You know what’s funny? The doppelgänger copies your equipment the moment you enter its chamber, so if you unequip everything, the boss will only have unarmed attacks.
That's the tactic I use to do the endgame quests that require you to master subweapons. Go in without equipment, then re-equip everything and kill the enemy with the last hit being the subweapon. Wear Master Rings too, so it's maximized.
31:35 I definitely did. I farmed old axe armors for *something* when I was a kid, probably trying to master something and I fondly remember playing that bonus mode.
17:57 Small correction, The sub weapons just need to HIT the monster once at any point in the fight. Once the monster dies, the last used sub-weapon gets points, so you don't have to use them as the final hit. I think the best way to level weapons is the room under the second warp in dark academy (One of the last four paintings). There's two minotaurs near the door that can be dispatched quickly, are worth 10 points each, and can drop an ax worth $10,000. I hope this helps in future runs! :D
i love how you can cheese the nest of evil and the hardest bosses by using the ancient armor. also beating richter using pies and beating the doppleganger by just unequipping everything on you thus making it powerless.
How has he not talked about this one yet? It's probably the hardest and easily the best of the Castlevania DS games and is in the running for best in the series IMO, although I am partial to the OG NES Castlevania. Portrait is really good under you play OoE and then you never go back to it lol.
@@Prodigial Is it weird I actually found Portrait of Ruin harder? I didn't have much trouble with Order of Ecclesia other than the Giant Skeleton boss, Albus to some extent until I saw his pattern, Blackmore, and the final boss of course (plus the bonus dungeons). Everything else was manageable for me, but I had fun all the way through. Meanwhile I found myself dying in Portrait of Ruin regularly (especially to the Creature ironically enough given Pikasprey said that fight was easy), except when playing Sisters Mode, which is also hyper easy mode (except, again, with the Creature).
@@Aster_Iris It's certainly an exception. Most people would agree that OoE is the hardest of the bunch on DS. Albus mode is also quite difficult against certain bosses since they are often resistant to most of his attacks.
@@Aster_Iris I found portrait of ruin harder as well. I think its because in Order of Ecclesia monsters and bosses hit much harder but have attacks that are easy to dodge once you figure it out. It seems much harder to dodge attacks in Portrait of Ruin but do much less damage. IMO If you're underlevelled Portrait of Ruin is much harder than Order of Ecclesia. Order of Ecclesia seems to actively encourage you to try get through the entire game without taking any damage, such as those medals you get for doing bosses without taking damage and that death ring that gives you very high stats but you die in one hit.
Hello Pikasprey! You most likely will not read this comment, but if you will, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude towards you for staying true to your style, and rocking it like a king. I love your content, and I'm glad you're finally beginning to get all the recognition and attention you deserve. Also I would like to express my gratitude for indirectly motivating me to make my own content. You are my muse. Much love!
No flashy ten minute introductions. No clickbait titles. No obnoxious webcam antics. Just pure content. This man is what UA-cam used to be, and should be again.
10:23 This is kind of a stretch, but I always got the impression that this was a twisted version of a bombed out city. Like many British and German cities because the game is set during World War II.
@@lyca0n535 If you reread JoeCoolMaverick's comment and then your own, it sounds like you're saying that the Swiss had some magical ability to access unharmed versions of Britain and Germany, rather than merely staying out of the war. Just thought that was funny.
23:07 I just used Jonathan's stone wall ability and stuck charlette all the way against the door. The sisters can't hit her and if they start to get you low pop a couple potions. Super easy if you do it that way.
You can also bait the long-winded skills of Loretta to use Sanctuary as well. You do have to be very careful not to get a faceful of ice or sword attacks, though.
As someone that grinded skill point, I can confirmed that. Hit the foe with a weak subweapon and kill it with a claymore, and you still get the points.
Yeah this is true. I would farm the minotaurs in the dark academy. I would hit them once with my sub weapon then kill them with my weapon and still get points
Yup. Though the double attack specials will stop you getting the points. Also: Some enemies give really decent amounts of SP, making grinding quick. And the way skills change as they get mastered can be big. I really disagree with Pikasprey's comments on only using 2 of them. If nothing else, the cream pie, being dark type, is fantastic against the spirit of the whip.
10:20 The nations of fools makes more sense when you remember that the game is set in 1944 in the middle of world war 2. Bruaners backstory also mentions how he is driven by revenge after his two real daughters died in WW1. A ruined city that revolves and gravitates towards a tentacle monster protected by a mass of bodies, that uses said bodies like disposable cannon fodder. Given how much experience Bruaner has with war, I wonder what kind of statement he was making when he drew that world?
