"Plays like Scooby Doo"

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin is Konami's newest game in the series. This game also marks the 20th anniversary of the Castlevania franchise as well. This game was released in December 2006. Anyways, so Konami decide to give out the 20th anniversary pack to gamers who pre-ordered the game. Anyways it is World War II, every where the world is in ruins. Those who were killed in battle, filled with hatred gathered together and managed to summon Dracula's castle, Castlevania. You are Johnathan Morris who must use the vampire killer to destroy this castle. Your friend Charlotte Aluin will help you. So who resides in Castlevania now? Why, Brauner of course, and with his two "converted" daughters Stella and Loretta. So apparently, he lost his daughters in World War I. Frustrated he disowned humanity and became a vampire himself. He killed a man named Wind (in the game, his real name is unknown) and turned his two daughters into vampires.

Game play 10/10: I'm guessing Konami got this switching-between- characters idea from their last game (Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, when you replayed the game on Julius mode). However this time you can do much more then just switch between the characters to use their abilities. You can now individually equip characters with their own clothes and equipments. You can make then stay in one place so you can do other things. Lastly there are team attacks in which you can perform. Now in the game, the reason the castle doesn't really seem that big is because there are portraits you can enter which then has it's own map. There are total of five portraits in the game. Also there are many relics you must collect to do certain moves. Now about the life bar: your partner's life is you magic bar. It doesn't matter if you switch between characters, it still stays the same as the player having the red bar while the computer has the magic bar as life. Now your partner can die as many times as they want however you your self can not die or else it is game over. Now depending on the type of equipment your partner has he/she can take more or less damage then you so use your magic wisely or else your partner might die if there not enough magic. Lastly the game has every single (at least I think) monster from all of the Castlevania series combined. They brought many old ones like the axe armor and the two head monster with a chick as a tail. However they did change many of monsters names for instance the Venus Weed monster name has been changed to Aloe Une.

Music + sound 9/10: Konami seems to always make at least one song that is enjoyable in their games and in this game I have a favorite tune that I like listening to. In the game, however there is not really much of a spooky type of tune in this game (like they normally do in their games). Also in the game you can immediately switch to the Japanese voices right off the bat with out having to do any thing (ie: beating the game and etc).

Controls 8/10: For this game, you do not really use the stylus as much as you did in the last Castlevania. The controls are: A is to start/ confirm things, B is to go back or decline, the D-pad is for moving, up + A is to summon your partner and the R button is for using sub weapons. There are more controls combinations but I just listed the most basic ones.

Length ?/10: Well since I still have not beaten the game I do not know how long it should take, however these type of games usually have you beat the game when you are like level 70 and up. You can probably try to beat it when you are level 60 if you have the right equipments and are good enough.

Replay Value 10/10: This game has a very high replay value since you can replay this game four different times. You can play it normally with Charlotte and Johnathan, you can replay it as Stella and Loretta, Richter and Maria and you can also replay it as the old axe armor. Now the only other game in the series that you can replay it four times would be Castlevania Symphony of the Night (Saturn Version). Also you can play two players mode where each person takes control of a character and you two must beat boss rush mode. For boss rush mode there are three different and you can be six different people. You can even be the same person if you want to, however the two people would not have the same equipments. Lastly you can trade items on line with shop mode. Basically what shop mode is, you post items on wifi and people go to your shop using your friend code and then either buy the item or trade for it.

Well this game (I think) is well worth the money (especially if you got the 20th anniversary package that has a special stylus and a time line and etc). It's very fun and kind of reminds you of Scooby Doo since you are two kids in a haunted castle trying to kill Brauner except now there are real monsters.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/20/07