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General Boards => Gaming => Topic started by: JonLeung on October 23, 2006, 02:48:38 pm

Title: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on October 23, 2006, 02:48:38 pm
Sweet!



I thought it was just a soundtrack CD before but it also includes a 48-page artbook, a stylus, a DS game case, and a timeline poster.



Since there are lots of Castlevania fans here I thought I'd point this out.  It's also a pretty good pre-order bonus...haven't seen a good one for a while.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on October 23, 2006, 03:12:33 pm
Ordered :)
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on October 23, 2006, 03:33:32 pm
I suppose there's no way to order that soundtrack CD separately, right?



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on October 23, 2006, 03:44:08 pm
As I said on the Planet GameCube forums...



"Holy water! When I first heard about this elsewhere, I just heard about the soundtrack CD and was, like, meh... Castlevania music is pretty good but a lot of it's been remixed to death.



The artbook sounds sweet, though. And the carrying case and stlyus might be cool. The fancy wax-sealed box makes this really sound like it could be a hot collectible set. I might be cross if I miss out on this.



Is it true about Circle Of The Moon and the two N64 games being axed from the official Castlevania timeline? That timeline thing might be neat for like two minutes...then later as a reference, but not for long since they'll keep making more games.



(Ummm...dagger. Yeah.)"
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on October 23, 2006, 08:03:17 pm
Jon, I've been quiet for too long. I have to ask you now, why do you insist on capitalizing the 'v'? Is there a single canonical source that capitalizes it? I'll grant that the old logo looks like it could be capitalized, but the new logo has it obviously in lowercase.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on October 23, 2006, 08:15:24 pm
It's a habit I have.  Obviously they've done something with the V in most games, and being a visual person (you know, like how I can't fathom why people can't see that Game Boy is clearly two words or when movie or game titles use Roman numerals and hate when people refer to them with a number) I can't NOT write it with a capital V.



Now I'm not sure what it should be and it doesn't feel right either way.  It's the whole "damned if I do, damned if I don't" kind of thing.  Well, on a smaller scale of course.  Do you know how long it took for me to separate Star Fox into two words?  Especially when it seemed like Nintendo themselves don't know sometimes.



I just hope that other people aren't as anal as me and don't mind that I have it as a capital if it's not supposed to be.  >_>
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on October 23, 2006, 08:22:55 pm
Hey JonLeung, if that CD really doesn't interest you, we could make a bargain or something...



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on October 23, 2006, 08:28:32 pm
Fair enough, Jon, as long as you don't edit any of my posts to "fix" it anymore ;)
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on October 23, 2006, 09:02:29 pm
If you look under "screenshots", and look at the fifth picture which shows the timeline, you can actually read the entries...except for most of the center part because of the angle between the folds.



However, if you look carefully above the fold, you'll see three games with no description...and they look like Circle Of The Moon, Legacy Of Darkness, and 64 - the three games I feared were axed.  Looks like they just don't care enough about them to write a description.



But look!  They say 64 (when they game shouldn't), and 2 IIs (they really should've specified the consoles of each game - one of the IIs is a Game Boy game), and they forgot the III in Dracula's Curse!  Grrr...
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: mephea on October 24, 2006, 06:48:55 am
holy crap onnastick  i gotta go preorder this when i get paid...omg
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on October 24, 2006, 11:13:23 am
Hmm, yesterday when I pre-ordered at EBGames.com it was listed at $39.99. Today it's at $34.99 and my bill hasn't changed. I emailed them, so hopefully I can get the lower price. You'd think they'd let you cancel an order so soon after submitting it, not to mention weeks before the game is released.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on November 02, 2006, 02:49:51 pm
Grr.... After three emails they finally told me it the lowered price would be reflected when they actually shipped it to me. Meanwhile, my credit card got lost and I had to cancel it. I had my dad order it with his card, and the new, "low" price showed up on this bill. What they didn't tell me was that to counter the $5 decrease in price, they had upped the handling fee by $5. And, for some reason, the shipping was $3 more. Taxes and all, it came to $50. Yeah, like I'm going to pay $15 just for shipping, handling and tax on a $35 item. I canceled that one too. The worst part is, their online billing system wasn't showing me the real price I'd be billed and I would have ended up having to pay $10 more than I thought I would had I not placed the second order. I'll try to pre-order it in a local store, but they might have too many orders by now.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: mephea on November 04, 2006, 02:08:39 pm
i reserved my copy.  muwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.  cant wait til december.  FF12 and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.  If i get guitar hero 2 ill be just fine for the year (i give up on the idea of having a wii for a while =( )
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on November 04, 2006, 03:02:23 pm
I just went to the local store and reserved it. Hopefully I'll get the bonus, they said once they get them it's first come, first serve.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on November 22, 2006, 05:48:54 pm
If nobody feels it's against the rules here (we never really had any, but who knows), here's a link taken from The Castlevania Dungeon that will lead you to a zip file of the entire Portrait Of Ruins soundtrack in MP3 format (so those of you with the soundtrack CD, you can stuff it ;P). It's on FilePlanet though, so you'll need an account either with them or IGN.



