Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Codiekitty · 12-07-2006, 11:15 AM

The newest Castlevania. I've only beaten the first boss so I don't really want to say anything about the game (other than how I embarassed myself by running in circles around the castle about five times looking for the priest's store because Wind wanted me to buy some stuff, only to find out it was right behind Wind). However, I want to talk about that 20th Anniversary thing you get for preordering it.

The outside: The ads claimed this was wax sealed, and while it looks like a wax seal it's just a piece of plastic glued to the top flap, and the thing is kept shut with velcro. Of course, if it really was wax sealed, it would probably be too expensive to make and put out for free. Go figure.

Art Book: It's light on anything pre-IGA (the art for the NES games are just the BOX ARTS! WEE!) and most of what is there is box arts and other stuff I've seen before (granted, the "box art" ones have more to them than what was cropped to fit on the box). There's some character designs (it's funny how they have both good and evil Maxim in HoD, but not both good and "evil" Soma in AoS, probably because the evil Maxim isn't as blatant as "evil" Soma), but concept sketches would have been neater.

Timeline Card: Basically, how IGA sees the Castlevania story. Circle of the Moon and the two N64 Castlevanias, which IGA retconned, are listed, but not surprisingly there's no details about them. Legends isn't on here at all. Neither is Vampire Killer, but nobody cares about that game anyway.

Music CD: It doesn't seem to be a "Best Of" collection so much as a "What people remember because they were listening to it for most of the game" collection. Their choices for Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night fall under this. For AoS it's the main castle hallway song, for SotN it's FOUR castle hallway songs. I guess I can't say I have issues with the songs, but why they choose that song for AoS instead of, say, Heart of Fire, and didn't everybody agree that Young Nobleman of Sadness was the best song in Symphony of the Night? Except for the Castlevania "classics" (which they're missing the CV3 version of Beginning for some reason), about the only song I agree with them on is Dracula's Tears in Dawn of Sorrow. Also, for some reason they put Bloody Tears under the first Castlevania. It's from CV2.

Stylus: Me likey. I was never bothered by the length or the thickness of the classic DS stylus. What DID bother me was that stupid knob you put a strap through to connect it to the DS, as well as the bump on the opposite side of the stylus. It always rubbed and poked and irritated me. While this also has a knob for a strap and a bump, this baby extends to almost twice it's length, so those things are nowhere near me.

The Case for the Two DS games: You're supposed to put Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin into this thing, but really you could put any two DS games in it. Frankly, I don't know what the point is.

Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

Luigiman7 · 12-07-2006, 06:45 PM

you now have the long post curse! MWUHAHAHAHAcoughHAHAHAwheeze
ah, forget it.

**X-3** · 12-08-2006, 04:15 PM

^Anyone who complains about "long posts", are, in my eyes, stupid, unless it's a wall of text.

Doesn't sound like it's worth it in my eyes(The 15th anniversary things): I haven't really played a Castlevania game before, so I probablyw ouldn't be interested in any of those things, except maybe for the stylus.

How's the game so far? I've been waiting for your opinion on it. Sorta. Yeah.

Codiekitty · 12-09-2006, 08:05 PM

Besides, that has nothing on my rant on Shadow of the Colossus, which was so long I had to cut it into two posts.

I'm to the traditional fork between the worst ending (although depending on how you look at it, the first ending may not be the worst. In HoD, AoS, and DoS, the 2nd endings were actually the "worst" ones, although in DoS you have to get that ending to play Julius Mode), and being able to continue on to the 2nd and 3rd endings. I went ahead and got "Worst" ending, but doing the right thing in the fight is major a pain in the ass.

I'm liking it so far, but not loving it. It's got some good boss fights, but I don't get all these empty rooms and how many of the rooms are copy and pastes of another. Lazy.

This is a potential spoiler, so I'll black it out:

Spoiler Below

The redesign of Eric Lecarde might be the first time I actually liked what IGA did to a pre-existing character. Most of them make me frown (Simon), and I'm indifferent about Alucard.

Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

Codiekitty · 12-11-2006, 05:55 PM

I'm to the final boss and it's kicked my ass about ten times already. I played through the game almost entirely as Jonathan, only switching to Charlotte when I needed her (like, to turn into an owl). My DS is charging right now.

Overall, the game's okay, and has some good boss fights, but suffers from some lazy and annoying level design. I've already mentioned how many empty rooms there are. But after you purify the Vampire Twins, you have to go through remixes of the four painting worlds, which was lame. Then there's two moments I can think of where you have to walk really long distances through nothing to solve a puzzle/situation. The first was this motorcycle thing with your partner, and if you screw up you have to walk all the way out of the room, and the path is kind of long. The second was in one of the remixed pantings where I was plodding through this long tunnel wondering WTF was going on, when suddenly a TRAIN comes flying at me. If you screw up here, you have to walk aaaaall the way back to the train again.

