Artwork! -- http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=6232

Castlevania bites back on Nintendo DS: Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH reveals Castlevania®: Portrait of Ruin as the long-running series returns to Nintendo's handheld.

"Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH's ever popular Castlevania series returns to Nintendo DS in November, with the release of Castlevania ®: Portrait of Ruin for the handheld.

Created by Koji Igarashi, who devised the long-running series, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin gives the player control of two different characters. The pair – vampire hunter Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Orlean, a young girl with magical abilities – must work to thwart a plan to resurrect Dracula's Castle and unleash a reign of evil upon the unsuspecting world, all within a new World War II setting.

The new setting captures the chaos and suffering the era, with thousands of lost souls wandering the world in search of salvation. Desperate to escape the limbo within their exist, the misguided spirits seek to rebuild Dracula's Castle from its ruins, and are lead by a pair of evil Vampire sisters out to resurrect their master's home for their own nefarious plans. Thrown together, Jonathan and Charlotte must combine their unusual skill sets to defeat the plans and restore harmony.

Retaining the same 2D platform realms for which the series is famed, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin uses a side-on view to oversee the scrolling stages. Players can switch freely between Jonathan and Charlotte as they progress through the levels, using their skills when appropriate. In addition to Jonathan's weapon expertise and Charlotte's spell-casting, both characters can utilize all-new 'Summon' attacks to raise demons to assist them against the Vampire sisters' army. Similarly, more conventional weapons can also be found on route, and saved for use against the hardier monsters that await in the shadows.

Featuring all-new locations and a cast of over 100 different adversaries, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin marks a welcome return to the DS for the series. Igarashi's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow has already enjoyed massive success for the format, and his new epic is certain to wow Nintendo users when it is released later in the year."

Ah, reviewers will have a field day with that title if it turns out to be rubbish.

As far as I'm concerned they can just keep on cranking these 2D Castlevanias out and I'll keep on buying them. I'm looking forward to this.

I'm sure the game will be fine, but my goodness is that art terrible.  I thought the generic anime art from Dawn was lame, but this is just trash.

There's nothing wrong with the art.

As long as they change the title.

It's all rubbish, look at that drawing style. I wish we could go back to the drawing style of CV64 and before... but boy I am so dreaming.

The first two screens have been released (at the above link). Looks pretty good.

Perfect timing, I just finished Dawn of Sorrow. I'm more or less neutral about the art; Ayami Kojima's style is distinctive, but her characters generally look very similar, and while DoS's generic art style was a bit flat in comparison, it didn't detract from the gameplay at all. I just hope the in-game artwork looks more like the second example than the first. My only complaint is that I wish the characters looked like they actually belonged in the 1940s, but I guess the same could be said of most Castlevania characters of their respective timeframes.

Oh, and here are two screenshots: (beaten to the punch)

Two-player cooperative play, perhaps? I guess, but only as long as it isn't required to fully complete the game.

I think that the artwork is atrocious but it is unlikely to have any impact on the game. With the screenshots, it's clear that the in-game style is pretty much the same as the last and that is fine by me.

Oh and I agree with you POPOBOT on embracing the time period. I don't even know why they bother telling us when the game takes place - it never seems to make an impact in the game. I'd love to see hints of the actual time period they are set in and think the games would be richer as a result.

I'm interested in the game.  Although the character design is "worse" than before.  There is a lack of imagination on the character designer, I think.  The color palette for the two main character seem confined to red, white, and blue.  If the art is going to be anime-based, the artist should make the characters look more "exciting."

If the gameplay is any good, people will buy it just the same.  The in-game sprites look the same as other games, so it's not too much of a bother.

Right on; the anime style of Dawn of Sorrow didn't deter me from getting the game in the least, and it certainly didn't affect my enjoyment of its excellent gameplay. I've written elsewhere that my interest in games tends to be short-lived, but I relished every minute of DoS, and I look forward to this title regardless of who illustrates it.