Hey Pikasprey, the reason Death has 4444 HP is because "4" is "shi" in Japanese, and that sounds like their word for "death". So his HP is "deathdeathdeathdeath".
Hmmm, a tale of a youth named Jonathan going on a quest with his waifu to defeat a powerful vampire that can transform humans into his monster servants... Where have I heard that one before....
Well now I can't wait for Order of Ecclesia! There wind up to gaining power and entering Castlevania nearly full powered was a great feeling. (Save for the stupid rescue quests.) Not to mention it had some of my favorite combat in the series.
Portrait has many high points. Of course the Drac Death combo made my jaw drop back then and is a high for the whole series. Also the Brauner story is really touching for a one time villain. In the bad ending he literally gives up on vengeance and flees with his daughters (he really is convinced). I felt legitimate bad for not being able to save him too.
Something that wasn't mentioned in the video is that Quincy Morris is the character that John Morris's father is based on who in Bram stoker's Dracula actually killed him. I just think that's neat
0:13 That's some kick-ass looking Sword! 0:40 That's some kick-ass looking Spear! 4:04 Sweet Mother of All Battleaxes! I almost wanna play this game now just to wield those things.
@@cheangizzz oh, just trying to collect all the Castlevania games. So far I’ve got 1-3, IV, Bloodlines, Rondo, SotN, the 3 GBA games, the 3 DS games and mirror of fate for 3DS. So basically I just have the bad ones left to get lol
Honestly a lot about Portrait seems to imply it was planned to be a classic style castlevania, just a feeling I have. As for most of the issues you had, I agree, still love it but damn it's flawed, and the director confirmed it's because it was rushed like a mother fucker. I wonder what it would have been like if it got more time.
@Rachel the Seeker I think Quincy is part of the canon in the wiki. He is probably the first morris to obtain the vampire killer, and later passed it on to his son, John.
I know these vids dont get as many views as the pokemon ones, but I absolutely love them. The genuine passion for the series and the in depth analysis is such fresh breath of air in a youtube climate where so many people do what gets them the most views even if they're bored by it. Plus your voice is hella soothing and helps me sleep because you dont yell in your videos
I’m always excited whenever you have a new Castlevania video. Your videos are actually the reason I picked up the series myself. Thanks for introducing me to what is now one of my favorite game series.
Fair review. Hope you do one for Order of Ecclesia someday, it's a great Castlevania. Harmony of Dissonance deserves one too. Regarding skill mastery, you only need to hit the enemy once with the subweapon before killing them to acquire skill points (SP), you don't need to finish them with the subweapon. Enemies give different SP values (viewable in-game), so just find ones that give high SP without being too much of a pain to kill, you will master subweapons in no time.
It would have been a lot cooler if the paintings acted as literal doors you would suddenly find while exploring the castle that led you to a pocket dimension that stretched to several other areas of the castle. one second it's a caslte, but once you go through the weird door now you're suddenly in Egypt.
These videos are great! Would love to see you do Order of Ecclesia as it's a classic. It's a shame the Castlevania videos don't perform better for you, because they are very high quality.
While I disagree with you about the last four paintings, since I personally enjoyed them a lot (except Burnt Paradise, that place is a nightmare incarnate when you try to move around it), I understand your point of view, and I'm glad to see there are still people who pay attention to these games. Hope you enjoy your next playthrough. Good video m8!!
My first and probably favorite Castlevania game, recieved it as a birthday gift. Charlotte is great though, totaly not biased because shes cute and shares my name or something >.>
This was actually my first castlevania game. I'm not actually great at video games so continue to be shocked that teenaged me actually got to the last boss fight (with a lot of grinding but still!) At any rate this retrospective was really fun, great seeing the features and bits I'd likely never see.
Funny. I kept this video on my "Watch later" playlist to watch it later, and it turns out that the day that I finally get to fully watch it was on Halloween (October 31st). How fitting. Awesome job as always!
I like that one a lot for many reasons. But stand out for me the steal mechanic, which existed in other Castlevania before but in this one each enemy had a steal condition to figure out instead of just farm and random drop. Coupled with a crafting which allowed to see dependencies and create the requirements in the same screen was a delight to use.
