Topic: An Extremely Detailed Review (with some defense!) of Portrait of Ruin

[Ridureyu]

Betcha thought I was gone, didn't ya?  Nah, Real Life just took over for a few weeks.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is a rather diviszive game.  You'll find plenty of people quick to call it THE WORST CASTLEVANIA EVER, or even THE WORST GAME EVER. I fyou say you enjoy it, insults will flow! A lot of this is "New Installment Syndrome," where the "newest" instlalment in any franchise (whether book, movie, set of roleplaying miniatures, or episode of a TV show) is automatically the "Worst ever."  PoR isn't the most recent CV game, but Order of Ecclesia hit it so far out of the park that it MOSTLY avoided "New Installment Syndrome."  Mostly. There are plenty of people who hate OeE with such a passion that it burns. It BURNS (like that one time I let those hobbits tie me up. Burrrrrrrrrrns!)!  Okay, that's all hyperbole.  But seriously, a lot of people really, really hate this game. If you ask, you'll learn that all the graphics suck, the gameplay is horrible, it's too hard, it's too easy, there's no creativity, it's too weird, the ploit is flat, the plot is too complex, the characters are annoying, the characters don't have personality, the play control is weird, the weapons are weird, the art is horrible, the music is terrible, and if anybody has fun while playing it, they are anathema.

I think this is somewhat of an exagerration.

Heck, you wanna talk about the WORST CV game?  Judgment, Legends, Adventure 1, Haunted Castle(ONE LIFE!??!?), Vampire Killer, MSX Dracula, Curse of Darkness, Simon's Quest... right.  I kinda like Simon's Quest, but you get the point. Lighten up a little.

In fact, I'll be honest. Now that the most recent metroidvania is three years old and none of them really have a New Game Smell (and are all old enough for at least some nostalgia), I have to honestly rank Portrait of Ruin as pretty good.  My own personal opinion?

-Better than Harmony of Dissonance
-Better than Dawn of Sorrow
-Worse than Symphony of the Night
-Worse than Order of Ecclesia
-Sometimes better, sometimes worse than Circle of the Moon, depending on the part (though usually better)
-Sometimes better, sometimes worse than Aria of Sorrow, depending on the part (though usually worse)

Those last two mean that the most annoying parts of Portrait of Ruin (gameplay-wise) are less annoying than, say, dealing with those stupid armors in Circle of the Moon, or the yawn-fest that is Aria of Sorrow's endless parade of guest houses, studies, and chapel guest houses.  So pretty much, I rank Portrait of Ruin in the middle/upper-middle.  It's not perfect, but not even Symphony of the Night is perfect.  SotN can be your favorite game, but if you call it perfect, something is very wrong with you.  Remember: It's okay to like things that are imperfect.  This is what allows us to like anything.  Anyway, all of this is a preamble to justify:  I will mostly be complimenting this game.  Just tossing out a laundry list of criticisms is redundant at this point, and it would be more useful to actually point out what it did right.


PLOT AND THEMES

A criticism often levelled at PoR: "It doesn't have a story!"  You mean, it has less of a story than most CVs?  "Dracula is back! He kidnapped somebody you like. Go and whip him!"  Or how about less of a story than most Metroidvanias?  When you look at all of them sarcastically:

SOTN - "Richter is mind-control;led by Shaft into resurrecting Dracula.  Alucard must wake up from his slumber to stop him.{
Circle of the Moon - "Dracula's back again. A non-Belmont needs to punch his brother in the face."
Harmony of Dissonance: "Juste's best friend resurrected Dracula, and there are two castles.  Intetior decorating."
Aria of Sorrow: "Dracula's reincarnation fights Dracula's other reincarnation."
Dawn of Sorrow: "Dracula's reincarnation fights two more of Dracula's reincarnarions."
Portrait of Ruin: "Some guy tries to become the next Dracula. Meddling kids beat him up."
Order of Ecclesia: "Amnesiac girl accidentally helps revive Dracula, but she magics him to death."

Ha-ha.  Personally, OoE has my favorite (read: the most genuinely nuanced) storyline, and both Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance have the worst.  But Portrait of Ruin is not the worst story ever. In fact, let's compare it to its prequel, Bloodlines, since a lot of people praise Bloodlines for a "deep" story and crioticize Portrait of Ruin for being "shallow."