Grab them here.



Incidently, I like the music a lot, though some tunes don't sound as good as their fully-mixed MP3 versions (the Dungeon had them several months back, and of course the DS audio hardware can't compete in terms of quality). There are also a fair number of remixes of previous CV tunes if you can recognize them :)



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: mephea on December 07, 2006, 11:13:57 am
well, i know some of you guys are usually interested in castlevania, but uninterested in the DS, so here:



http://img501.imageshack.us/my.php?image=castlevaniasy2.jpg



this is the official castlevania timeline created by konami;  games covered in the timeline are:



castlevania: lament of innocence

castlevania: dracula's curse

castlevania: curse of darkness

the castlevania adventure

castlevania II: belmont's revenge

castlevania

castlevania II: Simon's Quest

castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

castlevania: dracula x

castlevania: symphony of the night

castlevania: circle of the moon (no description)

castlevania: legacy of darkness (no description)

Castlevania 64

castlevania: bloodlines

castlevania: portrait of ruin

castlevania: aria of sorrow

castlevania: dawn of sorrow



There are a few entries that have naught to do with the games.  also, in the entry for bloodlines it mentions that the develepor is developing something that explains how some vampire from the 16th century appears in the 20th century.  should be big news for the guys who like that game.



blah blah.  i love you guys.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on December 07, 2006, 11:49:53 am
Nice to hear from you Mephea :) The games with no descriptions are the ones that the series producer, IGA, sadly removed from the official timeline (depending on how anal you are about Castlevania's story, that can be either a good or bad thing. I tend to go with bad).



I've downloaded the bonus music CD which was disappointing to me because I already have every single songs on it. Still, not bad for those willing to hear music from all over the series.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: mephea on December 07, 2006, 12:36:08 pm
why even list them on the timeline if they were axed from the story?  0-o  thats dumb.



its very neat though.  portrait of ruin is tied to bloodlines, the guy is the son of the guy from bloodlines.



the girl is a belnades descendant.  0-o
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on December 07, 2006, 03:25:08 pm
It seems they were included because IGA himself wasn't involved in creating the timeline for the bonus CD. He has said that he doesn't want to pretend they don't exist, but rather that they are "side-stories" or alternate tales; and anyway, he apparently wasn't responsible for this timeline made for the package.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 07, 2006, 03:36:19 pm
Wow, I wish I could remember what I was doing on August 11, 1999.  It's probably the only date on the timeline (until 2035) that we here have lived.



In the last sentence, I think they spelled "teeming" wrong.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 08, 2006, 03:32:01 pm
Well, I'm happy with the bonus. The art book and the poster are smaller than I expected, but the paper they're printed on is high quality. Haven't listened to the CD yet, but it will be nice to have a collection spanning the whole series so I can listen on the drive to and from college. The game case and stylus are pretty coo and they're also made of nice quality materials, but the one thing that really bugs me is the fact that the stylus doesn't actually fit in the DS. It's just barely too big. I really wish it was smaller so I wouldn't have to carry it separately.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 10, 2006, 05:05:14 pm
If you're playing the game, don't sell the Long Sword!  It's a weak early weapon but it's necessary for a mission!  As far as anyone knows no enemy actually drops it.  >_<



If someone could start a new file, quickly get a Long Sword and sell one to me over Wi-Fi, I'll be grateful.  :D
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 10, 2006, 09:41:47 pm
Yep, too late. I'll look for one online somewhere. How far are you? I'm at the final boss, and let me tell you, it's awesome. The game is very fun and graphically rich, but I don't like it as much as I liked Dawn of Sorrow. It seems like you rush through the areas too quickly, so you never really get to know the areas very well. There are lots of warps, so there is hardly any backtracking. Oh well, it's pretty darned good, regardless.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 11, 2006, 07:40:58 am
I have all the nun's clothes.  I've already finished that Quest involving them so I'll sell them to you if you don't get them before we have a chance to meet up on Wi-Fi.  Though supposedly you don't "lose" items you sell on Wi-Fi.



