Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Video

[EvilBob46]

Gamevideos.com (http://www.gamevideos.com) has a new video (http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/4703) of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS, the latest installment in Konami's long-running Castlevania series. In addition to offering the 2D Castleroid-style gameplay the series is known for, the game allows you to make use of two different characters (and switch freely between them) and execute massive combo attacks. The game will also have online multiplayer over Nintendo WiFi (either a cooperative or versus mode, the final decision on the matter has not been made yet). Portrait of Ruin is expected to be released some time later this year.

[Adam Blue]

Kool-aid man style: Ohhhh yeaaahhh!

[card930]

It looks fun. I'm definately going to buy it.

There's also another gameplay video at:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/castlevania-portrait-of-ruin-gameplay-vid-188917.php

After you watch the second video, come back and read this comment.

That being said, why was Dawn of Sorrow and why is this game looking to be so easy? Jesus I want a challenging Castlevania. I LOVE Castlevania. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is probably still my favorite game ever. I owned the game before I owned a PS1.

I enjoyed Dawn of Sorrow, but when you put it next to C:SotN, or even Aria of Sorrow, its sadly not nearly as good. The castle sucked, it felt like there was about 3 different enemies in the whole game, and time was spent FAR too much on the various powers you could acquire, instead of these other points. I personally think that's where it all went wrong.
If you're like me (and it could be possible, but maybe I'm wrong, who knows), then you only used something like 6 powers, and one weapon time you really liked. I maybe experimented with all the rest of the powers maybe once or twice and then kept using the souls that were REALLY effective, and got me through the game. I felt no compelling to use the 100 or so other souls that really just didn't get the job done. So why were they there?

Maybe I'm just nitpicking.

But dammit, I don't want to be able to kill an Axe Armor when I'm level 1 in only 3 hits! :) I want that thing to kick my ass a few times! Hell, in that second video, most of the monsters don't even get to attack! Why even bother programming their attacks in, if you don't even get to see them go off when you're only level 1?

grumble grumble...

[ECM]

I thought SOTN was every bit as easy as all the GBA/DS CVs outside of Circle of the Moon (which could be a real beast at times.) The noly hard CVs (to me, anyway) were the 3 on NES and the first on GBA (I guess the ones on GB were pretty rough at times, too, but I don't have particularly fond memories of the various Adventure games.) I do agree, though, that they are far, far too easy and I actually mete those games out in small doses to make them last longer.

As far as souls in Dawn of Sorrow, I used about two souls to wreck the entire game (balance was not that games strong suit.)

[Nojiko]

Sweet, been waiting for a new handheld Castlevania. Only fun ones left, I think.

Wish the guys in charge of making the console ones would figure out that Devil May Cry is a better representation of a 3D Castlevania than the crap they've been putting out.

[Chiron]

I agree, DoS is really very easy, but it doesn't start out that way; I wish it kept the initial level of difficulty without. Removing the whole 'leveling' system would go a long way to solving that. Earlier enemies will hit you for 1 damage while you one-shot them; it makes backtracking through previous sections of the castle boring.
I would like to have seen more puzzles having to do with the soul system, rather than the lame slot machines and whatnot. There's one puzzle early in the game where a skeleton is embedded in the wall, and using the skeleton's soul on it opens up the passage--this is far more interesting then 'match the last 3 digits of your money with the slot machine number'.
I have really enjoyed the game, and it's fun collecting souls and using the different powers. Hopefully the new game is more challenging.

[EmoryM]

I hope the game is playable without having the NPC out the entire time, seems like a gimmick. I agree about only using a handful of souls in the last game, I think I kept the HP vacuum on the R-button for the entire time... I didn't see a problem though.

Everyone is going to have their favorite combination and stick with it, right?

[Triprotic]

I loved SotN, and the three CV games on the GBA, but DoS I couldn't finish, it seemed boring to me. There were a few nice touches to the game (mainly stylus related), but I just couldn't bring myself to finishing it.

Looking at this game, I don't think I'll be getting it :(

Shame really, because of those fond memories I have to the eariler games.

[card930]

I hope the game is playable without having the NPC out the entire time, seems like a gimmick. I agree about only using a handful of souls in the last game, I think I kept the HP vacuum on the R-button for the entire time... I didn't see a problem though.

Everyone is going to have their favorite combination and stick with it, right?

If you watch that second video I liked off of Kotaku to, they play through just about the whole thing without the second character out. Give it a look.

[Adam Blue]

I think DoS has this game mode in it after you beat the game. Julius mode, right? It lets you switch between the two characters, but not at the same time. I'm not into that, and I'm not into the girl's weapons. Luckily, I heard the soul system will be scrapped. I agree with you card, DoS was too easy, especially the GBA games. I had a few hours to kill, bought HoD, and beat it without stopping. I was pissed.

[DeathtollWRX]

It looks 2d. It would have been nice if they used 3d models for everything but still kept it 2d gameplay (new super mario)

[Adam Blue]

It looks 2d. It would have been nice if they used 3d models for everything but still kept it 2d gameplay (new super mario)

Nah...I prefer drawn characters. Many Devs tend to get lazy with 3D models. Some of the enemies in the vids are 3D, like the eye, and it looks like crap compared to the original artwork.

They did Gradius V the same way, and while some of it looked good, it didn't have the same atmospehre because of the polygons.

NSMB was able to pull it off because it is a cartoon world to begin with.