handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
Aazealh said:Well I better not read any spoiler here or there will consequences!
You misunderstood me! I meant tell us how sweet the game is, not give away the spoilers!
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
- Thread starter Aazealh
- Start date
You misunderstood me! I meant tell us how sweet the game is, not give away the spoilers!
I'm pleased to report that it's brilliant. It seems that most people feel inclined with the release of another game in the series to proclaim the latest better than SotN but after a year change their mind. So while I'm not going to claim this is the best in the series with it just days old, I can say with confidence is that it crushes all other handheld Akumajou's with ease. It looks incredible and I don't mind the sparse use of polygonal enemies as long as it doesn't take over the gorgeous 2D sprites, which this game has many of. The soundtrack is also the best in years, with remixes of Castlevania standards as well as lots of good new stuff.
The character switching takes some getting used to, and in the first hour you'll get like 20 different moves thrown at you (including a team-up Marvel vs Capcom-series-style'd "super"), but it becomes second-nature soon enough.
The best thing about the game, at least for me, is how it tries to go back to the style of the pre-SotN era, with very different levels and not just one big castle. My favorite game in the series (and favorite console game to date) is the PC Engine's Dracula X Chi no Rondo, and seeing enemies returning from that one makes me love Konami again.
Also, the sometimes tedious soul-collecting is all gone, now you can master secondary attacks by using them over and over, which I love because it actually encourages me to use all of them. Reminds me of the original Grandia that got me level-grinding for hours back in the day and still loving it.
And if you really don't like the RPG stuff and want an even more old-school challenge, [potential SPOILER!! not really, but maybe to some of you it is:] after completing the game you can restart it with a level cap, stopping leveling up at 50, 20 or 1. This game kicks ass!
The character switching takes some getting used to, and in the first hour you'll get like 20 different moves thrown at you (including a team-up Marvel vs Capcom-series-style'd "super"), but it becomes second-nature soon enough.
The best thing about the game, at least for me, is how it tries to go back to the style of the pre-SotN era, with very different levels and not just one big castle. My favorite game in the series (and favorite console game to date) is the PC Engine's Dracula X Chi no Rondo, and seeing enemies returning from that one makes me love Konami again.
Also, the sometimes tedious soul-collecting is all gone, now you can master secondary attacks by using them over and over, which I love because it actually encourages me to use all of them. Reminds me of the original Grandia that got me level-grinding for hours back in the day and still loving it.
And if you really don't like the RPG stuff and want an even more old-school challenge, [potential SPOILER!! not really, but maybe to some of you it is:] after completing the game you can restart it with a level cap, stopping leveling up at 50, 20 or 1. This game kicks ass!
Jesus man, when I say no spoilers I mean it... Even the small ones, that's not cool. I reduced the size of the text to at least conceal it.
Anyway thanks for the review, it's comforting me in my beliefs and making me all the more impatient to get my hands on that game. It's going to be awesome.
Anyway thanks for the review, it's comforting me in my beliefs and making me all the more impatient to get my hands on that game. It's going to be awesome.
handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
I am literally stewing in my own juices right now! 
I have never been more excited for a game in my life! Thanks for the review NTSC J, sounds like a game that will keep me busy well into the holidays. I still predict this to be the game of the year and I haven't even played it yet!
I have never been more excited for a game in my life! Thanks for the review NTSC J, sounds like a game that will keep me busy well into the holidays. I still predict this to be the game of the year and I haven't even played it yet!
SPOILER ALERT - Here's a video of the final battle in the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uFz_qPEd4&mode=related&search=
Niiiiiiiiice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uFz_qPEd4&mode=related&search=
Niiiiiiiiice
I'm getting a DS this Christmas, nearly exclusively for this game... well, that and NSMB and DoS and Trauma Surgeon and Meteos and Mario & Luigi Superstars 2 ... I could go on
So far I HAVEN'T BEEN SPOILED TO ANYTHING POSTED HERE. Let's see how long we can keep it that way, please.