The plot is the most off-the-wall in a Castlevania game I've seen yet. It's like IGA was more concerned with trying to get Bloodlines to fit into his idea of the Castlevania timeline (how John Morris could weild the Vampire Killer when only a Belmont can use it, why the Morrises even had the Vampire Killer and took a moment to make a reference to Aria of Sorrow in the process) than writing something coherent (and he apperantly forgot the reason Eric Lecarde tagged along in Bloodlines was because Elizabeth Bartley turned his fiancee into a vampire, not because of some crap about John Morris needing his bloodline to weild the Vampire Killer). He should have just accepted that the Morrises were related to the Belmonts and could weild the thing anyway. Would have created a lot less confusion.

And is just me, or...

And they're both living in the shadows of their death fathers, and have some wild mood swings.

Finally... the monk who runs the shop sucks.

Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

Codiekitty · 12-12-2006, 08:19 PM

Well, I finally beat the game after getting my ass kicked by the final boss about twenty times. I was actually expecting a depressing ending considering all the build up and what weapon I used to beat it.

Overall, Portrait of Ruin is one of those games where what's good is really good, but it needs a lot more of it and less filler.

Beating it unlocked a Sound Test. The music disc included four songs from this game, but I didn't listen to them. Afterwards, I went through and listened to them in the Sound Test (the sound test displays their names). What were they thinking?! One of their choices is one of the worst songs in the game (It's to the "Circus" rehash level). The other three songs are pretty mediocre, and considering the game has some pretty kickass songs in it (like Gaze Up Into the Darkness, which I'm definitely going to make a recording of) it makes me question all the more what the people selecting the songs for the disc were on.

EDIT: Okay, oversight. One of the songs on the disc I actually kind of like (Jail of Jewels). The other two are for the first Egyptian stage and a boss fight. The Egypt one is lame. The Boss fight one has a good intro then becomes babbling (although it's a lot better than one of the other boss themes, which is crap from the beginning). And then there's that circus one that totally sucks (although the first Circus theme might be even worse).

Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

Luigiman7 · 12-14-2006, 07:13 PM

triple post curse!!! OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Codiekitty · 12-16-2006, 03:44 PM

Gaze Up at the Darkness. I called it "Gaze Up Into the Darkness" earlier. My bad.

Behind the Gaze. This is the one that somehow made onto the music disc.

My hope is that it was the result of a communication error (Gaze Up at the Darkness, Behind the Gaze). It's not as bad as the Train song in Paper Mario, but sheesh, did somebody at Konami really think that was the superior song here?

Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

Sean P Kelly · 01-05-2007, 11:32 PM

This was the first Castlevania game I owned (though I managed to play some of the classic -- i.e. NES -- games earlier this year).

I like it. I have about 1 or 2 levels left to do before I'm done. I set myself up to get the best ending (which took a few tries), mostly because that's how I get most of the unlockables.

hferg · 01-06-2007, 10:00 PM

i've beaten it.... with 1000% completion (that is one hard side-dungeon!!!!)

Your right, the monk guy sucks, especially after the event with him occurs... i'd be nice if he'd actually DO what he said he was going to do!!!!! (not saying what here, though)

it IS possible (though it isnt actually) to go straight to the sisters in Richter mode, beat them and go into the last 4 portraits.... unfortunately, the 4 portraits are locked until you beat the boss (i think) in the corresponding other portrait (i.e. Burnt paradise is unlocked after you beat the boss in sandy grave) I have over 900% complete, and the only boss in the main castle area i've fought so far is the sisters, i've beaten all 8 portraits and Brauner, all that remains is the final boss.