This game is fun. As a kid, I beat the game at lv.1 cap on hard difficulty. All you need is the ancient armour and of course, get all the weapons on an easier difficulty. I remember that after you beat dracula, you get a boost in your attack and int stat. It was a big flex showing this to my middle school friends lmaoo
Yo, great vid, but you got one minor detail wrong, my dude. Johnathan's sub-weapons don't need to do the finishing blow. All you need to do is hit them once with the sub-weapon, then as long as they die while Johnathan is the active character (the one you're controlling), he gets the skill points for his sub-weapon. I played this like a mofo back in the day, and learned that thorugh the numerous times I played.
This is one of my favorite castlevania's and people ive talked to shit on it. I love the music and i see fans say its like the worst and most generic of the series? They say the level design is lacking compared to other titles? They seemingly blended level play with and open castle to explore like a mic of old and new. I love this game and the boss fights and story are exceptional in my opinion
Skill points for weapons were easy imo, there was that one street in one of the portraits that was filled with zombies (straight street with an entry/exit on each end). Run in, plow through them all, run out, run back in, rinse repeat.
I don't know if I said it in the gameplay you did, but I leave it here just in case. Nation of Fools can be a reference to the tarot card "The Fool" (Japanese people love those cards), although as it is a card without number and that some forget that it exists and have confused it for "The Hung" and have Adopted the aesthetics of this all upside down. Another possibility is that it is a reference to King Lear's phrase, "When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools." (The circus setting as an equivalent to "stage").
I actually really like the generally more linear design of the game. But I get why that element isn’t for everyone. I have no problem whatsoever with the second set of portraits though. New enemies, new layouts, new bosses, dramatic changes in color palette, I think they feel plenty different enough to not be tiring.
just wanted to thank you for these detailed game review videos, particularly the castlevania series' ones! these are quite soothing and interesting to listen to in the background while i wind down for the night. i find myself relistening to them often, so thank you for these surprisingly relaxing videos of monster murder! 😊
I always thought that the small kind of bland castle in this game was a reflection of the level of control Brauner really had over Dracula’s power. He gets the idea and the concept, but all of the creativity, brutality, and majesty that Dracula wields when he remixes the castle is gone
I love that when I get a notification that you uploaded a video I have no idea what it's going to be, and I wish UA-cam's algorithm wasn't specifically designed to punish content creators for trying to vary things up and not just make the exact same content over and over again.
Weird. I still think Mario 64 takes the cake by a long shot on this one imo. More paintings, unique environments as well as more objectives per painting along side one of the more mechanically pleasing platformers of its generation really does it for me. Played the crap out of PoR and absolutely love it, but no, it doesn’t quite compare.
There is one feature you missed. You can control your partner with the touchscreen. Its kinda useful when playing as charollette and want Jonathan to hit something in particular. I remember using the feature to cheese final armors with high speed punches.
By far the best part, and the one i find more enjoyable, is the introduction of purely battle rooms. That kind of boss and mini boss rush is all the intensity and good feeling about the combat in those games.
charlotte is actually pretty useful for all her buff spells, those increase their stat by an entire 30 points if channeled fully, this makes it really easy to clear those quests where you need to raise a stat to 100, also its just good in general. btw shuriken is also really powerful next to the darts, and also its not so bad to max out every subweapon, first off, the ones you can buy, you can just buy 10 times and they are maxed out, so all of those you dont have to grind for to begin with. but even for those that do require grinding its not nearly as bad as you think, you can actually equip 2 master rings at once unequip everything else, maybe equip johnathan with the berserk armor if you have it do decrease your defense further, go to the nest of evil, fight doppelgänger, hit them once with your subweapon then use thousand blades, this will kill them in 1 to 2 casts, your partner attack scales with your level, arround level 40 they die in 2 casts, i dont know how high you need to be to kill them in 1 cast, either way do this once and you get 400 entire points of mastery for your subweapons, most subweapons need less than 1000 points to master, so do this 3 times for every subweapon and they are all maxed out, only cross, holy water and axe need 2k and spear needs 1.5 k i think, but even then it doesnt take that long.
Great video as always! I did Richter Mode with max. Level 1 and the last fight was horribly hard, i think i never beated them... Hope that your next video is about Order of Ecclesia
I admit this had a lot of potential and while the painting idea was not fully utilized in a way that could have extended the length in a meaningful way it is still a fantastic game.
great game! i was really distraught cause i sold one of the items, and it turned out you needed one for a secret quest later. so i couldn't 100% it :'(
_Oh boy oh boy!_ Does this mean Order of Ecclesia comes next? Because boy I love that game. It has... _issues,_ pretty big ones, but something about its atmosphere has always charmed me. The music and looks of the locales really sell it out to me. Certainly a loooot more linear, arguably almost not a Metroidvania, but it's different rather than bad.
