I gotta say the only annoying stage has to be that mist forest filled with 3 deadly enemies. Took me a while to get the hell outta there. So far, I still like it. I think there's some more places to explore on the other side. I guess we need certain abilities to get to that destination. I do miss exploring that mountain.. That track is by far my favorite so far.

Really? I get the impression that the enemies takes a lot more hits and dish out a lot more damage. I had quite a hard time with that big red head flying around.

I still love it so far though. I like the layout of going between places, stopping by the village for healing up and maybe visiting a new villager you saved earlier.

I take back what I said about the game being really easy. The misty forest is such a sharp spike in difficulty, it's crazy. Especially those guys who throw the bloody lances.

yeah. I stopped playing for 2-3 days because of that. But you can also jump over them since they possess shitty experience points. After that, it becomes more challanging .

With the exception of the current lighthouse crab problem, I'm doing A-ok. Good balance of difficulty and fun all around in this game.

Currently level 15 and just rescued like.. 2 villagers even (the old man doesn't count). Will grind more until I can defeat that pesky crab with either the axe glyph or the lightning glyph.

I used the crystal glyph you get after rescuing the old man in the village. It drops pretty much straight down and deals 10-12 damage to the crab.

IMPOSSIBLE REQUEST: Can someone with more ripping/talent than I make an avatar of the Wallman?

A combination of the Scythe and Lightning glyphs worked well for me. The special attack the lightning will give you is sooo useful.

Used this on the third try after trying (with little luck) on the axe; defeated him with that. All boils down to evading his attacks mostly (with the crystal shedding 15 HP per hit).


Quite true. The lightning one is darned useful against a lot of enemies. Then again, since my heart meter is quite low for now, I mostly depend on the X and Y buttons to do the work (plus the occasional special).

Also set the sword/sword/magnet set for A, lance/lance/magnet for B and either axe/axe/magnet, lightning/lightning/magnet or any type of close-range weaponry for C for now, until I find a combination better. Also will use that zombie glyph sooner or later.

Beat the game. The final boss pulls some surprising shit on you but doesn't reach the frenetic awesome of PoR.

BTW, full OST is out. From what I've heard, the (unfortunately mere) six arranged tracks blow their DS counterparts out of the water.

We seem to have some naming differences between the tracks though...

Wow I just went through my other CV ost's and Tower of Dolls was originally in Castlevania Chronicles. Overall, the game was great. Now we gotta wait til next october..

Also, the arranged tracks are good but I prefer Scorched Earth of Solemnity's original version over the remix.

Oh lol. Got the bad ending myself.

Now to play it all over again.

So I just decided to check this out, the game seems pretty fun, standard fare so far... but what the fuck do I do at that boss in the prison? The giant skeleton. Getting killed in 3-4 hits isn't fun.

Use the 3 magnets to your advantage. And don't forget the backdash/stepping away as far as possible.

If still hard then well.. time to grind a bit. Fought the giant skeleton at around level 5-6.

Alright, will do then. The problem with the magnets for me is that sometimes if the skeleton gets too close, Shona or whatever her name is, will get hit and then automatically fall back in a "hurt" pose, which is like,
counter-productive to me getting onto the bloody magnet in the first place. Maybe I'm just rusty in 'Vanias.

If the boss is too close, backdash/step back. Magnet when he stoops down, then back to his front since fighting with his back turned to you is challenging enough.

Also don't rush here dude. Take your time. Memorize attack patterns and if you die, apply learned patterns. That's what I did even if it took me numerous tries. Game's challenging as heck but satisfyingly rewarding when you kick that boss' ass.

Also what glyphs are you using dude?

Hey folks, anyone else getting medals for beating bosses? What's that all about?

I read that each boss gives a medal if you can beat him without taking any damage.

Oh shit, really? I just beat Eligor and now that I think about it, he didn't touch me once. Can't remember old shadow puppet dude doing it either. Do you get anything for beating all the bosses like that and getting all their medals?

I haven't seen anyone actually mention what effect, if any, they have. Just that you get them for beating bosses without getting hit.

Eligor's pretty awesome. I beat him using the auto-targeting bow, but I imagine the axes would have been just as good, if not better.

Oh, well at least I know why I was receiving them. Knowing that it's a reward for a good player is more than enough.

He was definitely pretty wild, since the battle demands so much from you (destroying the jewels while he's facing you, running underneath when he rears up, figuring out how to destroy both bows, slide through a microscopic gap between his hoof and the ground when he hops, etc)

I used Melio Ascia for the bows since it was stronger than Melio Arcus. The latter is way safer because, as you mentioned, it auto-targets rather than having to make several short hops underneath him so the axes will reach him.

BTW, another question which has stumped me: What the hell does the Justice Ring do? It says that "Enemies killed increase attack power" but I'm not seeing any kind of damage boost when I put it on.

Its possible that you just haven't killed enough monsters to see an effect?

That was probably it. From the time I posted that message to now, I've racked up an obscene amount of kills. It's currently giving me +15 in attack power, too bad Justice Rings don't seem to stack (like Death Rings).

BTW, I did all the Large Cavern and Training Hall hullabaloo and the rare items from both. The latter was feeding me my ass until I picked up a Ruby Hairpin and made full use of Emperor Ring + High Potion/Refectio.

I tossed all that stuff on and ran through hard mode with the level 50 cap, and just tore through both Boss Rush courses in ~ 3:10 for Course A (goddamn Brachyura) and ~2:30 for Course B. The speed rewards you get are kind of lame.

Eye of Devil counts as headwear and basically makes the game run at 1/2 speed. This includes Shanoa, if you were wondering. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be useful or a novelty item. The Eye of God just replaces the figures that appear when you inflict damage with the target's remaining health. Good for bosses?

The reward for beating it on hard (Queen of Hearts hat), is phenomenal. Using glyph unions like a madman is great, and it easily leaves Laura's Royal Crown in the dust with its stat boosts.

I finally had a chance to pick up the game the other day, and I have to admit I'm actually enjoying this game a lot more than Portrait of Ruin just due to the fact of how challenging it has been. I only just finished the skeleton cave and I actually love how they have ramped up the difficulty.

I've also been having problems with the giant prison skeleton and also the giant crab. After memorizing attack patterns I finally beat them even if it took me quite a few tries. I had a miserable time beating the crab because I was totally oblivious to the fact that you had to kill him using the elevator. I just kept swinging at him till I got fed up and knew something else had to be done to beat him.

Sometimes I find the boss fights quite tedious but it adds to the challenge of the game and also my enjoyment. I found with the boss fights in Portrait of Ruin too straight forward and incredibly easy. This game however I find requires patience and attacking at the right time since it is so incredibly easy to get killed.

Overall, I hope the rest of the levels are just as challening and entertaining as the levels I've already played in this game. I'm getting a bit of nostalgic love for the castlevania series with this game because I just recently finished Super Castlevania IV on the VC and playing that game made me realize how dreadfully difficult the castlevania series can be since I died quite a few times trying to finish that game. It is good to see this game have a good amount of challenge factor that is so well known in many of the games in the castlevania series.