Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Story

Taking place in 1944 right in the middle of WWII, we take on the role of Johnathan Morris, the son of John Morris from Bloodlines and Grandson of Quincey Morris from the novel. In addition to Johnathan, we also have Charlotte Aulin, a distant relative and descendant of the Belnades clan. With the Belmont family still missing since 1797, it is left to them to defeat the lord of the the castle.
Along the way they will have assistance from a friendly Priest named Vincent who will give them items...for a price of course. They will also meet a mysterious ghost simply known as Wind, who has been bound to the castle since death. Johnathan and Charlotte will also learn that Dracula has not been fully revived, but another vampire by the name of Brauner, has taken over the castle.

Brauner seeks to destroy humanity for the death of his two daughters that occurred during WWI. He uses his magical abilities to create worlds out of paintings and in doing so allows him to block Dracula's power over the castle while retaining his own dominance. By his side are two young girls, Loretta and Stella, who he refers to as his Daughters.

Story wise it's alright. To me Castlevania never really had to have too complex of a story. But ever since Rondo of Blood it's pretty clear they've wanted to expand upon more than just "You part of vampire hunter family, go kill." and I'm fine with that. There's nothing here that's too complex, but there are some nice easter eggs, call backs and continuity drops. I appreciate that we get to play as John's son as we rarely ever play as a direct descendant in a Castlevania game, usually there is a 100 year gap with some exceptions.




The characterization is fairly decent all around. Johnathan is hot head, brash and irritated with his father for never properly teaching him how to use the Whip before his death, but he's also confident.

Charlotte is Intelligent with incredible magical abilities, but is also a bit full of herself and is often treated as a child, much to her annoyance.


I don't have much to say about the sisters, they're just sort of there, though they do play an important role.


Like more recent installments in the series there is a bad ending and a good ending. Deciding to simply fight the sisters at a certain point in the game will give you the bad ending, but there is a option to attain a spell that will cure them of their vampirism and unlock a rather large portion of the game that is otherwise in inaccessible. Doing so also gives you the option to unlock the vampire killer at full power.


If you don't want story spoilers I suggest skipping to gameplay.


Brauner has the rather generic back story of losing loved ones and becoming a vampire because of it. This is something that's used a ludicrous amount of times with vampires. But I do like how they tied it in with WWI, which if you played Bloodlines back on the Genesis you would know that WWI was caused by in part by Elizabeth Bartley (Bathory) in an attempt to cause enough chaos to resurrect Dracula. So in a way Brauner lost his daughters because of Dracula.
There is also something of a running theme of Humanities destructive nature being parodied in Brauner's paintings. One of the sections in the game is called Nation of Fools and it's filled with killer clowns.


Wind was a nice surprise. We learn later on in game he is actually Eric Lecarde and the two girls that Brauner calls his daughters are actually Eric's own children that have been turned into vampires. Eric doesn't really play a huge role in the game beyond offering concern for his daughters and teaching you new abilities and the like by completing quests, but it was a nice addition.

Change Holder Bandolier, truly the most devastating weapon against vampires.

In general it was just nice seeing Bloodlines wasn't just a thing that happened and that it played a role in the series and wasn't forgotten.

Gameplay

Much like the previous handhelds, PoR uses the Metroidvania style of gameplay started by SOTN with a focus of leveling up and acquiring items and equipping armor and weapons as you see fit. You will also find HP and MP maxUps to increase your HP and MP respectively. Early on you'll probably mess about with the selection and be desperate for something new and better to use, but at some point you'll just use armor and weapons that are good enough and you'll probably use those particular items for a damn long while before you find anything remotely better or something that will serve better function for certain situations. You also won't be using the Vampire Killer much in the game because it's hilariously useless until endgame and you won't even look at it as soon as you find another weapon.


New to the game and the gimmick of this one is the use of two players. You can switch between Johnathan and Charlotte at any point during the game, allowing you to play as either character one at a time or by having both on screen at the same time with either Johnathan or Charlotte being controlled by the AI. The transition is easy, smooth and instantaneous unlike DoS' slow character transition.

The AI is fairly good at keeping up, jumping up and over obstacles and attacking enemies for you. Though there are times when it will be inexplicably stupid and such is the case with Blood Skeletons/Axe Armors. Blood based enemies reassemble after being "killed" and as a result the AI tends to hang up and continuously attack a pile of harmless bones/goop. Still, the good generally outweighs the bad. The AI never gets stuck as they will auto teleport if you go too far. Also, any enemy the AI kills does add to your EXP so it's not a bad idea just to let them hang around just for their usefulness.

