Tag: ds

Again, the stats: 8 hours 34 minutes in, Level 39 reached, 895.5% explored. Good lord. Who’s betting it’ll be 1000% when all is done?

So I completed the final four paintings. Or at least, what I thought were the final four. The bosses today included Medusa (who was VERY easy, once I realised there was a place you could stand, from where you could slap her about, but not get hit by any of her attacks (well, you had to duck for one, but still). I also had Frankenstein’s Monster, and a Werewolf to kill, neither of which were especially difficult. Oh, and a mummy, who was easy too.

I’ve ditched the Nebula whip in favour of the Royal Sword I got for completing one of Wind’s quests. It’s a little slow, but does waaaaaay more damage than anything else I had at the time of getting it, and even now it’s still my most powerful weapon.

Anyway. After all the paintings were done, the big one they were “sealing” opened, and I went inside to kill Brauner. He was pretty simple once I realised his pattern, and also I found that I’d picked up a Meteor spell somewhere along the way which really helped too. With him dead, the doorway to Dracula was open. So you do have to kill Dracula in this game – it didn’t look like that was going to happen…

But I failed to do so. The reason? You don’t fight Dracula. You fight Dracula and Death. At the same time. Gah!

So I stopped all that and decided to go and do some more quests. Collected loads more items and spells and things along the way, and when I reached 888% explored I opened up a new area and a new painting – Nest of Evil. It’s Boss Rush mode, more or less! I gave it a go, and got through all the rooms of “normal” baddies, only to come across a baddie from Dawn of Sorrow who promptly killed me.

I will start by pointing out my “stats” at the end of today’s play: 6-ish hours in, Level 30-ish ranked, and (wait for it…) 455% explored. Why bother with a percentage if you’re going to go over 100%? Eh? Anyway.

I finished my fourth painting, and then explored more of the castle. This involved back-tracking into other paintings for power-ups I may have missed (like the Toad Morph one), and then I made it up into the Clock Tower. Every Castlevania needs a Clock Tower!

There, as is usual, I met Death. And, as is also usual, he killed me. A lot.

Then I figured out his weakness (he has two forms – one is weak to magic, the other weak to physical attacks) and pattern, and so defeated him with relative ease. A short jaunt around a bit more of the top of the castle (returning to Vincent and Wind, and finding Vincent was turning into a vampire…), and I found Loretta and Stella. And I (after a couple of attempts) killed them. Oops.

It seems you’re not supposed to kill them. You’re supposed to cure them. With the “Sanctuary” spell that I didn’t have.

I decided to do some more quests for Wind instead, and in doing so, I found Sanctuary! This not only cured Vincent, but saved the twins too. Aces. They then opened up a new room, with five new paintings in. Apparently, I have to close the four smaller ones to open the last one.

Off I went into the “Dark Academy” painting, where I found an Owl Morph spell, and lots of big, difficult baddies. I think I may have to move past my Nebula whip (which has been great), as it just isn’t powerful enough any more.

Sand painting boss found! It was some woman who, who had a strange attack – she throws hearts at you, and if you’re Jonathan, and they hit you, then she takes control of you and you control Charlotte. Jonathan then attacks you. Erk.

Luckily, I killed her without too many attempts, and then it was back to the Castle to rest up, and move onwards (and upwards). I found the next painting – Nations of Fools – which was set in a circus, although some of it was upside-down and sideways and all sorts.

The boss there was Legion, the giant ball of people with tentacles inside. He wasn’t too hard, but wasn’t anywhere near as easy as the kill-without-being-hit version in Harmony of Dissonance.

After that, I explored more of the castle and bumped into Stella, one of the twin vampire girls. She attacked me, but was pretty easy to defeat. I got a locket from her, which revealed the true identity of Wind – linking the game further to Castlevania: Bloodlines, which I haven’t completed yet. Confronting Wind explained some more backstory to what happened between Bloodlines and Portrait of Ruin, how the Morris family ended up with the Belmont’s Vampire Killer whip, and foreshadows an event due to happen in 1999. The same event Julius mentions in Aria of Sorrow that Konami haven’t turned into a game yet. I wish they would!

Finally (for now) I spent a while doing quests for Eri^H^H^HWind, gained a few new moves, and figured out how to mince the meat – you need to punch the animal corpses – Rocky style!

I’m just over two and a half hours in, on Level 21, and have uncovered uh, 344.5% of the map. And you thought the 198.8% of Harmony was extreme…

And into the next painting I went! One nice thing about the paintings is that it allows Castlevania-ing in locations not normally included in Castlevania. So there’s a bit less castle, and more, well – this painting is in Egypt, so it’s got sand. And sandworms! It adds a bit of variety to the proceedings, anyway.

So I’ve gone though loads of this Egyptian level, and not found a boss yet. I’ve found a few places I can’t yet reach (even though I now have the double-jump power-up), and I have a better whip, which means I’ve ditched the slow sword I was using. I bumped into Brauner and his twin daughters, but they don’t want to fight me, instead wanting to dispatch Death who I’d previously seen poking around.

Wow. Just wow.

Yeah, so it doesn’t have the soul collecting of Dawn of Sorrow, and the tag-team system ranges from pointless to annoying, but how any reviewer can say this is anything less than fantastic is beyond me. It ticks all the boxes: save points and warps in sensible places, a shop to buy potions, a great (if confusing, currently) story, and excellent graphics and controls.

Today’s play took me back to the City painting, as Wind told me to “find the butcher in town and mince some meat”. So off I went, found the meat, slapped it about a bit, and erm, nothing happened. Tried all sorts of powers and skills and magic and weapons on it, and… nothing. Hmm.

Then I left the painting and went off exploring the castle. I found another painting (which I haven’t entered yet) and another boss (some green goo in a big pot) who was pretty easy to kill. Level 12 and 130% explored now!

Just in the nick of time! With my handheld versions of Castlevania having run out yesterday, Play Asia delivered Portrait of Ruin today. Phew, eh?

And… is it any good? Of course it is! It’s ACES!

The first thing to hit me was the graphics. Not the character graphics, as although they’re good – they’re nothing special, but the backgrounds. Several layers deep with detailed parallax. 3D objects in the distance (like a big abbey thing which you see ‘around’ as you walk past). Of course, Dawn of Sorrow had much of this, but having spent the last few weeks with the GB and GBA Castlevania titles, it’s enough to blow you away. There’s also some nice use of 3D on some of the enemies – the Peeping Eye, for example, is fully 3D and swoops and rotates and flicks its tail at you. Lovely.

So progress, then. I’ve found Wind, entered my first painting, found the boss therein (a headless suit of armour and a flying separate head) which was really very hard until I discovered (a) the pattern, and (b) a tag-team giant lightning cross “smart-bomb” type move. Yes, I said tag-team: you control two characters – Jonathan Morris and, um, a girl whose name I’ve forgotten. You switch between them by pressing a button, and can operate both characters at one for pushing things and pulling levers and using each other as a boost up. Anyway, I’m digressing.

I killed the armour boss, and “finished” the painting. I then moved on through the main castle itself, and found another boss (who is a creature that chased me at the start of the game). It was pretty easy, actually. I’m now in a new part of the castle, and I’m looking for another painting. I’m about one hour 20 minutes in, and have explored 112%-ish of the castle. Yes. 112% and I’ve only done two bosses. Hmm.