So far I HAVEN'T BEEN SPOILED TO ANYTHING POSTED HERE. Let's see how long we can keep it that way, please.
handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
dwarfkicker said:
Oh come on dude, THAT IS NOT FAIR! I'm trying to resist spoilers as much as I can and this is literally putting them on my doorstep! Are you fucking with me? I Only got like a week and a half left and you guys are not making this easy. I request this link be stricken before I ruin it! My fingers gettin itchy! AHHHHH!
handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
Some pics of the preorder bonus from someone who snagged it early.
http://www.pbase.com/castle20th/castlevania_20th_anniversary_bonus
Sexy!
http://www.pbase.com/castle20th/castlevania_20th_anniversary_bonus
Sexy!
SaiyajinNoOuji
I'm still better than you
Aazealh said:Haha, well now that's temptation (but inefficient on me). Too bad that video can't be discussed in this thread though. Because just so it's clear, if anybody intentionally spoils us this game after being warned I'll delete his account.
Walter said:
So I got the game yesterday and found some cheats for it... check out what happens below.
[hide]fasdfdasfasdfsadfsadfasd
lol
[/hide]
There you go.
handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
Hello fiends! I just got my hands on the preorder bonus! Its a cute little package, packed with neat CV goodies! The art book is pretty cool, mostly a collection of art from old Castlevania game covers. The cd pretty much spans the entire CV series from Castlevania 1 to the portable games. The timeline is neat and I have to read through it later. The game case and stylus are really cool and the stylus extends to make it almost twice as long as normal. Of course, this is all info you guys already know, just wanted to share my excitement! Two more days until the greatest game of all time!
handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
Okay, here we go! Got the game, fully charged DS, headphones, and a lethal amount of energy drink and Gatorade and I'm ready to go. I'll come back later with spoiler free impressions of the game. I'll be busy for quite a few hours. Love you all, smoochies!
handsome rakshas said:Okay, here we go! Got the game, fully charged DS, headphones, and a lethal amount of energy drink and Gatorade and I'm ready to go. I'll come back later with spoiler free impressions of the game. I'll be busy for quite a few hours. Love you all, smoochies!
Enjoy it you lucky bastard!
Finished the game some days ago, so I figured I'd stop being lazy and throw in a short personal review (it's mostly ranting, sorry). There are some spoilers in there so I'm hiding it.
[hide]This game has a lot of good but also some bad to me. To come back on what NTSC-J said earlier I wouldn't say it crushes Dawn of Sorrow, but at the same time I can't really say DoS crushes it either. I love the dual character system in this game, and I hope it sticks around for good in the future. I also love the "double item crash" where both characters combine their power, item crashes have always been awesome. Another IMO fantastic addition are the quests. They're a bit underdeveloped but I feel this should become a permanent feature of the series. The secondary items (for Jonathan) are great as well, and the way in which they're used is very interesting. It's not as diverse as the soul system from DoS but it doesn't pale in comparison. The spellcasting system for Charlotte is well done as well, the timer is neat and the spells are cool. Toad Morph fucking stole my heart, I have no idea why. It may be the French in me, but I find it super fun. I also love the attention to details in small things. There are too many to list, but what I find fantastic is that when burning a Zombie (or Ghoul) with Holy Water, if the hit isn't enough to kill him, he'll melt into a Skeleton and attack you as such. The more of these in a game, the more glee from players.
