Tulip Baroo

My recent outings with the Castlevania series has been derelict of criticism or annoyance. A startling turn of events, as I went in with moderately high expectations, and generally leave with bitter remorse after having such notions. This sentiment, however, returned in a cataclysmic fashion with my latest endeavor: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. It's sort of ironic, because initially I was dreading playing them (the GBA/DS incarnations) chronologically from their respective dates of release. Portrait of Ruin -- being the most recent -- was obviously last on the list of five titles.

The irony sets in because I'd consider Portrait of Ruin, the poorest of the GBA/DS titles; and it was the one I wanted to play the most. At this point, I'd direct a lot of animosity at the title after playing the previous ones. For one, there's a castle; it is Castlevania last time I checked. So the most essential element for any Castlevania is there, that's a positive. What's inside the Castle though? Paintings. Not just any paintings though, no. One's that bend the space-time continuum and act as interdimensional portals to other places that have nothing to do with Dracula's castle. The game is a convoluted mess; the castle stands merely as a host to the various paintings which are just small scaled levels. So, basically, I'm playing a game that's essentially a redux of older Castlevania's, but done in the vein of a "Metroidvania". A.k.a., post-Symphony of the Night.

There's more wrong with it, but I'll highlight its shortcomings when I write a review in the coming week.

First blog post and it's spent griping about a game. I guess I should detail what this blog itself will host. This castle blog will be filled with paintings motivational as well as educational posts revealing and discussing game-related and occassionally music-related news and the like. I guess that means you can expect what the rest of the blogosphere is already doing, only with my take on it. Awesome, exciting, rejuvenating, delectable, stimulating, and most of all, pleasurable.