Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Review

Everyone loves Castlevania, right? I’ll raise the question again; everyone loves Castlevania, right? Now, repeat that query for the past five GBA/DS incarnations of Castlevania. These titles are essentially portable Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s, as they all manage to emulate the formula near flawlessly. Not only do they all play alike, look alike, sound alike – we’ll exclude Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance from that proposition, as its abysmal sound is near Game Boy quality – but they all manage to be great in execution. That is, with one minor omission. Castlevania: Portait of Ruin attempted to deviate itself a bit. An atypical Castlevania if you will, which takes some influence from the level-based Castlevania’s of the NES/SNES/Genesis days. As well as retaining (sort of) the Symphony of the Night “one singular entity, a.k.a. Dracula’s castle, will be your playing field for the entirety of the game”. Castlevania: Portait of Ruin stands somewhere in purgatory between the classic, and the contemporary.

Castlevania: Portait of Ruin is set in 1944 during World War II. Dracula’s castle has reappeared yet again, so someone must put a stop to whatever may be lurking inside. Our valiant hero is Jonathon Morris, who arrives at Dracula’s castle on the outset of the game. Oh wait, who’s that strolling along behind him? It’s a girl. That’s a bit of an anomaly; the last appearance of a female protagonist in Castlevania was during the Game Boy days (Castlevania Legends, for those unfamiliar with their retro gaming). So let me rephrase that, our valiant heroes; plural this time. Jonathon Morris is of course, a member of the Morris bloodline; and preliminarily wields the vampire killer as his weapon. Charlotte Aulin, our female counterpart, is a witch who is obviously proficient in magic and other mystical abilities.

The reason why Castlevania: Portait of Ruin is different from the previous GBA/DS titles becomes clear rather quickly. At first there’s the castle, that’s grand, really. It won’t take long, however, to learn about what exactly is menacing the castle. In the castles interior are paintings that are strewn about. Each painting holds a fragment of the evil that is ultimately controlling the castle. So, it’s up to our heroes to defeat each individual painting. This is accomplished by locating the paintings, and merely knocking them down. You can even go so far as completely destroying them, but then you’d have no memento’s leftover after purging the castle of its evil. Actually no; the paintings act as portals to areas that have nothing to do with the castle, other than being a blockade to advance our journey. This means locating a painting, entering the painting, traversing the sub-level (they’re about on par in size with an individual area in your standard Dracula castle), and defeat the inhabiting boss. This concept leads to some interesting level designs, but inadvertently complicates things. Traveling between these paintings and the actual castle, is not necessarily hard, but can become a chore in the long run of the game. Also, last time I checked, Castlevania was supposed to be about the castle. Not random subdivisions that lend no credence other than that “they’re powering the castle”.

In what seems to be a more common occurrence with Castlevania’s lately, Jonathon has access to an assortment of weapons. These range from, but certainly are not limited to, whips, battle axes, maces, swords, etc. It’s nice to see that there are options instead of being entirely dependent upon your whip. Comparatively, Charlotte is limited in her weapon selection. She can wield books to deal melee damage, but her talent truly shines in her magic abilities.

This leads us to the partner system. Jonathon and Charlotte are long time buddies, you see? It was only instinctual for them to cooperatively defeat Dracula’s castle when the time came. The partner system allows for you to control one character at a time. But, both characters can be on screen simultaneously; the other is controlled by the computer, and will assist you in melee combat. Utilizing real-time partner change, you can select which partner to use at any given time; or dependent upon what the situation calls for. Unfortunately, the partner system is another tragedy, because it could’ve been really cool if it was implemented better. There are a few puzzles that involve both characters to be used, but for the most part Portait of Ruin seems devoid of them. This is a shame, because the ones that do require both characters are pretty clever. Your partner ends up only standing as a back-up source for melee attacks and the occasional magic casting.

There’s a noticeable lack of customization in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin unlike previous titles. Dawn of Sorrow had Soul collecting, which not only increased replay value for the obsessive compulsive, but also added unique abilities for the player to utilize. Castlevania: Portait of Ruin lacks anything of semblance that can be compared to Soul collecting. There are more armor options this time around, sure, but they have no adverse impact aside from stat boosting. The majority of the collectible elements to be found come in the form of scrolls that are added to your arsenal of spells or sub-weapons.

Visually speaking Portrait of Ruin looks excellent. It further solidifies the foundation Dawn of Sorrow set, and also enhances it at points. Crisp sprites portray everything on screen without any sign of slowdown; and hey, there are even some 3D objects and areas sprinkled about too. Animation looks exceptionally nice, and never looks coarsely rendered. There are some familiar foes to be found if you’re familiar with previous titles, but it can’t be viewed as a problem in repetition. Audio is great, with a nice soundtrack accompanying your standard share of sound effects. Many of the levels and environments look great too, and are not what you would typically expect from a Castlevania – desert dunes, anyone?

Castlevania: Portait of Ruin features another Castlevania first though. Castlevania: Portait of Ruin is the first online enabled Castlevania thanks to the Nintendo Wi-Fi service. When connected online you can participate in co-op play with a partner. Or, trade and sell items to players via a player setup shop. Neither really add anything of substance, as the co-op play is merely just a boss rush mode, and a shop is…just a shop. Logically, this should add some replay value, but in hindsight, it isn’t much – sans for the hardcore few.

Is too much of a good thing really a bad thing? In Portrait of Ruin’s case, not really. Are we beginning to see at least an inkling of diminishing returns? Yes. Dawn of Sorrow was an excellent premier for Castlevania on the Nintendo DS. The only negativity to be said was the gimmicky use of touch screen controls. Thankfully, Portrait of Ruin eliminates that. The partner system is an interesting take on the conventional formula, but poor implementation hinders it from being a truly remarkable feature. The sub-level castle design is also something not worth revisiting in future Castlevania’s. Not only convoluted in execution, it doesn’t add much other than a few interesting level designs. Don’t let its shortcomings fool you though, this is your standard affair with a Castlevania, and it’s a great one at that.