However, the AI isn't invulnerable and they will take damage from hits, but this thankfully will not affect your health, it will however do damage to your MP which may prevent you from using certain sub items which may end up being more helpful than the AI partner. As a result, it's generally good to figure out when it's a good idea to have the AI partner out or when to not risk them draining your MP.


There are also basic puzzles in the game that rely on you using your partner. This may range from something a simple as both of you standing on a pressure plate that needs more weight, jumping off your partners shoulders to a platform, having your partner stand atop a statue as you push it to reach new heights or even rapidly switching between the two to avoid obstacles while in a cart. Although these become rare late in the game, often your partner will just be reduced to helping you push something.

This sometimes includes stopping a speeding train.

You can also press the R button at any time to have your partner use their current subweapon or spell to help assist  you in combat.



Each character also has a unique play-style.

Johnathan mainly focuses on attack and defense and using a variety of weapons as you might expect. Everything from rapiers, claymores, axes, maces, and of course whips. As with past games, each weapon has their own strengths and weaknesses depending upon the task, enemies and attribute of the weapon. You will also need to collect relics like in past games which will allow you to preform more attacks and allow for more abilities such as double jumping or whipping down.


In addition to regular weapons, Johnathan can also use subweapons which are obtained from either buying them from Vincent's store, by killing certain enemies and getting an item drop or by completing quests for Wind.  You get the usual Cross, Holy Water, Knife etc. later in the game, but there is also a greater variety than just that; including Darts, Grenade, Crossbow, Boomerang and even a Goddamn Wrecking Ball.


Each Sub weapon has a set number of SkillPoints needed to master them, which can be attained by killing enemies, with some giving more SP than others. Once a subweapon is mastered it becomes more powerful and sometimes has additional effects. Holy water for example gains a much larger flame and will travel along the ground hitting multiple times. Most of the subweapons however, are pretty useless with little point in leveling them. You'll probably end up leveling some of the subweapons like the Bible and such, but a good majority of the subweapons are things you'll probably never use and just aren't worth the time and effort.

Johnathan also has the high jump as an exclusive ability once it is obtained and can also jump kick enemies.

Charlotte is a magical based character and isn't as suited for combat as Johnathan is. However, her abilities can be devastating with the right conditions. She can't use weapons like Johnathan, instead relying on magical tomes for her main attack and spells in place of subweapons. Her spells don't level like subweapons but do have the ability  to be charged to create a more powerful version of that spell, allowing either more damage, longer duration, range and more. Because Charlotte isn't generally good at combat(and practically useless as a playable character in the beginning) you'll probably end up playing as Johnathan a lot more, which is a bit of a shame for those that rather play a Charlotte. This isn't to say it's impossible, it isn't, but you will have a harder time until much later on in the game when Charlotte can obtain a better weapon tome and better gear. But even then Johnathan will always outclass her damage output in most scenarios.

Charlotte does shine in a few boss battles where her spell abilities can completely wreck, but these are rather few and far between. For the most part you'll use Johnathan to fight a boss and press R to have Charlotte cast a low charged spell that will make things a bit easier, occasionally switching if you need one charged up.
Charlotte isn't at all useless as a playable character, but there could have been more focus on making her a bit more appealing earlier on, yet this also would raise a balancing issue.

Much like Johnathan, Charlotte has exclusive abilities the most notable of which is alteration. She can raise any of the attributes of her and Johnathan and also transmogrify herself or Johnathan into an animal such as a Toad or Owl which allows exploration of otherwise unreachable areas.

Both Charlotte and Johnathan also have the ability for Duel Crushes. Duel Crushes are similar to Item Crashes from Rondo of Blood, though they are not dependent upon what sub item you have equipped and they're given their own separate section in the menu. Initiating one will drain a fairly good amount amount of MP. To keep you from spamming the special at high levels in which you have plenty of MP, there is a cool down period, though this cool down can be negated somewhat by collecting hearts which will also help refill your MP.

To be perfectly honest I never found a great use of the Duel Crushes. Don't get me wrong, there are times in which they're incredibly helpful, but mostly you're better off relying on subweapons, spells and making sure your partner has health. That being said, there is one particular Duel Crush that I love, it's call the Greatest Five. Using it will call forth 5 of the most powerful Belmonts for a very powerful multiattack. Richter, Leon, Trevor, Juste and Simon. That's just awesome. There is even a chance that Trevor and Simon will be 8-bit.

