I look up at the massive stone castle; bathed in moonlight it seems almost more oppressive than its master. It’s said that Castle Dracula takes no prisoners. As I step past the gargantuan oak doors into the cavernous main hall, dust swirls into the air from my footsteps, and a feeling of familiarity sweeps over me. I look up to find myself staring down the hall at the welcoming committee. A crowd of shambling zombies hobbles toward me, but fearlessly I run at them and slice them to pieces with several flicks from my trusty whip, the Vampire Killer. It happens by instinct; I know I’ve done this before... somewhere... oh that’s right, I played almost the same exact game last year, and the same game the year before that as well. Konami’s Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin does little we haven’t seen before.
"Portrait plays almost as well as any entry before it."
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Most yearly series hold the consistency of regurgitated baby food — they’re overly distilled and broken down, but Castlevania tends to hold together. Year after year the games come out, and year after year they’re dynamite. However, all is not well in the House of Dracula — signs of age are starting to show. The foundation remains strong, but the plaster on the walls is starting to crack and crumble. While Portrait lives up to the series’ legacy admirably, it hews a little too close to last year’s castle blueprints despite "radical" changes in setting and cast.
Fans will probably notice things are a little strange from the outset since this game is a sequel to Castlevania: Bloodlines, the odd-yet-enjoyable SEGA Genesis series entry. Those who haven’t played that game won’t be lost, but they won’t pick up on the full impact of the story either, which is a shame because there are some pretty good moments. This entry follows the lazily creatively named Jonathan Morris, son of John Morris from the 16-bit classic, and Charlotte Aulin, who has no previous ties to the series at all. The teenage monster-slayers have a playful synergy, intense bravado, and are blissfully ignorant of the challenges that await them in the castle. Most importantly Jonathan looks like a dude, no matter how much he whines.
"... signs of age are starting to show."
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Like Bloodlines, Portrait doesn’t keep all the action within the castle walls. The main villain, Brauner, is an artist-gone-bloodsucker who somehow creates entire worlds inside his paintings. Jonathan and Charlotte will conquer these worlds in order to bring Brauner to his knees. In this respect, the castle serves as more of a hub, eschewing the connected castle areas we’ve grown accustomed to. While it’s nice to see the inside of a mummy’s tomb or explore a village square, the other levels are areas we’ve already seen multiple times in the series, just with different names. It also doesn’t help that these levels are used again later in the game with new layouts and a slightly different color scheme. Additionally, the castle holds most of the mainstay levels as well, like the Clock Tower or underground caves. Bloodlines came out nearly 15 years ago, and had stages set in industrial factories or in Italian gardens, providing a true change in scenery. Portrait had the potential to inject the tired level design with some life, but instead falls back upon convention, and it feels less fresh because of it.
The gameplay also attempts to spice things up, but ends up feeling awfully familiar as well, despite what at first look like big changes. Jonathan can use all sorts of abilities, many of which are series staples, like Holy Water or axes, some of which are new, like the javelin or hilariously useless paper airplane. Charlotte learns all sorts of spells as well, with some being more useful than others. However, they gain these abilities the same way Soma Cruz did in both Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow— killing enemies to release their souls. There was a reason why Soma gained abilities the way he did and it worked well; here there is no such explanation, and it ends up feeling like a holdover. Another "change" is the dual-character system, though Dawn of Sorrow had something similar in its bonus mode. You can either switch between the pair, or have the other member fight along side you controlled acceptably by the A.I. Jonathan tends to be the most useful since his attacks do more damage, and even though Charlotte has her place, she ends up feeling slightly tacked on. There are dual attacks, though these are overpowered and unbalance the difficulty level.
"... the gameplay attempts to spice things up, but ends up feeling awfully familiar..."
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Maybe the gameplay ends up looking like your grandmother decked out in Rocawear, but you can’t beat a classic no matter what it’s wearing. Portrait plays almost as well as any entry before it. There is a lot of game to cover here, and it’s hard to resist the urge to find every crevice in the game. There’s something addictive about exploring every spot in Castle Dracula — who knows what weapons you might be missing? The bonus material is also great as well: one mode centering around a pair of villains you’ll run across that utilizes the touch-screen in a creative manner and two other modes you’ve likely seen before but will enjoy anyways. The dual-character system asked for a true co-op mode, but all that’s offered is a boss rush mode. I guess they have to save something for future entries, but it comes as a big letdown.
If Konami didn’t try to pretend like there were so many changes, I probably wouldn’t have been so hard on this game, because it plays excellently. They really have the whole "Metroid-vania" style down to a formula, and their experience shows. Maybe someday this experience will bring us the Symphony of the Night sequel we all want to see, but for now these other great games will have to do.
