Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Act III

 

Portrait of Ruin draws to a close, as unfortunately this super-good game has an end. Took about 8 hours, would have been totally fine with it taking another 20. Today I take out the last four portraits.

Ya know, I'm starting to wonder if Konami saw these 2D 'Vanias as B-Team projects and most of their resources went into the 3D console 'Vanias. Which would be kinda comical considering how much better-regarded Iga's 2D creations are. I don't even really think of the 3D 'Vanias as the same series.

In Dark Academy, I find the Flame Whip. This thing is fun to play around with, too bad I didn't get it a lot earlier! At this point any whip I find is obsolete.

One of my favorite 'Vania bosses, the Minotaur, shows up as a regular enemy at this point. You also run into Slogra and Gaibon a lot and they too are regular foes. I remember when those guys were terrifying bosses.

Disembodied groping-hands follow our hero around en-route to...

...the real Dark Academy boss, "The Creature" (aka Frankenstein's Monster).

This is a truly classic 'Vania boss, and he now has a machine gun in his elbow.

With the Dark Academy downed, the next of the final four paintings is the Forgotten City. This is basically a night-time version of the Sandy Grave, with the same rad music, so it's great to get another desert world.

After falling down a sand pit, I find that most of this zone is an underground pyramid. Which is almost like an inverted version of the first desert zone.

The boss here is this mummy. It's one of the easiest fights in the game, and mostly just stands there. It's got a nasty wall-tile attack, but that's about it.

Next painting is the weirdly-named Burnt Paradise. This is another inverted city that seems to be turned on its side in most areas. Also, I notice that the four "second half" paintings beyond the bad ending are all asset flips of the four normal-game paintings.

I use Owl Morph to bypass a lot of the tougher foes at this point. No real need to level grind at this stage (40 is totally sufficient to beat the game) and the foes are starting to hit really hard now.

Next boss...is the giant snake from Mega Man 3!

No, actually, it's Medusa, which morphs between the giant snake form and the standard Medusa form. This boss can do some damage, and the key is to relentlessly fire away with the Vampire Killer so the fight doesn't drag on. Boss life meters would have helped a lot in this game, but they're nowhere to be found in Iga-Metroidvania.

Next painting is... 13th Street. That's what it's called, 13th Street. It's another city zone, and it's probably the cleanest and most well-kept out of all of them.

Seriously, check out how awesome this place looks. It's actually pretty stunning. Like a non-rainy, nighttime version of that first painting zone.

Very early in this area, a train plows into you and pushes your characters right out of the room. The key here is to go in with one character, and when the train hits them, press A as quick as possible to bring the other character down in push-mode. With both characters pushing from the get-go, the train will stop just short of knocking them out of the room. Even if you know what to do, the timing has to be perfect or the train will just push you out of the hallway over and over. It's so weird and out of place that it feels like you're not even supposed to be here yet.

Charlotte has been getting these stat boost spells all game, but I've been pretty much ignoring them for the most part, focusing instead on attack spells. Probably made a mistake on that one, because pressing R while playing as Jonathan causes Charlotte to cast her equipped spell on him, and these buffs would have probably been a big help. This one in particular combines all the other individual stat buffs.

13th Street zone boss is Werewolf, which looks like the Super Shredder version of all the other werewolf bosses in the series. This thing is a full-on beast, but it pauses a lot to pant, and wasn't that tough to blitz with the Vampire Killer. The painting bosses in the back four paintings have been pretty easy, especially compared to the earlier fights like Richter, Death, and the sisters.

With all of the Final Four paintings downed, the big painting is now accessible, and leads to the final boss (or is he?)

Brauner is OUTRAGED that our heroes barged in on him, assuming that they must have slain his daughters. He's missed a LOT of the plot.

Wonder how many players defeated the sisters, got the bad ending, and called it a day with the game thinking that was the end. Brauner escapes in that ending, but I could see someone easily assuming it's just sequel-bait. Not sure how I feel about the Igavanias usually having this "miss half the game if you don't meet certain criteria" model.

Brauner is another not-bad fight. He leaps around throwing fireballs and disappearing into various paintings. He's the one who created the painting levels that characterize this story, so just for that he's a memorable sub-villain in the series.

