Line #18 YMMV/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin


1	* AntiClimaxBoss:
2	** [[spoiler:Whip's Memory, a recreation of the legendary [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Richter Belmont]],]] can be cheesed easily with fully-mastered Shuriken or Cream Pies, both of which are excellent air-to-ground attacks for avoid its particularly lethal [[spoiler:whip attack]] and which don't take much time to master; Shuriken only need 300 mastery points while Pies only need 100. Special note on the Cream Pies: They are dark-elemental, and this boss is one of the few in the entire game to be weak to dark attacks, meaning that it goes down surprisingly fast from a bunch of ''pies''. As a result, getting the fully-powered Vampire Killer is far easier than expected.
3	** The Doppelganger from the Nest of Evil is the final encounter of the whole area and supposedly the boss to end all bosses, but it is a cakewalk compared to what you fought all the way to get to them, especially when you are playing as Johnathan and Charlotte. The Doppelganger randomly takes the form of a character and uses their currently equipped weapons and sub-weapons/magic the moment they enter its room, but it can't change weapons unlike you. One can easily cheese it by equipping nothing on both characters, enter the room then set them back; it will just blindly throw punches and rendered entirely crippled. Even if you don't (or can't) cheese it this way, the Doppelganger's attacks are not difficult to avoid as long as you don't bring any particularly annoying or dangerous sub-weapons or magic into its room.
4	* BestBossEver:
5	** The final boss fight, a team fight against [[spoiler:Dracula ''and'' Death]] at the same time. For many games, you're told that [[spoiler:Death is Dracula's]] right-hand man; here, you see for yourself why.
6	** The OptionalBoss fight against the Whip's Memory, [[spoiler:a copy of the last Belmont to use the Vampire Killer, namely [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Richter Belmont]]. It's here you see why he's regarded as one of the strongest Belmonts in the series.]] Defeating it unseals the Vampire Killer's [[InfinityPlusOneSword true power]].
7	** The Werewolf in 13th Street. After seeing so many reused sprites and enemies in the game, you'd be excused for thinking that the game's werewolf would have the same graphics that have been used constantly since ''Rondo of Blood'', but instead you get an eight-foot-tall hulk that rips lampposts from the ground to throw at you.
8	* CryForTheDevil: Brauner's actions are objectively monstrous, but when one learns of [[spoiler:his past of him going insane when his two daughters died in WWI and he ''sincerely'' believes Stella and Loretta are his daughters reincarnated, it's hard not to pity his tragic delusions. The icing on the cake is the bad ending, where defeating (as opposed to curing) Stella and Loretta causes Brauner to completely abandon his plans for the sake of saving them instead.]]
9	* DemonicSpiders:
10	** There are two enemies encountered in the [=13th=] Street that are resistant to the [[LightIsNotGood Holy Element]], possess troublesome attacks and sometimes appear in large numbers; Amalaric Sniper and Nyx. This means that not only they will take some time to kill with the upgraded Vampire Killer, they could easily dogpile or snipe you to death in offscreen positions. Nyx can also poison your player character if her syringe lands.
11	** The Cave Trolls in the Nest of Evil are a step up from their ''Symphony of the Night'' versions; one of these will do around 200 on average with their tongue whip attack and their electric field will kill you in SECONDS. Even worse, later on there is a floor with nine of these and attempting to take all of them at once is death sentence. The only good thing is that they will not attack unless you attack or go close enough to them, so even when they appear in numbers you can pick them off one at a time.
12	** Another potentially lethal foe that appears in bulk exclusive to the Nest of Evil is the Gold Skeleton. Any attack they are not weak to will simply deal ScratchDamage to them and they throw a bunch of bones that hit hard. The first room they appear in also had 5 of these and multiple of these attacking you will spell quick doom. Thankfully, just like the Cave Trolls they have a limited range of sight, so you can just pick them off one by one.
13	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Astarte is the most popular amongst the bosses for her immense sex appeal and abilty to seduce Johnathan, leading to confused reactions from Charlotte.
14	* GameBreaker:
15	** Charlotte can learn a spell called Ice Needles that is bought early on in the game. Because of its fast cast rate, multiple "needles", low mana cost, and [[DiscOneNuke high damage]], it's incredibly useful for taking out rooms of enemies with ease, even late into the game. Later in the game, Chain Lightning can be gained, doing huge damage to every enemy onscreen when fully charged.
16	** Jonathan can buy the Shuriken subweapon really early in the game, and you'll almost never need another one. It's easy to master, and when mastered it basically obliterates anything in front of or below you.
17	** The fully powered Vampire Killer, while not the strongest weapon by any stretch, is ridiculously good due to the typical speed and range of the whip combined with a high enough attack power and holy/flame elemental, especially when the special attack is used. This does huge damage to many enemies. Other, stronger weapons are often much slower and their specials aren't as good.
18	** The Cross subweapon, which can be obtained from a quest unlocked somewhere between halfway and two-thirds through the game, is flat out ridiculous. It does solid damage, penetrates enemies, can score multiple hits against pretty much anything with good aim, can strike enemies behind you as well if you jump out of the way when it comes back, and has an elemental advantage over virtually every creature in the game. It doesn't cost all too much MP, has good reach and an easily predictable flight pattern, and becomes downright HUGE when mastered, which also lets you throw two of them. In other words, it's pretty much a Boomerang, Bible, and Shuriken compressed into one highly potent package. Not only does it make clearing rooms a snap, but it also flattens all but a couple of bosses (most of which show up BEFORE you can obtain it), but it also makes the optional level restriction runs incredibly easy.