You know what’s funny? The doppelgänger copies your equipment the moment you enter its chamber, so if you unequip everything, the boss will only have unarmed attacks.
That's the tactic I use to do the endgame quests that require you to master subweapons. Go in without equipment, then re-equip everything and kill the enemy with the last hit being the subweapon. Wear Master Rings too, so it's maximized.
Even better: if it's Charlotte, her attack doesn't even reach you.
@@titocristobal5573 you only have to hit them with the weapon once, you don’t even have to use it for the final blow
I do that all the time lol
Dammit why couldn't I figured it out i died 14 times
31:35 I definitely did. I farmed old axe armors for *something* when I was a kid, probably trying to master something and I fondly remember playing that bonus mode.
The thing is, you can't master anything against these enemies.
They are immune to subweapons and give 0 points. ^^
17:57
Small correction, The sub weapons just need to HIT the monster once at any point in the fight. Once the monster dies, the last used sub-weapon gets points, so you don't have to use them as the final hit.
I think the best way to level weapons is the room under the second warp in dark academy (One of the last four paintings). There's two minotaurs near the door that can be dispatched quickly, are worth 10 points each, and can drop an ax worth $10,000.
I hope this helps in future runs! :D
I just max every sub-weapon without knowing this
It'll definitely help me, I just started my first playthrough :)
i love how you can cheese the nest of evil and the hardest bosses by using the ancient armor. also beating richter using pies and beating the doppleganger by just unequipping everything on you thus making it powerless.
The Doppelganger has always been like that since Sotn
Fingers crossed for Order of Ecclesia next year!
How has he not talked about this one yet? It's probably the hardest and easily the best of the Castlevania DS games and is in the running for best in the series IMO, although I am partial to the OG NES Castlevania. Portrait is really good under you play OoE and then you never go back to it lol.
@@Prodigial Is it weird I actually found Portrait of Ruin harder? I didn't have much trouble with Order of Ecclesia other than the Giant Skeleton boss, Albus to some extent until I saw his pattern, Blackmore, and the final boss of course (plus the bonus dungeons). Everything else was manageable for me, but I had fun all the way through. Meanwhile I found myself dying in Portrait of Ruin regularly (especially to the Creature ironically enough given Pikasprey said that fight was easy), except when playing Sisters Mode, which is also hyper easy mode (except, again, with the Creature).
@@Aster_Iris It's certainly an exception. Most people would agree that OoE is the hardest of the bunch on DS. Albus mode is also quite difficult against certain bosses since they are often resistant to most of his attacks.
@@Aster_Iris I found portrait of ruin harder as well. I think its because in Order of Ecclesia monsters and bosses hit much harder but have attacks that are easy to dodge once you figure it out. It seems much harder to dodge attacks in Portrait of Ruin but do much less damage. IMO If you're underlevelled Portrait of Ruin is much harder than Order of Ecclesia. Order of Ecclesia seems to actively encourage you to try get through the entire game without taking any damage, such as those medals you get for doing bosses without taking damage and that death ring that gives you very high stats but you die in one hit.
Can't wait
Excuse you, the only sub-weapon worth mastering is the paper airplane.
Oh thank goodness, I'm not the only one.
no
t h e p i e
For my taste, I prefer the creampie. Lol
@Sugarbunnies kinky Richter
@Sugarbunnies the creampie has dark damage
Hello Pikasprey!
You most likely will not read this comment, but if you will, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude towards you for staying true to your style, and rocking it like a king. I love your content, and I'm glad you're finally beginning to get all the recognition and attention you deserve. Also I would like to express my gratitude for indirectly motivating me to make my own content. You are my muse.
Much love!
No flashy ten minute introductions. No clickbait titles. No obnoxious webcam antics. Just pure content. This man is what UA-cam used to be, and should be again.
Felix Fischer you are mega lame
Felix Fischer is a kiss ass
GlitchManOmega wrong
@@mattfahringer148 wow hate comments
I loved the DS titles. Picked up every single one. One thing they improved over dawn of sorrow was more than 3 save slots.
that's probably only because there were 4 game modes though, seeing as OoE brought it back to 3
10:23
This is kind of a stretch, but I always got the impression that this was a twisted version of a bombed out city. Like many British and German cities because the game is set during World War II.
Not if you're Swiss.
Yeah, I think Brauner is german, so he could be calling Nazi Germany a "Nation of Fools".