Bloodlines: One of Dracula's relatives and a sorceress resurrect Dracula during World War 1.  Quincy Morris's son and a friend who lost his love to vampirism have to travel the world to track down the villains and win.

Portrait of Ruin: A man curses God over his deceased daughters and becomes a vampire.  During World War II, he resurrects Castlevania himself in order to become the next Dark Lord. John Morris's son, who is bitter at his father, tries to stop this new threat. Along the way he discovers the truth about his father's death as well as that of the other hero from Bloodlines, and rescues Eric's brainwashed daughters.  But his actions play into Death's overarching plan to resurrect Dracula, and he must stop this before it's too late.  Also, there's Charlotte.

Portrait of Ruin actually has a pretty good story, mostly because of its villain.

Brauner

Brauner is not just another Dracula henchman (even Barlowe fell into that trap).  He's something different - he's potentially the next Dracula.  Compare their origins.  Mathias's wife died, and so he cursed God, became a vampire, and became Master of the Castle.  Brauner's daughters died, so he cursed God, became a vampire, kidnapped replacement girls, and then tried to become master of the castle.  The only reason why he lost was because Death remained loyal to Dracula, and manipulated the heroes into a victory.  Brauner isn't just a usurper to Dracula's throne, he's also a potential replacement - the first sign that the Source of all Chaos may be ready to let Dracula stay dead.  He's failed so much over the centuries that now other masters of the castle can appear (and unlike Maxime, Brauner wasn't possessed by Drac!).  Brauner himself is a sad figure - you don't get to see him very much (although more than, say, Shaft or Carmilla or Maxime or Graham or Dario), but the game gives you a clear picture of his personality.  Scenery-chewing evil aside, about 90% of what he says or does amounts to "Don't touch my daughters! I built this castle for my baby girls! Go away!"  Even his plan to rule the castle reflects this, as what would be safer for his girls than bringing the world under his control?  They aren't his real daughters, but he seems too delusional to realize this - in his desperation, Brauner kidnapped Eric's kids and brainwashed them, then promptly convinced himself that they were always his.  When you cure the girls, Brauner's immediate response is to clench his fists so tightly that it breaks his cane.  When you defeat him, it almost looks like he's coming to his senses - and perhaps he would have, if Death hadn't killed him.

Another interesting thing is Brauner as an artist.  Evidently, he really loves surrealism.


This brings up his Portraits.  The game doesn't make it entirely clear if Jonathan and Charlotte are going to real locations, or alternate worlds inside the paintings, or maybe a bit of both (like what the castle is).  I kind of like the "both" interpretation, as it gives you the awesomeness of City of Haze being in England, while at the same time bringing up Nation of Fools' symbolism.  Now, about that one.  The annoying topsy-turvy circus.  Look at it this way.  Brauner lost his daughters in the first WOrld War.  This destroyed him so much that he turned into Nosferatu-with-a-paintbrush.  Nation of Fools is an empty circus amidst a war-torn city.  The stage turns upside-down the way Brauner's life turns upside-down.  You're travelling around in a painting of his grief.


JONATHAN

Jonathan is, for the most part, a typical Belmont(or pseudo-Belmont) hero.  They're all pretty shallow.  Someone like Soma or Alucard or Shanoa is actually pretty rare by Castlevania standards - even Richter is pretty shallow, especially considering that his heel turn was just mind control and not really him.  Jonathan's not completely shallow, at least.  He's got baggage.  His father never told him how to use the Vampire Killer, died of "unknown causes," and apparently was generally a pretty bad parent.  If the guy had just TOLD his son what happens when a non-Belmont uses the whip, most of that would have been solved.  And the funny thing is, it actually is. Jonathan's attitude does a complete 180 when he hears the trutgh.  He actually couldn't have been that resentful if it was easy to drop it.  Jonathan's also way too eager to prove himself - this manifests every time he encounters Death, actually.  Most protagonists, when speaking with the Grim Reaper, are happy to trade words for information, and especially eager to stay out of a fight with him.  Jonathan just charged in headlong.  Death even commented on this - but then, if Jonathan had listened, would things have gone worse?  Would he have gone along with Death's plan?  It happened regardless, even though he passed up the chance at a temporary ally.  But for the most part, he's a cypher, same as all the others.  At least he has some character development as the game continues.


CHARLOTTE

Charlotte is not a very deep character.  She's actually kind of funny, though.  Just think of her as the Hermione of Castlevania!