I made it to the sisters at 4:30 and thought the game was too short...but then I realized that that was of course the bad ending.  Then I decided to hold off on entering the final painting to do all of "Wind"'s Quests.  I'm killing Mummies in the Forbidden City (or whatever the "dark" version of Sandy Grave is called) to build up my mastery of the holy items, and with the LUCK Boost +60 spell I can easily get 8 or 9 Stone Masks before the spell runs out, which I then sell for money; I'm saving up for the Ring Of Mastery so this doesn't take so darn long.  I think I'm at like 10 hours, more than half of the time spent on Quests (and now more than 1/3 the enemies defeated are Mummies o_0 ).  Unless you know of a better place to build up money/mastery.



Agreed, some areas are rushed.  I also hoped there would be more paintings and more variety of them.  Maybe different painting styles, which could lead to vastly different landscapes and enemies, but no...I mean, come on, I tried Rondo Of Blood the other day and saw the exact same Wyvern, Golem, Crows, and other sprites!  >_<  However, it's still one of the better Castlevania (and DS!) games.



Sometime later this week I'll buy a Long Sword from you, I don't want this time spent on other quests to go to waste.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 11, 2006, 08:47:42 am
Thanks, but I found the shoes. I too felt like the game felt too short. DoS felt really long, but this game kept feeling like it should have been longer. Hopefully I'll stay interested long enough to do the quests and master the weapons, but I'm not really into that kind of thing. To tell you the truth, I used the quest glitch to get dozens of Thief's Rings to sell for money. I really don't like boring stuff like collecting money from monsters, so I just skipped it.



I can't get online with my DS here in the dorms, so I couldn't give you a Long Sword until at least Friday night. I suggest just logging on to random shops. I easily found the things I was looking for.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 11, 2006, 09:40:18 am
Is that Quest glitch something to do with re-selecting Quests to re-obtain the reward items?  Maybe I will do that.  It'll still take very long to master the weapons required for the Quests, but if I can buy the Ring Of Mastery that will help.  The reward for doing all the Quests, if it does what it does in DoS, should help with mastery as well.  :)
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 11, 2006, 09:48:34 am
It's really easy. When you complete a quest, talk to Eric, select the finished quest, hit A twice, then start. Lather, rinse, repeat. I have two Rings of Mastery, so I get credited 4 kills for each enemy. I use a section of the City of Haze where zombies keep coming up. I mastered the javelin in about 15 minutes.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 11, 2006, 10:15:33 am
If you mastered it that quickly, it shouldn't take long to master everything.  o_0



Can I only get multiple rewards immediately after finishing a Quest?  Or can I get some now even though I've finished some Quests a while ago?



And does that work for HP Max Up and MP Max Up rewards?  Probably not recommended even if they did, though...



I see I've driven this topic off-topic...we're not really talking about the pre-order bonus anymore...  >_>  I forgot that I made this topic, too...I'll change the title.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 11, 2006, 10:46:25 am
Only after you've just finished them. The HP and MP work too, but they cap off. I haven't done it with HP, but my MP stopped at 600. Yes, I'm a dirty cheater.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 11, 2006, 12:09:12 pm
Playing games properly or cheating isn't exactly a measure of morality.



I don't frown on taking advantage of in-game glitches to save oneself time from doing things like building up money or experience.  I've already experienced some money-and-experience-building so I don't think I miss out on anything (other than potential frustration) by taking a shortcut in that regard.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: TerraEsperZ on December 11, 2006, 03:24:58 pm
Those quests appear to be an interesting addition to the Castlevania franchise. How do they work?



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 11, 2006, 04:22:51 pm
A character you meet somewhat early in the game, a ghost who goes by the name of Wind, gives you missions, or "Quests", which add a tremendous about of play time to the game.



The first Quest is required for a necessary skill, but all the rest are optional with rewards which are usually items, though some are skills or HP and MP boosts.



