The Belmont’s Day Off : A Thousand Words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.


Fittingly enough, the percentage completion rating for
Portrait of Ruin is 1000%

My first write up involving the Dominus Collection was in fact, more of a to the point headline piece involving the launch trailer. Nothing wrong with a quickie mind you, as I sometimes just very unfortunately do not have the time to get much done in the way of the creative before my day job proper but after my sleep deprived ass finally gets some well earned shut eye. I did however, waste a perfectly good article name that I thought was far more deserving of a much greater piece of conceptual execution, hence why The Belmont’s Day Off moniker continues to get some mileage.


To be fair, so did their lineage..
the bastards have been around
for 1000 years, mind you

My first write-up ended up being more of a quick recap of the fall of the series itself, and in a weird twist of irony, spoke about the ways in which the other two titles, Dawn and Order, were more unlike Portrait of Ruin, the game of which was originally suppose to be my main focus of writing. The article ended up having some excellent fruit to bear, so I let it ride. A further irony involving the Dominus Collection was how slow of a burn it has been in enjoying the games, which comes as a shocking revelation when one considers just how long I’ve been awaiting the titles seeing the light of day once more. I nearly didn’t even pick the collection up on top of everything else, as it was not made available for the PS4 (I still don’t have a PS5), and I do already have a healthy little pile of Castlevania trophies on the system I was wishing to throw a few more onto.


Same vibes

To be honest, writing directly about Portrait of Ruin has me feeling antsy for some reason, and I can’t necessarily pin down why that is. I normally love sharing my thoughts about gaming and infusing some humor and philosophy in my approach at deconstructing any virtual reality set before me, so feeling a bit beside myself in crafting an article specifically about Portrait is definitely a head scratcher, to say the least. Perhaps the game is evoking some seriously nostalgic sensibilities within me, which has been something of a regularity in the past on ATE, so I’m led to believe it is not entirely just that element. I do know that PoR does what any good game should do to me when I task myself to write about it: and that’s wanting to play it more than wanting to write about it, and that does prompt me to wonder how many and or what kind of games fall into which category in that regard.


I can’t help but feel he’s involved somehow with that sentiment

I also feel like I’m kind of in a strange energy of a creative fervor, where I have a load of thoughts in my brain that I just want immediately out and onto the screen, but seemingly don’t have the patience to do so, not unlike how illegible my handwriting gets due to my writing speed not being able to match the pace at which my brain works. I am self-aware enough that my penchant for speed running often gets in the way of my ability to maintain orderliness, but this is starting to get out of hand. So in the spirit of just how massively discombobulated both myself and this write up are now currently being reflected upon as, and in turning my back on any proper etiquette I may have cultivated over the years as an editor proper, I am just going to word vomit onto this keyboard and hope for the best.


Really missing out an a Typing of the Dead high score opportunity
with that kind of approach in mind

At this point I’m half tempted to just continue writing a massive ramp up only to end up *not* talking about Portrait of Ruin, in some weird schadenfreude level of comradery with the reader. Laughing now at the one person who came here because they’re like the #1 PoR fan, totally fan-personing out over the idea of getting a fresh take on one of their favorite games of all time just to be devastated that what they’re met face to face with instead is some surly son of a bitch taking the piss about Dracula related affairs. This does bring up a great point about the idea of inherent value in writing and in sharing conceptual worth just on some basic, visceral level. Like, maybe if I had advertised a killer pumpkin pie recipe and then went on a 1000 word tangent about the absence of a dusty clan of vampire hunters gone M.I.A only some blood sucking, sweet toothed maniacs would be giddy with glee about, both as Dracula enthusiasts and baked good devotees, who know a good pumpkin pie recipe when they read one.

In a fun twist: it would still be Castlevania related, I contend.
(Thank you Curse of Darkness for being positively absurd).

But I guess this is all very much on point for me with Portrait of Ruin, as it is with much of the Dominus Collection. The Belmonts are very much nearly not there, just haunting the hollowed grounds that set the wheels of current events in motion, which is kind of where I’ve been with writing about the collection thus far. Perpetually at a distance, being a relevant player behind the scenes, while simultaneously doing my civic duty to support the awesomeness that is ensuing, one day at a time. I will leave you with at least one final thought related to the main qualitative value of Portrait of Ruin: historically reflective.

Next time on Active Time Event: Portrait of Ruin
(With the follow up having 1000% more analysis)
~Pashford

The Belmont’s Day Off: Long Weekend Edition

Occasionally, there are days where I just wake up and the first words that come out of my mouth as I stare at the ceiling are “god dammit”.


What I look like when I can’t fall asleep due to the memories
involved with beating the Water Temple from Ocarina of Time

The good news my friends: today is not one of those days. In a rare moment of committing to what we in the industry like to refer to as “a good fucking idea”, Konami stealth released the Castlevania: Dominus collection on August 27th, without any fanfare leading up to the titles launch day whatsoever. While this move has backfired in spectacular fashion in the gaming world in the past (See: The Sega Saturn launch), this circumstances surrounding the surprise release was met with nothing short of jubilation from both the gaming public and press alike, as we have been collectively waiting for the re-release of the DS trilogy of games for a long time.


