Topic: What makes portrait of ruin a load of Castlevania BS?

[shelverton.]

But it took me awhile to figure out the timing to get past it.

Same here! I think it took me maybe 5 tries to stop the damn thing. Which is why the wow factor kinda disappeared. Especially when I wasn't really sure if I was supposed to stop the train with my bare hands, or if there was some secret item I needed. But yeah, it's still one of the highlights in the game, and there should've been more stuff like that.

[Long John Silver]

the best way to stop it was to use an axe special move to avoid it though

[The Last Belmont]

Now I'll list what I DID appreciate:

- Character switching could be a lot of fun. Some enemies were easier to down with Charolotte's magic, and sometimes you wanted quicker kills with Jonathan's subweapons. At first I was regularly switching but as the game went on and got easier, ... not as much. Still there were definitely times where I ALMOST died.

You beat it w/out dying? I don't know normally castlevania games are no prob. for me and I hardly ever die, but there were a few spots that gave me probs and I died a few times and the drunk castle layout didn't really help all the save points are all bunched up, I mean c'mon what was the designer smoking?

[Azmodan]

The layout of Dracula's Castle actually didn't bother me much in PoR. Sometimes when I play other CVs I don't have the feeling that I'm actually traveling through a Castle. PoR's Castle felt like I was steadily making progress through it.

For some of the portraits, though...bleh. They were good the first time around, and some like Sandy Grave and the Forest of Doom still aren't too bad. Second playthrough, though, it really highlighted much of the faults. Especially those circus levels. Amusing at first, but then it just gets tedious.

[Inccubus]

I can agree with much of what has been said. There were many lines of dialogue that kept me thinking of how much I just wanted to smack some sense into those kids. Also, I agree that the 2nd set of paintings could have been MUCH better. They were basically mirrored versions of the others. Definitely could have used more stuff like the train to keep itmore exciting.

I'm wondering if it couldn't hurt to either re-translate or re-write the script? I might give it a try after I finish my current projects.

[DraimanBelieve]

     I honestly think most of you are being very nit picky but I mean you all have very legitimate points.  When I played through PoR which I only have once, I found it to be a breath of fresh air.  I mean I love the classic Metroidvania games like Dawn, Aria and Symphony and even Harmony is growing on me a little.  I mean the game was silly and very light hearted but for some reason I actually liked the corny dialogue.  I mean it could've been a lot better but it was amusing.  The artwork didn't look much different than Dawn of Sorrow and I happen to really like Dawn of Sorrow. 

The Anime style is controversial but it doesn't bother me cause other than the videos at the beginning, it doesn't really stand out that much to me.  I felt PoR was a solid Castlevania game and it was quite fun to play through.  The only thing that bothered me was the level design.  I mean I just felt like I was seeing the same thing repeatedly throughout the whole game.  Another thing was as "big" as the castle is I blew through it in 5 hours at 1000% easily w/o too much trouble.  Some of the bosses were harder than usual but once you figured out their pattern you could waste them. 

Its not the greatest Castlevania game in the world but I mean people keep saying its "Portrait of Shit" I think its a decent Metroidvania even if its a little Curse of Darkness with the repetitive level designs.  Definitely not the most memorable Castlevania game.  The soundtrack I thought was awesome, graphics could've been better but weren't awful.  Some of the levels were great and the re-playability with all the different modes definitely was an added bonus.  If anything it tried to take you outside of the castle in a sense its just too bad that it couldn't have been more Castlevania 2 meets a bit of Castlevania IV.

[shelverton.]

I only remember dying a few times while fighting the sisters... or, rather: While trying NOT to fight them but using that spell instead. It was awfully slow and charlotte was interrupted time and time again by some ice magikz

Oh yeah, I died one time while fighting the whip's memory right after that. But that was because I wasn't prepared for it really.

Other than that, the game was a breeze. Easier than DoS(Gergoth literally made me fucking cry. Unlike in PoR where I killed him in in 10 seconds.)

[Long John Silver]

the sisters are piss easy if you want to use the spell.

wait for them to cast the ice wind, run behind them, put charlotte, then run in circles and cause them to turn around in an infinite loop, running behind them as they turn around. they won't recover and the spell will be casted in no time

tl;dr lol pork ai

[The Last Belmont]

its just too bad that it couldn't have been more Castlevania 2 meets a bit of Castlevania IV.

that would be the greatest game ever made, all the castlevania IV action and difficulty with simon's quest's puzzles, god it's giving me an orgasm thinking about it. I love PoR don't get me wrong but the main castle design sucks, and I died alot for some reason. 

[DoctaMario]

I liked PoR and thought it was definitely one of the more fun Castlevania games in the Metroidvania genre. The dual character system is a lot of fun too because Johnathan and Charlotte compliment each other well. They're both very useful (Charlotte probably moreso IMO) and I found myself using them both pretty equally once I got the hang of the game.

I think the biggest problem with PoR is the wasted potential. The level design isn't great, the dual character system could have really been made much deeper than it was, and had the art been a little more dark, the story could have been a little more believable.

That said, it was meant to be an action game, so I can forgive the story being slightly lame. After all, LoD and LoI are about the only CV games with a good story that I can see.

There's plenty of replay value as well and there's so much gear you can get than you could conceivably never play the game the same way twice.

As for the remixed portraits, everyone lauds SoTN for the Inverted Castle, and the remixed portraits are a good bit different from the first ones as opposed to the Inverted Castle which is exactly the same thing but upside down, so I don't get why that's a sticking point.

In the end, it doesn't MATTER why people don't like it. It's not like we're all paid reviewers (and even if we were, it STILL wouldn't matter.) If you like it, just enjoy it for what it is rather than picking it apart. It's a solid action game that has some flaws, but it's nowhere near as bad as everyone makes it out to be.

[DraimanBelieve]

that would be the greatest game ever made, all the castlevania IV action and difficulty with simon's quest's puzzles, god it's giving me an orgasm thinking about it. I love PoR don't get me wrong but the main castle design sucks, and I died alot for some reason. 

I know , it would be the greatest thing ever.  I have often thought about what it would be like if they combined the best of both worlds into a big large Metroidvania style game.  I mean it doesn't necessarily have to be a Metroidvania but it could be a very big Simon's Quest with all the greatness of CVIV (like the Indiana Jones whip swinging to the 8 directional whip).  Maybe even put the character switching from CVIII in it just for kicks?  A thing that was cool about CVIV was it wasn't all in the castle.  A good half of the game was outside of it and it could work just like that.  Start in some town, go to an evil church, creepy cemetary, maybe even a haunted mansion and just keep adding levels with bosses and have different paths you can take but its all interconnected. It would be perfect as long as the level design was top notch which would be expected.