"A fantastic and original game that more than meets the high standards of the series."

When Portrait of Ruin was first announced, may people were left wondering what it would be able to bring to the series. If it used swords and souls it would seem too much like a rehash of Dawn of Sorrow, but if it went back to whips and sub-weapons it would run the risk of being too much like, well, every other Castlevania game. Konami's solution: do both, and more.

Take the whip, which has been an integral, even defining, feature of the series since its first installment way back in 1987. Yet, many of the more recent games (Symphony of the Night, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, and Curse of Darkness) have completely forgone the whip in favor of more traditional videogame weapons: swords, spears, and axes. There were always legitimate plot related reasons as to why the protagonist didn't use a whip (they weren't members of the Belmont family), but it was still disappointing. With Portrait, Konami figured out how to satisfy everyone: have a wide variety of weapons throughout the game, including whips. Not only does this keep fans of the traditional games happy, but it adds a lot of variety. Over the entire course of the game you'll have a choice between heavy weapons, whips, or fists – all of which are equally useful. As a result, your fighting style is purely a matter of personal preference; not determined by whatever weapon is the most powerful at the moment.

In addition to the main weapon, you have a lot of sub-weapons to collect over the course of the game. You have everything from your standard knives, axes, and boomerangs to new weapons such as grenades, darts, and shrunken. A few of the weapons are ones that the enemies use, such as the bladed disc of the infamous Disc Armors. There are also a couple of weapons that are just odd, yet incredibly useful: the paper airplane and the deadly cream pie… of darkness. Most sub-weapons (called "skills" in this game) start off fairly weak, but get more powerful as you use them. Weapons earn experience points when used against an enemy, and will get stronger in 10 to 20 increments until you master then. Once mastered, the weapon changes form, usually by becoming larger, having longer range, dealing multiple hits, or having more projectiles come out at once. The weapons usually change cosmetically as well, for instance the grenade goes from being a typical ball-like grenade to a WWII era German "potato masher".

That's only half of your arsenal, because you have two characters to control in the game. The secondary character, being a witch, uses magic based attacks. Her main weapons are possessed books that project blades out when opened. These are neither as powerful nor as numerous as the other character's weapons, but then again these attacks are generally used when you want to save magic (or wait for it to recharge). The real focus is on her spells, which she has a ton of. You have your standard healing and purification spells, as well as a number of attack spells. These spells vary greatly in power, range, style, and MP cost, so you will have to pick and choose which ones are best for the situation. Another factor to take into consideration is how long it takes for her to cast the spell – even if the spell is incredibly powerful, it's of no use if the enemy moves out of the way before she can set it off.

There's almost too many weapons, as it can be a bit overwhelming. It also means that a good number of them will go unused. While they are all useful, you'll likely end up picking a couple of your favorites and forget about the rest. But, it's nothing to knock the game for since you aren't required to collect, must less actually use, the vast majority of the weapons and spells. What it does is create a game with something for everybody, as you can play however you want.

The array of weapons is impressive and makes the game a lot of fun, but they aren't the big thing that separates Portrait from the other games. It's the fact that the game lets you control two characters simultaneously that makes it different. Jonathan Morris, current wielder of the legendary Vampire Killer whip, and Charlotte Aulin, a young, but incredibly powerful witch infiltrate Dracula's castle, intent on stopping the infamous vampire. However, it turns out that it isn't Dracula calling the shots this time around – it's a new vampire, Brauner, who has sealed away the Count, and is using the castle for his own purposes.

The story is interesting enough to get you to pay attention to it and works together with the gameplay elements fairly well. Over the course of the game you'll learn who Brauner is and what exactly it is that he wants. Anyone who has played the series before won't be surprised at all when you run into Death, who is busy with his own plans. As with most of the recent Castlevania games, there are multiple endings, and which one you get depends on how you fight one of the later bosses. The story of the main game also sets up several other versions where you can play as different characters.

