Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Updated Hands-On
We spend some quality time fighting the forces of evil in Konami's upcoming DS masterpiece.
By Ricardo Torres, GameSpot
Posted Aug 23, 2006 11:11 am PT
Konami has been firing on all cylinders with its portable entries in its beloved Castlevania series. The veteran publisher/developer didn't miss a beat as it jumped from its stellar Game Boy Advance games to the DS. The third installment of the series on the DS, the upcoming Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, doesn't show any signs that the developer's track record is in danger of being thrown off. We had the chance to spend some quality time with an updated version of the slick 2D title recently, and we're pleased by what we've seen.
Is it really fair to gang up on a lone merman?
The game uses the same winning formula seen in last year's Dawn of Sorrow and features an animated scene-setting intro that showcases the DS's modest but solid video capabilities. The intro cinematic gives players their first look at the game's two lead characters, Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin. As with previous entries in the series, Portrait of Ruin finds new ways to get mileage out of the franchise's family tree. In this case the game taps on the Sega Genesis Castlevania Bloodlines cast, with Jonathan being a descendant of Johnny Morris, that title's main character. He's joined by Charlotte, a powerful mystic. As you'd expect, each character has their own unique strength in the game. Jonathan is obviously the team powerhouse when it comes to melee combat, while Charlotte relies on her magic and isn't as sturdy as her partner when it comes to going toe-to-toe with the undead. The duo sets out to stop what appears to be the forthcoming resurrection of the poster boy for the vampiric lifestyle, Dracula.
However, despite the reappearance of Drac's mighty and twisted castle, Dracula isn't actually the big bad in this adventure. It seems his home has been hijacked by a rival vamp by the name of Brauner, who, along with his two undead daughters, is using the energy from the all the death caused by WWII to power the castle's return. While we haven't found out much more about the specifics, it seems Drac's crib is a pretty potent domicile for power seekers. To help power up the castle and contain the mighty energies being funneled into it, Brauner crafts paintings that are portals to what appear to be pocket dimensions. Jonathan and Charlotte must seek out the paintings, enter the dimensions, take out the bosses in them, and disrupt Brauner's flow of energy. If the pair disrupts enough of the energy coming in, Brauner's plot to resurrect casa de Dracula is hosed. This all sounds like a plan worth pursuing by the pair of heroes, and it forms the driving force behind the action.
Dracula's got a squatter...and he brought his family.
The game follows a fairly standard Castlevania structure in that you'll be doing a ton of exploration and revisiting areas you couldn't access previously once you earn new abilities. Obviously, the main part of your adventure revolves around finding Brauner's paintings and disrupting them. However, the game also features some interesting side quest work, thanks to the presence of a ghost named Wind. It seems the phantasm is all about opposing Brauner and has bound his spirit to the castle. Given his ghostly form, his options are somewhat limited when it comes to actively opposing Brauner; but what he can do is dole out quests to our heroic duo and reward them with new items and abilities that are key to progressing in the adventure. From what we've seen, his missions are typical fetch quests or kill quests that require you to take out a certain number of enemies. We'd of course like to note that if Casper were really serious about taking out Brauner he'd just fork over the helpful stuff as opposed to making Jonathan and Charlotte work for it, but there you go. You'll find another friendly face on your travels, a priest, who runs a shop you can visit in the game and spend your hard-earned cash for items and gear. As with Wind, if his holiness were really committed to helping in the fight against evil he'd just give the pair what they needed instead of forcing them to fork over their hard-earned cash for goods. But no one ever said the fight against evil was easy or cheap.
King Furry
Very cool.
Guest
I wanna play it!!!
Guest
Whens it come out?
Guest
I dont know
SYLUXMASTER7227
unannounced
i have the first ds one it was awesome i hope this ones even better
Robby
I never played any of em, i heard there really fun tho.
Guest
Theya re!!!
King Furry
Indeed
Guest
I have for gba:
circle of moon
aria of sorrow
and i have castlevania ds
King Furry
Cool.I have Harmony of Dissonance and Aria in the same cart!
Guest
I downlaoded it
Guest
I din't read it all but the screenies look wicked!