Like in most Castlevnia games since SOTN you have access to two new modes after beating the game. Sisters Mode follows Stella and Loretta in the events prior to them becoming vampires. Richter Mode is just a fun none canon addition that allows you play as Richter Belmont and Maria Renard. You don't get any armor, items or change of weapons in these modes, nor do you collect relics. You can still level up though and use a limited number of spells/sub weapons. The Sisters mode mainly relies on the DS touch pad which can take some getting used to. Richter Mode plays pretty much like Richter did in SOTN.

Now that we've finally gotten that out of the way we can move onto the levels. Yeah, we actually get levels. As stated earlier, Brauner uses paintings to control the castle and you must enter them to destroy the bosses and lessen his power.
I guess Brauner thought Bowser was onto something.


Joking aside it's so refreshing to finally get out of that Goddamn castle. One of my big problems with Castlevania games post SOTN is that we never leave the Castle and don't get me wrong, Dracula's Castle has some great variety in most of the games, with sections not even looking like they should be part of the same structure, but we're still in the Castle. Something I loved about the older Castlevania games is the journey to the Castle and the sections within the Castle walls. Castlevania III for example, IV or even Rondo of Blood. Finally we get sections that aren't the castle again.



The levels themselves are really great too, with a large variety of environments. Everything from deserts and pyramids, to haunted schools and even a circus. The level structures are generally good and sometimes chaotic feeling when they need to be, particularly any circus level feels insane with enemies on the walls, walking upside down and more.

Up and down and all around.

Levels are fairly challenging, especially the final four. But it doesn't feel too challenging. I probably would have enjoyed if the difficulty was cranked up just a bit in some sections. Some levels have environmental obstacles in the way such as giant blades, spike traps, boulders, or just well placed enemies. The levels are quite large too, large enough for several teleporters to be stationed around each map. So these just aren't tiny little areas to explore, and as you might expect there are secret rooms along with breakable walls throughout the entire game.



There are also enemies that can only be found is certain areas or are more common in others, such as Mummies in deserts or Witches in school like areas, Axe Armors in Cites etc. Each area seems to have a particular enemy theme, although some sections split it up. What you run into on the first half of the map maybe completely different from what's on the other end. Some of the levels reflect this trend too. For example, the first painting you enter 'City of Haze' is largely comprised of a Victorian era market street with a Bakery, Bar, various stores etc. As you work through the map you'll find a underground area and a large cathedral area which, while not out of place in terms of design, is a very different setting from the rest of the stage. Not every stage is like this, the desert stages are pretty straightforward in overall design, a sandy outside area and a pyramid with spike traps and boulders.


The game also features several new bosses and a few returning bosses. Most of the returning bosses have either minor or major changes and most of the new bosses have a special gimmick associated with them, such as Astarte, who has the ability to mindcontol Johnathan which causes him to attack Charlotte, or Dagon, who's battle takes place in a small pond that will drain and refill over the course of the battle.

One problem that most of the boss battles have is that they're surprisingly easy, almost too much so. Generally bosses in the post SOTN games have one or more weakness of some sort. However, in PoR the bosses weaknesses seem to be rather easy to discover along with bosses having rather simple patterns in their attacks. The hardest battle in the main game was with the Creature, but even with the frustration I had with him he isn't all that hard, he's just the most random in his attacks in comparison to the other bosses. Even the final battle which requires you to fight both Dracula and Death at the same time plus a second form of Dracula, isn't all the difficult.
I wouldn't call the boss battles a cake walk by any means and you will find times where your gobbing down potions, but the battles aren't what I'm used to. Simply put, DoS had harder boss battles.

We also have an extra area in the game called The Nest of Evil, it's sort of an endurance level where the enemies become harder as you go along, some are even exclusive to this section. The area also features bosses, though they're all reused from DoS with the exception of the last two. Most of the battles are surprisingly easy since by the time you reach this area(completing 888.0% of all the maps.) you'll be more than prepared for them. But it's the rooms leading to the bosses that are the real challenge. Often you'll be desperate for health and it will take a lot to get through. Thankfully the game is a bit forgiving in that you get teleporters after each boss, so you don't have to do the whole thing in one go and can return later after buying potions(You'll do this a lot). The second to last bosses in this area are easily the most challenging in the game, you're forced to fight fake Trevor, Sypha and Grant, simultaneously. Attempting to keep an eye on what all three are doing can be a challenge and you'll be switching between Charlotte and Johnathan and changing their spells and subweapons constantly during this battle. The area isn't a main part of the game and is purely optional, but it is incredibly fun and a nice addition. You also receive the Greatest Five for completing it.