@@lyca0n535 If you reread JoeCoolMaverick's comment and then your own, it sounds like you're saying that the Swiss had some magical ability to access unharmed versions of Britain and Germany, rather than merely staying out of the war.
Just thought that was funny.
@@blarg2429 My bad 😂
@@lyca0n535 It's all good.
I've missed you talking about castlevania!! Good to see you back at it!
23:07 I just used Jonathan's stone wall ability and stuck charlette all the way against the door. The sisters can't hit her and if they start to get you low pop a couple potions. Super easy if you do it that way.
You can also bait the long-winded skills of Loretta to use Sanctuary as well. You do have to be very careful not to get a faceful of ice or sword attacks, though.
“I can take it!”
MasterKcoop is that a quote from charolete?
@@arman_llc624 That's a quote From Johnathan when he use Stone Wall.
IIRC skills points are earned for a skill even if it doesn't deal the finishing blow.
As someone that grinded skill point, I can confirmed that. Hit the foe with a weak subweapon and kill it with a claymore, and you still get the points.
Yeah this is true. I would farm the minotaurs in the dark academy. I would hit them once with my sub weapon then kill them with my weapon and still get points
Yup. Though the double attack specials will stop you getting the points.
Also: Some enemies give really decent amounts of SP, making grinding quick. And the way skills change as they get mastered can be big.
I really disagree with Pikasprey's comments on only using 2 of them. If nothing else, the cream pie, being dark type, is fantastic against the spirit of the whip.
The hwat now?
@@PokePika01 This cake isn't a lie.
10:20 The nations of fools makes more sense when you remember that the game is set in 1944 in the middle of world war 2. Bruaners backstory also mentions how he is driven by revenge after his two real daughters died in WW1. A ruined city that revolves and gravitates towards a tentacle monster protected by a mass of bodies, that uses said bodies like disposable cannon fodder. Given how much experience Bruaner has with war, I wonder what kind of statement he was making when he drew that world?
That he likes clowns?
Screw gravity?
Hey Pikasprey, the reason Death has 4444 HP is because "4" is "shi" in Japanese, and that sounds like their word for "death". So his HP is "deathdeathdeathdeath".
Additionally, obviously, Draculas Hp is a play on 666 being called the number of the beast.
Well, he did say "now, I'm sure the devs thought this little detail was hilarious" so I think he knew.
@@CarmsCelestia Yup!
@@Estra_Estra Maybe, but he didn't say anything about why.
@@KainYusanagi That's true, but also I don't see any other reason for him to have said that if he didn't get it, or at least like mostly.
I love Portrait of Ruin. It's the first Metroidvania I completed and the one that got me hooked.
Hmmm, a tale of a youth named Jonathan going on a quest with his waifu to defeat a powerful vampire that can transform humans into his monster servants...
Where have I heard that one before....
Actually, while Charlotte has a crush on Jonathan, he has no such feelings towards her.
@@jruler93 ....I mean, that actually makes even more sense given Speedwagon is the waifu I was thinking of.
@@JB-bc2ry You, good sir, win at life.
Even Speedwagon gets this reference!
Bram Stoker's Dracula.
CHARLOTTE! JOHNATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JOHNATHAN!
CHARLATHAN! JONALOTTE!
watching speedruns be like
hmmmm...someone knows about the speedrun of this game
Kagome!
Inuyasha!
Kagome!
Inuyasha!
Rocky!
oh boy, time to spam the switch character feature for voice clips back and forth
My absolute favorite Castlevania game and one of my favorite games of all time in general..
Who else got 1000% on this game??
Same such an underrated title
I love all of the Metroidvania Castlevanias, PoR is excellent, but I prefer Order of Ecclesia, Dawn of Sorrow and Aria of Sorrow over it.
Well now I can't wait for Order of Ecclesia! There wind up to gaining power and entering Castlevania nearly full powered was a great feeling. (Save for the stupid rescue quests.)
Not to mention it had some of my favorite combat in the series.
Just a note: Skill points aren’t from the finishing blow only. You just need to hit the enemy at some point.
In my last playthrough I used to Alucard's Spear rather than the Vampire Killer, and I used Max Bomber over Greatest Five.😊
Portrait has many high points. Of course the Drac Death combo made my jaw drop back then and is a high for the whole series. Also the Brauner story is really touching for a one time villain. In the bad ending he literally gives up on vengeance and flees with his daughters (he really is convinced). I felt legitimate bad for not being able to save him too.
Something that wasn't mentioned in the video is that Quincy Morris is the character that John Morris's father is based on who in Bram stoker's Dracula actually killed him. I just think that's neat
0:13 That's some kick-ass looking Sword!
