Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

"Castlevania: Portrait of FUN!"

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS is the latest Castlevania game out so far, and that said, it is similar to its predecessors. This review will cover all aspects of this game, and tell you why it is a great game for anyone who is into side scrolling action games, or just action games in general.

Story: 7/10

This is your standard Castlevania story, which basically has you entering Dracula's Castle, and preventing his resurrection, or simply defeating him. It is set in 1944 at the time of "The Second Global War", where lots death and misery plagued the Earth, and many angry, vengeful spirits were flying around. Amidst all the chaos, these angry spirits summon Dracula's Castle, and it's up to you to see to it that the old vampire doesn't come back to terrorize the world again. It's not the most interesting of story lines, and is pretty standard, but it does the job. Also it's worth mentioning that you do NOT need to have any prior knowledge of Castlevania games in order to get what's going on.

Characters 6/10

The characters in this game are not very memorable, or have any interesting personalities, as they and their dialogue is mostly cliched. Not only that, but they don't look too great either. When you are in a cut scene viewing the dialogue, you see their character portraits, and they change their facial features depending on what they're saying. Thing is, sometimes their features don't really go well with what they are saying, which brings me to their dialogue. The main character, named Jonathan, is your standard headstrong and short tempered adolescent. His childhood friend, a girl of 16 who accompanies him, is Charlotte, a smart know it all whose talking usually consists of technical details about how magic in the Castle works. In which cases it can be followed by Jonathan saying something like "Can you explain that in human language please?"...as I said, it's mostly cliched. What makes this game great does not lie in its story or characters.

Graphics 10/10

Simply said, this game looks great. The 2D sprites are very fluidly animated, and pretty much all the enemies look interesting, and have some fun to watch animations and movements (especially when they get killed). While the gore isn't extreme, this game does have it along with blood. Some of the enemies do have their stomachs open revealing internal organs, or can have their upper bodies blasted off leaving their legs to fall behind. Other enemies thrash spraying blood all over as they convulse in death... It's very satisfying. The game also sports some very picturesque backgrounds, be they landscapes, or giant statues and monuments inside towns and castles. There are some enemies that are in 3D, and they look great too, but the 2D ones are often cooler looking. Another thing is the bosses, they are big and impressive to behold. Definitely the coolest bosses to be found on any DS game to date.

Sound 9/10

The sound is good, and there is some well-done voice acting in the game. When you switch from character to character, they say their names out loud, and some of the other interactive characters speak short sentences. Take the shopkeeper for instance, every time you talk to him he says, "I'll make you a deal!" enthusiastically. Your characters also yell as they attack sometimes, and grunt or scream in pain as they get hurt (they scream especially loud when they get killed). It's not exactly incredible, but the voice acting is nice to have, and fleshes out the characters more, which is good, because they certainly need that. In any case, if you don't like it, it can be turned off. Other sounds are fitting as well, like the splats and splatters enemies make when you chop their heads off, or blow them up.

Gameplay 10/10

This is the best part of the game, and this is what makes it shine. It's basically a side scrolling action game that has you killing fantasy enemies like zombies, dragons, ghosts in armor, giant worms, and much more inside many unique and good looking dungeons which you enter through paintings (think Mario 64). You use swords, whips, and some magic books/spells to kill things, and you have secondary abilities along with your standard attacks.

You control both the main characters, Jonathan and Charlotte, and each of them has their own unique abilities and attributes. Jonathan is much stronger and sturdier than his companion, and he boasts stronger melee attacks. His secondary abilities usually consist of throwing sharp objects like knives or shurikens, but he can also get some martial arts moves, and the ability to block attacks. He lacks magic abilities, or abilities that damage groups of nemies effectively. Charlotte is the weaker of the two, and her primary attacks are done using spell books that sort of summon phantom weapons that shoot forward to hurt enemies. They look very cool, but do less damage than Jonathans melee attacks. Her secondary abilities involve casting elemental spells that are great for damaging groups of enemies, and she also has several support spells that boost attributes and heal comrades. In the end though, you will probably find that Jonathan is best to use most of the time, because not too far in the game, you get the ability to call Charlotte to cast a spell real fast while you're controlling Jonathan, so you pretty much get the best of both characters.

The game also has some RPG elements, as you can level up and increase some of the various stats of your characters. When you level up, the stats of both characters increase simultaneously, so you don't need to worry about using a single character too much. Another thing is that you find and equip many different items and weapons that boost certain stats and whatnot. Such items can be dropped by enemies or found at the store or in secret rooms.

Another great thing about this game is that it doesn't force you to fumble for your stylus due to unnecessary touch screen controls. Many developers seem to think that they owe it to the DS to use touch screen controls for at least a small portion of the primary control scheme. Like in New Super Mario Bros, where you need to tap the corner of the bottom screen in order to use your secondary power up, when it would me much more convenient to press one of the unused buttons in the game instead. Luckily, this game has no such annoyances. The touch screen is not entirely unused though, as you can use the stylus to navigate menus. It's quite convenient.

As for replay value, there is a hard mode to be played, and it really is tough.

Overall 8/10

While this game may not have the best of storylines, or such great characters, it certainly is FUN. It is one of the funnest and best-looking DS games out there. And fun is the reason we play videogames to begin with. Also it is very gratifying to see that 2D games are still coming out, and are still this good. With all the 3D console games coming out on all these new and extremely powerful systems, you can still find a 2D game that, from an artistic viewpoint, is more visually satisfying as well as very entertaining.

Buy or rent? I think you want to buy this one, it will make an excellent addition to your DS games collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/06