The latest iteration of Castlevania delivers a solid experience, but not a very memorable one.
User Rating: 8 | Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin DS
Maybe it's just me, but I expected Portrait of Ruin to feel more... unique. Not just in gameplay, but in the story as well. What could have been a potentially gripping tale just turns out to be another night at Dracula's castle. The introduction of the vampire lord Brauner doesn't really do much for the game at all. However, gameplay is where it counts and Portrait of Ruin is largely an impressive effort. Those who love the Castlevania exploits set by Symphonia of the Night shant be disappointed, as it maintains the series tried and true methods of exploration with some killer new mechanics; the biggest of these being the partner system. While traveling about, you can swap between Jonathon or Charlotte. As is prominent in video game lore, Jonny excells in smacking things while the Misses prefer magic. The immediate problem here is that you'll never want to play as Jonathon. Charlotte's MP regeneration rate is almost broken, as you'll no doubt be capable of clearing any threat as her before her MP runs dry. Plus, her spells are extremely easy to cast, often times have homing capabilities or cover a large amount of the screen and do tons of damage. This creates a severe imbalance between the two characters. While Jon offers more melee-focused attacks that are classic to a Castlevania game, his MP recover rate is abysmal and his sub-weapons consume large amounts of his mana. He's not a bad choice, but why play as him when his partner is by and far the superior fighter? To make matters worse, Charlotte's magic spells are kick ass the moment you obtain them. However, Jonathon's subweapons are weak when obtained and require an annoying amount of use before they become remotely helpful.
Regardless, the game still offers hours of monster-mashing fun, and the highly diverse environments are a huge welcome. Plus, there's a ton of optional content. Unfortunately, none of these bonus modes match up to the brilliance of Julius Mode from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. And while the multi-player is a huge plus thanks to its Wi-Fi capabilities, it's rather meager and mostly boils down to racing to the end of the stage as quickly as possible. Overall, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is a worthy buy for any DS owner, but comes up a bit short sadly. 
