Gran titulo de una gran saga como es Castlevania. Portrait of Ruin es un metroidvania de altísima calidad, que pasa a ser mi juego favorito de la saga tras Symphony of the Night, del cual toma muchas cosas como no podría ser de otra forma. 2 personajes, gran variedad de armas, hechizos y objetos, algún puzle interesante y muchas zonas que explorar en sus 9 escenarios de gran tamaño: el castillo de Drácula y 8 cuadros que esconden escenarios de gran tamaño. En definitiva, muy recomendado si te gusta la saga y/o los metroidvanias de calidad.

What a pleasant surprise this was, I actually really enjoyed my time here. For being the 2nd DS Castlevania game they really knocked it out of the park after Dawn of Sorrows admittedly poor experience. But I'm gonna chalk it up to the devs finally understanding how to do a handheld DS Castlevania. Having the areas be segmented with the Castle acting as the hub really makes it difficult for any new player to get lost. Which in my opinion is how this series should be handled when it comes to being on a handheld, Order of Ecclesia does the same and that game is also fantastic. But back to portrait of Ruin, taking the same gimmick from the hit indie 3D platformer game Mario 64, (you may have heard of it) you jump into paintings and then explore the worlds to fight a boss and move back to the hub. It's a fine gameplay loop that just makes sense for the DS. No more bullshit forced touchscreen gimmicks, it's a solid time throughout and one i'd recommend.

Its not often that I go out and play a Castlevania game, but every time I do so, I feel a genuine joy. I absolutely adored Portrait of Ruin, there’s so much that’s really unique to it that sets it apart from other Castlevania titles. It’s not one that’s hard either, so I do think it’s one that I can really suggest as an entry point to Castlevania, while also being really good.

To me the first and most obvious aspect of Portrait of Ruin is the dual player character system of the game. Being able to switch between 2 characters on the fly, and summon the other character either to help with combat or puzzles ended up being really engaging and fun. Honestly, I wish there were more puzzles that involved switching between the two characters, there were only a small handful, but they were really well done. I also loved playing as both of the characters in the main campaign, though I definitely did prioritize one over another. Throughout most of the game, I played as Charlotte. I loved switching the spells she used, adjusting to whatever I was facing, especially since some spells are better than others for certain bosses. Only at the tail end of the game did I switch to Jonathan, but he’s also another great playable character. He has the same general abilities of other vampire hunters in the series, and because of that he is really fun. I know it’s possible to use different weapons, but it felt only right for him to use a whip, so I didn’t experiment as much with Jonathan as I did Charlotte.

And of course, the other part of Portrait of Ruin that I think is super interesting is in the namesake itself, the portraits. While the game is located in Dracula’s Castle for a good chunk of things, you can also enter portraits throughout the castle which take you to wildly different locations. And I completely adore this, it allows for you to go to locations that otherwise wouldn’t be possible in a typical Castlevania setting. My favorite area in particular is the Pyramid, which I find really cool to be able to explore in a Castlevania game. I also really love how there’s sort of remixed versions of the portraits later on in the game. I’ve always loved the sort of “upside-down castle” idea that most Castlevanias have, and the portraits being remixed is a really fun way of doing things.

I mentioned this earlier, but Portrait of Ruin isn’t too difficult of a game either. Even if there’s a boss or room that is difficult, the game gives an ample amount of healing items, so you’ll never have too much of a worry. Though, I have played a good number of other Castlevanias, some notably harder than this one, so I may just be more used to them, and this is easier to me than to others, who knows. I imagine the challenges I did have were brought upon by myself though. I remember one boss that I struggled with hard because I didn’t realize that you could jump as many times as you wanted while underwater. Though at the same time, it’d be hard to know that, as that, to my knowledge, is the one time you’ll be underwater during the entire game. As well, some bosses probably would have been slightly easier for me if I summoned the partner character more often, and it might’ve been easier if I switched to Jonathan more often as well.

With the multiple locations in the game, exploring and trying to find every little nook and cranny is really fun. I think I got nearly 900% map completion, which is really funny to type out here, I didn’t explore the final area of the game, which is why I’m not close to the full 1000% map completion. It’s mainly because I saw on a guide I was looking at that the bosses in that final are connected to a different game, Dawn of Sorrow to be specific, and I didn’t want to see them until after I had played that game. As well, it’s primarily a boss rush, and completely optional, so I wasn’t too motivated to clear it. Whenever I get around to playing/beating Dawn of Sorrow, I would like to go back to that final area and see what it’s like.

And I most assuredly will replay Portrait of Ruin. There’s multiple additional playable characters that unlock upon getting the game’s good ending, and they have some interesting play styles to them. Theres one where the combat is done entirely on the DS touch screen which I wonder how that’ll play later in the game. With the little bit I tired of it, the game seems ridiculously easy with those characters. Though of course I’d have to wait and see.

I absolutely adore Portrait of Ruin. The ideas this game has are really fun, especially for a series like Castlevania. I love the environments that the game features, and with how much of a sucker I am for multiple playable characters, a game structured around switching between 2 characters is really fun. As I mentioned in the last paragraph, I’m almost assuredly replaying this game, as I want to play with the additional playable character sets, and see what they’re like. This isn’t my favorite Castlevania, but it’s definitely up there, I can’t help but suggest it.

A very good Castlevania with a cool unique game mechanic - playing two characters at the same time. It felt really fresh and worked better than I thought it would. Both characters play really differently. Most of the time I played Charlotte, as I felt she was just so much more powerful and useful than Jonathan. Nevertheless, I switched back and forth from time to time during the course of the game. I thought it was cool that you could visit very different settings thanks to the game structure with the paintings. On the one hand, you have the classic gloomy Gothic Castlevania, but also a desert, a mysterious city, a circus, etc. I found the boss battles consistently good, interesting and, above all, difficult. Towards the end of the game it got a bit too extreme. There were a bit too many projectiles flying through the screen that I couldn't really dodge :D Nevertheless, I enjoyed the fights, but you often have to try them several times and learn boss mechanics. There were also side missions, some of which were quite funny. The story was ok, nothing special, but I thought it was nice that the role of the Morris family and the Lecardes was explained in more detail, as they were only known from Bloodlines. I found the dynamic between the main characters very sweet and likeable. In conclusion, I can only say that every Metroidvania fan should pick this up. It's one of the best representatives of the genre. It's amazing what good games were released on the DS back then.

CHARLOTTE
JONATHAN
CHARLOTTE
JONATHAN
CHARLOTTE
JONATHAN
CHARLOTTE
JONATHAN

Very solid Castlevania game. Really liked the split party member mechanics, while many games would be content to just hand wave away your companion character(s), Charlotte is a great foil to Jonathan both in writing and gameplay. The portraits in the game splitting the map up into different segments was a nice change of pace, and definitely a great change for those who hate getting lost, but upon reflection I feel being able to get lost in Dracula's castle is part of the charm of the series to me.

que jogo divertido parabéns iga

eu sei que os proximos jogos de DS tem a maioria dos sprites dos inimigos repetidos mas tudo bem pq eles tavam lançando um jogo por ano na época

só isso jogo top amem

While I was less annoyed by this one, I didn’t feel the need to grind as much as I did, than I was with Order of Ecclesia this one just felt flat. I didn’t feel as attached to the characters or story presented.
The portrait worlds themselves were interesting, but I felt like each world wasn’t enough to make up for how much Dracula’s castle itself was lacking.
The antagonist pre Dracula really never felt like a present threat, Death felt more present than the antagonist of this game and the whole portrait gimmick never felt too personal to him.
The protags are kinda one and done.
It’s just a very passable game.
While order of Ecclesia pissed me off it at least gave me something to chew on
While I’m being quite negative I didn’t dislike my time with this, it felt nice, just not anything special at all