"A New Style to an Old Adventure."

I must say that Konami is doing a wonderful job of keeping this great series alive. In the last 20 years we've seen the original side-scrollers, the old school yet revolutionary Symphony of the Night, 3D console adventures, and 2D portable adventures in the vein of SotN. With it's 5th portable side-scroller on it's way, Konami knew that they had to do something different. Enter Portrait of Ruin. The single character adventure is ditched for two leading roles, each with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. We also find our heroes exploring areas previously unthought-of in Dracula's Castle. Sandy tombs, gravity defying carnivals, and modern towns are areas you should now expect to come across. Konami has said in with the new, but let's not forget the old, either. PoR offers an adventure that will satisfy your love for the greatest side-scrolling adventure ever, while still offering something new at every turn.

GAMEPLAY – This is the meat of the game. Your leading male character (Jonathan) can control any weapon previously seen in a Castlevania game including the Vampire Killer whip, axes, spears, swords, and daggers. The female hero (Charlotte) uses books to cast magic damage. Various enemies take more damage from either physical or magic attacks, so you will be switching characters often. Switching simply takes the push of a button, same as removing or bringing a character into play. Each character also has a secondary magic ability that can be switched in the inventory menu. New spells and attacks can be dropped by enemies or picked up in different areas of the castle. There are also powerful moves that require both characters to work together to use. When not being controlled, the other character will follow you and attack with you. It may seem odd, but your secondary AI character is actually *gasp* useful! If they get hit by attacks, the damage is taken out of your MP bar helping them stay alive (due to mana regeneration) and not permanently die when your mana runs out. Fortunately, the new system is flawless. At first I was a bit apprehensive about the switch, but I can assure anyone that it was a great change for the better.

This game has another point that makes it stand out from the other recent titles. This game is HARD. Sure there are the pointlessly simple bosses and the uber-powerful weapons, but don't expect to run through this game without getting your ass kicked thoroughly a couple times. All tough bosses succeed in being challenging, but also fair. Losing makes you want to try harder, and it is all the more satisfying when you beat them. No cheap deaths to make you break your DS over your knee here.

There is one point of the game that I feel isn't completely perfect. If you played Dawn of Sorrow on DS, you will notice that there are an abundance of enemies that are plucked directly from that game and thrown in here. Castlevania has always had many enemies that are seen throughout the games, but they also usually look slightly different and behave different. It saddened me to find myself battling the exact same enemies that I already beaten and collected the soul from in DoS. Fortunately, this isn't a big enough deal to hurt the game, and it's the first time this has ever happened. I can forgive and forget a small error like this. 10/10

STORY – The story has also been beefed up in this game to the point that I actually paid attention to it :P. Jonathan Morris is the son of the legendary Vampire Hunter for Castlevania: Bloodlines. Unfortunately for him, the power of the Vampire Hunters has waned in his generation and he does not have the same power as his ancestors. He and Charlotte must work together to defeat a vampire named Brauner and his evil daughters. Don't worry, I can't say anything else without exposing the plot. There are enough twists and turns to make this story line shine more than any other Castlevania title. Not to mention, this title has the same set of alternate endings as the other games. 10/10

GRAPHICS/SOUND – This game is beautiful. At first I wasn't sure what to think about leaving the classic Castle setting for more exotic areas, but after seeing them, I knew exactly how I felt. The PoR world is big and beautiful and no two areas are quite the same. It is still in 2D but incorporates a few 3D models into the environments. Not enough to overshadow anything, but enough to add a nice touch to the world. Everything is perfectly detailed and full of color. The music is no different. If you (like me) were lucky enough to pre-order this game with the bonus material, you'd have a cd full of classic tunes from this and previous Castlevania games. It reminds me of how exceptional Castlevania music truly is. This game does not disappoint. It's not everyday that I turn the TV off and my DS up so that I can hear the game's background music, but it happens all the time with this game. You may find yourself humming along to the game at every turn. It's everything that we've all come to expect from Castlevania. G-10/10 S-10/10

PLAYTIME/REPLAYABILITY – You'd think that I'm getting paid to say such good stuff about this game. That's not true, it truly excels in everything. A simple romp through the game will yield a nice healthy playtime, whereas completing all 1000% of the castle and collecting all spells and weapons will really make you feel like you got your money's worth. Then when that's all over, it becomes apparent that now you can play through the entire game (but slightly altered, of course) again with new unlockable characters, or just play though again with Jonathan and Charlotte in a hard mode. Even when that gets old, there's co-op play, and a boss rush featuring old and new bosses together. This game really offers the definition of what replay value is. I could've paid $100 for this game and still felt that I got my moneys worth because of all the great extras. 10/10

FINAL RECOMMENDATION – As much as I love Castlevania, there's usually one or two things I can slam a game for. SotN was far too easy as was HoD, AoS and DoS had the tedious soul system, but honestly, I can't think of a single thing that's really wrong with this game. Sure I had to beat a few enemies that I had already seen before, but how could that hurt anything? There's still more than enough new ones to make up for it. Everything about this game is perfect. The only way you could not like this game is if you don't like adventure games at all. If that's the case, you wouldn't have read this entire review anyway.

FINAL SCORE (not an average [although it easily could've been]) – 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/26/06