History VideoGame / CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin

** For Zacchino, he always does Touch Damage, but he has an action if he gets too close. If he gets close to Johnathan he will kneel and take out a sword saying "DIE!". If the player is controlling Charlotte he will do the same action but take out a harmless flower. If Charlotte leaves he says "Don't Ignore Me" but doesn't turn any more hostile than he was before.

%%* ZettaiRyouiki: Charlotte. Oh so very much.

* A subtle one, but the duo's [[SayMyName "JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE!"]] banter references ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' - a character named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AzoQvB7LsY Charlotte Pickles keeps on calling Jonathan]].

* A subtle one, but the duo's [[SayMyName "JONATHAN! CHARLOTTE!"]] banter references ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' in that a character named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AzoQvB7LsY Charlotte Pickles keeps on calling Jonathan]].

* CombinationAttack: Lots of them. Both Jonathan/Charlotte and Stella/Loretta have some potent ones. Several bosses such as Slogra and Gaibon, or Werewolf and Minotaur use them too. And that's without mentioning [[spoiler:the final battle against Dracula and Death]].

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', the first Metroidvania. Alucard is a loner, while in this game, Jonathan and Charlotte are trusted partners all the way through.

* GlassCannon: Richter and Maria during Richter Mode in ''Portrait of Ruin''. They can at least level up this time, but there's still almost no health.

** ''Judgment'' made Death into this, which is either totally bizarre or completely in-character.

* ElegantGothicLolita: The vampire twins, each with heterochromia.

* CombinationAttack: Lots of them. Both Jonathan/Charlotte and Stella/Loretta have some potent ones. And that's without mentioning [[spoiler:the final battle against Dracula and Death]].

%%* BlackMagicianGirl: Charlotte and Loretta.

** Also, the Greatest Five Dual Crash, which makes {{cameos}} of the [[spoiler:previous wielders of the Vampire Killer - in order, Richter, [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaLamentOfInnocence Leon]], [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse Trevor]], [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Juste]], and [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaI Simon Belmont]]]].

** Also, the Greatest Five Dual Crash, which makes {{cameos}} of the [[spoiler:previous wielders of the Vampire Killer]].
* PurpleIsPowerful: Brauner wears a purple suit. Death's robe is also purple shaded.

* RandomDrop: Money, spells, and subweapons can be got from the corpses (or, seeing they're undead, "recorpses") of your enemies. Have fun getting the drop from the Peeping Eye, an object that lets you see breakable walls. [[RareRandomDrop It starts at 0.69% of a chance]]. Be ready to get Luck boosting items if you want it.

** [[http://tasvideos.org/1437M.html "Jonasan! Sharotto! Jonasan! Sharotto! Jonasan! Sharotto!"]]

* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: While a rather loose example as Charlotte can use (magic-assisted) special attacks. Charlotte is more useful using spells that all have a sort of horizontal reach. Johnathan is usually better equipped to fight close range and has higher defense. Johnathan can also be unequipped with a weapon and he will fight bare fisted, an action that can't be duplicated with Charlotte. This is more straight with Richter and Maria. Maria has no physical attacks and only has projectiles.

** The Cream Pie, once mastered. [[spoiler:It is very effective against the Whip's Memory (Richter Belmont) once mastered, as it does Dark damage, his elemental weakness, as well as being easy on the MP (allowing for spamming) and decent range.]]

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', the first Metroidvania. Alucard is a loner, while in this game Jonathan and Charlotte are trusted partners all the way through.

* PieInTheFace: Johnathan gets cream pies (grow up) as a subweapon. They do heavy "Dark" damage, and thus at a suficient level, will completely smear the "Light"-aligned BonusBoss.

* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: The Whip's Memory is [[spoiler:Richter]]. In the Nest of Evil, you fight copies of [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse Trevor,]] [[EvilKnockoff Grant]], [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight and Sypha]]]]. Also, the Greatest Five Dual Crash.

** Pretty much all female enemies aside from Loretta are more developed than Charlotte in this area and do more physical activity than her. Astarte has some physical attacks, and the vacuum maid, while mostly using a tool, can be forced into physical hand on hand combat.

* DistractedByTheSexy: [[TheVamp Astarte]], one of the female bosses, has an attack that makes either Johnathan or Richter fall in love with her, in gameplay terms this means that the player loses control of them and is automatically forced to control the female partner (Charlotte for Johnathan Maria for Richter). If the player is controlling a girl the attack has no effect. The charmed male character will help Astarte fight Charlotte or Maria. For Zacchino, he always does Touch Damage, but he has an action if he gets too close. If he gets close to Johnathan he will kneel and take out a sword saying "DIE!". If the player is controlling Charlotte he will do the same action but take out a harmless flower. If Charlotte leaves he says "Don't Ignore Me" but doesn't turn any more hostile than he was before.

* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: While a rather loose example as Charlotte can use (magic assisted) special attacks. Charlotte is more useful using spells that all have a sort of horizontal reach. Johnathan is usually better equipped to fight close range and has higher defense. Johnathan can also be unequipped with a weapon and he will fight bare fisted, an action that can't be duplicated with Charlotte. This is more straight with Richter and Maria. Maria has no physical attacks and only has projectiles.

* BoobsOfSteel: Stella has the biggest boobs of the game, and she's also the strongest female character (and the only female in the storyline who uses physical attacks a lot).

* ContinuityNod: Many parts of the "Great Staircase" area, such as stair rooms with the hill guards or the staircases with the skeleton gunmen, are quite recognizable to anyone who has played ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight''.

* DualBoss: In a series first, [[spoiler:Death and Dracula fight together for the FinalBoss battle]] and prior to that, Stella and Loretta.
** There's also the ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse Dracula's Curse]]'' protagonists (minus Alucard) who, much like their appearance in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'', show up as bosses, though here it's in the [[BonusDungeon optional Nest of Evil area]]. With all of them attacking at once, that makes this a trio boss.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: Brauner was driven to evil when his daughters were killed in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* NotCompletelyUseless: Sanctuary and Undead Killer. The former takes a long time to cast and the other does relatively little damage, but the former is required to get to the endgame, and both can render [[GoddamnedBats the Red Skeletons and Red Armours]] DeaderThanDead.

* PantyShot: Charlotte can get a few of these, especially if the vacuum Persephones are nearby.
** You can get even by casting Tempest near the said enemies to blow up their skirts in turn.

* PuzzleBoss: The Dullahan does massive damage to your level 7 or so characters with their minimal equipment, and it is unrealistic to dodge everything he throws. The solution? [[spoiler:He'll never use his most damaging attack if you focus your attacks on his head.]]
** Alternatively, one may notice that this boss, like every other in the game, telegraphs every single major attack.
* RandomDrop: Money, spells, and subweapons can be got from the corpses (or, seeing they're undead, "recorpses") of your enemies.
** RareRandomDrop: Have fun getting the drop from the Peeping Eye, an object that lets you see breakable walls. It starts at 0.69% of a chance. Be ready to get Luck boosting items if you want it.

* SayMyName: When switching partners. "Jonathan!" "Charlotte!" "Jonathan!" "Charlotte!"

* ShipTease: Charlotte seems to have a hidden crush on Jonathan, but we only see it in the bad ending.
** Some of the items you can find, like the [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel wedding dress (which happens to be one of Charlotte's best armours) and the engagement ring]], are bound to give [[ShippingGoggles some fans]] ideas.
** From the way Jonathan and Charlotte interact with and tease each other so often — including in the good ending — it is already way too obvious that they are more than just close friends, hinting that they have sincere feelings toward each other. Someone apparently forgot to tell the manual writer, though, since the manual outright says their relationship is "platonic".

* ShoutOut: A number of references to other ''Castlevania'' games exist, but one of the most surprising is the music in the second desert level, all of which is taken from the MSX game ''King's Valley II''.

* SpritePolygonMix: For some reason, the Peeping Eye enemy is the only one in the game rendered with polygons instead of the usual sprites.
** Also, the intro is done in CGI. Similar in quality to that of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', the War of the Lions, but it's less noticeable.
* StellarName:

** The Stellar Sword, once owned by [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Maxim]], which is one of the last quest rewards.

* UniqueEnemy: The two giant sandworms in the two Egyptian-themed levels. Sure, they are just PaletteSwap of one another, but each one has its own entry in the bestiary, and they never reappear after having been killed.
** Well, the one in the first desert level does, but it's at the opposite side of the level.
** Also the dodo, the giant ghost, and the king ghoul, all required for sidequests. The dodo behaves exactly the same as it did in ''Symphony''.

** The first round of combat with Death. Up to this point, the player may not have exactly had much in the way of hard bosses aside from the two above. Death? Makes the aforementioned two bosses look like toddlers in comparison. Simply put, the player ''needs'' to mix up their attack elements as appropriate for the enemy if they wish to have a fighting chance. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Even with that in mind, prepare for a long fight.]]
*** Note that the information stated above assumes that the player is in Normal Mode. Heavens have mercy on those who venture into this fight in Hard Mode without Ancient Armor...

%%* VictorianLondon: City of Haze and 13th Street.