Wait, wasn't it by someone else? I thought his first was SotN...

Welcome to the (sometimes) revisionist history of Castlevania!

I'm sure some of the people at the Castlevania Dungeon actually killed themselves after seeing that.

That's what IGA wants people to believe, and that's what I'm trying to fight since I got interested in Castlevania.

Careful, Konami might come after you if you try uncovering the past that they don't want you to know about - namely the one where Castlevania wasn't always a bunch of Metroid clones and boring 3D adventures (not that I dislike the former at all, generally).

I actually wonder sometimes if the reason we haven't seen Rondo of Blood rereleased is because it wasn't an IGA game and they want us to forget about those.  Even if it were rereleased at this point, who wants to take bets that they'd replace all the artwork with Kojima stuff and have Yamane redo the entire ost?

Well, that would certainly make for a much better game.

Anyway, "IGA is trying to make Castlevania about him" is pretty much bullshit.

I'm too lazy to research it myself: did Koji Igarashi do anything besides the bunch of Castlevania games?

I do know he was the creator of the first Tokimeki Memorial. It was his project before SOTN. Quite the difference, eh?

Can't vouch for anything prior to that though.

Anyone paying attention to the news for the game are probably aware of the following already, but I think a recap wouldn't hurt.  Thanks to ahmad from NGAF for the list:

-Mysterious vampire Brauner to reinstate the house of Dracula in the settings of WWII
-Jonathan Morris, the son of John Morris Sr.
-Jonathan wields a whip, but can use also other weapons, such as a sword or a mace
-Characters level up
-More focus on the items, armor & accessories than in DoS's "Soul collecting" system
-Since the Morris clan are related to the Belmonts, Jonathan will wield the VK in some point of the game
-Belmonts can wield the VK by default, but a Morris needs to do "something special" to be able to do that
-Charlotte's family is somehow related to the Fernandez clan.
-Jonathan & Charlotte will have a platonic relationship only
-Brauner's twin daughters are called Loretta & Stella - share their fathers goal of resurrecting Dracula
-Brauner is more interested in summoning Castlevania and doesn't want her daughters involved, on some level
-Brauner is a painter (Portrait of Ruin). His paintings serve as teleports to different locations, such as the deserts of Egypt & the London-esque "Misty Town"
-Soundtrack composed by Michiru Yamane
-The majority of the game happens inside a castle
-PoR will be bigger than DoS, perhaps even impressively bigger.
-Comeback of some of SotN's & Rondo's enemy designs.
-Bigger dev. team for PoR than in DoS; some developers from CotM have joined PoR's dev. team
-Appearances of Bloodlines related cast? "Please look forward to it."
-All the action in PoR takes place on the bottom screen of the DS, upper has character & enemy info & map
-No stylus functions
-Wi-Fi: either co-op mode or a versus mode. Item shops for other players.
-PoR runs an upgraded engine of DoS
-Will have an animated intro

I finally beat Portrait last night and I have to say that while it was good overall, I'm severely disappointed in the localization.  It's just utter shit.  The game takes place in 1944 but for some reason everyone talks like a present day teenager.  I guess that's what you get when you allow ZRO and Animaze to handle localization duties.  Bad Konami, Bad!

Concerning the new systems, I thought the dual-character dynamic was nifty, but I could have done without the skill leveling system.  The quest system has been done much better in other games since too many of the quests in this game require a FAQ to figure out, but it was ok, especially since many quests can be completed without having to activate them first, which is always a plus.

It also seems that the difficulty has been bumped up a bit over Dawn, but it was manageable.

At least the music and unlockables are both very cool.  I'm messing around with Turbo Richter now.  Fun stuff.

Long story short, the game gets the job done, but it's not anywhere near as fun as Dawn.

My Metroivania ranking:

01. Dawn
02. Symphony
03. Aria
04. Portrait
05. Harmony
06. Circle

SHOCKING!

*chuckles*