I proceed to DROP A METEOR ON HIM. My favorite dual-tech for the endgame, even though it's an MP hog.

Win the fight, and Death swoops in to kill Brauner off. Holy shit!

Death then retreats to the throne room of the castle. Apparently Brauner's death was the last one needed to revive this latest incarnation of Dracula. So Death was playing the Elizabeth Bathory role from Bloodlines here, using this new World War to bring back Dracula?

We get the ascent to the REAL final boss room, as is tradition. And to think, for a while I really thought Brauner was going to be the big bad of this game. When it comes to the 'Vania series, off-century years are NO PROBLEM, they'll figure out a way to get Dracula in there. ...while also avoiding covering the last two century-based Dracula battles.

A particularly sexy mural in the background depicts a woman protecting a child from a dragon.

Note the floor being completely blood-drenched leading to Dracula's room. No doubt from Death dragging Brauner and all the other corpses in there for his boss to Feed.

It took me 3 playthroughs before I discovered that the above room has a breakable ceiling, which leads to Charlotte's best armor and the Speed Up spell.

Speed Up is pretty amazing, and functions as a Metroid-esque Speed Booster where not only do you move much faster, you also insta-gib weak foes just by running through them. With this you can zip all around the map, filling in areas and collecting items. Makes going for 100% much more fun. And it's so easy to miss, too. Equip it on Charlotte and hit R every time you want to move super-fast as Jonathan. It seems to last until it's turned off, which is crazy.

Dracula is hanging out with Death, looking very spry for 800. This game does something interesting, and...

...has the two bad guys team up against you for the first time ever. Which works, because it's technically a two-on-two.

The Dracula/Death combination is tough, but nowhere near as bad as the Sisters or Richter. Dracula does his normal teleporting schtick while Death flies around doing scythe slashes.

Once the pattern is locked down, Dracula is simple enough, and Death can be baited. Also, dropping a meteor on them helps. Not sure if they share the same life meter or the fight just ends when you defeat one of them.

The problem is, after that fight, you get True Dracula (aka the two of them combined) and it's a whole new fight with a massive amount of HP. Having to do this after the other fight is actually kinda cruel, except for all the heal potions I'm packing. Spam those and this is no problem.

Our heroes wailing away! Look at 'em go! It looks like Drac finally noticed how hot Charlotte is and is trying to carry her off with his talons.

True Dracula's most threatening attack is this insta-death move where giant hands converge on the screen and you have to furiously whip both of them until they back off. Fail to do this and they clamp down and it's game over. Yeah, this fight is definitely on the brutal side.

In the 1999 Julius game we never got. Which means that, chronologically, this is the final battle with Dracula in the entire Castlevania series, unless you count Dawn of Sorrow's Julius Mode as canon. Which reminds me, Julius Mode was a great beta test for this game's character-switching mechanic.

Double Trouble over here regret all the stuff they did as vampires. Well, now they get to live normal human lives and die, thanks to Charlotte's cure spell. Thanks, Charlotte. Thanks a LOT.

Stella: "Perhaps all of us...simultaneous?"

Charlotte: "Simultaneous loving? I don't know, that seems dangerous."

Eric Lecarde's ghost shows up to kill the vibe, wishing his daughters well with their foursome or whatever it is that's happening after the credits roll.

Beating the game unlocks two new modes. One has you playing as Richter and Maria, the other has you playing as the Sisters.

They're hot!

Sisters mode has you playing as the duo before the events of the main game, looking for Eric Lecarde.

They can fly around the screen with impunity, which means they can pretty much go anywhere in the game right from the get-go. The objective of this mode is to get to Brauner's room, where he'll insta-gib both of 'em. So there isn't a final boss, it's just "beat the 8 painting levels". Unfortunately I won't be playing this mode because all of the Sisters' attacks require swiping or furiously rubbing the DS touchscreen, which isn't exactly doable on the Switch.

This game was nearly perfect, but I KNEW they'd find a way to figure in Nintendo DS Waggle Motion (tm) before it was all said and done.