Hermione Granger:
-Extremely intelligent and talented witch
-Insufferable know-it-all
-Is usually right, but royally freaks out when she is wrong.

Charlotte Aulin:
-Extremely intelligent and talented witch
-Insufferable know-it-all
-Is usually right, but royally freaks out when she is wrong.

Ta-da!  Charlotte acts like she's not out to prove anything, but she really is. She wants to prove her own ego, which is kind of amusing considering that she waltzed into Castlevania without any spells.  Her main contribution to the plot is to, during any conversation, say, "And my magic." "With my magic." "Well, my magic did it." "Don't forget my magic!" "I did it! Look at me! LOOK AT ME!" "Panties!"

It's both funny and grating at the same time.  Charlotte could have been a lot more, but there's something memorable about
Death: *serious conversation*
Jonathan: *serious conversation*
Death: *serious inquiry*
Charlotte: "LOOK AT ME I AM USEFUL!!!"
Jonathan: *serious statement*


WIND

Poor Eric Lecarde.  obody from Bloodlines really had a happy ending, did they?  In the end, Eric died and his daughters were turned into vampires, just like his first love.  However, even though his spirit was trapped within the castle,m he was able to influence Jonathan and Charlotte, and save his girls from beyond the grave, thus making up for all his failures.  At least this game develops his personality a little beyond Bloodlines (not gonna bring up Judgment).


VINCENT

He's more developed than the Master Librarian or Harmony Merchant.  Still an annoying putz.  He kind of reminds me of that friar from Van Helsing.  "I haven't taken my vows yet, so BOOBIES!"


DEATH

Along with Symphony of the Night and Harmony of Dissonance, this is one of Death's finest hours.  in SOTN, you got hints of his personality when he talked with Alucard.  In HoD, you got a lot more of his conversational nature, and also saw how much Death can be an opportunist if necessary.  In PoR, you get both of the above, but you also see just how much of a careful schemer he can be, and you also see a lot more of his friendship with Dracula.  Admit it:  When Death jumped in to block Jonathan's attack at the end, that was awesome.


THE SISTERS

The sisters are more plot devices than charcaters, but they have an interesting running theme.  Whether normal humans or brainwashed vampires, they're loud, headstrong, and desperate to prove they can fight with the big boys.  What got them vampirized?  Rushing in to fight Brauner and show daddy what they can do.  What got them cured?  Rushing in to fight Jonathan and show "daddy" what they can do.  They don't do much after you save them, but it's implied that they're just kind of tired and beaten up, and really can't do much else.  The sisters could have been much better, though, and the game should have let you fight both individually before the (awesome) team-up battle.

So, I kind of like the plot progression.  Brauner is an interesting, unique villain in the series with actual discernible motivations besides "DRACULA YAY!", and Death is in top form.  Charlotte and the Sisters really could have been better, though.


AESTHETIC DESIGN

A lot of people complain about Portrait of Ruin's art style, but really, how bad could it be?

Oh, right.   You know, I really don't like any of the character portraits, either.

Stop it.

AUUUUUUGH!

It's not that it's anime art, it's that it's bad anime art.  THis is as bad as Rondo of Blood's artwork!  UGH!

Okay, moving on.  Portrait of Ruin has a lot of reused graphics.  But then, this was also the 20th Anniversary game, and reusing so much (more than the ones before or after) was an intentional tribute.  Why else do you think they went far enough back to add things like the Dogether?  And besides that, there's a surprisingly huge amount of new stuff in this game, too.  Portrait of Ruin has the best zombie sprites of all the Metroidvanias.  A lot of the new enemies (such as Death Mask, Andras, and Dullahan) look great, too, although a few seem wonky (Glasya Labolis just looks a little too smooth).  And I love some of the "new surprises," like The Creature's machine gun.  Actually, let's go back to Andras and Death Mask for a second.  These two enemies appear very early in the game - if they only attacked faster, they'd have been pretty rough enemies.  Death Mask is basically a speedier, flying Malphas, anyway.  And as far as new sprites go, you can't ignore the fact that Portrait of Ruin has the best werewolf in Castlevania.  The only one to even approach it is Chronicles' She-Wolf.  The Rondo werewolf sucks, and they resisted the urge to use it!  The PoR one is really one of the best boss fights in the game.

