevania is one of the few franchises still making quality 2d platformers in today's 3d world. Portrait of Ruin takes the tried-but-true formula of recent Castlevanias (especially Dawn of Sorrow) and adds some classic elements that longtime fans of the series will enjoy.

Story

You play as Jonathan Morris, Castlevania hero #45448 who is dead-set on eliminating evil from a castle. Tagging along with Jonathan is a mage named Charlotte. Your goal: to stop the reincarnation of Dracula. You'll meet a variety of characters on the way that will either assist you or try to kill you.

Anyone who has played a recent Castlevania before will find the story predictable, but it works. The story is done well though and while you know what's going to happen, it's still interesting to see the cutscenes. Or if you don't care about them at all, you can skip them. Either way, there's nothing to complain about here unless you're looking a story of RPG levels.

Music

Good old Castlevania music on display here. The DS isn't the best for audio quality, but POR's music is better than most games on the system.

Changes From Previous Games

The biggest change from previous installments of the series is the addition of a second character on-screen. You can switch between Jonathan and Charlotte at any point, or you can choose to keep both on the screen at the same time. You choose the one that you control and can command the AI using various button combinations. The AI in the game is not very good (it will mostly just follow behind you and if it encounters a monster, it will swing repeatedly until said monster is dead), so you may want to just go solo at times. Fortunately, that character getting hit will result in MP damage and not HP, and your MP bar is constantly regenerating so it shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're just wandering from place to place. Having a second character makes exploration go quicker since you can take down enemies faster.

You will also learn various abilities that you'll have to utilize in order to progress through the castle. This is somewhat reminiscent of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, where you have to control both characters in order to progress through a room or a puzzle. Basic commands involve being able to jump on a character's head to reach high platforms and telling a character to stay while you hit a switch. The amount of times you need to do this falls off drastically towards the end of the game though, and soon you won't even need the second character on the screen in order to do entire areas.

One last addition is combo magic. You'll find several abilities throughout the game that do devastating damage while sucking your MP dry quick. Combo magic is a huge help for bosses and can be abused thanks to how available MP-restoring items are. These are fun attacks that actually make your second character useful on some bosses. Overall, having two characters adds some depth and versatility to the series that was lacking in previous installments.

Exploration

Modern Castlevania games are all about exploration and POR delivers. The castle in POR is pretty straightforward and you won't get very lost in it. This is because of the new system in the game - portraits. All around the castle you will find portraits that you can enter. Once you do enter them, you'll find a themed area such as a forest, a city or a graveyard with a boss at the end of them. Each portrait has its own warp points, essentially acting like a standalone castle.

Longtime fans of the series should enjoy this because each portrait feels like an individual level. It's not a straight line like old Castlevanias, but it's as good as you'll get from a modern game in the series. I found this aspect of the game to be great, and you can return to each portrait later on to track down rare enemies and try to complete the map.

Fans of Symphony of the Night should enjoy Portrait too, as there are a number of rooms that are reminiscent of the PS1 classic. Portrait also trumps SOTN as far as map completion percentage and upside-down rooms go. The room designs in Portrait are great and it's fun to try and complete your map.

Gameplay

Gameplay is where the series shines. You'll get a large amount of weapons, armour and accessories to aid you in your quest.

Unlike most recent Castlevania games, you'll get to use the whip again. The whip is a nice addition and adds a sense of nostalgia to the game. You learn a few old whip abilities from previous games as well which are useful.

Despite the soul system of Aria/Dawn being gone, you'll still learn abilities from monsters. Select enemies feature their abilities as a rare drop and you can find other abilities scattered throughout the castle. You'll get all the classics, from knives to axes to who knows what else. A few enemies drop summons, where they'll come out on the screen and shoot the enemy or throw a bone or whatever it is that they do.

(I should mention that almost all of Dawn's bestiary are back here, and while it may make some people think the developers are lazy, I welcome it with open arms. Even though Dawn's monsters are only a year or so old, I get a strange sense of enjoyment out of seeing them again. It's kind of like the Dragon Quest series I guess, where you just grow to like the monsters.)

A skill system is also in place to "level up" your abilities. As you use a sub-weapon it slowly gets stronger until you've mastered it, at which point the animation changes and it does a lot more damage. The only problem with this system is that it takes an incredible amount of uses to get to master status and usually involves finding a good "level up spot" and repeatedly entering/exiting the room until you have the necessary points for mastery. I personally just stick to one or two sub-weapons max and use the stat-up abilities more often. The skill system is useful if you want to sit there training, but is otherwise tedious.

All of these weapons, sub-weapons, armours and accessories add a sense of depth to the series - some bosses are best tackled with Charlotte since her attacks are mostly magical while others are best handled with Jonathan and his higher attack stat.

Lastly, the touch screen. The touch screen is completely unnecessary in this game - no seals, no gimmicks, nothing. I think you might need it to input your name, but other than that it's pretty much useless. You can use it if you like though -- you can control your second character by touching where you want them to go, or you can warp by touching the square, etc. But for people who just want a classic 2d platformer and have touch screen phobia, this is a good game for you.

Sidequests

The main sidequest in the game is the quest system. One character has a list of fetch quests and skills for you to master, and upon doing so will present you with a new ability/spell/item. These can also be tedious, but very much worth it if you want good equipment or higher stats. This also opens up an optional area, one of my favourite parts of the game. It's completely optional though and I finished the game having only done two quests.

Difficulty: Medium

You will die in POR. This is not Symphony of the Night, where you can go through the whole game and not worry about dying very often. Bosses do a good amount of damage and until you learn their patterns, they can kill you pretty quick. I didn't find any boss to be impossible, but I'd usually die once or twice just trying to find a good way to combat them. The difficulty level is good though - you never feel like the game is being cheap and it's not difficult to the point of being frustrating.

Hard Mode, on the other hand, is true to its name. Enemies move twice as fast and things that used to hit you for 5 now hit you for 50. You also get a choice of how you want to cap your level - 50, 25 or 1. A Hard Mode Level 1 game will give even the most hardcore of players a stiff challenge.

Length: 5-20 hours

POR isn't long. There's a whole lot of optional stuff you can do that will greatly increase your playtime, but you could beat this in 5 hours on your first play if you wanted.

Replay Value: Very High

There's a _lot_ that you can do with POR once you beat it. There are four different characters you can unlock to play as on two different difficulties the second having three different level cap options. There's also a bestiary that you can fill to 100%, a map to fill out, a few dozen skills to master, etc etc. POR also seems like a good game to speed run if someone is up for that challenge. While the length of the game isn't great, there are a lot of reasons to replay this game.

Overall: 10/10

I haven't been this addicted to a platformer in a couple of years. POR is a game that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the genre.

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