Jonathan is, unfortunately, a whinny brat with daddy issues, and will undoubtedly cause you to want to reach into the DS and smack him repeatedly. He's also incredibly arrogant and is probably one of the least sympathetic people in the game. And this is a game that involves several vampires bent on killing off the entire human race. Charlotte is his exact opposite: strong willed and confident, as well capable of understanding what is going on.

There are a couple of other supporting characters in the game, both good guys and bad guys. A merchant will follow you into the castle and assist you out of the goodness of his heart. That is to say, for a fee. He sells the basic potions and magic restorers as well as an assortment of weapons and armor. Things are actually quite expensive in this game compared to other ones, and money isn't exactly growing on trees, so you may have to be a bit more conservative with the potions and tonics than you were in the Sorrow games.

Soon after entering the castle you will meet a ghost who only identifies himself as "Wind" and says that he died not long ago but bound his spirit to the castle. You'll eventually find out the real story behind his death and refusal to leave the mortal realm. In the meantime, he'll send you on "quests", which are [usually] basic tasks that involve finding certain items or defeating a certain number of enemies in the castle and paintings. Once you complete the task he'll reward you with an item, ability, weapon, spell, or stat boost. There are 37 quests in all, and while only a few are strictly necessary, you get the best weapons and accessories in the game here, as well as the only Heal spell. Many of the quests are also prerequisites to other quests as well (for instance several quests earn you a new sub-weapon, and you complete one of the later quests by having all of the sub-weapons).

For the most part, completing any given quests is pretty easy, though you do end up having to go back to earlier areas to hunt down monsters. You also have to explore every nook and cranny looking for hidden rooms containing items. The real problem – and this is incredibly aggravating your first time through if you aren't using a FAQ – is that many of the items needed to complete quests can be found only once in the entire game, yet can be sold at the store. Take the long sword, for instance, which you get fairly early in the game. It's a good weapon, so you might use it for a while, then sell it for much needed cash (and get a decent amount of money, but not so much that it raises a red flag as to the true value of the item). Much later in the game, Wind will tell you that he needs the long sword in order to make you a new weapon. Too bad for you, because it's gone and never coming back. You quickly learn not to sell anything, but it's still too late. It would have been nice if there was something to suggest that these items might be worth holding onto.

While the castle plays a central role in the game, much of the game actually takes place elsewhere. Brauner is controlling the castle by creating worlds within paintings that channel the mystical energies of the castle in a way that he can manipulate them. As a result, you'll have to travel to the worlds-within-a-world and release the magic by defeating the guardian of the paintings. As, with the exception of Curse of Darkness, no Castlevania game has taken place outside the castle since Bloodlines in 1994, the helps add quite a bit of variety to the game. You'll be going through a desert pyramid, a quaint village, a building deep in a forest, and an absolutely bizarre circus-world.

The circus is perhaps one of the most interesting levels to come out of videogames in a long while. The stage is circular, and as you move around it, up becomes down and down becomes up. In other words, the "top" is always the outermost edge of the stage, so you'll eventually be fighting through upside-down buildings with fleamen, archers, and other bad guys moving about on the ceilings. A nice graphical touch is that the enemies always fall to what is their floor when they die, so if you're on the bottom of the stage they'll fall upwards when the die, or sideways if you're on the edge. Toss in the creepy remix of standard circus music, and you have a real nightmare level on your hands.

While there is great variation between levels, there is also a fair amount of variety within most of the levels. For instance, the village stage has a section of shops, an underground rail line, and a massive chapel. The forest level has sections outdoors, inside the building, underground, and underwater. Each area is carefully designed to look and feel like a unique environment, so the underground section actually feels like you're going through a dug-out tunnel, rather than feeling like it's exactly the same as the building, but with new wallpaper.

The variety of environments also leads to a variety of enemies, as each type of stage has its own set of enemies. Most of the enemies are returners from previous games, though each area has its own share of newcomers. Many of the bosses are new and designed for their specific area, while others are the ones that always return – Dracula, Death, and Legion. Four of the bosses are very impressive remastered versions of classic bosses – Frankenstein, Wolfman, Medusa, and the Mummy.