Richter Mode on the other hand is the real meat of the postgame. Richter is overpowered, moves super fast, and is a blast to play as. He starts with the fully-powered whip, naturally. It leaves this light-tracing when you whip it around, which is awesome. He also has all of the traditional Belmont special attacks, and can switch between them at will. I just used the Axe for the whole duration, just like I did in the main game.

Maria is the second character you can switch to at will, and has her bird-spam from Rondo of Blood. She isn't as OP here as she is in that game because Richter hits a lot harder. She's got the same special attacks as that game, though, including the super-useful green dragon attack. In this game, a strong attack that beams out in a straight line (and can be fired in midair) is difficult to find.

Like the main game, the best early level-up spot is the trio of snipers on these stairs near the beginning. And yeah, you can level up in this mode, despite the lack of a menu screen of any kind. So I have no idea how much strength you gain from each level-up, but it's good that leveling is an option.

Richter has this rising uppercut from pressing L while jumping, and it can be spammed to turn it into a sort of Space Jump manuever. This is the only actual way to progress through the game, like previous Richter Modes in other games.

Maria can Morph Ball up to get into areas I needed Toad Morph for before. Unfortunately, there's nothing to find, because this mode doesn't have any relics or spells. ...or heals, which is gonna be a problem. Only things to look out for are HP Max upgrades and their MP counterparts, which are in the same spots as the normal game.

How cool is it that these Iga-Metroidvanias combine so many different fun elements from other games? They've got spells, normal 'Vania special attacks, level-ups, Heart Containers ala Zelda, etc.

No Richter fight in this mode, obviously, but I still have to fight everyone else. Here's Death murdering poor Richter.

The Sisters are particularly treacherous in this mode, no skipping them. Stella has this vicious ice sword attack that seems to be an insta-kill if it lands.

In the last set of four portraits, I take on 13th Street first because it's got the best level-up spot (and the nicest backgrounds). Here's Maria's deadly green dragon attack.

The best level-up spot in the entire game (in this mode, anyway) is this secret room in 13th Street. Maria's dragon attack makes short work of all the foes in the room (not sure what equivalent I could use in the main game) and they give a TON of exp.

I quickly go from level 26 to (Jesus) level 60. And this is actually needed, because the enemy attack power skyrockets in these four portraits and the inability to use heal potions in this mode really becomes a problem.

Man, this level is so damn good-looking. My total runtime for Richter Mode clocked in at 4 hours (half of the regular game) and maybe one hour tops was spent on the level grinds, so it was about a 3 hour run.

Werewolf fight, the only boss fight I recorded. Richter and Maria bounced this boss around between them like the Night at the Roxbury guys.

Fronken-steen's monster is another one that I just totally blitz with these guys. Richter strikes fast and hits hard, and combine that with Maria spamming birds and green dragons (hit R as much as possible) and any large stationary bosses barely have a chance. The Sisters are really the only fight you have to worry about in this mode, aside from the final boss.

After quickly taking out red herring sub-villain Brauner again...

...we get the toughest fight of Richter Mode, by far. With this fight having two phases and the player having no heals, level 60 might actually be LOW for this.

The key is to get the first phase's patterns down well enough that you barely lose any health going into the second phase.

From there it's just a matter of doing the hit-and-run manuever until he eventually keels over. Whew. Well, that last fight definitely wasn't balanced with a complete lack of heals in mind. It's funny because the rest of Richter Mode is much easier than the normal game, then it hits you with this super tough final boss.

For postgame, beyond the extra characters, there's also a boss rush... and the Nest of Evil, seen here. The NoE is basically a secret 9th portrait that unlocks if you complete the map, and it's a trial where every room has super-strong enemies in it. Fun Fact: Most of the Nest of Evil consists of reused assets from another Konami game from a few years earlier.

I've still got Order of Ecclesia to go before I can rank the Igavanias and figure out which of them reigns supreme as Top Igavania. Along with one other certain 'Vania I haven't done yet (only the 2D ones for me, no interest in the 3D ones at this time) and a notable spinoff of sorts. So I'm not quite at the end of my 'Vania crusade yet with several things remaining. I'll probably try to hit the rest for Halloween as is tradition.

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