"Another near-perfect handheld Castlevania!"

After the vast disappointments "Castlevania 64" and "Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness", the legendary series apparently fell into such low esteem with long-time fans that the damage done to the good name of Castlevania seemed to be irreparable, and in a way, Konami also gave proof for the sad fact that Castlevania must be one of those video game franchises that just don´t work in 3D. Fortunately, though, Konami redeemed the series with their Game Boy Advance launch title "Castlevania - Circle of the Moon", which marked a return into the 2D realm, and its semi-sequels Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow followed the same formula by staying true to the gameplay designs established by Symphony of the Night. While it´s still debatable whether or not the series can work as good in 3D as it apparently does in 2D, there´s at least no doubt that the three Game Boy Advance titles as well as the first DS entry Dawn of Sorrow were brilliant games and easily rank among the best titles for both handhelds, and so the high anticipation for "Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin" was more than understandable, and I´m pleased to say that Konami easily lives up to the expectations set by last year´s magnificent "Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow".

Unlike Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin is not set in the near future, but instead in the year 1944 in a war-ridden Europe. There, we are being introduced to two new heroes, those being Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin. Jonathan is a descendant of the Morris family that has taken over the legendary whip, the Vampire Killer, from the Belmont clan until the year 1999 (with the last Belmont to use the whip having been Richter Belmont), and he´s suffering from some sort of a feeling of inferiority to the Belmont family, since as a member of the Morris family, he is not directly able to use the Vampire Killer. The 16 year-old Charlotte Aulin, on the other hand, is a descendant of the Belnades family, hence she is able to use magic to an impressive extent, which she is very proud of along with her unbelievable intelligence. Both of them are being sent by the church to Castlevania, which has arisen once again, this time by the doing of a vampire-turned human named Brauner, a veteran of World War I who had lost his family in the Great War. That´s actually all I can say about the story without spoiling some of the surprising twists later in the game, some of which especially fans of "Castlevania: Bloodlines" will enjoy, since Portrait of Ruin marks a direct sequel to that one chronologically. While the story indeed has some interesting twists, it´s nothing too special in the end, which means that Castlevania fans will know what to expect from this title. Nevertheless, it´s a solid and interesting tale, despite the rather short and rare dialogue sequences.

With Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, the developers took great care in staying close to gameplay mechanics established in "Castlevania - Symphony of the Night", while at the same time, they offered enough new content in form of the soul collecting feature, for example. The same goes for "Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin". It follows the footsteps of the great Symphony of the Night by giving the player the possibility of exploring the huge Castlevania screen by screen much like in "Super Metroid", as the entire castle consists of several connected rooms, and each room is being presented as a whole new screen, with bonus rooms and secret passageways to be found as well, some of them only later in the game. The fighting also plays a big role again, as some screens are practically filled with enemies, with your main character Jonathan and Charlotte having tons of different weapons (anything from whips to spears) and subweapons (like crosses, knives or of course holy water) to choose from in order to do so. But that´s where the new aspect of the game becomes important: teamwork. Having two main characters, the game gives you tons of possibilities. For one, you can choose whether you want to explore the castle with both of your character or only with one of them, and you can call your companion and send him away whenever you want to. If he/she is fighting alongside you, the A.I. thankfully is pretty good, which means that your friend won´t do any all-too stupid things. Then, of course, you can choose what character you want to control yourself, and you can always switch between Jonathan and Charlotte (it doesn´t even take a second, just push a button and that´s it). Of course, that´s by far not all. You can also summon him/her to attack your enemies right away with his subweapon, and if you summon him by pressing the R-button and Up on the d-pad at the same time, you can initiate one of the many powerful team attacks (you can equip them before, of course). You´ll also have to solve several puzzles with the help of your companion, for example by pushing a heavy object together or, as a more demanding example, switching back and forth between the two and controlling them at the same time during a fast mine cart-like sequence. It´s a very intriguing feature, and in a way, Konami could have even added more places in the game where you have to use this feature. Another new aspect that is being introduced in this game is already being mentioned in the title: the portraits. The supposed villain of this game, Brauner, gets his power from several paintings that are spread throughout the castle, and in order to break their power, you actually have to enter these paintings, leading you into a completely new sub-level that has nothing to do with the castle in terms of architecture and location; in other words: it will take you to completely different places that can be seen on the picture. Those sub-levels are of course not as big as Castlevania itself, but it will take you roughly more than an hour to fully explore each of them, and the real treat is that their design is quite different from the usual look of the castle, especially the two levels based on ancient Egypt. Their very level design is just as brilliant as in each other Castlevania title, so in the end, they´re an outstanding addition as well, with my only (minor) complaint being the fact that some of them resemble each other, but that´s no big deal. As far as the controls go, Konami fortunately decided not to use the touchscreen in a gimmicky way like in Dawn of Sorrow, which means that you can control the entire game using the old-fashioned d-pad (except for the beginning, where you have to draw your own symbol for your game slot - quite funny, honestly), which is relieving. Using the stylus in order to play Castlevania would have seemed a bit too outlandish, and since the game requires exact movements and controls - and FAST controls as well - the stylus simply would not have been appropriate. However, the second screen is being used as a permanent means of showing either your inventory or the castle map, something that already was a huge improvement over past Castlevania titles in Dawn of Sorrow, since you no longer have to switch to the menu in order to look on the map, but are much rather able to always have a look on it, which is definitely helpful in view of the sheer complexity of the levels. The traditional controls, however, are just perfect, and even the different ways of summoning your companion are easy to execute, which means that Konami once again excels in this area. As nearly every other Castlevania, it´s just incredibly addictive and a whole lot of fun to play.

