Games are never too old to enjoy. Unless they are really crap.
This one reminds me of the old SNES one, and that's definitely a good thing.
This one reminds me of the old SNES one, and that's definitely a good thing.
Love Portait, it's a great game. Never did quite 100% it though. Should really go back and finish that.
I just played through this one recently myself - despite the fact that it's commonly considered the least good of the DS 'vanias, I'm half-tempted to say that I enjoyed it more than Dawn of Sorrow, the common favorite. You're right in saying that the characters weren't quite balanced enough to justify using equally, and the re-using of earlier areas near the end is groan-worthy (and don't get me started on "mastering" Jon's weapons), but on the whole I thought that the overall experience flowed pretty nicely. Definitely try the rest of the series, most of them are pretty darn good.
You master John's weapons pretty easily in certain areas, then there's the money glitch.
I got 1,000% in this, good game, shame the ending doesn't change if you get everything.
I got 1,000% in this, good game, shame the ending doesn't change if you get everything.
I'd have reccomended Aria of Sorrow if I hadn't already seen it in your profile. The new 2D Castlevania games are some of the finest adventure/platformers that are still being made. After falling in love with Dawn of Sorrow about three years back (and completing that one with everything, 100%) I went to hunt out the rest myself.
The double pack with Aria and Harmony was one of the best purchases I've made, and seals my opinion on the Game Boy Advance being the most tragic console to lose in the last few years. Symphony is easy enough to get a hold of these days, either on PSP or XBLA (and PSN in America). I would highly reccomend any of them: they may be more of the same, but I'd enjoy playing them much more than most shiny home-console games!
I still need to get Order of Ecclesia, just waiting for it to come cheaper than £30 at the minute...
The double pack with Aria and Harmony was one of the best purchases I've made, and seals my opinion on the Game Boy Advance being the most tragic console to lose in the last few years. Symphony is easy enough to get a hold of these days, either on PSP or XBLA (and PSN in America). I would highly reccomend any of them: they may be more of the same, but I'd enjoy playing them much more than most shiny home-console games!
I still need to get Order of Ecclesia, just waiting for it to come cheaper than £30 at the minute...
I'm surprised there was no mention of the same levels being repeated twice.. that's everyone's biggest complaint about PoR, but it never bothered me too much. Glad to see I'm not the only one who can see past that. :)
Dawn of Sorrow is my favorite DS Castlevania so far (haven't played Order of Ecclesia yet), but I do really enjoy Portrait of Ruin as well. I played the opposite as you; I started out only using Charlotte (her spells are too damn useful), but I found that the closer I got to the end of the game, the more I started to use Jonathan. The end portions seem more tailored to his abilities.
Dawn of Sorrow is my favorite DS Castlevania so far (haven't played Order of Ecclesia yet), but I do really enjoy Portrait of Ruin as well. I played the opposite as you; I started out only using Charlotte (her spells are too damn useful), but I found that the closer I got to the end of the game, the more I started to use Jonathan. The end portions seem more tailored to his abilities.
Charlotte is this game's hard mode (outside of Hard Mode). She has some pretty nifty attacks but almost all of them require her to stand still and can't be done in the air, which is pretty bad.
Everyone Pies Whip's Memory. *shot*
@DCS: You'll love OoE. It has a lot of small stages, and weapons actually matter matter unlike in the recent CVs where you can just brute-force everything to death. And the bosses are notoriously hard, so you also can't just outlast bosses like in past games.
Everyone Pies Whip's Memory. *shot*
@DCS: You'll love OoE. It has a lot of small stages, and weapons actually matter matter unlike in the recent CVs where you can just brute-force everything to death. And the bosses are notoriously hard, so you also can't just outlast bosses like in past games.
I actually understand where you are coming from with this. OoE wasn't the first game in the series I played but it was the only one I didn't stop playing out of frustration and got me hooked on the series. Also, nice review.
@Ashley Davis
You should play Order of Ecclesia its a lot of fun and the bosses are hard in a good way except Dracula and those fucking bats of his.
@Ashley Davis
You should play Order of Ecclesia its a lot of fun and the bosses are hard in a good way except Dracula and those fucking bats of his.
PoR isn't a bad Castlevania game to start off with. But when you go play all the other DS games, Symphony of the Night, and the classic SNES version, you'll see PoR was rather "meh" in the handheld castlevania life.
As Ashley said, biggest problem is going through the stages 2 times...in a sense. With just newer monsters. Kudos to Konami for trying the dual partner bit but it really wasn't all that great. Go pick up Order of Ecclesia as it's a nice blend of old school straightforward Castlevania with the new School Symphony of the Night feel.
and don't worry. All PoR boxart is awful. Saturday morning Anime FTW.
As Ashley said, biggest problem is going through the stages 2 times...in a sense. With just newer monsters. Kudos to Konami for trying the dual partner bit but it really wasn't all that great. Go pick up Order of Ecclesia as it's a nice blend of old school straightforward Castlevania with the new School Symphony of the Night feel.
and don't worry. All PoR boxart is awful. Saturday morning Anime FTW.
Yes! Nice to see someone realising dis shit is good! You are going to be overjoyed by Symphony of the Night (just wait `till you hear the soundtrack), and i`d personally recommend Aria of Sorrow on GBA and Order of Ecclesia as the other two stone-cold classics on recent systems, though opinions vary. Portrait was the game that got me back into 2D `vanias, and I since chased up all the GBA titles, SON etc. But, unlike many people, I didn`t dig Dawn of Sorrow as much as Portrait of Ruin - the game world in DOS seems so 1 dimensional compared to POR`s expansive, world hopping stages. There all sweet though, and Ecclesia is SO satisfying to beat, being as it is quite friggin tough, though gloriously so - such a perfect difficulty curve in it, and it treats you well for a while before handing you your ass again and waking you up.......and the music is just sublime. I just excreted love juices for all recent 2D castlevanias. Haven`t got round to the 8bit incarnations yet....
As a huge fan of the 'SOTN and beyond' CV games, I'm glad to see another gamer get into them. However, if you liked Portrait of Ruin, you'll love the others. PoR was the weakest of the most recent CV games and it's the last one I'd recomend, still a great and enjoyable game, especially the music, but I felt the others were better. I have yet to play Dawn of Sorrow, and I haven't completed Circle of the Moon yet, but go with any of the other CV games and you'll have fun.
@DISCARDED COUCH SANDWICH: Hehe, I actually need to change that. I got the double pack, and started Harmony instead of Aria. I didn't realize until after the fact. I fail. :P But I'm enjoying it immensely just the same. :)
@ASHLEY DAVIS: I actually forgot about that part when I typed the review. To be honest, it -really- didn't bother me. Those levels had new music, and were different enough for me to still enjoy. :) And yeah, charlotte's spells are great, if you can pul them off, which can be hard. D:
@SHIN ONI: I don't mean to be dumb here, but are you talking about Super Castlevania IV? Cuz, there's two SNES ones...:/ Dracula X's playable character was in PoR...so...
Also, I keep hearing so many good things about Symphony of the Night, I will make sure to get this off my PS3 soon. :D
@ASHLEY DAVIS: I actually forgot about that part when I typed the review. To be honest, it -really- didn't bother me. Those levels had new music, and were different enough for me to still enjoy. :) And yeah, charlotte's spells are great, if you can pul them off, which can be hard. D:
@SHIN ONI: I don't mean to be dumb here, but are you talking about Super Castlevania IV? Cuz, there's two SNES ones...:/ Dracula X's playable character was in PoR...so...
Also, I keep hearing so many good things about Symphony of the Night, I will make sure to get this off my PS3 soon. :D

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