Konami is infamous for releasing Castlevania games each year on Nintendo handhelds, so it’s no surprise to see Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on the Nintendo DS so soon after the stellar Dawn of Sorrow. Portrait of Ruin is due out this fall, and it’s shaping up to be another stellar entry in the series.
Portrait of Ruin changes things up when compared to Dawn of Sorrow, but fans of previous games in the series and those who enjoyed Julius Mode in Dawn will feel at home with the revisited gameplay features. Players are given two characters to control. Both Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Orlean are available at the start of the game. Switching between them is as simple as the press of a button, much like the system found in both Dawn of Sorrow’s Julius mode and the fan-favorite NES classic Castlevania III.
Having two characters doesn’t limit the player just to switching between them, though. The game allows both characters to be on the screen at once. Most of the time the character just follows the player, but during battles the computer takes over. Those fearing some Mana series A.I. retardation levels can rest assured that the computer handles the character fairly well at this point, but it could act a little more intelligently during boss battles. However, if you don’t like how things are going, you can either make the character disappear, or touch where you want them to be on the touch-screen, and they’ll go there. You can also command their attacks through this function.
Some challenges require both characters to be on screen; for instance, there’s a switch that can only be lowered with two bodies instead of one. Summoning your friend will provide the needed weight to lower the bridge. While co-op is in the planning, Konami has yet to reveal whether or not it will be in the final game. The two character set-up is practically begging for it, so hopefully they won’t let us down.
Both characters have separate abilities. Jonathan has a whip, but can switch to a sword, and is able to use secondary weapons like knives, holy water, and other Castlevania mainstays. Charlotte’s attacks are more magical, though her main melee attack uses three giant weapons at once. It covers a large area, but does less damage than Jonathan’s. Luckily her magical spells do the most damage in her repertoire. The two characters can also team up to perform devastating magical attacks not possible alone.
The story at this point seems a little confusing, but that may work to its benefit. The game is set during World War II. It seems a vampire artist has painted some pictures of places across the globe. These portraits are now in Castle Dracula, serving as portals to the locations depicted on the canvas. Apparently, two vampire sisters are trying to use the souls of those killed in World War II to resurrect Dracula. How these events connect is entirely up in the air, but it does have a certain unique feeling about it.
Graphically, the game continues where Dawn of Sorrow headed by adding 3D elements into the 2D world. Background perspective shifts along with the view as the level scrolls, and it looks great. However, some enemies will also be polygonal now. The first enemy seen in the game built in 3D is the Peeping Eye, a character using the same basic sprite for over a decade now. Honestly, the 3D characters are a little basic-looking, and most people would probably prefer the old style, but the game is still in development so Konami still has time to sharpen them.
Portrait of Ruin is creating a lot of buzz thus far, and it’s not hard to see why. There isn’t anything wrong with the current build, and if development continues as smoothly to the end, we’re looking at what could be the best Castlevania ever.