0:40 That's some kick-ass looking Spear!
4:04 Sweet Mother of All Battleaxes!
I almost wanna play this game now just to wield those things.
This is probably my favorite second Castlevania game tbh, the gameplay just felt so good and fast
I wish they would rerelease the Castlevanias after SotN so we can play them on non-emulators.
@@Nikkis_Archive why not just have a castlevania collection with ALL of the games
@@brightestlight9462 I’m working on that. Starting to get pretty expensive lol
@@megamob5834 wait what? Tell more
@@cheangizzz oh, just trying to collect all the Castlevania games. So far I’ve got 1-3, IV, Bloodlines, Rondo, SotN, the 3 GBA games, the 3 DS games and mirror of fate for 3DS. So basically I just have the bad ones left to get lol
@@megamob5834 the ps2 games have flaws, but are extremely fun. Belmont’s revenge is also a masterpiece.
I was waiting so hard for a video tonight and the universe has blessed me with one of your videos... so happy
Honestly a lot about Portrait seems to imply it was planned to be a classic style castlevania, just a feeling I have. As for most of the issues you had, I agree, still love it but damn it's flawed, and the director confirmed it's because it was rushed like a mother fucker. I wonder what it would have been like if it got more time.
I thought Jonathan was counted in "Greatest Five."
Leon, trevor, simon, juste, richter.
Johnatan is not a belmont.
@Rachel the Seeker I think Quincy is part of the canon in the wiki. He is probably the first morris to obtain the vampire killer, and later passed it on to his son, John.
He never mentioned that Richter is misspelled Richiter on the menu lol
I know these vids dont get as many views as the pokemon ones, but I absolutely love them. The genuine passion for the series and the in depth analysis is such fresh breath of air in a youtube climate where so many people do what gets them the most views even if they're bored by it.
Plus your voice is hella soothing and helps me sleep because you dont yell in your videos
I’m always excited whenever you have a new Castlevania video. Your videos are actually the reason I picked up the series myself. Thanks for introducing me to what is now one of my favorite game series.
Portrait of Ruin will forever be my favorite Castlevania game.
Fair review. Hope you do one for Order of Ecclesia someday, it's a great Castlevania. Harmony of Dissonance deserves one too.
Regarding skill mastery, you only need to hit the enemy once with the subweapon before killing them to acquire skill points (SP), you don't need to finish them with the subweapon. Enemies give different SP values (viewable in-game), so just find ones that give high SP without being too much of a pain to kill, you will master subweapons in no time.
It would have been a lot cooler if the paintings acted as literal doors you would suddenly find while exploring the castle that led you to a pocket dimension that stretched to several other areas of the castle. one second it's a caslte, but once you go through the weird door now you're suddenly in Egypt.
I’ve been waiting for this so much
I read it in Akihiko's voice
These videos are great! Would love to see you do Order of Ecclesia as it's a classic. It's a shame the Castlevania videos don't perform better for you, because they are very high quality.
While I disagree with you about the last four paintings, since I personally enjoyed them a lot (except Burnt Paradise, that place is a nightmare incarnate when you try to move around it), I understand your point of view, and I'm glad to see there are still people who pay attention to these games. Hope you enjoy your next playthrough. Good video m8!!
Ahh, my favorite Castlevania game, thanks so much for covering it and doing it justice with this great review Pikasprey! :D
GG on finally getting this video out, even if it did have a ton of issues, but it turned out to be another great one
Thank you for playing games I’m interested in.
I never cared for this one, but I found it kinda neat they went with Dracula's older Lugo Belosi look from the older games. That's kinda cool
I'm glad we can always rely on Pikasprey to keep the quality Castlevania content coming!
My first and probably favorite Castlevania game, recieved it as a birthday gift.
Charlotte is great though, totaly not biased because shes cute and shares my name or something >.>
k
Yo same, also got this for my birthday. Second video game I ever owned.
This was actually my first castlevania game. I'm not actually great at video games so continue to be shocked that teenaged me actually got to the last boss fight (with a lot of grinding but still!) At any rate this retrospective was really fun, great seeing the features and bits I'd likely never see.
Haven’t seen the video yet, but this is the first Castlevania I ever played, so I’ve been waiting for this review for a while!
Funny. I kept this video on my "Watch later" playlist to watch it later, and it turns out that the day that I finally get to fully watch it was on Halloween (October 31st). How fitting. Awesome job as always!
And now, Order of Eclesia
18:57 you don't know the op power of ninja stars.
