History YMMV / CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin

* DiscOneNuke: There's quite a few, actually, in addition to the Shuriken and Ice Needles mentioned above.
** The humble Long Spear. A weapon as strong as the fully-powered Vampire Killer (ignoring the other benefits the whip has), but it's the common drop of the Armor Knight, which you can meet in large quantities as early as the second portrait! It will probably last you until you get the True Vampire Killer.
** The Heaven's Sword, which you can get in the 3rd portrait. It has great range and can hit multiple times, not to mention that a jump-cancelling technique allows you to spam them really easily. You can easily laugh your way through the first fight with Stella with this weapon.
** The Medusa Whip, also found as early as the 3rd portrait. Mediocre in terms of pure attack power, but anything weak to Earth will be petrified with a hit from this (with any hits afterwards doing double damage), making a lot of nasty enemies later on trivial.

* TheScrappy: Vincent's [[NoHeroDiscount refusal to lower his prices]] (even after being cured of vampirism) has gained him some scrappy status. He's still far more likable than his ''CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' namesake, though.

* TheScrappy: Vincent's [[NoHeroDiscount refusal to lower his prices]] (even after being cured of vampirism) has gained him some scrappy status. He's still far more likable than his ''LordsOfShadow'' namesake, though.

* ThatOneBoss: FrankensteinsMonster isn't actually too hard, with [[MightyGlacier hard-hitting but easily telegraphed attacks.]] It's when you meet [[WolfpackBoss two of him]] in the Nest of Evil that fit hits shan. You can reliably predict what one of them will do because the other is off screen or surrounding you, about to sucker punch you. Abusing the NotCompletelyUseless Clear Skies spell is almost mandatory here. The worst part? This is the FIRST room of this floor. The boss at the end of the floor? [[CastlevaniaSorrow Abaddon.]]

** HilariousInHindsight: Given the name of the duo that recently sang on "Britain's Got Talent."

** FridgeHorror / TearJerker: The Circus of Fear. [[spoiler:It's mentioned that Brauner lost his daughters because of the first World War. The painting (and by extension, the stage) shows the aftermath of a circus and town torn apart by war. Put two and two together. Worse, as you go further into the level, the stage gets turned on its side, and then upside down, representing how Brauner's life was literally turned upside down.]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The Legion - heavily subverted thank to the overly bright atmosphere of the boss music...
** Don't forget that in one of the miniquests, you have to get a tear located near a certain statue. When you take it....... *Shudder*

** 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 like a 3KO, and it's even worse on Hard mode. Trying to do this at low levels can make it pretty much a LuckBasedMission.]]

* FetishFuel: Charlotte, Stella, and Loretta attract lots of this.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[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.]]

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Meteor!! OMFG, METEOR!!!!!!!!]]

** 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 like a 3KO, and it's even worse on Hard mode.]]

* MissedMomentOfAwesome: The game is a story sequel to CastlevaniaBloodlines, which had two playable characters, and uses a two-character system. Despite this, a John/Eric mode is nowhere to be found.

** [[spoiler:The Sisters Mode. killing an enemy by drawing a cross with your pen??? BWAHAHAHAHA...!!!]]
** The Zacchino enemy will go up to any female character (and [[AmbiguousGender Old Axe Armor]]) and immediately declare his love from them. If you turn around, he'll say "Don't reject me!"

** Charlotte can learn a spell Ice Needles that is bought early on in the game. Because of it's 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.

** 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 like a 3KO, and it's even worse on Hard mode.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[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.]]

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The Legion - [[strike:somewhat]] [[{{Narm}} heavily subverted thank to the overly bright atmosphere of the boss music...]]

* Similar to the Charlotte example above, 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.

*** 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''.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[spoiler: Brauner believes Stella and Loretta are his reincarnated daughters, but this is never explored and we don't get any confirmation for one way or the other.]]

* Similar to the Charlotte example above, 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.

* MemeticMutation: JOHNATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JOHNATHAN! CHARLOTTE!

* ThatOneBoss: FrankensteinsMonster isn't actually too hard, with [[MightyGlacier hard-hitting but easily telegraphed attacks.]] It's when you meet [[WolfpackBoss two of him]] in the Nest of Evil that fit hits shan. You can reliably predict what one of them will do because the other is off screen or surrounding you, about to sucker punch you. Abusing the NotCompletelyUseless Clear Skies spell is almost mandatory here. The worst part? This is the FIRST room of this floor. The boss at the end of the floor? [[CastlevaniaSorrow Abbadon.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[spoiler: Brauner believes Stella and Loretta are his reincarnated daughter, but this is never explored and we don't get any confirmation for one way or the other.]]