The Quests are varied, from finding and defeating a certain rare enemy or locating items or "mastering" certain weapons by using them enough times.  Which is why you see on GameFAQs people freaking out about having sold the Long Sword, and early weak weapon that's unfortunately unique.  It's an ingredient for a Poison Sword, and making one is one of the Quests.  The ultimate reward for finishing all of the Quests is the same ultimate reward in Dawn Of Sorrow for obtaining all the Souls.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 12, 2006, 10:11:27 am
Thanks for the tips, Revned.  I bought a Long Sword from the fourth random shop I visited, like you said.  I completed the Poison Vs. Poison Quest and got multiple Assassin's Swords, which I kept getting and selling (thanks for mentioning the glitch).  And I can still get more.  I bought one of everything from Vincent, including two Rings of Mastery, and mastered the Cross, the Holy Water, the Bible, (for the Holy Mastery Quest), the Dart, as well as the joke weapons, the Cream Pie and the Paper Airplane, all in just slightly more than an hour (at the place with the Zombies, which you also suggested).  Which is really quick.  o_0



Thanks again!
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 14, 2006, 04:21:44 pm
Well, I've finished all the quests and mastered more than half of the weapons. Fun stuff.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 14, 2006, 06:03:46 pm
I'm still working on the Nest of Evil.  Stupid Fake CV III bums!
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 14, 2006, 06:53:49 pm
Take out Trevor with 1,000 Knives, then the other two are a cakewalk. Is that before or after the double Frankenstein battle?  If It's before, then you're really in for it.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 14, 2006, 09:57:02 pm
Again, Revned pulls through with good tips.  Thanks!



If you mean the two Frankenstein's Monsters that are in the same room in the Nest of Evil, I don't know why you mentioned it.  As do other people on GameFAQs.  I just threw Crosses like crazy and healed up when necessary with Potions.  It's not like money is a concern anymore thanks to an earlier tip you mentioned.  :P
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 14, 2006, 10:05:26 pm
Hmm, it took me forever to figure out a good way to beat them. I used Dark Rift to stop their projectiles, but I still had trouble.



Anyhow, I finished mastering all the subweapons. I found a better place to level up. It's in the Dark Academy, down and to the right of the second warp point. If you have two Master Rings, you can get 80 sp from the Minotaurs in there.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: mephea on December 15, 2006, 07:07:08 am
hey guys.  i guess im a l;ittle late with this advice, but i maxed out my axe score in just a couple of hours (without the ring) doing the big pharoah guys that come out of the sand in the desert stage.



i know, im a noob.



Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 15, 2006, 08:09:48 am
I only have the Wrecking Ball left to do.  I maxed out most of my subweapons from the Mummies at the bottom of the Forbidden City (it's the room right next to a teleporter and save point).  Not sure if it's much better than Zombies or Ghouls, but I've killed over 5000 Mummies so far and I'm almost done anyway.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 17, 2006, 09:37:37 am
I finished it at after midnight yesterday morning.



Is it just me, or did they misspell "Richter"?  Or has it always been "Richiter"?
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 17, 2006, 10:53:45 am
They misspelled it. I have 100% in everything but the item list, which I'm working on now. I even completed the drop items for every enemy.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 17, 2006, 11:30:25 am
The drop items for the monsters that are exclusively in the Nest of Evil are a pain.  I was lucky to get Thor's Bellow (one of the spells) when I beat an Amducias there.  I haven't gotten it to drop a Record 3, but I don't really see the point of the Records (other than completion) since the music is in the sound test anyway.



Did you play through the Richiter and Sister modes?
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 17, 2006, 02:26:59 pm
No. I never liked not being able to actually use items and stuff, so I won't do Richter mode. I might do Sisters mode, but it seems really imbalanced, so probably not.



I'm currently leveling up to 99. I still need to kill 800 or so Old Axe Armors, too...
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 18, 2006, 07:57:30 am
Where would you suggest fighting the 1000 Old Axe Armors?
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 18, 2006, 11:07:15 am
There was a room in 13th Street where there's one right next to a vertical connection between rooms. I found it fastest to jump up, hit it, then fall back down and repeat. That's assuming you're strong enough to kill them in one shot.
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: JonLeung on December 18, 2006, 12:16:09 pm
Sounds like one of those monotonous-but-simple-enough-to-do things that I'll save for when I'm watching TV or a movie and don't need to give the DS my full attention.



If not for areas like that, I would say that would be an almost unreasonable goal.  But then again I got 999999999 Bells in Animal Crossing as well as Animal Crossing: Wild World, so it'd be hard for me to call it unreasonable anyway.  It's only a thousand, not a billion.  :P



(The Animal Crossing (animated) movie came out in Japan just over a week ago and a live-action Hollywood Castlevania movie may come to pass in a year or two.)
Title: RE: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)
Post by: Revned on December 18, 2006, 12:17:41 pm
I actually got the pattern down so I didn't have to look at my DS. I just pushed A and B almost simultaneously over and over.