The face of Castlevania fans the world
over when they heard the DS titles were
finally getting re-released

The reason Konami may have waited so long to let loose this collection of classic games is anyone’s guess, but I have a sneaking suspicion if you correlated the data of Konami’s success in the pachinko machine arena vs video game release schedule, you would see a not too surprising financial story of weary and woe, as Konami mostly gave up the ghost of having any value as a game company a long time ago. With the quality of the Dominus collection standing as the last time the Castlevania series was topical and relevant, see: 16 years ago, Castlevania may have represented the canary in the coalmine that not all was well in the land of Konami, as even outstanding titles like Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia weren’t even considered good enough to prevent the series from falling out of relevancy.


It would be like if the LOTR series fell into obscurity after the
movies released

I am only very slightly exaggerating in reference to the slow decline of the Konami gaming empire (in the West, at least) with that short synopsis, as the mix of their successful foray into the world of pachinko machines, combined with their complete lack of commitment in retaining talent circa 2010, while failing to maintain their big name gaming series is the stuff of nightmarish legend at this point. I will apologize after the fact at the complete lack of citation involving the history behind the collapse, as I don’t have much time right now so can’t be arsed to cobble together a hyperlinked timeline for you. One of the only reasons we likely even got the Dominus collection in our greasy little gaming hands was probably due in part to Nintendo and Netflix doing all of the heavy lifting and reminding people that Castlevania is still really fucking cool.


A Konami exec’s face while watching the Castlevania
anime on Netflix and thinking it would be an ideal
property to adapt to a video game series

I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Castlevania’s former series creative lead Koji Igarashi’s massive success with his kickstarted game Bloodstained, amongst the cornicopia of titles populating the metroidvania genre he helped to spawn, also helped to keep alive the spirit of the series he had to abandon, but I digress. This write up wasn’t suppose to be pissing on the memory of the failed and the fallen, but the first of a multipart retrospective involving the games in the Dominus collection. I chose to arbitrarily start with Portrait of Ruin, mostly due to the fact that I’ve played Dawn of Sorrow the most, and Order of Ecclesia is quite similar to what Bloodstained ended up being, so I feel as if I’ve spent the most time away from Portrait of Ruin, so let’s shoot the shit a little about what Portrait of Ruin has to offer.


Picture: slightly related

One of the more bizarre moments of interest with Portrait of Ruin was that based on how it was received overall upon release vs the other two DS titles that launched on the system, was that Portrait was more or less considered the lesser of the three. Don’t get me wrong, the game reviewed well and was placed on lists of acclaim left and right after launch, I think it’s more a telling dictation of just how strong the pedigree was for the DS titles across the board, with Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia only making Portrait of Ruin pale in comparison to the level of quality they were bringing to the table.


Is Portrait of Ruin the Temple of Doom of the
Dominus Collection?

Building off of that point, I think that when you look at Dawn of Sorrow, the only detractions from people you ever really hear about the sequel are 1: the touch controls, and 2: the art direction. I think most people agree that while the DS certainly had it’s moments of innovation with utilizing the systems touch screens in a lot of amazing ways, the stuff they did with Dawn of Sorrow was needlessly tacked on bullshit to fill some ridiculous quota of showing off the systems capabilities. Whenever you change formula drastically enough to fundamentally upset the status quo enough that gamers start to turn against you as a result, you know yah dun goofed, which is essentially what happened with the touch screen based seal mechanic in Dawn of Sorrow.


They really sealed their fates with this
goofy gimmicky inclusion

The only other point of division for gamers with Dawn would be the people who lamented the lack of art done by infamous Castlevania illumni Ayami Kojima, who had helped to create some stellar art work for the series going all the way back to Symphony of the Night.


Dat Alucard, tho…
And as someone who pisses all over the idea of how derivative and bottom of the barrel crutching on basic anime stylization for one’s aesthetic can end up being, IGA’s decision to go that route to attract a younger demographic for the series based on the DS’ average age demographic was on point, as was thusly cemented way down the road after the fact.


Pictured: Trevor Belmont grumpy he looks so fashionable
within an anime format

I guess to summarize my last few thoughts in a more succinct manner; with even the small points of contention involved with Dawn of Sorrow as a follow up to Aria, involves the game still being a follow up to Aria, which was just so damn good, it didn’t matter if the title took the low road with anime aesthetic or some clunky touch screen gimmicks: Aria was essentially nearly flawless as a spiritual follow up to Symphony of the Night, and likely the Castlevania game people had been waiting on impatiently for six years to finally get to play. No offense to the earlier GBA titles, and my condolences to the N64 “games” (it was really like one game and then a re-release with extra content), but Dawn of Sorrow was the sequel to the phantom that had haunted the series since gamers had finally and excitedly worked their way through the inverted castle.


For people who don’t know, the inverted castle was infamous
in that in order to beat it, you had to turn your tv upside down
in order to play it correctly (holds back laughter)

Which is why I ultimately think Portrait of Ruin wasn’t seen as the next grand ascension for the series, as gamers had already been recently treated to a double helping of what were arguably near ideal follow ups to Symphony in the form of the Sorrow duology. Not surprisingly, Ecclesia would go to course correct following Portrait, again, not because the title was considered bad by any metric, but because IGA and his team realized the way forward with the series after having been inspired by their own ideas in incorporating the portraits the way they did, to create a feeling of a more robust, expansive world Castlevania largely hadn’t seen up to that point, with the series usually being lock step with the equivalent of a bottle episode setting in video game format.


Hell of a piece of real estate

Whew, fun run down on some aspects involving my retrospective on the DS titles thus far, even though I ironically failed to discuss Portrait of Ruin at any great length. Something to look forward to for part two, I suppose. Stay tuned.

~Pashford