Also completely optional are quests you can receive from Wind. Wind will task the player with various missions with vague descriptions, everything from finding a slab a meat to punch, to raising a certain stat, maxing out a subweapon or defeating enemies in a certain area. These missions are not required to complete the game, but it is recommended since the rewards tend to be worth it as you'll get armor, subweapons and weapons not found anywhere in the game. Most of the missions aren't anything difficult, the ones I had the most trouble with were  the button combination missions. Like SOTN, you can enter button combinations to pull off special actions. This is a bit difficult to do, but this has less to do with the game and more to do with my DS lite and it's small D-pad. The moves are also pointless, I don't think there is a single moment in game where they could possibly be helpful.

Despite certain grievances, the gameplay is fun and familiar. There is an attempt to shake things up with two players and while I respect that, there was room for improvement in both the function of another player and in the bosses.

Audio/Music.

 Castlevania has always shined in the musical department(we ignore Legends and the Famicom Simon's Quest) PoR is no different with a mixture of new and remixed/arrangements of old tracks. Easily my favorite new track is Gaze up at the Darkness:

Other memorable track include Victorian Fear, Hail from the Past(which is actually a song from King's Quest) a new extended version of Iron Blue Intention, a remix of Cross on the Breast, Jail of Jewels and The Hidden Curse.
Some tracks are more forgettable than others. The two main boss themes; Piercing Silence and Destroyer aren't the best, but they're not bad either. Brauner and Dracula each get their own boss theme, Esquisse of Violence and Banquet of Madness, respectively. Both sound really good and I'm damn happy that Dance of Illusions didn't get used...again.

Overall I feel the soundtrack is stronger than Dawn of Sorrows'. Michiru Yamane and Yuzo Koshiro certainly did a great job with the music.

Unlike DoS we finally get English voices. The VO are pretty limited, the usual grunts, screams etc. There is an easter egg where Johnathan and Charlotte will engage in a short conversation with Vincent, but that's about the extent of it. For what it is the voices are good and fit the characters fine. Johnathan is voiced by Liam O'Brian, who you may know as Guan Yu from Dynasty Warriors, or as Eddie from Silent Hill 2. Charlotte is voiced by Stephanie Sheh who is best known by Hinata Hyuga on Naruto and Yui Hirasawa from K-on, but it also the voice of Yui in SAO.

Because of the limited voices you'll have to get used to hearing Wind say "This is your Training" "Excellent!" "Well Done." and Vincent saying "I'll make you a deal." But this isn't terribly annoying.

You also have the option of using the Japanese Voices. There isn't much of a point in it aside from preference, but I do like the Japanese laugh for Dracula a bit more then the English version.

Graphics/Artstyle.

PoR continues to use the anime styling seen in DoS. This change of styling has put off quite a lot of people, though I'm not entirely sure why. For the most part the designs are good, with my favorite being Brauner for having really great detailing in his coat. Death also has a much better design than his DoS conterpart.

Using this art syle also allows for more variety of expressions to better suit the situations, something I imagine would be very expensive to do with Ayami Kojima's art. Besides it isn't as if Castlevania hasn't had an style like this in the past.

Cutscene from Rondo of Blood featuring Dracula and Annette.

Some of the drawings do look a little funny though. Loretta looks stoned  out of her mind most of the time and Dracula looks a bit silly.

High as fuck, desu.

 Well at least he doesn't have purple hair this time.

But hey, anything is better than Judgment's version of anime.

The ingame sprites are what we really care about though. The animations on both Charlotte and Johnathan are nice and detailed. Johnathan's coat and hair move slightly when walking and Charlotte's skirt, capelet and long hair flow as she runs. They both have idle animations as well. Johnathan's is very minimal with his coat barely moving. Charlotte's is more detailed with her skirt and capelet moving as she sways her hips back and forth...because Japan.

Pressing up will also allow you to taunt. Johnathan will flip his hair out of the way and then wags his finger ala Sonic. Continuing to hold up will make him do an air guitar for some reason.