Now there are also some things I feel like complaining about. First off it's clear the short game development time took a toll. Misspellings and bugs are present (like if the second player falls down a pit when you're entering a boss room, the dialog will be stuck and you'll have to press start to skip it or to reboot the console). I mean who's CHAROTTE? And RICHITER? And there are more. Second, the game feels too short to me. Shorter than DoS, which I don't really appreciate. The game was integrally done in a year so I guess I should give them a break, but I'd have preferred an experience lasting 20 hours before seeing the last boss. Making it over 30 hours to get 100% (or close) of the game. Another complaint is the reuse of old sprites. It's really getting old and it's not cute or funny anymore. I don't want to see spearmen that have been there for 10 years. Nor "Lesser Demons" straight from the PS1. It's all the more annoying when you see some of the great new enemies they're creating, some of them being nothing short of fantastic. And they're not reusing enough cool sprites and enemies from DoS for example, while they could and honestly should. I also found the game to be lacking bosses. While they're all pretty cool (and original) I think there aren't enough of them.
This comes back to the game not being long and big enough. To be honest I think the castle itself should have been at least twice bigger, and that each individual painting could have been bigger as well. Twice bigger too? Why not, seriously. And the fact the four last "zones" were new versions of the four first ones doesn't really cut it for me. Enough with the "inverted castle" syndrome already. I'm all for variations on the same themes, but that should all be within the same level. And that brings me to the level design. Walter touched it in the DoS thread, but I feel that it's becoming worse with time. The level design isn't very clever or exceptional in this game. It's not researched, or at least not as much as in the good old Castlevania games. That's really detrimental to the experience to me. Same thing goes for the story. They really need to hire someone to take care of the story and dialog full time instead of 3 guys with other jobs doing it at lunch. It shows. Enough with the good guy controlled by evil storyline, meeting with some unknown guy that ends up being important, etc. Not to mention Jonathan and Charlotte's personalities, the way they're depicted sucks. Now, I know Castlevania games aren't about their story, but that doesn't mean it's unimportant. A game is a whole and since they're making a story, however trivial it may be, they might as well make it coherent and interesting.
That's not to say Brauner wasn't a good idea for example, he was and I really enjoyed his character. But it felt like he wasn't used to his full potential. I guess that's my main grief actually, this game has a lot of potential, but it doesn't reach it and doesn't come even close to it. And this is in my opinion mainly because of production value. Konami is too busy spending millions on the 3D episodes to bother investing enough time and money to make these "mere" handheld games into real jewels. I just hope they realize their error when looking at which game brings more money home. That reminds me of the items and equipment in general. It's great that they're allowing for more equipment slots than before, but there's a cruel lack of diversity, especially in the weapons (and not enough of them anyway). They need to be more unique instead of half of them being practically useless. That goes for pieces of defensive equipment too, albeit on a lesser level. And I think it's about time armors and such start changing the appearance of the characters. That's more sprite work for them, but technically it's possible and I can't see any good reason for them not to do it. There's also the shop's utility that I'm questioning. It's not useful enough, and I think the system needs to be changed or deepened one way or another. The soul/weapon fusion thing was a good idea in DoS, they need to think of a way to expand that kind of stuff to future games. The way they blocked the Vampire Killer's power at first only to have you unlock it in the end was a nice trick. I'm not sure it was all that useful or necessary if not for the storyline constraints they've imposed themselves, but it worked pretty well. Another question that just popped up: what happened to the familiars introduced in SotN? It was a really good idea, so why don't we have 20 familiars to choose from in recent games?
