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

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I'm pretty sure "13th Street" is night-time London, but it does have a hint of New York, doesn't it?
BTW, the werewolf boss?  Would it come from "An American Werewolf in London" perhaps?

[Ridureyu]

You know, I totally forgot to post a picture.
http://www.tritex-games.co.uk/js/tinymce/plugins/imagemanager/files/products_minatures_dd/Werewolf_Lord.jpg
D&D Minis, Werewolf Lord, from the Unhallowed set, which released in March, 2007.  I got Portrait of Ruin (and my DS) RIGHT BEFORE this set released, and fought the Werewolf boss RIGHT AFTER they previewed the Werewolf Lord.  Scale-wise, a "human" mini makes it up to his knee or so.

[Munchy]

You know you're taking these games too seriously when you start criticizing level geometry in such minute detail.  

I guess, but at the same time there are some areas like the forest in OoE which are an inexcusable level of lazy. How about a platform? Or maybe two?

Which isn't to say I don't enjoy the Metroidvanias, but flat rooms and blatant copy-and-paste do sometimes ruin the mood, so to speak.

[Ridureyu]

I don't mind the forest (and its copypasted swamp) in OoE per se... but they needed to be longer, or there needed to be more of them.  And the non-forest levels needed to be a bit bigger, too. it's okay to have some little bridges between stages, but you just kind of need more space.

And anyway, Ruvas Forest gets surpriusingly awesome when you turn the difficulty up to Hard Mode and AUUUUGH THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME HELP.

[darkwzrd4]

This was a great review and I do agree that PoR is a great game.  I do admit that the story may have been a little weak, but in terms of gameplay, it's one of the best metroidvanias.  Plus, that werewolf was EPIC.  Why can't we have more like that?  OoE was great too, but this tread isn't about it.  I also like how the second set of portraits are similar yet very different from the first set.  I agree with Rid that doing that is a lot more creative than simply flipping everything like in SotN.  Not that I don't like SotN,  I love it.  It's just that PoR was a little more creative and challenging in certain spots.  I also like how the unlocked Vampire Killer was the most useful weapon towards the end of the game.  Plus, unlocking it is somewhat difficult.

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion.

[Munchy]

I don't mind the forest (and its copypasted swamp) in OoE per se... but they needed to be longer, or there needed to be more of them.  And the non-forest levels needed to be a bit bigger, too. it's okay to have some little bridges between stages, but you just kind of need more space.

And anyway, Ruvas Forest gets surpriusingly awesome when you turn the difficulty up to Hard Mode and AUUUUGH THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME HELP.

Lols. Hard Mode did get hilarious when it felt like there were parades of enemies swarming your ass to the next screen. It's like IGA's polite way of saying, "What now, punk? The game too easy for you now? HUH?"

[Ridureyu]

The three DS hard modes are amusing.  Dawn of Sorrow isn't THAT much more difficult.  Portrait of Ruin is significantly tougher than the main game (Enemy damage goes way up! 100+ from medusa heads!), and it's kind of like a minor warning about Order of Ecclesia, which just wrecks you.  Sorta. 

I, um, finally did Hard Mode Level 1, only to find that it wasn't as bad as I thought. of course, I wasn't starting fresh, so with all the HP/MP/HEart upgrades and gear, I was pretty much Level 30-something in ability.  But NOW I have 255 mode up, so I can increase each attribute one by one while levelling!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Hard Mode Lv1 is not so bad... if you have Simon's old armor, the "Ancient Armor" which has you take a percentage-based damage, instead of a numerical.

[darkwzrd4]

Hard Mode Lv1 is not so bad... if you have Simon's old armor, the "Ancient Armor" which has you take a percentage-based damage, instead of a numerical.

yeah, it's a life saver and yet still challenging.  10 hits is all you get.  If you can't get to a save room before that, it's nice knowing you.  It really is a challenge.

[Ridureyu]

I used Robe Decollete for the extra magic power, and for healing, two Emperor rings makes healing items AWESOME.

But yeah, now that I'm on Hard Mode, I can't do the "hold up with the fomors" trick to max my attributes. Where's a good place to grind for ice? Devils resist it way too much to use it in that room.

[thernz]

I think the only hard mode I liked was LoI's. The rest just felt like adding cheap difficulty for the most part.

i dont remember ooe's though oops
or hod or aos's for that matter

[Ridureyu]

What I liked about OoE's hard mode were all the extra enemies and extra attacks or properties to preexisting enemies.  It made it seem like hard mode is the "complete" mode more than anything else.

[Vampire Killer]

Beating the Dullhan (sp?) on hard mode starting fresh is just plain evil. I'm dead in two hits, and since I'm starting fresh, I have no items to help me out.

[Munchy]

Hard Mode Lv1 is not so bad... if you have Simon's old armor, the "Ancient Armor" which has you take a percentage-based damage, instead of a numerical.

I would have liked an extra mode like the Axe Armor one in SotN where you start with the Ancient Armor on a Hard difficulty. Would've made it feel more like kicking it old-school.

[X]

loved the review dude! Can't wait for the others 

My dislike for PoR was simply these tid-bits: The WWII intro. It was not explored nor followed up in any real context. If this was a real WWII story then it would have Nazis out the wazoo. And they would be an integral part of the plot itself since Hitler is an obsessed fanatic when it comes to the occult. The Nazis themselves were a cult (Order of the Black Sun) before Hitler made them into a military force. The legend of Castlevania would be too irresistible a prize for the Reich to decline. IGA should've left the WWII intro out and instead had an intro giving us a brief summery about Brauner and his purpose.

Circle of the Moon - "Dracula's back again. A non-Belmont needs to punch his brother in the face."
 
I don't know if you know this but Nathan Graves is a Belmont by blood just like Reinhardt Schneider. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to defeat Dracula. That, and that he and Hugh Baldwin aren't brothers by blood.

As for the rest: I'm glad we got to use a whip-wielding Pseudo-Belmont once more as I was getting sick of all the non-traditional CV sword-play. I'd rather use whips man! 

-X