19	** Miser Ring (increase power relative to your gold stash) + Gold Ring (increases the amount of money you can earn from candles relative to gold stash) + [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks Heaven's Sword (a weak, but long-range sword Jonathan can swing real fast and can easily hit an enemy multiple times in one throw)]] or Holy Claymore (ridiculously powerful sword with slash and holy attribute) = [[CurbStompBattle Total Annhilation.]] The Heaven's Sword itself is an amazing InfinityMinusOneSword if you know how to [[SomeDexterityRequired short-hop-backdash-triple-sword-cancel]], which against larger enemies will carve out huge chunks in their HP because it deals so many damage tics.
20	** Depending on the fight, the Thousand Blades Dual Crush skill can basically trivialize it. A sufficiently strong Johnatan/Charlotte can make short work of quite a few bosses in the Nest of Evil (Gergoth and Zephyr being notable offenders) with it if you apply proper timing to the skill. The killer part is that this skill is literally ''the first'' Dual Crush you find.
21	** The Sage Ring boosts mana regeneration; when you have two and Charlotte's Healing spell, you have FREE healing (if you are patient). A similar thing happens if you equip healing mail and [[GoodBadBug walk against a wall.]]
22	** Charlotte's Dark Rift spell sucks in projectiles, spawns right above her, and lasts for quite a while. This can trivialize bosses and monsters that focus on projectiles and/or staying out of reach by flying above you.
23	* GoodBadBugs:
24	** A bug enabled you to get quest rewards again and again, meaning you could sell them for potentially infinite gold. This coupled with the fact that the shop was right next to the quest reward guy, and that the shop sold the $300000 Holy Claymore, meant that you could get one of the most powerful weapons in the game [[DiscOneNuke before fighting the first boss]].
25	** You can also glitch the vampire sisters with a deft usage of Clear Skies, freezing them in place for the entire remainder of the battle.
26	** If you can get more than three different kinds of damage onto an enemy at the same time, all of the attacks will damage the enemy for ''every frame''.
27	* NightmareRetardant: The standard GameOver screen has a very vampiresque skull biting a sword, with a snake going through its eye sockets. But just look at the snake's grin. [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant He's so happy!]]
28	* ScrappyMechanic:
29	** The skill mastery system in general. For starters, Charlotte cannot help you master anything, even though you'll be using her for about half the game. And Jonathan's just take ''forever'' to master unless you're using two Master Rings (which costs a massive $200000 each). Almost every skill has a SP requirement in the thousands, and you get one or two from the easiest monsters, and about 10~15 from the strongest ones. You get SP as long as the monster has been A) damaged by the skill, and B) the monster dies by your hand, which is simple enough. The other big problem is the damage of the skills, since their power comes from the INT stat, which Jonathan just doesn't get naturally. It is perfectly possible to finish the game without mastering a single skill ([[AllThereInTheManual or even realize there is such a system in the first place]]), using Charlotte sensibly and the few skills that are mechanically broken.
30	** Sisters mode is unplayable if you're left-handed. You use the touchscreen to attack and the D-pad to move, which basically means you must "draw" your attacks with your right hand. And no, you can't reassign the controls so that you can move using the face buttons.
31	* ThatOneAttack:
32	** Death has a particular attack where he summons four hands to grab your player character. If you get grabbed, the hands will make sure your character won't be able to do anything and you need to summon your partner and make sure s/he takes one of the hands down, else it's a OneHitKill unless you have a lot of health and defense.
33	** Stella and Loretta can do a CombinationAttack in which Loretta makes a {{BFS}} out of ice, and Stella smashes it on the players, most likely resulting in a OneHitKill.
34	** The Amduscias from the Nest of Evil has an attack where he shoots lightning from his fingertip. If you get hit by this attack, it will do approximately 255 damage on average and this is also a multi-hit, more than enough to kill a high-level character instantly.
35	** Being incredibly fast and hard hitting on their own, the Cave Trolls in the Nest of Evil are ''nasty'' in general, but one attack from them really cements them as one of the most dangerous enemies of the game -- a short-range electric field that lasts for a few seconds. Just like the example above, this attack will kill almost any character all by itself if you stand right in front of it. Given how quick they move around, there's a high chance they will try to pull this out before they are killed.
36	* ThatOneBoss:
37	** The [[spoiler:purification of Stella and Loretta, where casting Sanctuary takes 15 seconds and Charlotte cannot get hit during it or it fails, nor can she go offscreen, and if either character gets hit, that's likely a three-hit kill, and it's even worse on Hard mode. Trying to do this at low levels can make it pretty much a LuckBasedMission. [[NoSell Stonewall]] is your friend here.]] Worse? [[spoiler:Sanctuary has a range of one screen-width with Charlotte as the center. Since you'll be playing as Jonathan keeping the sisters to one side so Charlotte doesn't get hit, it's possible for the spell to ''miss''.]]
38	** Death can also have shades of this, being Death and all. He has several attacks that are hard to dodge even if you know what you're doing and can kill even prepared players with ease.
39	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
40	** [[spoiler:Brauner believes Stella and Loretta are his daughters reincarnated, but this is never explored and we don't get any confirmation for one way or the other, though considering his actions and motivations, it's hinted that he's just delusional.]]
41	** The UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo setting isn't used to its full potential. There are no Nazis dabbling in [[{{Ghostapo}} the supernatural]] or with [[StupidJetpackHitler super-science]], or [[{{Magitek}} both]]. Given Dracula's AsLongAsThereIsEvil shtick, it could have been an interesting team-up (ala [[VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein Heinrich I and the SS Division]]). Though this might be justified by the game taking place in 1944, one year before the war's end — the Third Reich was on its last legs. To compare, ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' is set in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and takes you on a tour of Europe for its six stages.

Context YMMV / CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin