Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

[Warlock]

http://ds.ign.com/articles/702/702670p1.html

http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/702/702709/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-20060421023243880.jpg http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/702/702709/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-20060421023244333.jpg

Finally, a Castlevania that doesn't take place in the same damn castle as every other game with the same damn areas (there are only so many times I can look at swinging pendulums). Sounds like it will be semi fresh :)

[Kairyu]

Very nice. They're bringing the character swap from C3 and Julius mode in DoS back. Except from the screenshots, it looks more like both characters fight at once- I guess one is controlled by A.I.?

[vegeta1215]

I saw that earlier today too. It does look interesting. Maybe this will offer enough new features to make me pick it up? (I skipped AoS and DoS because they didn't look much different than CoTM and HoD to me)

[Warlock]

I saw that earlier today too. It does look interesting. Maybe this will offer enough new features to make me pick it up? (I skipped AoS and DoS because they didn't look much different than CoTM and HoD to me)

I never played AoS but DoS was fucking awesome. MUCH better than CoTM and HoD. The only real complaint I had was that it was in the damn castle again, so it looked like every other castlevania set in the castle. By which I mean they come up with one new area and everything else is identical.

[Maverick_Zero]

About it being the same castle though.

Don't let the smooth taste fool you. How much can they do with a sidescroller huh? The levels might have alot of the same elements. (Like the pendulums)

This does look neat though, what system is it for?

[Warlock]

About it being the same castle though.

Don't let the smooth taste fool you. How much can they do with a sidescroller huh? The levels might have alot of the same elements. (Like the pendulums)

This does look neat though, what system is it for?

I don't care if it recycles elements. I just want to go to some damn new places. I actually miss like Castlevania 2, where you had towns and puzzles and stuff. Mix that with a lot of the new RPG and leveling aspects of the series and it would be pretty bad-ass.

[Grasshopper]

Yep. I sure miss traveling across the Romanian countryside.

[ShadowTiger]

IMHO, Castlevania 2 was "ruined" by the fact that I had played HoD/WNC first. (Obviously.) The town concept was wonderful though. Definitely not something you commonly see.

CotM was definitely, IMHO, the "worst" of the Gameboy Advance Castlevanias. AoS was actually better than HoD in a few ways. The constant subscreen ability switching was somewhat annoying, but the concept was exhilerating as anything! HoD was very "normal" as Castlevanias go. Not mundane though.

AoS for the win. Haven't played DoS though, but will want to eventually.
...
Eventually.

Indeed, PoR looks very enticing. I look forward to more screenshots. It'd be nice to have something not set in a castle, just for the novelty factor alone.

[vegeta1215]

CotM was definitely, IMHO, the "worst" of the Gameboy Advance Castlevanias. AoS was actually better than HoD in a few ways. The constant subscreen ability switching was somewhat annoying, but the concept was exhilerating as anything! HoD was very "normal" as Castlevanias go. Not mundane though.

I must be alone in that CoTM was my favorite. Maybe it was because it was the first Castlevania I really got into, or because I loved the DSS card system and the replay value of the game (with it's character modes). To be fair, the only other ones I've played of the same style (ie Metroid like in structure) are HoD and SoTN.

[MacWeirdo42]

Hawt... Dang, I have yet to play Hod... Technically, come to think of it, I haven't even gotten all the way through SotN, because the game disk I got was scratched, which proved to be just too annoying for me to handle (mainly issues with music skipping). But I'm very excited, I loved AoS and DoS, both incredibly awesome games which I have played through more times than I can count. To me, that's basically the essence of a great game. You get to the end, and your first impulse is to start all over.

[Mak-X]

It sounds like its going to be a sequel to Castlevania Bloodlines for the Genesis, since it has Johnathan Morris, who is either John Morris from that game, or a descendant.
http://castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com/Games/cvb.html

Symphony of the Night was made by the current producer of the series, Koji Igarashi (IGA), and they basically tried to make another Metroid since there hadn't been one in a while. They also worked on HoD, AoS, DoS, Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox), and Lament of Innocence (PS2).

Another group at Konami worked on Circle of the Moon, and the N64 Castlevanias. I think they've got the platforming and level design down a little better than the normal Castlevania team, that's the main thing some of the Metroidvania style games lack that Circle of the Moon had.


And I'll second Dawn of Sorrow as being awesome. Its on par with Symphony of the Night, and is a little better in some ways in terms of difficulty. I need to go through it again and try to collect all of the souls, and beat it on Julius mode.

I'm also about 1/3 of the way through Curse of Darkness on PS2, and I have the Castlevania Double Pack for GBA that has Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. I've got Castlevania 2 and 3 to play through still on the NES (even have the Japanese CV3 cart to try out with the better sound someday), and I recently played through Dracula X on the SNES again. One day I've gotta play Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine.

[Warlock]

It sounds like its going to be a sequel to Castlevania Bloodlines for the Genesis, since it has Johnathan Morris, who is either John Morris from that game, or a descendant.
http://castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com/Games/cvb.html

Symphony of the Night was made by the current producer of the series, Koji Igarashi (IGA), and they basically tried to make another Metroid since there hadn't been one in a while. They also worked on HoD, AoS, DoS, Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox), and Lament of Innocence (PS2).

Another group at Konami worked on Circle of the Moon, and the N64 Castlevanias. I think they've got the platforming and level design down a little better than the normal Castlevania team, that's the main thing some of the Metroidvania style games lack that Circle of the Moon had.


And I'll second Dawn of Sorrow as being awesome. Its on par with Symphony of the Night, and is a little better in some ways in terms of difficulty. I need to go through it again and try to collect all of the souls, and beat it on Julius mode.

I'm also about 1/3 of the way through Curse of Darkness on PS2, and I have the Castlevania Double Pack for GBA that has Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. I've got Castlevania 2 and 3 to play through still on the NES (even have the Japanese CV3 cart to try out with the better sound someday), and I recently played through Dracula X on the SNES again. One day I've gotta play Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine.

Julius mode was by far the best "extra" mode of any Castlevania period. It was a totally new game. And HARD! Not "ok, you've beaten the game so here - play as this guy who can one-shot all the bosses!"

[ShadowTiger]

Maxim in HoD/WNC was another such mode. You could do something fairly similar to Samus's Screw attack, and do that through the whole entire game. I think that was BETTER than one-shotting with Julius. ._o' A shame all the items are removed though. :| Playing as Maxim was really something to be experienced, ... like flying in real life.

(Airplanes need not apply.)

[punkonjunk1024]

And I'll second Dawn of Sorrow as being awesome. Its on par with Symphony of the Night, and is a little better in some ways in terms of difficulty. I need to go through it again and try to collect all of the souls, and beat it on Julius mode.
DoS, god, yes.
DoS=SoTN, NO NO NO.
I liked it, but it was far too similar to AoS. However, it did have as good of replay value as SoTN, which was great. I went through it 5ish times straight before I actually got bored of it.

This new one looks great, too. I like the stick to 2D styles, even with a 3D capable system. It's refreshing to see them NOT destroying our last system of 2D style platformers - The handheld.

[Saffith]

Some more screenshots: http://www.meristation.com/v3/listado_imagenes.php?pic=DS&id=cw4443995fa9898&idj=cw4443995fa9898

It certainly looks redder than DoS so far.

[MacWeirdo42]

I will say, I'm gonna miss the swords. Half the fun of the "Sorrow" games was collecting all the different swords. Of course, this looks like it's gonna really kick butt, too. Yay, I'm SOOOO happy I got myself a DS right now.