Unfortunately, it seems that Konami has been studying at the Bungie School of Level Design. After you clear out the first four paintings, you find four more portraits that are a lot like the previous four. While this is a bit repetitive, there are at least substantial changes that make it seem like more than just the hard mode version of the first half of the game. This is especially true for the second forest stage which, despite being a similar looking building in a forest, feels like a brand new location. The building is laid out differently, has different enemies, and takes place at night during a thunderstorm. This all works to create a very different feel than you got from the first stage. It also helps that the maps are relatively small compared to the main castle (though larger than a single subsection of the castle), which prevents things from getting too repetitive. All in all, the differences between the first and second versions of these areas is significantly greater than the differences of the second castles in Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance.

In addition to going through the paintings, you'll also have to work your way through the castle itself, which is several times larger than the paintings. The first four paintings are scattered throughout the castle, and once you clear the first one, you'll be able to access more of the castle. While there isn't as much variety to the castle as there was in previous games (since it's smaller and you have the paintings to get through), there's still numerous areas to explore and quite a few bosses to fight.

Portrait borrows several elements from its predecessor, Dawn of Sorrow, such as finding new abilities in lanterns (called relics here but they look a lot like the Ability Souls of Dawn) that allow you to reach new parts of the castle. The top-screen display is also the same as in Dawn: you can alternate between having the map displayed and having a summary of your stats and the bestiary entry of the last monster you hit displayed. Both of these are incredibly convenient as it allows you to navigate through the castle without having to stop and pull out the map at every fork in the road. The status display is also great because it tells you how many HP an enemy has and its weaknesses, as well as the amount of experience that you can get from defeating it and any items it drops (you have to get the item at least once for it to be added to the record).

The graphics are on par with Dawn, and several of the returning enemies, items, and design elements are taken straight out of it. The big difference is the backdrops for the different stages. What was nice looking in Dawn is stunning in Portrait, and helps give an almost three dimensional look to a two dimensional game. The audio is not only a high quality, but possibly one of the best scores in the series so far. The graphics and audio are also completely reworked for each of the "repeated" stage, which further helps to separate them.

The character swap is also heavily inspired by the Julius mode of Dawn, where you could switch between three characters. Portrait simply takes those mechanics and expands on them by allowing you to have both characters out at the same time if you want. Changing characters is a very streamlined process, which is good because you'll have to change quite frequently. With the touch of a button you can call or relieve the secondary character, switch which one you control, and command them to use their special attack. What you cannot do, however, is direct them to attack a specific target or use tactics (such as fighting defensively, etc.) The character will be governed by a simple AI that is surprisingly effective. Despite, or maybe because of, the simplicity of the AI, you don't (usually) have to worry about your other character getting themselves killed, lost, or stuck, as they will generally just shadow your moves and attack whomever it is you're attacking. They do tend to get themselves seriously hurt during boss fights, though, but it's a simple matter of sending them away and fighting solo.

Since the game is designed around there being two characters, having twice as many people fighting never makes the game too easy. There are several limitations in effect that force you to not only be able to fight on your own, but also use more strategy than normal. First, the characters share a life bar, so switching will not get you any more HP. While a computer controlled character taking damage will not drain your HP, it will cost you MP. This means that you have to be careful not to let your partner get hurt too badly, since if you lose all of your MP you can use your skills or heal, plus the character will be disabled for a few seconds.

Throughout the game you will also learn a variety of combo attacks, which can be devastating when used properly. However, unless you reach incredibly high levels, these combos will never be strong enough to kill a boss before you run out of magic, so you will still have to be able to handle the boss using normal weapons and skills, keeping things from becoming cheap. Then, there's the little issue how your team attacks give Death a great idea on how to beat the two of you…

While not approaching the level of difficulty of the classic Castlevania games, Portrait is a bit harder than many of the more recent games. The difficulty comes from strong bosses, having to coordinate two characters attacking, a lack of money to stockpile healing items, and other enemy and level design elements. That said, if you do want to make things more difficult on yourself, the game is more than willing to accommodate you.