And of course, there's the Portrait system and "recycled backgrounds."  It recycles fewer backgrounds than Symphony of the Night merely by virtue of being less than 50%.  And just to counter, a lot of people say:
"But Portrait of Ruin's reuse (by remixing and rearranging basic area ideas) is a lot less creative than Symphony of the Night (flipping it in MSPaint) shows real creativity!"

No. Symphony of the Night does not show real creativity by flipping the castle upside-down. In fact, that part of the game is where just about ALL of its problems lie.

No, I'm not terribly hapopy with all the reuse in PoR, and there is enough room on the ROM for new stuff, but they also had a deadline, and presumably ran out of time. Eh.  That said, Nation of Fools seems like the only REALLY reused area.  When you compare the areas:
-Dark Academy is laid out completely different than Forest of Doom, eschewing the foresty segments for a densely-packed academy.
-Burnt Paradise is pretty much just Nation of Fools, but meaner.
-Forgotten City is Sandy Grave, only reversed (Hey, it's Symphony of the Night!)
-13th Street is remixed from City of Haze, with less underground, a much bigger marketplace, and even a bigger chapel.

Two are significantly different from the originals, one is similar but creative (Forgotten City. Putting it underground is kinda witty), and one is just a copypaste.  That's... not that bad, really.  In fact, if you whine about this, then you need to extend those complaints to Symphony of the Night, Harmony of Dissonance, Order of Ecclesia, Aria of Sorrow (the abyss!), and Circle of the Moon.

So, yeah, I would have been happy with more new areas, but if you put it in the perspective of the other games... either it's okay, or EVERY METROIDVANIA SUCKS.

But eh, Death sure looks goofy in this game!

[Ridureyu]

GAMEPLAY

Portrait of Ruin's difficulty level is about the same as Dawn of Sorrow: Overall kind of easy (easier than old-school platformers), with a few difficult "sweet spots," mostly near the beginning (and in the Nest of Evil).  This is normal for Metroidvanias.  Circle of the Moon bypassed this by making the play control horrible and giving you bullet hell enemies (Ice Demon AAAAARGH).  Order of Ecclesia bypassed this by making enemies do a lot of damage, attack quickly, and take a few hits to go down.  Symphony of the Night is the easiest Metroidvania, but they were just starting out with the format, that time.  Notably, Portrait of Ruin IS tougher than either Aria or Dawn of Sorrow, for whatever it's worth.

One major flaw that reduces the game's difficulty is how early in the game you can buy Shurikens.  Or Ice Needle.  It's kind of like DoS's issue with the Mandragora soul. 

With the subweapons in general, this is actually one of the game's best elements.  Remember Symphony of the Night and its limited-0use weapons?  And how you had to griiiiiiind for the Duplicator before you could have a ball happy-assholing around with them in the castle?  Well, Portrait of Ruin exists SPECIFICALLY because of this!  You pretty much get all of the SOTN weapons (Although the steel ball isn't as much fun), only most of them are balanced for normal play (except the shuriken).  Also, cream pies, hahahahahahahahaha.  But yeah, even after you've beaten the game, collected all the items, and levelled to 99, it's fun to screw around with subweapons and spells. This plus is the same in SOTN (with duplicator only), AoS, DoS, and OoE.  This is also a reason why Harmony of Dissonance has problems - the fun gets  sucked out once you've levelled up.  Charlotte's spells are situationally like nukes... or situationally useless, depending.  It's true that you really only "need" three or four of them, but I do get perverse pleasure out of using Acid Bubble on random things.

Also, there's something else where Portrait of Ruin succeeds, and very surprisingly: The intro area.  Compare "opening areas" in Metroidvanias:

Symphony of the Night - Castle entrance, Alchemy laboratory. Good music, good spectacle, good demonstration of game mechanics, awesome fight against Slogra and Gaibon.
Circle of the Moon: Catacombs: Cool music, otherwise boring.
Harmony of Dissonance: Entrance and, uh, Marble Gallery. Bland.
Aria of Sorrow: Entrance.  Good music, atmopshere, and a kind of weak boss.
Dawn of Sorrow: Lost Village: Good atmosphere, moderate music, wuss of a boss.
Portrait of Ruin: City of Haze: Awesome music, design, map, enemy design, and surprisingly tough boss.
Order of Ecclesia: Monastery: So-so music, good visual design, decent map (one of the larger ones in this game), good boss.