The cheap ones, once mastered those are the most op thing in the game.
Request: Castlevania Curse of Darkness!
yes please. I quite liked that game..if only it got a remaster on modern consoles.
@@pagannova3621 Agreed!!!
I like that one a lot for many reasons. But stand out for me the steal mechanic, which existed in other Castlevania before but in this one each enemy had a steal condition to figure out instead of just farm and random drop. Coupled with a crafting which allowed to see dependencies and create the requirements in the same screen was a delight to use.
I can’t believe there’s people that aren’t me that know Curse of Darkness
I'd be surprised if he'd be too positive about it. It's a really repetitive game.
This game is fun. As a kid, I beat the game at lv.1 cap on hard difficulty. All you need is the ancient armour and of course, get all the weapons on an easier difficulty. I remember that after you beat dracula, you get a boost in your attack and int stat. It was a big flex showing this to my middle school friends lmaoo
This game was pretty solid honestly. Loved doing a Johnathan whip knuckle run
Every vid you post makes my month man, I love it
Yo, great vid, but you got one minor detail wrong, my dude. Johnathan's sub-weapons don't need to do the finishing blow. All you need to do is hit them once with the sub-weapon, then as long as they die while Johnathan is the active character (the one you're controlling), he gets the skill points for his sub-weapon. I played this like a mofo back in the day, and learned that thorugh the numerous times I played.
This is one of my favorite castlevania's and people ive talked to shit on it. I love the music and i see fans say its like the worst and most generic of the series? They say the level design is lacking compared to other titles? They seemingly blended level play with and open castle to explore like a mic of old and new. I love this game and the boss fights and story are exceptional in my opinion
Nice vid, I'll wait for the best one for DS: Order of Ecclesia!!
Is it only me or was Ecclesia harder than any other DS title?
@@DocDoesGamingTV For me only the postgame dungeon friggin' hard. I never reached the boss... Need to play it again!!
Agreed, but in my opinion portrait of ruin was the weakest of the castlevania ds games.
@@DocDoesGamingTV the bosses are mich harder and you need to learn the pattern
Brute force wont work this timw
I respect your opinion but por>>>>>>>>>>>>> ecclesia
Skill points for weapons were easy imo, there was that one street in one of the portraits that was filled with zombies (straight street with an entry/exit on each end). Run in, plow through them all, run out, run back in, rinse repeat.
No really good video. I like these in depth looks with a personal touch, some of your best content so far, keep it up.
I don't know if I said it in the gameplay you did, but I leave it here just in case.
Nation of Fools can be a reference to the tarot card "The Fool" (Japanese people love those cards), although as it is a card without number and that some forget that it exists and have confused it for "The Hung" and have Adopted the aesthetics of this all upside down.
Another possibility is that it is a reference to King Lear's phrase, "When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools." (The circus setting as an equivalent to "stage").
It's kinda funny how this is one of my favorite videos on this channel and it's one of his least popular
I actually really like the generally more linear design of the game. But I get why that element isn’t for everyone.
I have no problem whatsoever with the second set of portraits though. New enemies, new layouts, new bosses, dramatic changes in color palette, I think they feel plenty different enough to not be tiring.
Oh hey nice, I'm early!
I keep forgetting that I still have pretty much all Non-Reboot CV games in my backlog, thanks for the reminder.
just wanted to thank you for these detailed game review videos, particularly the castlevania series' ones! these are quite soothing and interesting to listen to in the background while i wind down for the night. i find myself relistening to them often, so thank you for these surprisingly relaxing videos of monster murder! 😊
i absolutely love it when you talk about any of the castlevania games, bc so many are so good despite their flaws
I 100% the game. My favorite game. I didnt know old axe armor was secret. Also 1000 blades was op
For the fight against the sisters, give Johnathan the Stonewall ability. Have Charlotte charge with R and stand in front of her and block everything.
I always thought that the small kind of bland castle in this game was a reflection of the level of control Brauner really had over Dracula’s power. He gets the idea and the concept, but all of the creativity, brutality, and majesty that Dracula wields when he remixes the castle is gone
Nice to see another castlevania vid dude thanks.
33:02 I always interpreted "Greatest Five" as being Jonathan + the four Belmonts, coming to five characters total.
This is my favorite Castlevania and it has my favorite cast to boot.
I love that when I get a notification that you uploaded a video I have no idea what it's going to be, and I wish UA-cam's algorithm wasn't specifically designed to punish content creators for trying to vary things up and not just make the exact same content over and over again.