First, there is a secret painting called the "Nest of Evil" which is, in essence, a series of six boss rushes that get progressively harder. Each consists of a set of five rooms filled with normal enemies followed by a sixth room containing a boss fight. Theses special bosses are taken directly out of Dawn of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night. To call these sequences difficult would be an understatement, though none of them are impossibly hard. Most people will want to be several levels higher than they would normally be for the final bosses of the game before they attempt the Nest.

After you beat the game normally, several more modes open up. There's the standard New Game +, which allows you to start the game over with all of your equipment, skills, and what not. This is much quicker and easier than before since you don't have to level up as much or spend time killing monsters just to master your sub-weapons. It is also a fast way of going back and finishing any quests that you were unable to originally. The mode that most people will be interested in is Hard mode. As can be expected, the enemies will do more damage while you do less. There's more though, as you can now cap your levels a 50, 25, or 1. If you use a level 1 cap, you will never level up, so you will only get HP/MP bonuses from the handful of powerups hidden throughout the game and your only strength and defense boosts come from getting new equipment. With this little twist, the game goes from "not approaching the level of difficulty of the classic Castlevania games" to "being the hardest Castlevania ever made".

Konami also managed to outdo themselves in terms of the unlockable characters, which is impressive considering the Dracula's Curse style playthrough available at the end of Dawn of Sorrow. First, you can play through the game as Richter Belmont and Maria Renard, originally of Rondo of Blood. As usual, these characters will not learn new abilities or be able to buy equipment, however they can level up. Richter will be able to fight with the whip and standard Castlevania sub-weapons (axes, cross, etc.) and Maria will fight using her animal friends. They control just like Jonathan and Charlotte – you can use one of them or have both out at once. They are each effective against different enemies, so you will have to experiment to see which ways work for you and which ways get you killed very, very quickly. Overall, this mode is a bit harder than Jonathan/Charlotte on normal mode.

Another group of playable characters is playable in "Sisters mode", in which you control a pair of very powerful witches. In what is one of the best uses of the DS touch screen, you'll move the characters using the D-pad while attacking by using the stylus. The one witch will fire a stream of magic from her position to wherever you point and the other will attack as you run the stylus through the enemy – the longer the stroke is, the more powerful the attack. As expected, they can be switched with the touch of a button, however there are two differences between Sisters mode and the previous two. First, they must both always be out, and second, the character not under player control will not attack. While a lot of fun, this mode is incredibly easy due to how powerful the witches are and the fact that they can fly, making it very easy to avoid enemies. While flying and attacking does drain magic fairly quickly, they can recharge an entire magic meter in a few seconds by touching the ground. Sisters mode is also part of the main story, as it is a prequel to Jonathan and Charlotte's story.

Finally, there is Old Axe Armor mode, in which you can play as one of the Axe Armors from the NES games. Mildly interesting, but most people probably won't care enough to fulfill the unlocking requirements – defeating one thousand of these guys during a normal game. He has no partner, few attacks, and like Richter/Maria mode, no story. It is a bit of a challenge, as you will have to rely solely on your skill, rather than powerful magic and weapons, so if you can bring yourself to unlock him, you might find yourself enjoying this mode.

There are also three difference Boss Rushes, each with a different degree of difficulty. At the end of each you get a different prize depending on how quickly you completed the run. None of these items are particularly useful, though you can get sound recordings of classic Castlevania music from two of the runs.

While the main game may not be as good as Dawn of Sorrow's, it is still very good. But what really turns Portrait of Ruin into one of the best games in the series is all of the other things – quests, multiple boss rushes, seven playable characters, an incredible range of difficulty, and a fantastic hidden area. It is easily one of the best games on the DS and one of the best games in the already great series.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/08

Game Release: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (US, 12/05/06)