Portrait of Ruin's opening level is up there with SotN.  I love City of Haze.  Percentage-wise, it's probably got the most "new" enemies of any part of the game (pretty much everything except the skeleton, bat, student witch, and tiny devil).  The music is awesome, the new monsters are great, it's got a lot of secrets (Skeleton Bartender! HA!), and the boss is just fantastic.  He does enough damage for the game to teach you to actually dodge and not just spam attacks, nicely enough.  The opening of a game is VERY important, and PoR succeeds in making its mark quickly.  City of  Haze is probably my favorite of the individual paintings.

As far as the othe rportraits?  They've got their ups and downs, but to be honest, it's mostly ups.  The pyramids are cool and creative (mini-mummies!), the forest levels the same. The circus ones are creative but not as much fun.  Eh.  The castle itself is all right, although a little repetitive in some places.

But you know what?  This game has some awesome new enemies.  Remember the zombie dragon?

The bosses in general are actually pretty good, too, though for this, I need to go into individual-analysis mode again.

Dullahan: Difficult, dramatic, great new sprites, needs some level of strategy if you want to live.

Behemoth: A great new take on an old enemy. No sprite reuse here!  Also pretty damaging, too.

Keremet: A great idea (a boss that forces you to use both party members).  Very easy, and seems out of place. It WOULD have been great if more situations and bosses forced you to team up and carefully place your teammates.  As it is, this seems like they started a great idea but didn't follow through.  The result makes it boring when it could have been a great "tutorial" boss.

Astarte: A nicely sadistic boss.  If you pick Jonathan, you'll get mind-controlled.  If you pick Charlotte, you can't hurt her.  THis one is a nice tutorial on character-switching.

Legion: I've gont into detail about this. Better than most Legions, not as good as the best.

Dagon: Aside from his hilarious resemblance to Bogun, nothing really special here.


Stella: A pretty good fight. SHould've also had a solo-Loretta battle later, too.
Death: You know how Astarte taught you to switch players?  Death puts you to the test on that. As much as I hate his visual design in this game, there's no denying that Death has a really good fight, as he always should.

Stella & Loretta: One of the high points of the game.  You can go about this the traditional way, and try to deal with their team-up attacks, or you can do it the "right" way, and learn everything about carefully positioning teammates.  Getting Charlotte's spell to work is difficult and awesome, and I really like doing it even though it SHOULD be frustrating and bad.  You have to place Charlotte so she won't get hit, but is close enough for the spell to work, you have to keep the sisters' attention as Jonathan, you have to go without hurting them, and you have to survive all the huge attacks coming your way.  It's one of the few boss fights in a Metroidvania that's better than "stand in place and spam attacks until you win."

Whip's Memory: "What, it's Richter? Well, that guy was always easy and OH CRAP 150 DAMAGE AAAAAAAGH."  I too love hitting him with cream pies, although shurikens usually are a little more effective.

The Creature: If you're going to reuse old sprites, this is how you should do it.  Give him new attacks!  The Creature is a pretty good fight, only made better by the dual-Creature battle in the Nest of Evil.

Mummy Man: They should've called him Akmodan.  I mean, come oooooon.  "Mummy" and "Mummy Man?"  That's almost as bad as Order of Ecclesia's "Merman" and "Merman!"  It's kind of nice how an enemy who was kind of a throwaway half-boss in Rondo becomes a halfway decent boss fight in Portrait of Ruin.  Kind of funny how he's one of the toughest enemies in Sisters Mode, too, but he's overall kind of bland.  Needed new attacks, Creature-style.

Medusa:  This is a pretty good medusa fight.  I'ma  little bummed that the soldier statues are A: all upside-down and B: only in her room, because they could have been cool in context.  The fight isn't bad, has some difficult aspects, and Medusa has new graphics.  Certainly makes up for her underwhelming Symphony of the Night appearance.

Werewolf: I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Best. Werewolf. Ever.  Coincidentally, the Dungeons & Dragons Miniature line made a Werewolf Lord mini that pretty much is this guy, including being the size of a house.  But yeah, seeing this awesome guy made the return of ROndo werewolves in Order of Ecclesia so laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.

Brauner:  A pretty good fight.  His only real flaw is that he stands still and lets you hit him a lot ("The painting of the SOUL!"), but the fight still forces you to think on your feet, DODGE, and use some strategy. Also: Wow, that dude can draw some freakish stuff.  He must've been reading H. P. Lovecraft.