Just like its predecessor, Portrait of Ruin is once again a graphical beauty to behold that shows us what can be done in terms of 2D games on the Nintendo DS. Character animations are again wonderfully smooth and fluid to an extent that even the ordinary walking animations look great, and naturally, there are also tons of smaller animations in the background or on the character sprites that make the game look alive. The same goes for the enemy sprites that are once again impressive at times, for example the perfectly animated sprites of some of the boss enemies, without the game speed slowing down at all - and trust me, there are moments when you´ll meet enemies that take up half of the screen, or when there are more than a dozen smaller enemies at the same time. Of course, the backgrounds also astound with an amazing amount of details, as in the predecessor. Only this time, Konami also used 3D elements for the visualization of some huge objects like pyramids in the Egypt-based levels, and they´re awesome to look at, sometimes leaving you no other chance but to stare at the backgrounds in awe, at the perfectly rotating and scaling elements. The best thing is that the 3D aspect is perfectly intertwined with the 2D characters, resulting in a perfect mix in the end. The art design stays pretty close to Dawn of Sorrow, which means that the character design bears a heavy anime influence in stark contrast to the darker and more mature designs of Symphony of the Night and other earlier titles. Whether or not this is a good thing depends on your own point of view on what a Castlevania game should look like, but I personally found the anime character designs and portraits during dialogue sequences quite charming, especially since the characters´ facial expressions change depending on their current mood - like in Grandia or Lunar, for that matter - and it makes you feel closer to them, and it can sometimes even serve for some humorous interludes, especially concerning Charlotte and her attitude toward her own booksmarts. There´s even a neat and fully animated anime intro at the beginning of the game, and it looks absolutely great for a Nintendo DS game, and fortunately even a little less pixilated than the opening of last year´s Dawn of Sorrow (which was great as well, of course). It really helps to establish the anime-character design wonderfully and only adds to the strong visual appeal of the game in the end. As far as the graphics go, Konami really does live up to the expectations.

Castlevania has always been known for its outstanding music (except for Harmony of Dissonance, maybe), and Portrait of Ruin continues that tradition masterfully by delivering a great mix of moody, dramatic and even bizarre tracks that always fit the current location and manage to make you feel right at home in the world of Castlevania. It might not be the best soundtrack in any Castlevania, but that doesn´t mean that it is not awesome, since it´s in my opinion one of the best musical scores in any Nintendo DS game in terms of quality, never giving you the impression that you´re merely playing a handheld game - so, headphones on for the best possible enjoyment! This time around, there´s also a tiny bit of English voice acting in the game, mostly consisting of battle cries, your characters (and your enemies, too) yelling names of certain attacks or some random quotes like Vincent the shop owner saying "I´ll make you a deal!". It´s nice to listen to and gives the game an even stronger RPG feel, and it even made me wish for more, like fully voiced dialogue sequences, but maybe in the third DS Castlevania?

"Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin" might not be able to top its DS predecessor Dawn of Sorrow, but since that title was already a near-perfect Castlevania game, that´s not a bad thing. And instead of reusing the same soul collection feature once again, Konami did a great job with the introduction of the new teamwork-based system that works perfectly in the game without taking away anything from the Castlevania experience. Definitely one of the best titles of 2006 and one of the best handheld games ever!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/07