Castlevania, again! But that's a good thing.
The second Castlevania game on the DS, the previous being Dawn of Souls, comes in the form of Portrait of Ruin. While Dawn of Sorrow followed on from the 2003 GameBoy Advance game Aria of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin is set in a time before these games, during World War II. Due to the devastation that has befallen the world, Dracula's castle has come back in to the world again. By taking control of not one, but two characters (Jonathan Morris, a mainly physical fighter, and Charlotte Aulin, a skilled mage) you must stop Dracula before he can be returned to his full power.
As you're now working with two protagonists, Portrait of Ruin features many new abilities and skills which take advantage of having two distinct characters. The player is able to switch between the two characters is order to take full advantage of their unique abilities, or they can make the other character simply follow them, attacking when an enemy gets too close. The game also features some more fanciful abilities, such as being able to jump on your partners shoulders for a slight double jump, or the Dual Crush abilities, which are powerful attacks which feature both characters working together to execute them.
As you have two characters splitting the usual host of abilities in this instance of Castlevania, it seems that your characters never get as powerful as, say, Soma from Dawn of Sorrow. However, with Jonathan's focus on Physical abilities and Charlotte's use of magic, using the two together is paramount and plays entirely in to the games hands. During normal play, it's may not be possible to rely only solely on one character as certain enemies have particular weaknesses.
Unlike other Castlevania's, the field of play is not solely restricted to the main castle. There are cursed portraits throughout the castle, through which the player can travel to other levels in the game. There are 4 of these in total before you reach the classic Castlevania staple, the "Bad Ending". Getting past this moment and 4 more portraits become available, although these are simply mirrored/flipped/or slightly changed versions of the previous portraits with stronger enemies and extra bosses. If you manage to find every secret in each of these portraits as well as the main castle, can lead to a 1000% completion of the game. Beyond this, of course, you can attempt to collect all the in game skills, items and levels up as far as you can, tasks that can easily add hours to a game which may take around 8 hours to complete for a first play through.
Graphically, Portrait of Ruin looks fantastic on the DS. Featuring the same Anime inspired style as Dawn of Sorrow, the game has some fantastically detailed sprites and skill animations. Character movement is very fluid and the art style suits the DS and it's graphical capabilities. The sound direction is also very solid, with satisfying music and sound effects.
Portrait is yet another 2D Castlevania that hits all the right notes, culminating in a satisfying experience. On a par with Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait balances re-using and re-inventing perfectly, giving the player enough of a reason to go out and get this game. Fans of the series will get a lot out of this, but new players shouldn't be afraid of jumping in. The difficulty of this game seems to be set just right for new and old players alike, so jumping in to Castlevania should be something any DS owner should look in to.