Balore: Same as in DoS.

Gergoth: Not as awesome as in DoS, but a little tougher because of the higher level.

Zephyr: Not memorable, either.

Aguni: He doesn't roar anymore!

Abaddon: Now that you've got a whip, there's a trick to neuter most of his attacks.  Still a nicely TOUGH boss, though.

The Zombies Three: Tougher than in SotN, although not that bad. Still, nice to see them again.

Doppelganger: Can be cheesed into easiness.  Please resist this temptation and fight it for real.  You'll have fun.

Death&Dracula: Not bad, not bad at all. They found a way to make Dracula's teleportspam intimidating.  Only thing I would have changed?  I'd have forced the player to defeat them BOTH.  The "beaten" baddie would stick around, but stop taking damage.  The Demonic Megiddo "time out" instadeath move would only happen if you hadn't beaten one, of course.

Dracula Round 2:  Awesome.  It's a subtle reference to his final Bloodlines form (missing the mouthbelly, of course), and again: This guy hits hard, takes a lot of damage (unless you cheese him with Greatest Five), has a HUGE variety of attacks, and forces you to use both teammates in a couple of spots.  It's a good fight.

So yeah, I like the bosses in this.  Like in Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin mostly hit it out of the park with boss battles.

The Nest of Evil is fantastic.  Of all the "Random arena" areas in Metroidvanias, it's the best. Circle of the Moon's arena was just annoying.  Order of Ecclesia's Large Cavern was weak and tiny.  The Nest of Evil is fun, has a huge variety, fills the place with new/reused/wtf enemies, and in more than a frew3 places forces you to use some strategy.  Yay!

But ultimately, Portrait of Ruin is an easy game.  The main reason for its lack of difficulty is pretty simple: Enemies are too slow.

In old-school platformer CVs, you were slow and unwieldy, and enemies had TIME to dick around before unleashing their attacks.  Not so in Metroidvanias (Circle of the Moon excepted).  Take the Dogether, for example. In fact, this could be named after him.  The Dogether was never THAT tough, although if you didn't have the axe in Rondo, he could be kind of tricky.  In Portrait of Ruin, it';s too easy to kill him before he casts a spell.  If they had been smart, they would have had him tossing fireballs and stone circles all over the place as soon as he showed up.  A lot of enemies fall into this same trap - Death Mask could be awesome if it weren't so easy to kill him before he did anything - and that's just too bad.  Note how some enemies, like Vapula or the Zombie Dragon pretty much attack from the get-go, and are genuine problems until you level past them.

Also: Skeleton Bartender lol.

Anyway, one more thing:  The Vampire Killer.  If I had been in charge of this game, I would have made it much stronge,r but made it cost you health or MP when you used it.  Make the "Don't use it too much" part of the game, not just the plot.  As it STANDS, it's certainly not the "Strongest" weapon (beaten by Holy Claymore, Alucard Spear, and Golden Axe)... but it kind of is.  See, the Vampire Killer's holy damage is a higher percentage of the whole, or rather it gets increased FAR more than other holy weapons.  So, when against somebody who's weak to Holy, it does more damage than anything except the Golden Axe (Yeah, I know. Holy Claymore is kind of useless).  And the Golden Axe is slooooooow and unwieldy.  The best endgame weapons really are the Vampire Killer (for holy-weak enemies) and Alucard Spear (for other enemies).  Yep.  In Portrait of Ruin, the best weapons are the Vampire Killer and the Alucard Spear.  That's kinda cool.

Okay, OOOOONE more thing:  If you're a reasonably fast reader (i.e., me), then the music for the final battle is extra-awesome.  There is a music sting TIMED to coincide with Death blocking Jonathan, if you're a reasonably fast reader.  That's kinda cool!



Anyway, OVERALL?

Portrait of Ruin is not the best metroidvania, but it's hardly the worst.  It doesn't deserve all the venomous hate it gets, especially when things like Harmony of Dreaking Dissonance are allowed to run free, playing in the fields.  It's a fun game, it actually has a decent story (mostly because of its villain), and a good amount of the gameplay is fun.  You know, fun.  The reason we play these things.  If a Castlevania game had the best story ever... but played like Castlevania Adventure 1, I wouldn't like it.  This one manages to have a good story (a potential new Dark Lord) along with good gameplay.  Now, if only the art were a little better...


...Stop that!