12-07-2006, 11:15 AM	#1
Codiekitty Just Another Face in Red Jumpsuit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Lemmingland Gender: Posts: 19,142 Thanks: 121 Thanked 176 Times in 121 Posts	Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin The newest Castlevania. I've only beaten the first boss so I don't really want to say anything about the game (other than how I embarassed myself by running in circles around the castle about five times looking for the priest's store because Wind wanted me to buy some stuff, only to find out it was right behind Wind). However, I want to talk about that 20th Anniversary thing you get for preordering it. The outside: The ads claimed this was wax sealed, and while it looks like a wax seal it's just a piece of plastic glued to the top flap, and the thing is kept shut with velcro. Of course, if it really was wax sealed, it would probably be too expensive to make and put out for free. Go figure. Art Book: It's light on anything pre-IGA (the art for the NES games are just the BOX ARTS! WEE!) and most of what is there is box arts and other stuff I've seen before (granted, the "box art" ones have more to them than what was cropped to fit on the box). There's some character designs (it's funny how they have both good and evil Maxim in HoD, but not both good and "evil" Soma in AoS, probably because the evil Maxim isn't as blatant as "evil" Soma), but concept sketches would have been neater. Timeline Card: Basically, how IGA sees the Castlevania story. Circle of the Moon and the two N64 Castlevanias, which IGA retconned, are listed, but not surprisingly there's no details about them. Legends isn't on here at all. Neither is Vampire Killer, but nobody cares about that game anyway. Music CD: It doesn't seem to be a "Best Of" collection so much as a "What people remember because they were listening to it for most of the game" collection. Their choices for Aria of Sorrow and Symphony of the Night fall under this. For AoS it's the main castle hallway song, for SotN it's FOUR castle hallway songs. I guess I can't say I have issues with the songs, but why they choose that song for AoS instead of, say, Heart of Fire, and didn't everybody agree that Young Nobleman of Sadness was the best song in Symphony of the Night? Except for the Castlevania "classics" (which they're missing the CV3 version of Beginning for some reason), about the only song I agree with them on is Dracula's Tears in Dawn of Sorrow. Also, for some reason they put Bloody Tears under the first Castlevania. It's from CV2. Stylus: Me likey. I was never bothered by the length or the thickness of the classic DS stylus. What DID bother me was that stupid knob you put a strap through to connect it to the DS, as well as the bump on the opposite side of the stylus. It always rubbed and poked and irritated me. While this also has a knob for a strap and a bump, this baby extends to almost twice it's length, so those things are nowhere near me. The Case for the Two DS games: You're supposed to put Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin into this thing, but really you could put any two DS games in it. Frankly, I don't know what the point is. Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

12-09-2006, 08:05 PM	#4
Codiekitty Just Another Face in Red Jumpsuit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Lemmingland Gender: Posts: 19,142 Thanks: 121 Thanked 176 Times in 121 Posts	Besides, that has nothing on my rant on Shadow of the Colossus, which was so long I had to cut it into two posts. I'm to the traditional fork between the worst ending (although depending on how you look at it, the first ending may not be the worst. In HoD, AoS, and DoS, the 2nd endings were actually the "worst" ones, although in DoS you have to get that ending to play Julius Mode), and being able to continue on to the 2nd and 3rd endings. I went ahead and got "Worst" ending, but doing the right thing in the fight is major a pain in the ass. I'm liking it so far, but not loving it. It's got some good boss fights, but I don't get all these empty rooms and how many of the rooms are copy and pastes of another. Lazy. This is a potential spoiler, so I'll black it out: Spoiler Below The redesign of Eric Lecarde might be the first time I actually liked what IGA did to a pre-existing character. Most of them make me frown (Simon), and I'm indifferent about Alucard. Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now! Last edited by Codiekitty; 12-09-2006 at 08:20 PM.

12-12-2006, 08:19 PM	#6
Codiekitty Just Another Face in Red Jumpsuit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Lemmingland Gender: Posts: 19,142 Thanks: 121 Thanked 176 Times in 121 Posts	Well, I finally beat the game after getting my ass kicked by the final boss about twenty times. I was actually expecting a depressing ending considering all the build up and what weapon I used to beat it. Overall, Portrait of Ruin is one of those games where what's good is really good, but it needs a lot more of it and less filler. Beating it unlocked a Sound Test. The music disc included four songs from this game, but I didn't listen to them. Afterwards, I went through and listened to them in the Sound Test (the sound test displays their names). What were they thinking?! One of their choices is one of the worst songs in the game (It's to the "Circus" rehash level). The other three songs are pretty mediocre, and considering the game has some pretty kickass songs in it (like Gaze Up Into the Darkness, which I'm definitely going to make a recording of) it makes me question all the more what the people selecting the songs for the disc were on. EDIT: Okay, oversight. One of the songs on the disc I actually kind of like (Jail of Jewels). The other two are for the first Egyptian stage and a boss fight. The Egypt one is lame. The Boss fight one has a good intro then becomes babbling (although it's a lot better than one of the other boss themes, which is crap from the beginning). And then there's that circus one that totally sucks (although the first Circus theme might be even worse). Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now! Last edited by Codiekitty; 12-12-2006 at 08:54 PM.

12-07-2006, 06:45 PM	#2
Luigiman7 ~)´◡｀(~ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: representin da bronx yo Gender: Posts: 17,307 Thanks: 1,100 Thanked 992 Times in 698 Posts Blog Entries: 8	you now have the long post curse! MWUHAHAHAHAcoughHAHAHAwheeze ah, forget it.

