Forum Overview :: Nintendogs
 
I meant to write up this game some more later. by Jhoh Creebul, Witch Toucher O_O 12/20/2007, 8:15am PST
This is the only DS game I've paid money for so far, for two reasons. First it's worth it. Second, there's some kind of major error with the game where it will freeze up if you're using anything but the HIGHEST SPEED brand of microSD (they say Kingston 1 gig microSDs are the best to go with, but since this is the only game that has this problem, you probably don't need to go out of your way). Supposedly the game has such a problem with this that very rarely the cart itself can freeze up (like if you grind levels for 2 fawkin straight hours and you don't save). I didn't have that happen with the cart so wutevz.

Anyway this is probably the best Castlevania game so far. It's in the same Metroidian style that Symphony of the Night and Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, but this time you have two characters. You switch back and forth with the X button, so you can use Jonathan, who's your physical attacker type guy, and Charlotte who will do the spell casting. You can melee with Charlotte if you want, but usually the armor pigeonholes Jonathan into being your selectable person, because whoever you are actively controlling is who ends up draining the health bar (the alternate character only drains some MP when they die). The dynamics of this are handled very well and are only used in a few puzzles through the game, none of them being gay bullshit (there's one where you have to have them both on autodrive motorcycles through a corridor, and you have to switch back and forth between them to make them duck under obstacles).

You do the usual running through Dracula's castle fighting bosses, but most of the action takes place inside paintings that you jump into that offer alternate locations. There are some street and "modern" building type areas, a foresty area, two deserts, and a couple broken cityscapes that twist around in a giant circle (with the boss in the center room).

They added a basic quest system where you do things that this one dude (named Wind) wants and then he'll give you items, sometimes required for the true ending to the game. This leads to the one only negative thing about the game, and that is that you can accidentally sell a crappy ass item, like some Long Sword you found in the first painting level, and then you need that item to finish a quest, which means buy from the in game wifi shop which means someone has to have their DS frozen with the game open in a shop mode, so in other words NEVER. The alternative is to start a new game over (I lost a lot of progress) and find out what shit you're not supposed to sell because it'll be needed for a quest, then don't sell it. I wish they gave me a clue that I should at least not sell all the crappy ass items.

Anyway the axxxion is awesome and fuckin jumping around slapping enemies around is cool. They added several whips to the game's overall treasure thing, one is super long and sort of seeks enemies out, one is on fire, one is the Vampire Killer from the Belmont family (you have to fight some Belmont ghosts to unlock it's TRUE POWER RUUUUUUUUUUUUU PRETTY BEAST). Bosses are cool, most of them are ones you've seen before though, like the Legion which is that giant ball of featureless bodies that fall and you have to blast them off in chunks to get to the creature underneath. You actually fight Dracula at the end of this instead of someone who just wants to be Dracula or some NEWB with amazing powwas they stole from Dracula or a cult or whatever. Actually, you fight Dracula and Death at the same time which is kind of cool, and then Dracula uses SOUL STEAL on Death and absorbs him to become True Dracula and giant 3D polygon wings flap around the room and shit.

This game was only $20 and actually worth buying. Out of all the games I've played for free so far, the few worth really buying (to me) are: This game, Phoenix Wright 1, Elite Beat Agents, and I still thought that Princess Peach game was nice. FF3 wasn't too bad either but really with FF4 out there's really no reason to play FF3.
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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. by Jhoh Clbbl O_____O 12/11/2007, 9:46pm PST NEW
    I meant to write up this game some more later. by Jhoh Creebul, Witch Toucher O_O 12/20/2007, 8:15am PST NEW
        Re: I meant to write up this game some more later. by Last 12/20/2007, 9:09am PST NEW
            Re: I meant to write up this game some more later. by mark 12/20/2007, 10:54am PST NEW
            Re: I meant to write up this game some more later. by Jhoh Creebul, Witch Toucher O_O 12/23/2007, 7:39pm PST NEW
 
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