Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

"Ready your whip for another journey into the dark domain."

True story- When Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin was first announced, I called GameStop every day for over two months until it was finally in their system for preorder. Yes, I am that much of a fanatic when it comes to Castlevania. Imagine my surprise (and subsequent joy) when Konami announced that Portrait of Ruin would mark the 20th anniversary of the franchise and would therefore include a bonus for those who preorder it. Joy became ecstasy when Portrait of Ruin finally released, replacing Final Fantasy III's home of nearly three weeks in my DS Lite and becoming a near-permanent travel companion as I whittled away, bit by bit, at the latest tale of Dracula and the legendary families of vampire-slayers who oppose him...

Surprisingly, Portrait of Ruin is actually a sequel to the Genesis classic Castlevania: Bloodlines. You play as Jonathan Morris, the son of John Morris and current keeper of the legendary Vampire Killer. Alongside you friend Charlotte, you are called on by the Church to investigate the mysterious return of Dracula's castle. It's the height of World War II and the death toll has reached horrific proportions, so the sudden reappearance of the most totally evil source of power is a bad omen and could spell doom for the entire planet. However you soon discover it isn't Dracula who inhabits the castle but another vampire by the name of Brauner who, along with his daughters, plans on destroying humanity since all they cause is pain and destruction. From there the plot takes on a series of twists that will please many fans searching for a fresh plot that doesn't seem to involve Dracula's resurrection for the dozenth time.

Okay so now I'll get my one and only true gripe out of way- Recycled sprites. How many times is Konami going to reuse the same enemy graphics? Easily seventy-five percent of the enemy roster in Portrait of Ruin is from Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night or Dawn of Sorrow. While it's nice that these games can stand the test of time, I'm getting tired of companies thinking that it's okay to recycle graphics to save time and money. It's not so bad when it happens between a direct series of games (such as the Street Fighter Alpha series) but when a fifteen year-old sprite-build is being reused for the tenth time, it's time to hang it up. Other than that, the animation is top-notch and the backgrounds are pretty much on par with Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorrow (i.e. lots of detail and nifty 3D effects that help build a convincingly deep world). Oh, and as a matter of personal preference I wish Konami would drop the anime-look and go back to the more detailed, Victorian-style artwork. Konami, if you want to make an animated series out of Castlevania, make it already instead of half-assing it with character art and two minute clips at the beginning of the games.

Obviously, if Konami is going to recycle sprites, they'll have no qualms about recycling sound effects as well. Sure you may have heard the same set of sound samples since the inception of Castleroid on the Playstation, but I honestly can't say I'd want it to sound too different anyway. I mean, how many different ways can you make a whip sound? What sort of variations exists for a jump? Can there really be that many audio spins on a pile of bones crumbling to the ground? No. While I may complain about the continuous reuse of graphics, for some reason I don't so much mind the sound. Perhaps it's because it's really the soundtrack that's the star of the show, and with Portrait of Ruin we are treated to yet another wonderfully woven tapestry of aural delight. It's no secret that I love Castlevania music (I look forward to the soundtracks almost as much as the games themselves), and that Konami's composers continue to impress me even on a portable system (of which I am critically harsh when it comes to audio presentation) is nothing sort of impressive.

Control-wise Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin offers very little that is new to veterans of the series. However, the actual play mechanics have received a pretty big overhaul. The most noticeable difference is the inclusion of a second "partner" character who can either travel with you and help fight (but uses the MP gauge as a lifebar) or can be called in to use support moves. This not only dramatically increases replayability since you can choose (at any time) who is your main character, but also adds a certain level of depth by creating the opportunity to decide the best way to utilize each character and what equipment is best for different situations. Another new feature is the Skill system which takes a variety of familiar sub-weapons, mixes in some new ones, adds a dash of abilities and a plethora of spells to create another aspect of your character to level up. This is a feature I highly hope Konami carries over in to future Castlevania titles as I not only enjoyed leveling these Skills, but also the fact that I could equip them like weapons rather than, say, hunting down that elusive candle that contains the Cross sub-weapon I need. I would be remise if I didn't mention the quests you can obtain from a mysterious ghost called "Wind", quests which, open completion, yield new equipment, weapons and skills that will give you an edge in the game. So while some of you may miss the hours of Soul hunting the two Sorrow titles gave us, you can see how you'll have just as much to do in this new game.

Probably the most interesting new addition to the design of this latest Castlevania entry is its online mode. Whereas Dawn of Sorrow had a local WiFi soul-trading system, Portrait of Ruin has a full-blown online shopping mode where you can put items up for sale at you "shop" and let up to three people from around the globe browse your merchandise. While nothing in the game is too rare that you'd actually need this feature, it certainly saves time when you can't get that one item your missing to complete a quest. The other (much cooler) aspect of online play is the Co-Op Mode. This works both locally and via the internet, allowing you to tackle any one of the three Boss Rush stages with a partner that you can choose from your friendlist or a much larger pool of anyone looking for a game. Hopefully these tentative first steps into online co-op play bear fruition in future Castlevania titles, as it would be an incredible gameplay experience to play through an entire quest with a friend (or group of friends) in a much larger castle.

Much like Dawn of Sorrow before it, Portrait of Ruin is stuffed with extras. Unfortunately, many of these bonuses are getting stale as they're recycled from previous games. For example, you can play through the game as the two vampire sisters, but they don't offer anything new. And the ability to play as Richter, while cool (or at least to me since Rondo of Blood is my favorite Castlevania game), offers nothing new that the main game didn't already do. There are three Boss Rush courses you can run, but they are rather short and again isn't anything new. There are other little things, like rewards for completing all the quests or beating the game with the good ending, and even a cake on your birthday, but nothing that tops Julius mode from Dawn of Sorrow.

There's very little question here as to whether or not Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin deserves to be in your library- If you are at all a fan of Castlevania this is a most own game. In my opinion, this is easily the best portable Castlevania to date, and it's myriad of story threads that tie it to Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night, Bloodlines and Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow makes this a great title to flesh out the overall story arc of the entire franchise.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/07/09

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