Legault reviews Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

I think everyone knows the series and how the developers try some new stuff each time, only to forget it in the next installment :D
+ The idea of using portraits to take the game out of the castle is nice and some locations are really pleasant to play in.
+ Team attacks. One of my favourite parts in the game. Something just feels really good about launching thousand knives in the gut of some faceless horror or filling the screen with lightning...
+ Final battle. I won't spoil anything (there are enough FAQs/walktroughs/fora on the internet who'll do it for me :D) but this battle was simply awesome. One of my favourite fights in a long time.
+ After finishing the game you get 2 new modes (there are 3 extra modes in total but most likely you won't have unlocked the third after your first playtrough :D) to play with and one of them, the Sisters mode, is really fun (altough quite OP but hey, you've beaten the game already :D)
- The idea of playing as two characters might appeal to some and might be repulsive to others, I didn't really mind. What I did mind was that Jonathan (whip-boy :D) was simply better than Charlotte (the magic-user)! Kinda sad because I found him a lot less fun to play as.
- Quite often you'll find yourself in dull terrain. 3 Portraits or so and the castle(!) itself are prime examples of this. It also doesn't help that you'll be visiting them a second time.
- When defeating foes you find weapons or spells for you to use but they don't give you any chance to experiment! This is a real shame when you look back on some previous installments where certain combinations created whole new weapons.

There's a lot wrong with the game and yes, Ecclesia is better, but that doesn't mean this isn't a fun game. Really worth playing :D