Concerning the post-ending bonuses, I feel they could also do better. Alright, so you can play the game with Richter and Maria, both being overpowered. Cool, but that's really just fan service, and it doesn't add all that much to the game. You're just Richter. The one with Stella and Loretta is perplexing, I haven't gone far with it, but it's kinda gimmicky to me. These "alternate playthrough" need more depth, or they need to concentrate themselves on other things. Because the more they do them, the less they'll interest people. The Sound Mode is there as always, and I can't help but being pissed off at the lack of thought that goes into it. I mean after all those years, they can't improve it, create categories you can more easily access, give names to tracks, etc? The 000 to 200+ list thing is of another age. The Boss Rush is cool but unremarkable, it should be developed more. Unlocking items to use in-game is a good thing, but it needs to be coordinated better with the rest. I haven't tried the Wi-Fi stuff yet. The shop thing seems useless right now, the battle co-op part is probably very nice. I wish they'd develop a VS system like in DoS but a lot deeper. Something like "create your own section of the castle and have you friends play through it." The kind of stuff you could broadcast online and have people try. Not just a succession of boring rooms either, stuff you'd be able to customize. Speaking of successions of boring rooms, I liked the Nest Of Evil a lot. It feels like a "Boss Rush" mode so it's not all that original, but I like the idea of going through difficult (and unique) enemies in a row, going down the ladder with harder stuff each time. It's not unlike the Arena in Circle of the Moon. Having a reward is of course a great way to incite people to take on the challenge. Once again though I feel that it should have been bigger and longer, maybe more mysterious too. And I can't say I appreciate some enemies being there only once, getting their items is a pain.
Oh yeah, and lastly, the generic "anime" art style sucks. It's lame. Please bring back Ayami Kojima, it's not like she doesn't have the time to draw 10 characters and 2 or 3 covers every 2 years. And if they don't want to ask her for some reason, at least they could hire a real, serious artist to replace her.
All in all it's a great game and I enjoyed it a lot (and still am), but I really wish Konami would move to the next level. They need to give themselves the means of making rich and polished games that will give the series a new start. Right now they're just making good games because they don't want to bother making excellent ones.[/hide]
Well, wasn't that long and messy.
EDIT: A very nice thing in that game that was previously mentioned is the possibility to have Japanese SFX in-game instead of US ones. To do that you need to hold L while pressing A when choosing the game mode in the selection screen. Jonathan will say "showtime" if it has worked.
[hide]This game has a lot of good but also some bad to me. To come back on what NTSC-J said earlier I wouldn't say it crushes Dawn of Sorrow, but at the same time I can't really say DoS crushes it either. I love the dual character system in this game, and I hope it sticks around for good in the future. I also love the "double item crash" where both characters combine their power, item crashes have always been awesome. Another IMO fantastic addition are the quests. They're a bit underdeveloped but I feel this should become a permanent feature of the series. The secondary items (for Jonathan) are great as well, and the way in which they're used is very interesting. It's not as diverse as the soul system from DoS but it doesn't pale in comparison. The spellcasting system for Charlotte is well done as well, the timer is neat and the spells are cool. Toad Morph fucking stole my heart, I have no idea why. It may be the French in me, but I find it super fun. I also love the attention to details in small things. There are too many to list, but what I find fantastic is that when burning a Zombie (or Ghoul) with Holy Water, if the hit isn't enough to kill him, he'll melt into a Skeleton and attack you as such. The more of these in a game, the more glee from players.
Now there are also some things I feel like complaining about. First off it's clear the short game development time took a toll. Misspellings and bugs are present (like if the second player falls down a pit when you're entering a boss room, the dialog will be stuck and you'll have to press start to skip it or to reboot the console). I mean who's CHAROTTE? And RICHITER? And there are more. Second, the game feels too short to me. Shorter than DoS, which I don't really appreciate. The game was integrally done in a year so I guess I should give them a break, but I'd have preferred an experience lasting 20 hours before seeing the last boss. Making it over 30 hours to get 100% (or close) of the game. Another complaint is the reuse of old sprites. It's really getting old and it's not cute or funny anymore. I don't want to see spearmen that have been there for 10 years. Nor "Lesser Demons" straight from the PS1. It's all the more annoying when you see some of the great new enemies they're creating, some of them being nothing short of fantastic. And they're not reusing enough cool sprites and enemies from DoS for example, while they could and honestly should. I also found the game to be lacking bosses. While they're all pretty cool (and original) I think there aren't enough of them.