Widdliy-waaa Bwaaa.

Charlotte will also wag her finger followed by what I can only describe as a sexy pose...because Japan.

Pretty sure Rollingstones wasn't around yet Charlotte...

There are also little details like Charlotte holding her skirt down when sliding, strapping her book to her back when in frog form, using a broom when double jumping. When it comes to animations it's clear Charlotte had the most attention during development, probably due in part to her design offering more to work with than Johnathan's.

The animations are not quite a smooth as SOTN, but this probably has to do with PoR being cartridge based as opposed to disc. Regardless, they still look great.

The map areas have beautiful details suiting the appropriate location with stain glass windows, hieroglyphics, tombs, long corridors, columns etc.

I'm really am amazed at how detailed a Background can be with just pixels.
However there are some sections that just puzzle me. PoR uses occasional 3D models in the background and it looks incredibly out of place and distracting. It's almost like X Chronicles somehow got mixed in by accident and the graphic style doesn't fit at all. I believe they were trying to make it feel as if you were moving around an object and it works in the desert stages along with a few other place, but not much else where. Thankfully they don't do this much, so it's not a huge problem. But it's weird looking. I can't figure out why they just didn't use something closer in appearance to mode 7 as was used in the Rotating Room in IV.

Most of the enemies in game are reused from previous installments,  particularly Rondo of Blood, IV and SOTN. But there are also enemies from the handheld games, some redesigns and quite a few new enemies.

A few of the new enemies include:

Vapula

Deathmask

Zacchino

(King Henry?)

Andras

The Invisible Man.

Elgiza

Nyx

Nyx is one of the strangest looking enemies in the game with her blue  hair,  a nurse's outfit, demonic wings and a comically oversized  syringe. You can't get more Japanese than that unless you added  cat-ears.
Aside from Nyx's out of place appearance, I'm happy with most of the new additions.  Something I love about Castlevania is the use and interpretations of  supernatural beings from different cultures and fiction, so most of  these are welcome additions with great designs.

As a minor note I'd like to point out that Mimic makes a return, but I'm  confused by it since Mimic is a treasure chest enemy meant to confuse  the player, yet there is not a single chest in the entire game. So the  entire idea behind Mimic is pointless.



As for Bosses it's a bit of a mixed bag. We have a new sprite of Dullahan with some nice animations of his floating head and some updates to his Rondo of blood attacks; an all new Behemoth sprite that leaves a trail of maggots behind as it walks (it also a new attack of vomiting it's insides out at you.

One of the new bosses, Keremet, has a lackluster design. It's just flubber with a skull. The animation is very limited in comparison to most other bosses.

Astarte is a completely new boss and really shines in the animation department along with having a really detailed sprite. She will strut back and forth during the battle occasionally jump up in the air to attack. If you're playing as Johnathan she'll preform a new animation in which she'll place her hands on her sides and thrust her hips side to side before attempting to control Johnathan.

We have a new Werewolf boss and it surprisingly isn't based on the RoB version. The animations are nice but the real gem is that this boss will tear apart the environment and attack you with various objects. His death animation is also surprisingly graphic with the beast reverting to human form(nude) and then coughing up blood before falling over.

Dracula's gets a new final form along with several new attacks, the most common of which is attempting to slam you into the ground while raising up chunks of the floor, he also has some great details on his wings which will take up a good majority of the screen.

Aside from those mentioned, all the other bosses are reused sprites with little to no updates worth mentioning.

General improvements.

Maps now have a quill section. Each map has three quills which can be placed over a map using the DS touch screen, allowing you to mark locations you want to remember. This is very helpful since there are quite a few times where you'll find a room you cannot fully explore because you lack certain abilities.

Saving is a lot faster than it was in DoS, you still sit through an animation but it's better than before. Using telelporters is also faster.

The shop here is in a more convenient location near a teleporter.

 Final

+Familiar gameplay with some new additions.
+Second player is helpful during battles.
+Detailed sprites and animation.
+Great variety of levels and secrets.
+New and original tracks with remixes of older ones.
-Second players role is questionable at times.
-Bosses have unusually easy patterns compared to previous installments.
-Backgrounds sometimes look out of place graphically.

Despite a few minor problems, PoR is a fun game. There certainly was room for improvement and there are better DS games to get before this one. But with that being said, I do suggest picking it up, you won't be disappointed.

8.0




Images courtesy of  vgmuseum and gameanyone.