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

[thernz]

What spots or bosses were even difficult in the regular castle? Heh.
I-I honestly found the Inverted Castle areas to be a tad more difficult because of the more claustrophobic placements and more dangerous enemies in some of the areas. You know like the traps in Marble Gallery combined with the dense population of monsters. The Outer Wall with enemies that actually caused good damage, the Library with enemies from more directions, the Entrance with the Ourosburos etc.

[Ridureyu]

Well, the early segments had some difficulty, the clock tower certainly hurt me a lot (I'm thinking in terms of a first playthrough, not one after you know what you're doing and know the exploits), the approach to and fight with Scylla had some rough spots, the succubus can be pretty nasty if you don't know the trick, the chapel can whittle your health down (though the boss is easy), the arena has some rough rooms (although again, the bosses aren't too bad), Olrox isn't an easy fight, and Legion/Granfalloon, if you don't cheese it to death, becomes quite vicious.

That said, the toughest part for me in Inverted Castle (not counting Galamoth) was the alchemy lab. The particular types of enemies are a little harder to dodge in the vertical segments, and Beelzebub is a pretty rough boss.

[paulstanley]

There's a trick to Succubus? I just remember slashing it and it died. One of the easier bosses in the game, iirc.

Though I do agree with the rest of your post. The first castle does have some difficult parts, but overall, I think the Inverted Castle is harder. Necromancy Laboratory is one thing, but Black Marble Gallery was kind of a wall for me at first. The combination of Nova Skeletons and the traps were deadly. Outer Wall was kind of annoying, too.

[Ridureyu]

For the succubus, try tossing an Agunea into her.

SHE DED

[beingthehero]

To get this back on topic, I didn't think PoR was bad. It was average and wasn't very inspired, but I still play it and enjoy it each time. I just wish World War II was acknowledged beyond the prologue and a couple of items. I liked most of the music, and I don't think Jonathan is all that painful of a character to play as.
To be honest, I really don't dislike any title. : /

[paulstanley]

I don't really dislike Portrait either (I usually don't dislike things), but I think it's a big case of lost potential. There's just so much they could've done with everything the game has, but they just didn't. Things are so, so bare bones and uninspired that the whole game falls flat on its face. Even Yuzo Koshiro bombed, so I'm just left here wondering what exactly happened.

[darkwzrd4]

The gameplay was good, but I did have a little trouble with the story.  The fact that a wielder of the whip couldn't use it to its full capability without out it draining their life made no sense to me.  Also, the fact Jonathan had to unlock its power despite being a Belmont decendent.  So, he wasn't a direct decendant.  Big deal.  So long as the person has a drop of Belmont blood running through their veins, they should be able to use the whip at full power without having to unlock it and without it draining their life.  Plus, nothing is said about why the main branch of the family can't wield the whip.  All that is said, is that they can't touch it until 1999.  Why?  It should have been explained in detail.  All we really know is that it has something to do with Richter seeing how he was the last "true" Belmont to wield the whip.

I think that if the reason was explained in depth, the game may have been received better by fans.  This is just my opinion though.

[X]

The gameplay was good, but I did have a little trouble with the story.  The fact that a wielder of the whip couldn't use it to its full capability without out it draining their life made no sense to me.  Also, the fact Jonathan had to unlock its power despite being a Belmont decendent.  So, he wasn't a direct decendant.  Big deal.  So long as the person has a drop of Belmont blood running through their veins, they should be able to use the whip at full power without having to unlock it and without it draining their life.  Plus, nothing is said about why the main branch of the family can't wield the whip.  All that is said, is that they can't touch it until 1999.  Why?  It should have been explained in detail.  All we really know is that it has something to do with Richter seeing how he was the last "true" Belmont to wield the whip.

I think that if the reason was explained in depth, the game may have been received better by fans.  This is just my opinion though.

No argument here.

-X

[Ridureyu]

Yeah, those probably would've helped it a bit, although it still would have gotten some "New Game Hate."  But I think it has to do with the Belmont family name, not just bloodlines, when  it comes to using the whip. Or some other rules-lawyering like that.

[Odile Kuronuma]

When i played PoR for the first time I really hated it. But when I played it again some years later I started hating it less. Some parts are good,  some are bad, and unfortunately it's BAD most of the time. Because of that it's one of my least favorite metroidvanias, along with DoS and Harmony. If it wasn't for the Julius mode , i'll prolly hate Dos more than PoR.