[Kale]

tldr

but...... i do agree, it's not the worst ever.

[Renonsgoods]

I pretty much agree with this whole review/assessment.  I never really understood why a vocal few hate on this game so much....or LoD....or LoS. 

[Sindra]

As before, a fantastic read. Though I disagree that it's better than Dawn of Sorrow as DoS was more like the second half of a full story, Portrait of Ruin does try.

Some things of note to add onto your stuff:

- The Sisters. I never saw them as being fully vampirised. As you can see, they only have one eye each that has turned blood red, and they eventually can be purged of the vampiric taint. This goes to an old theory of mine that the Belmont bloodline over the hundreds of years has eventually become so strong and so in-tuned against the vampire kindred, that they have a inbred resistance to infection. The battle between vampires and the Belmont's continues to even the cellular level, as usually the only way a vampire victim can be cured is by killing the vampire that bit them. PoR brings the concept that a sanctuary spell can do the same for someone who isn't completely tainted. This, honestly, is a fascinating concept and it's be awesome if it could be used more in the future.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

This is nice, and I do agree that people shouldn't call this a bad game when there are things like Harmony of Dissonance running around (which I'm still trying to like more and not succeeding much at it).

But if you're arguing that 'a game is supposed to be fun', then why attack Judgment?  The game IS pretty fun.
I also agree that it's not fun to have bullet hell enemies in Circle of the Moon.

[Ridureyu]

Well yeah, you do like Judgment, and more power to you. It just never really clicked with me, and I kind of breathe fighting games.  But that's probably just personal preference - a lot of mdoern 3D games aren't terribly much fun to me, but I won't, say, call Gears of War a "bad" game because I don't have much fun with it.

Although Judgment's art style makes me want to kick puppies.


And here's the thing with Harmony of Dissonance: Although I do have fun playing it, I only have fun playing through it.  That temptation to just screw around that comes with Symphony of the Night or Aria/Dawn of Sorrow or Portrait of Ruin or Order of Ecclesia just... isn't there.  There's no "random fun" factor in it. I mean, if you could level up to 99 reasonably, sdtat progression would be interesting (it becomes exponential startiny at 91), but that's it.

[Joachim]

A criticism often levelled at PoR: "It doesn't have a story!"

is this just another made-up exaggeration of yours? i've never heard this complaint lobbied at Por; if anything, I've heard only praise for the concept of its story. any complaints pushed towards the story have always been about how absolutely miserable its execution was.

[whitedragon_nall]

Great review Ridureyu! I very much agree with this. Keep up with these detailed reviews too.

[Ridureyu]

is this just another made-up exaggeration of yours? i've never heard this complaint lobbied at Por; if anything, I've heard only praise for the concept of its story. any complaints pushed towards the story have always been about how absolutely miserable its execution was.

Well...

POR story was a waste of great ideas, terrible characterization (Because Cv just can't go worse after they gave Charlotte the infamous anime "rage vein" on her forehead) but yeah DoS is the worst of the bunch, it's just.. unnecessary, hollow and silly. Great gameplay though.

Im complaining about story/setting, not gameplay.

Wholeheartedly agree here. It was supposed to be a sequel to Bloodlines and the plot just kind of ignores it except for a few name drops. Where's the globetrotting? Where are the hilariously proportioned mechanical knights? Especially the extra modes were a huge waste without a John Sr./Eric Lecarde combo.

And these were all from just one thread.  Which wasn't even about Portrait of Ruin.

[Joachim]

the first quote is about the execution of the story, which is legitimately horrid. i actually stated that above, if you had bothered to listen. the third complains that it doesn't have a whole lot to do with bloodlines: neither of these are specific criticisms of the storyline itself as its own thing.

instead of going out of your way, it would have been much easier if you had just admitted "yeah, its a made-up exaggeration using meaningless, limited anecdotal evidence".

ps.

And of course, there's the Portrait system and "recycled backgrounds."  It recycles fewer backgrounds than Symphony of the Night merely by virtue of being less than 50%.  And just to counter, a lot of people say:
"But Portrait of Ruin's reuse (by remixing and rearranging basic area ideas) is a lot less creative than Symphony of the Night (flipping it in MSPaint) shows real creativity!"

the reuse argument doesn't really work within this context: the complaint isn't the reuse of graphics from within the same game - the complaint is the reuse of graphics from previous games. Every single one of Symphony's backgrounds are original, made by scratch for that game specifically.

further: the thing that elevates the upside down castle above the remixed concepts from portrait is its execution: the upside down castle had a different feel, a different flow; it was far more free than the original castle, and it being upside down altered the level design on a microscopic level. it showed just how smartly designed the right-side up castle was, by exploiting its nooks and crannies and revealing that this was planned from the start. The singular level design of the castle was designed on a dualistic level, meant to accommodate two totally different approaches.