This comes back to the game not being long and big enough. To be honest I think the castle itself should have been at least twice bigger, and that each individual painting could have been bigger as well. Twice bigger too? Why not, seriously. And the fact the four last "zones" were new versions of the four first ones doesn't really cut it for me. Enough with the "inverted castle" syndrome already. I'm all for variations on the same themes, but that should all be within the same level. And that brings me to the level design. Walter touched it in the DoS thread, but I feel that it's becoming worse with time. The level design isn't very clever or exceptional in this game. It's not researched, or at least not as much as in the good old Castlevania games. That's really detrimental to the experience to me. Same thing goes for the story. They really need to hire someone to take care of the story and dialog full time instead of 3 guys with other jobs doing it at lunch. It shows. Enough with the good guy controlled by evil storyline, meeting with some unknown guy that ends up being important, etc. Not to mention Jonathan and Charlotte's personalities, the way they're depicted sucks. Now, I know Castlevania games aren't about their story, but that doesn't mean it's unimportant. A game is a whole and since they're making a story, however trivial it may be, they might as well make it coherent and interesting.
That's not to say Brauner wasn't a good idea for example, he was and I really enjoyed his character. But it felt like he wasn't used to his full potential. I guess that's my main grief actually, this game has a lot of potential, but it doesn't reach it and doesn't come even close to it. And this is in my opinion mainly because of production value. Konami is too busy spending millions on the 3D episodes to bother investing enough time and money to make these "mere" handheld games into real jewels. I just hope they realize their error when looking at which game brings more money home. That reminds me of the items and equipment in general. It's great that they're allowing for more equipment slots than before, but there's a cruel lack of diversity, especially in the weapons (and not enough of them anyway). They need to be more unique instead of half of them being practically useless. That goes for pieces of defensive equipment too, albeit on a lesser level. And I think it's about time armors and such start changing the appearance of the characters. That's more sprite work for them, but technically it's possible and I can't see any good reason for them not to do it. There's also the shop's utility that I'm questioning. It's not useful enough, and I think the system needs to be changed or deepened one way or another. The soul/weapon fusion thing was a good idea in DoS, they need to think of a way to expand that kind of stuff to future games. The way they blocked the Vampire Killer's power at first only to have you unlock it in the end was a nice trick. I'm not sure it was all that useful or necessary if not for the storyline constraints they've imposed themselves, but it worked pretty well. Another question that just popped up: what happened to the familiars introduced in SotN? It was a really good idea, so why don't we have 20 familiars to choose from in recent games?
Concerning the post-ending bonuses, I feel they could also do better. Alright, so you can play the game with Richter and Maria, both being overpowered. Cool, but that's really just fan service, and it doesn't add all that much to the game. You're just Richter. The one with Stella and Loretta is perplexing, I haven't gone far with it, but it's kinda gimmicky to me. These "alternate playthrough" need more depth, or they need to concentrate themselves on other things. Because the more they do them, the less they'll interest people. The Sound Mode is there as always, and I can't help but being pissed off at the lack of thought that goes into it. I mean after all those years, they can't improve it, create categories you can more easily access, give names to tracks, etc? The 000 to 200+ list thing is of another age. The Boss Rush is cool but unremarkable, it should be developed more. Unlocking items to use in-game is a good thing, but it needs to be coordinated better with the rest. I haven't tried the Wi-Fi stuff yet. The shop thing seems useless right now, the battle co-op part is probably very nice. I wish they'd develop a VS system like in DoS but a lot deeper. Something like "create your own section of the castle and have you friends play through it." The kind of stuff you could broadcast online and have people try. Not just a succession of boring rooms either, stuff you'd be able to customize. Speaking of successions of boring rooms, I liked the Nest Of Evil a lot. It feels like a "Boss Rush" mode so it's not all that original, but I like the idea of going through difficult (and unique) enemies in a row, going down the ladder with harder stuff each time. It's not unlike the Arena in Circle of the Moon. Having a reward is of course a great way to incite people to take on the challenge. Once again though I feel that it should have been bigger and longer, maybe more mysterious too. And I can't say I appreciate some enemies being there only once, getting their items is a pain.
