2026/10: Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) - G.E.R.

[JonLeung]

Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to G.E.R.'s Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) maps.

The Castlevania series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year! The Famicom Disk System release of Akumajou Dracula (which the West would later get as "Castlevania" on the NES) was near the end of September 1986, and a new game, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, will be released this month! Quite a treat for a series that has been dormant, at least in the sense of new games, as Castlevania has mostly been about crossovers and collections lately...

And close to halfway between 1986's Castlevania and 2026's Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is 2006's Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin!

During World War II, the agony and hatred of countless lost souls allow the vampire, Brauner, to recreate Dracula's castle. Jonathan Morris, wielder of the legendary "Vampire Killer" whip and the son of John Morris (from Castlevania: Bloodlines), and his friend and skilled sorceress, Charlotte Aulin, take on the duty to take on Dracula. This time, painting-like portals throughout the castle add some variety to the settings of this Castlevania adventure.

These worlds range from a London city street to an Egyptian pyramid to a bizarre circus-themed area with rotated and upside-down portions where gravity is pointed inwards for most creatures, but not for Jonathan and Charlotte.  And G.E.R. has mapped all of these for our viewing pleasure!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping one of the "Metroidvania" Castlevania games, G.E.R.'s Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for October 2026.

[Cyartog959]

That is well-deserved to be in the "Maps of the Month" lineup, and fits well with October's usual spooky antics, and in the 20 long year gap, time-wise, but not release wise, because that and Belmont's Curse's dates are a bit distant by almost 2 months.

Well, to say, its second DS game stood very well among others, especially with Koji Igarashi's involvement. In quite a time when Metroidvanias were very little, this game sure rocks as one of the best.

Although, I could notice the castle's map isn't quite longer than others; I mean, it is the DS we're talking about. The extra memory from it past the GBA's, and more from the DSi, would've made the map at least a bit larger to make it more sprawling. If Castlevania had one more DS entry after Order of Ecclesia, I would definitely see its map made larger than OoE's, even more if it was a DSi exclusive game, on a Game Card, that is.

Still, Portrait of Ruin is a very fun Castlevania game, and while many of us have good memories of it, the Metroidvanias that came by kinda filled the void for those missing more new Castlevania games in that fashion. Even the 3DS could've had new 2D Castlevania games after the DS games that might've been brilliant. Imagine if we had those.

But, of course, Konami's release of the newest Castlevania game in so long is sure to be good, too.