Portrait... while the levels are technically totally different, the actual design therein is practically identical; the exact same concepts, the exact same flaccid series of rectangles and boxes. the differences in the levels for portrait of ruin are entirely superficial.

Order of Ecclesia: Monastery: So-so music, good visual design, decent map (one of the larger ones in this game), good boss.

...how is the boss good, exactly? it looks cool, but it fails on every level beyond that. likewise the "map" (level design). except the monastery doesn't look cool.

it actually has a decent story

in concept. its a shame that the execution is ass-terrible.

[Ridureyu]

I was about to post a longer response, but then I looked back and realized you pretty much only post to troll me.  "talk about pwned."  Right. There's decently disagreeing, and there's... I guess you got offended on a personal level because of something I said?

Not gonna work


Although I have to say it:  So, in essence, completely rearranging a layout is changing "less" than just flipping it?

The upside-down castle is just taking the original map and flipping it.  That's. It.

Dark Academy is a complete change from Forest of Doom, and not just because it goes right-to-left instead of left-to-right (hey, something's flipped, too!).  Different room layout,m no underground, different outdoor locations, different secrets, different atmospheric things, and completely different boss chamber.  How exactly is lazily pressing "Flip horizontal" in MSPaint more creative?

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I don't know man, it's not any stage that can be flip-turned upside-down and still be playable.  That team had thought about that from the very beginning.  There's no way that when you started playing the game the first time, you would think that you would be navigating the entire thing in reverse and that it would still work properly.

It does mean that team put a more dedicated deal of work into the design, and not only of one stage, but of the entire game.

[Ridureyu]

Eh, not all of it works so well upside-down.  Certainly not the Keep, and really not the clock tower. It really doesn't work with the caverns.   Mainly it's just because everywhere had a flat ceiling to go with the flat floor.  There were a few places where the reversal worked well, though, like the spikes in Olrox's quarters.  But for the most part?  You could flip any indoor area upside-down in Castlevania, and still play in it.  As long as there's a ceiling, it'll be playable.

[Joachim]

I was about to post a longer response, but then I looked back and realized you pretty much only post to troll me.  "talk about pwned."  Right. There's decently disagreeing, and there's... I guess you got offended on a personal level because of something I said?

...you actually think there was some kind of personal offense, there? no. i reply to things when i feel a compulsion to do so: generally, if i have something to say. this forum does little to interest or stimulate me anymore, and i'll be honest even you only tend to do so on a cursory level - hence, why i couldn't be bothered to post anything more than that before. you failed to admit your mistake and were called out on it.

trolling is a matter of deception - this is hardly deception. this is disagreement, discussion; criticism.

I don't know man, it's not any stage that can be flip-turned upside-down and still be playable.

this is what i was getting at. they put more work into designing that one castle than they did the entirety of Portrait of Ruin's level design.

Dark Academy is a complete change from Forest of Doom, and not just because it goes right-to-left instead of left-to-right (hey, something's flipped, too!).  Different room layout,m no underground, different outdoor locations, different secrets, different atmospheric things, and completely different boss chamber.

again, these are completely superficial alterations. the level looks different (technically, so does the inverted castle), and its design is arranged differently, but the design was never interesting to begin with. no matter how different it is, it offers no difference in approach because the levels never elevate themselves beyond just big rectangles and squares. it doesn't matter if something is technically different, it matters how different it is, and what the quality of those differences are.

Certainly not the Keep, and really not the clock tower.

it certainly works, but for a different reason. it lacks the same sense of ease of flow the original castle did, because this one is trying to force you to actually use the abilities you've attained intelligently. in those cases, the level design was not designed for you; it was designed for itself, and you simply have to go through it. its intentionally challenging you with something difficult to navigate, on a conceptual level - which is more than i can say of anything we've had since, aside from some of OoE's more brilliant moments. in many ways, it is kind of the level design equivalent of Harmony's soundtrack - difficult to wrap your head around, but still brilliantly constructed.