Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

THE BAD:
- No multiplayer (Except to trade, etc)
- Sounds are okay, but less than good
- Controlling the Sisters can be tough
- Not much replayability

SUMMARY:
This is the second Castlevania game I've played (the other one being on GBA), and it was nice to see that the general game play had not changed. You're running around Dracula's castle killing creatures of the night and bosses, working your way to Dracula.

The way this has been set out on the dual screen for the DS is that the bottom screen is the screen you will be looking at, while the top screen is the map. You can change the top screen to give you enemy details; including how many enemies of that type you've killed, hp, skill points enemy gives, difficulty, experience gained from it, etc. This may not seem like a big deal, and it isn't but it does actually make the game somewhat more easy and simple to play having the map always there for your reference.

The story line is thus: Jonathan is the heir to the vampire killer whip, he is your main character. Accompanying Jon is Charlotte, she's like a spell caster. Dracula's castle has reappeared and both the main characters have come to defeat Dracula.

During the game you can switch between Jon and Charlotte, playing with either character individually. You can also play with one and have the other following you around also attacking. If the character you control gets hit, you loose hit points. If your partner gets hit you loose mp points. Both characters have special moves, you can cast your characters special move or use R2 to cast your partners special moves. There are also special "dual rush" attacks that both characters do together, but you don't have to have your partner summoned next to you.

The game dynamics require you to use your partner at times, either to summon the partner to help push a heavy object or to stand still at a position while you move your main character into position.

Throughout the castle you find paintings that will take you to different levels where you will have to beat bosses and pick up items that will make more areas of the castle accessible to you (just like in previous Castlevania games).

There are different weapon and armor types that will deal more or less damage to certain enemies, or reduce damage taken from enemies. Apart from the bosses, I found that using any weapon was good enough. This was great because you don't have to spend too much time figuring what weapons to use and what armor to wear and so on.

Throughout the game you will also meet a character who is known at first as "Wind". Wind will give you sub-quests to finish, rewarding you with something different after each quest. This adds a little spice to the game.

The gameplay and story are just fantastic, but are not alone in making this a very good game. One of the other aspects of Castlevania: PoR that struck me immediately is the graphics. They were much better than I expected looking at screen shots, but also the dynamic changes are awesome. For example, when you're running across the screen the closer parts of the screen will move with your character while the more "background" part of the screen will move slower. Sometimes you'll get the illusion of a Mansion on the background (or whatever is there) being 3-dimensional from the way it changes as you cross the screen. It really is very pleasing, and adds to the entertainment factor of the game.

The one thing I would have liked to see added to the graphics of the game is the characters costume changing with different armors/weapons being equipped. However, even without this it still has very nice effects.

Learning to control everything happens as you progress through the story line. So the learning curve on the game isn't too long, and since you don't have to learn everything from the start (beyond "this is how you move, this is how you attack") the game starts off with some action.

The overall story line isn't fantastic or anything, I never found myself wanting to progress just to know what happens, but it's okay. I mean, it's not a terrible story line, and it's not great, so it doesn't add much nor does it detract from the game.

There is a co-op mode for online play, but it's really tough to find someone to play with (I tried twice, waited for 5-10 minutes and just game up.) The same is true with trading units. The concept is great and all, but the practicality and use of it isn't.

This goes along with the lack of replayability factor. It has some replayability because of the different characters, but with the same character the map doesn't change, the quests don't change, there's no competitive mplayer, and so on. So there really isn't much replayability. Then again, that's kind of expecting too much from a hand-held RPG game. Nonetheless, you can easily get 8-12 hours of game play out of PoR, even more if you plan on beating it with all three characters, and doing all the sub-quests, getting 100% on all maps and so on.

Speaking of the characters, the two others are:
1) The Whip Memory: This is a fast moving high attack character that’s part of the Jonathan and Charlotte story line that Jonathan has to defeat before the whip becomes as powerful as it can be. Controls for the Whip Memory are like that for Jon and Charlotte.
2) The Sisters: Also characters of the main story line, the sisters are magic oriented characters. Not like Charlotte who can cast spells and use a melee attack, the sisters both attack using magic, and don’t cast spells. You use the touch screen to attack, L2 to switch between the sisters, and the movement pad to move them.

I mentioned controlling the sisters being difficult, this is because their attacks use up mp, but they are also capable of flying and flying uses up mp too. So you constantly have to keep bringing them back down to ground level to recharge mp and that gets annoying.

I haven’t beat the game with either of these two other characters you can play with, but in as far as I have played with them it doesn’t seem to be that there is an overarching story line for either of them, nor are there any sub-quests. You can’t even change their equipment or anything.

Regardless, having the two other characters and the slightly different style of playing adds a little to the game. There are probably some people who will very much enjoy playing with them, and I always welcome any game that uses the touch screen.

Overall, if you are a fan of the Castlevania series this is a great game, you will feel just at home with this game. Definitely a must buy for fans of the series, there will be no regrets. For fans of RPG games, in general, this is a good game. Not a “must buy”, but chances are you will like it. For everyone else who is looking for a game to just have fun with, this could work for you too, depending on your tastes.

Personally, I fit into the third category. I borrowed this game from a friend who is borrowing my second DS. I was just looking for a fun game to play between classes. After beating it, I now plan on buying PoR and adding it to my collection of games. If I don’t revisit it in the future, I know for sure I’ll find someone who I can lend it to for them to play and enjoy.