12-08-2006, 04:15 PM	#3
X-3 No avatar, no justice, no dreams, no hope! Join Date: Jan 2004 Gender: Posts: 15,508 Thanks: 733 Thanked 1,158 Times in 751 Posts Blog Entries: 10	^Anyone who complains about "long posts", are, in my eyes, stupid, unless it's a wall of text. Doesn't sound like it's worth it in my eyes(The 15th anniversary things): I haven't really played a Castlevania game before, so I probablyw ouldn't be interested in any of those things, except maybe for the stylus. How's the game so far? I've been waiting for your opinion on it. Sorta. Yeah.

12-11-2006, 05:55 PM	#5
Codiekitty Just Another Face in Red Jumpsuit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Lemmingland Gender: Posts: 19,142 Thanks: 121 Thanked 176 Times in 121 Posts	I'm to the final boss and it's kicked my ass about ten times already. I played through the game almost entirely as Jonathan, only switching to Charlotte when I needed her (like, to turn into an owl). My DS is charging right now. Overall, the game's okay, and has some good boss fights, but suffers from some lazy and annoying level design. I've already mentioned how many empty rooms there are. But after you purify the Vampire Twins, you have to go through remixes of the four painting worlds, which was lame. Then there's two moments I can think of where you have to walk really long distances through nothing to solve a puzzle/situation. The first was this motorcycle thing with your partner, and if you screw up you have to walk all the way out of the room, and the path is kind of long. The second was in one of the remixed pantings where I was plodding through this long tunnel wondering WTF was going on, when suddenly a TRAIN comes flying at me. If you screw up here, you have to walk aaaaall the way back to the train again. The plot is the most off-the-wall in a Castlevania game I've seen yet. It's like IGA was more concerned with trying to get Bloodlines to fit into his idea of the Castlevania timeline (how John Morris could weild the Vampire Killer when only a Belmont can use it, why the Morrises even had the Vampire Killer and took a moment to make a reference to Aria of Sorrow in the process) than writing something coherent (and he apperantly forgot the reason Eric Lecarde tagged along in Bloodlines was because Elizabeth Bartley turned his fiancee into a vampire, not because of some crap about John Morris needing his bloodline to weild the Vampire Killer). He should have just accepted that the Morrises were related to the Belmonts and could weild the thing anyway. Would have created a lot less confusion. And is just me, or... And they're both living in the shadows of their death fathers, and have some wild mood swings. Finally... the monk who runs the shop sucks. Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

12-14-2006, 07:13 PM	#7
Luigiman7 ~)´◡｀(~ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: representin da bronx yo Gender: Posts: 17,307 Thanks: 1,100 Thanked 992 Times in 698 Posts Blog Entries: 8	triple post curse!!! OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

12-16-2006, 03:44 PM	#8
Codiekitty Just Another Face in Red Jumpsuit Join Date: May 2001 Location: Lemmingland Gender: Posts: 19,142 Thanks: 121 Thanked 176 Times in 121 Posts	Gaze Up at the Darkness. I called it "Gaze Up Into the Darkness" earlier. My bad. Behind the Gaze. This is the one that somehow made onto the music disc. My hope is that it was the result of a communication error (Gaze Up at the Darkness, Behind the Gaze). It's not as bad as the Train song in Paper Mario, but sheesh, did somebody at Konami really think that was the superior song here? Where are these lemmings going? Not the Super Nintendo Super Shire! They know to go to Codiekitty.com now!

01-05-2007, 11:32 PM	#9
Sean P Kelly Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Gender: Posts: 3,789 Thanks: 19 Thanked 58 Times in 46 Posts	This was the first Castlevania game I owned (though I managed to play some of the classic -- i.e. NES -- games earlier this year). I like it. I have about 1 or 2 levels left to do before I'm done. I set myself up to get the best ending (which took a few tries), mostly because that's how I get most of the unlockables.

01-06-2007, 10:00 PM	#10
hferg Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Gender: Posts: 232 Thanks: 4 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	i've beaten it.... with 1000% completion (that is one hard side-dungeon!!!!) Your right, the monk guy sucks, especially after the event with him occurs... i'd be nice if he'd actually DO what he said he was going to do!!!!! (not saying what here, though) it IS possible (though it isnt actually) to go straight to the sisters in Richter mode, beat them and go into the last 4 portraits.... unfortunately, the 4 portraits are locked until you beat the boss (i think) in the corresponding other portrait (i.e. Burnt paradise is unlocked after you beat the boss in sandy grave) I have over 900% complete, and the only boss in the main castle area i've fought so far is the sisters, i've beaten all 8 portraits and Brauner, all that remains is the final boss.