Oh yeah, and lastly, the generic "anime" art style sucks. It's lame. Please bring back Ayami Kojima, it's not like she doesn't have the time to draw 10 characters and 2 or 3 covers every 2 years. And if they don't want to ask her for some reason, at least they could hire a real, serious artist to replace her.
All in all it's a great game and I enjoyed it a lot (and still am), but I really wish Konami would move to the next level. They need to give themselves the means of making rich and polished games that will give the series a new start. Right now they're just making good games because they don't want to bother making excellent ones.[/hide]
Well, wasn't that long and messy.
EDIT: A very nice thing in that game that was previously mentioned is the possibility to have Japanese SFX in-game instead of US ones. To do that you need to hold L while pressing A when choosing the game mode in the selection screen. Jonathan will say "showtime" if it has worked.
handsome rakshas
Thanks Grail!
Excellent review there, Aaz. Its really hard to argue your gripes with the game and I feel the same way about it. This is an awesome game, but I get the old "been there, done that" feeling. DoS just felt so much more fresh when it came out, maybe due to the jump from GBA to NDS. This game seems more like a tribute to Castlevania rather than a brand new game in the series. And the bonus modes are kind of disappinting, I'd rather play the bonus mode in DoS. Everything that Aaz mentioned is true, and his review reflects the opinion of a true Castlevania fan. I can hope that if IGA decides to make the "Battle of 1999" CV game that he brings some fresh new ideas with it. I can honestly say that I enjoyed DoS more than PoR, neither of which can bring back the feeling of playing SotN for the first time. Its time for a little change, IGA!
I'm sorry to hear you guys were a bit disappointed with this one, I hope I didn't contribute in getting your hopes up. After all, it is yet another RPG-styled Akumajou so one pretty much knows what to expect. Still, it's easily my favorite in the series since SotN and I'm still having fun with it. Playing on the lvl 1 cap makes a huge difference for me since I dig a challenge (and with the Old Axe Armor, it's an uphill climb).
If I could have my way this would be the last of the SotN sequels and the next would be a true 2D sequel to Rondo of Blood, but I won't keep my hopes up.
If I could have my way this would be the last of the SotN sequels and the next would be a true 2D sequel to Rondo of Blood, but I won't keep my hopes up.
NTSC-J said:
Well I value your opinion of the game actually, it's good to know that to some people it's really the best Castlevania in the past 10 years. My gripes aren't so much about the RPG element in the game (I'm a Simon's Quest lover and have been since its original release) but the lack of time and money spent on it. There's only so much you can do with a well-proven formula and a few good ideas, and that's not enough to satisfy me when it comes down to this franchise. While it would hurt to have to wait that long, I hope they'll spend at least 3 years working on the next game with talented people, spending as much money as needed. I love SotN, but it's definitely not the ultimate Castlevania game, perfect in all respects (since it's admittedly a giant tribute to the series itself), and so there's no reason to try to model new games after it till the end of days. And by that I don't mean using a Metroid-like map.
NTSC-J said:
Haha, well wasn't SotN the ultimate sequel to Rondo?
It's all about it, but in a different genre not to compete with it. A real tribute. But to be serious, I see what you mean. I'm not sure about this honestly, I've often wondered if the old formula could still work nowadays. The best I could come up with is to include a real old school adventure as a post-ending bonus in a future RPG-oriented Castlevania. Like you finish the game in which you encountered character X (insert whoever you want here), and then you can play as badass character X to see how he got to where he was, which include escaping instant-death pits and getting whip upgrades. It could also be directly available from the start, but then it'd have to be really well done. I think it's feasible and that the genre would benefit from the progress made since Rondo, but then again I'm just a fan among others and my opinion is meaningless to Konami.PS: IGA's revision of the timeline and such is also retarded. Circle of the Moon can definitely fit in with a little imagination.