When I began PoR, I instantly thought "holy damn this already feels way more awesome than DoS and the GBA titles." Especially because the two-player mechanic works so well, and is pretty fleshed out as far as it is concerned for a first-time-outing.
However, as I've played it more, it feels much more hollow than some of the previous Castlevanias. This might be because the main hub feels even less like a cohesive unit than before, which has been a staple of the portable iterations. Symphony was the last game that made me sit down and think that the entire structure was a plausible, palatable whole, but these more recent games take that sort of thing for granted. I don't think Portrait reaches Harmony of Dissonance's transgression on this (which was UNBELIEVABLE in my opinion), but it still sort of cops out less than halfway through the game.
To replace this with a myriad of outer levels - the portraits in this case - tells me that the developers are really struggling to try and create large, dynamic environments and encase them within the Castlevania mythos. I think it's very prevalent since we really only got 4 levels outside of the castle (I'm not counting the Nest of Evil), since the later 4 are really just remixes of the first 4. It doesn't help that none of them seem to connect to each other - Egypt, a demented circus, an academy, and a town? What is the connection other than "gosh I guess Brauner really likes these kind of places" ??
Given that I really didn't like some of the direction with these outer areas only exaggerates the fact that the main castle feels so small and diminished. In Symphony, it seemed huge. Now I can warp to any of ...what, 6 (7?) locations and be anywhere almost instantly, instead of it taking more time to traverse around. This is probably in the name of convenience (and thus a good thing), but it still makes the main castle seem small.
Beyond that, I've found that grinding for items is almost ALWAYS disappointing, which I don't like. I also don't like the fact that there's really only two methods of attack as far as Jonathan is concerned - either slow and powerful with range, or short and quick and weak. I really, really want a weapon like Symphony had (its name escapes me) where you could attack as you ran. Because even though that weapon existed, there were still tons of other weapons I could use effectively - the soul stealer sword that got life back for instance.
I guess what I'm saying is that these newer games are definitely good, but they seemingly continually feel less and less ...emphasized. I think this has a lot to do with Iga's bullshit attitude regarding them, what with his "well we did anime 'cuz more kids play Gameboy and we want a larger userbase anyway." That's nonsense and he should be slapped for thinking that.
But I think that is the problem - I think at the end of the day, everyone is more worried about putting a game out on a console rather than the DS/GBA despite their massive userbases because a console game can earn you more credit if it is done right. Plus, portable = "pick up and play," and that mentality is definitely showing itself here.
Anyway, considering I've more or less gotten near 100% of this game in less than a week, which is something I've never done before, makes me question the game's overall standing. For the reasons above, it seems to get weaker as time passes. Had it included more emphasis on the tag team aspect and given me more options for equipping my characters, it might have been a little better.
Still an excellent game, and I'd tell anyone to pick it up, but it just doesn't reach the level of magic Symphony had.
P.S. Can we please make these games more gothic again? That was the whole point to begin with. Someone ought to make a Vampire Hunter D 2D game in the same style just to remind Konami wtf needs to happen with the series.
