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Nerdy Knight
06-16-2008, 11:33 AM
Now that I'm officially out of school for the Summer, I can hopefully start pumping out these game reviews at my average pace again. Anyways, I thought I would do a review on a Castlevania game, seeing as how Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is coming out soon. Allow me to present to you my review of:

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

http://www.pointminiaturas.com/images/games/ds/castleds.jpg

In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, you play the role of Jonathan Morris and his partner Charlotte Orlean. Blood related to the clan of vampire killers known as the Belmonts, Jonathan obtains the ability to use the legendary Vampire Killer, a whip endowed with the power to kill Dracula, but cannot use it's true power. Nevertheless, Jonathan and Charlotte brave the dangers of Dracula's Castle, but little do they know that another danger besides Dracula awaits them inside...
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Storyline/Plot...8/10
Castlevania games have never heavily relied on storylines to catch their audience, and the tradition stays true in PoR. Not to say this is a bad thing, however. PoR's plot is very easy to follow and has several plot twists to keep the story somewhat interesting. This Castlevania also includes several more characters than average, adding for more character interaction and much more.
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Graphics...9.5/10
Staying true to the series' 2-D platforming roots, PoR uses excellently detailed sprites along with awesome special and flashy effects to make for some impressive visuals. From Jonathan's red cloak flapping behind you as you crawl through the game's vast and highly detailed backgrounds, to Charlotte's flowing locks as she casts destructively cool looking magic spells, this game has it all in the graphics department. Here's some shiny screen shots:

http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/770/770581/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-20070306100937163.jpg

http://www.gameaxis.com/img/blog/156/Image/e3_07%20(Small).JPG

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/reviews/nds/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin/02.jpg

http://www.nintendolesite.com/images/tests/test_Castlevania_Portrait_of_Ruin_3.jpg
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Gameplay...9/10
Celebrating 20 years of gothical dungeon crawling, Castlevania stays true to hardcore fans, and offers some amazing new content as well. PoR features a new Partner System that allows new Union attacks and partner skills that can be used to traverse the castle more easily. PoR also introduces the new Wi-Fi, Shop, and Co-Op Modes. The game still includes features from the previous Castlevania for the DS, such as pressing SELECT to switch the top screen from a map to character and monster stats on the fly, and using the stylus to do several actions and commands. The replay value on this game is incredible, due to the fact that once you beat the game, you can select from 2 other sets of characters to play through the game as, and then select Hard Mode with 3 Leveling Options, such as being able to go no higher than level 50 to level 1.
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Overall...26.5/30
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin lives up to the series' great reputation, and is considered one of the best games for the DS. Fans of the older games and newcomers alike will enjoy this epic game for quite a while. I know I did. Thanks for reading my review.

rukisuto
06-16-2008, 11:47 AM
Good review :]
I really like how in-depth yours are.
Keep it up.

LiNuX
06-16-2008, 12:25 PM
is there a castlevania game for the ps2 too? i remember playing the game but i dont remember where lol - not portrait of the ruin, but something

good to see you are back onto reviewing :D good work here

Nerdy Knight
06-17-2008, 09:49 AM
Yeah. It was Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and um...what was the other one? Crap, I can't remember, but there were two of them. I didn't like those ones at all. The 3-D ones aren't very good at all.

Iceskater101
06-27-2008, 07:34 AM
I agree with ruki
I love your reviews also
I am looking foward to them