Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Castlevania updated

The Castlevania series has been around since the days of the NES, and has seen all manner of different forms. From its origins as a side scrolling 2D action game to the promising yet lackluster 3D versions on the N64 and PS2, there's one clear turning point for the series: Symphony of the Night. Widely regarded as the pinnacle of the Castlevania series, the game heavily borrowed from Super Metroid's game design book and put players in a gigantic 2D gothic castle which would allow further exploration only as key items or new abilities were discovered.

So why all this fuss over SoTN when I'm supposed to be talking about Portrait of Ruin? Well the template created by SoTN has lived on thanks to Nintendo's handhelds with three equally brilliant games to be found on the GBA, and the excellent follow-up Dawn of Sorrow on the DS. All of these are worth tracking down if you've never played them before. Now PoR is but the latest in the series of brilliant Dracula-hunting games. This time the action ventures outside of Dracula's castle, players can actually jump into a bunch of haunted paintings which turn into new levels. These range from Haunted Carnivals, to old English towns to giant Pyramids. Fans needn't worry, you'll still be exploring Dracula's huge castle, these levels serve as ways to obtain new weapons, as well as a bit of variety in the settings.

This game also features two playable characters (and more to be unlocked once the game is finished) which can be hot-swapped during play. The two main Characters are buff boy Jonathon Morris, who weilds the legendary whip 'Vampire Killer' and the young, sexy Charlotte Aulin, who erm, uses books for weapons, but not any kind of books mind you, books with great magical powers. Of course there are many other weapons to be found during the game, such as Giant swords, Battle Axes and such.

The games story is complex, and you don't find out most of it until your nearly finished, so I won't spoil much. It is set in the year 1944, WWII is ravaging the world, and Dracula's Castle has been resurrected once again by a Vampire who goes by the name of Brauner, who has had all his powers awakened by the Castle. He revived the castle by collecting the lost souls of those who died in WWII. He and his two helpers, the vampire twins Loretta and Stella, look down on all humans and set out to destroy them all, who have once again started war. There is a lot more to the story and a few twists and turns along the way, but still, everyone knows that Dracula will rear his ugly face at the end of the game. Jonathon and Charlotte sense the evil within this Castle, and Jonathon is destined to follow in the footsteps of his father, who died at the hands of Dracula and with a formal introduction with a priest called Vincent, you are on your way and immediately start taking out the monsters of the castle.

The DS's left shoulder buttons serves as a back-dash action, quick reflexes and the use of this action is imperative to survival and the only way to avoid a quick onslaught from some enemies. With the X button you can call your partner to perform a few different actions. You can get them to help attack enemies, stay on a switch, or help push an object. These actions aren't used enough as they could've been, but do offer some variety in the puzzles. Unlike DoS, the Stylus isn't used as much, but then again the Stylus oriented parts of DoS were quite clumsy, so it isn't missed much. Overall the game plays brilliantly, the castle is huge and features over 4 different paintings to hop into which allows access to different worlds.

As you progress through the castle, you will find that the game is completely non-linear; you can proceed upwards or downwards into the depths of the castle, and explore almost at free will with areas explored always open for revisiting. With this said PoR paces itself very well. The rewards for gaining access to areas you could not have explored earlier, or powering up and using the powerful abilities granted by some items has been cleverly set out in the enormous castle. The magic and weapons system will feel familiar to fans of the series, whereby weapons can be enhanced and spell books collected, secondary items such as throwing knives, axes, shurikens can also all be found during your adventure. The difficulty of the game is moderate, with some of the later boss fights being quite challenging, but nothing overly hard about the game.

Visually, PoR is similar to DoS with small changes. Background lighting has been used more effectively and whatever character you're using sports a slight aura which means you never lose them on screen, even if your being attacked from all directions. Overall this game sports high level 2D graphics and extremely effective sprites used throughout, especially on some of the larger bosses that attack and move all too smoothly, some really need to be seen to be believed. The attention to small details and polish to PoR is also more obvious, with the different portraits to jump into, it really allows Konami to shine in their use of imagination for the design of different levels as you can travel to places the castlevania series has never really been to.

Aside from the in-game rewards, the incentives for finishing the game are quite high. You unlock the ability to play through the game again using past character Alucard, as well as the vampire sisters who can float through the castle. You use the stylus while playing as the vampire sisters, to use their magical attacks you just tap your enemy, or draw circles around them, depending on which sister you are using. On top of that Konami has included a boss rush challenge in an arena where beating your fastest time to whack the biggest bosses in the game pits you against your own learned skills. There is also a co-op mode, and an online shop mode, where you can buy new weapons from other peoples games. These additions are minor, but are cool nonetheless.

The atmosphere in the mode is typically spooky, and the sound is once again solid. That is expected from a Castlevania game, which has always had chilling orchestral scores throughout the game. The music is a mixture of dramatic classical scores, and moody gothic tunes. Job well done.

When all is said and done, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is one of the best action game available for the DS, and one more solid game in the great Castlevania series. Konami seem to really know what they're doing when making these games, and have delivered another challenging, imaginative and well paced game, so let's hope they don't muck it up for the future. A definite buy for DS owners everywhere.

laterz