Thought I would be first down here. Glad to see this video made it out and doesn't have to stress you out anymore! Great job pikasprey
Portrait of Ruin was so much fun~ Mario 64 Paintings
Weird. I still think Mario 64 takes the cake by a long shot on this one imo. More paintings, unique environments as well as more objectives per painting along side one of the more mechanically pleasing platformers of its generation really does it for me. Played the crap out of PoR and absolutely love it, but no, it doesn’t quite compare.
City of Haze>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
MasterKcoop Oot is still the best n64 game though
You're actually gonna make me play these after purposely ignoring it for my entire childhood, it seems like so much fun
I liked the equipment swap in Dawn of Sorrow, it saved me time when switching to non-combat souls (like Giant Bat and Puppet Master)
As far as I'm aware, Axe Armor mode is listed as a "humorous addition" on the Wiki
Hooray! It's been so long since you've uploaded a Castlevania video.
Order of Ecclesia has been my favorite.
Shuriken is pretty broken when you master it too, very powerful boss killer.
There is one feature you missed. You can control your partner with the touchscreen. Its kinda useful when playing as charollette and want Jonathan to hit something in particular. I remember using the feature to cheese final armors with high speed punches.
Just wanted to say that I love your vids. Keep it up!!!
As much as I love your soft lock picking videos I love your breakdowns as well
Heck yeah Potrai of Run is awesome! The Hard modes with the level caps are pretty challenging though...
Richter mode lvl 1 is the hardest castlevania experience I ever had.
Whenever, whatever this man uploads, it's a good day.
I love your castlevania videos! You should check out Order of Ecclesia and then Bloodstained.
i would love that.
Ahh yes, pikasprey talks about portrait of ruin again
24:50 fun fact, Richter is super weak to the cream pie ability. Why? Who knows, funny though.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
@@hannabal96 not that kind
That's because the pie has the "dark" attribute for some reason
@@Rohjake ah yes, slapstick, the darkest of comedies.
It might have taken a lot of time but the end result was worth it excellent job ^^
My favorite way to defeat the Whip's Memory of Richter is to spam him with pies. And yes, it actually does a shocking amount of damage.
By far the best part, and the one i find more enjoyable, is the introduction of purely battle rooms.
That kind of boss and mini boss rush is all the intensity and good feeling about the combat in those games.
I've been looking forward to this.
charlotte is actually pretty useful for all her buff spells, those increase their stat by an entire 30 points if channeled fully, this makes it really easy to clear those quests where you need to raise a stat to 100, also its just good in general. btw shuriken is also really powerful next to the darts, and also its not so bad to max out every subweapon, first off, the ones you can buy, you can just buy 10 times and they are maxed out, so all of those you dont have to grind for to begin with. but even for those that do require grinding its not nearly as bad as you think, you can actually equip 2 master rings at once unequip everything else, maybe equip johnathan with the berserk armor if you have it do decrease your defense further, go to the nest of evil, fight doppelgänger, hit them once with your subweapon then use thousand blades, this will kill them in 1 to 2 casts, your partner attack scales with your level, arround level 40 they die in 2 casts, i dont know how high you need to be to kill them in 1 cast, either way do this once and you get 400 entire points of mastery for your subweapons, most subweapons need less than 1000 points to master, so do this 3 times for every subweapon and they are all maxed out, only cross, holy water and axe need 2k and spear needs 1.5 k i think, but even then it doesnt take that long.
Been a while, love the videos though!
I just finished this game before watching this, and I'm glad you touched on the Nest of Evil and Richter mode, considering I had no idea they existed.
Pika didn't use the strongest skill at all; The creampie. It's overpowered.
Great video as always! I did Richter Mode with max. Level 1 and the last fight was horribly hard, i think i never beated them... Hope that your next video is about Order of Ecclesia
I admit this had a lot of potential and while the painting idea was not fully utilized in a way that could have extended the length in a meaningful way it is still a fantastic game.
I agree.
great game! i was really distraught cause i sold one of the items, and it turned out you needed one for a secret quest later. so i couldn't 100% it :'(
_Oh boy oh boy!_ Does this mean Order of Ecclesia comes next? Because boy I love that game. It has... _issues,_ pretty big ones, but something about its atmosphere has always charmed me. The music and looks of the locales really sell it out to me. Certainly a loooot more linear, arguably almost not a Metroidvania, but it's different rather than bad.
@💋 Sweety Hotgirl • Vlogs Psh, please. As if Chalotte was good enough to be compared to... well, you get the gist.