Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (NDS, 2006)
Graphics-8 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-7.5/6.5* Story-5.5
Level Design-7 Frustration-7/6* Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
*w/ mastered shuriken and intelligence boost+good gear+potions up until the final boss. Lower vs some bosses if spamming mastered darts
+
Two playable chars that you can switch between on the fly. Can also call on the other char to help solve basic puzzles as well as fight alongside the one you're controlling (if the other char falls behind they'll auto-teleport to your location, the supporting char also takes damage from enemy attacks however it only drains MP, down+y to make them stay where you summoned them, gain the ability to make the ally use their sub weapon in the first sub area, the secondary char also replaces the gear set switching from DoS)
Optional side quests via an NPC near the beginning, Quest log (not particularly descriptive though)
One shop (still can't buy back rare items you've found and sold, adds more items as you spend more money and beat more bosses though you have to spend a lot of money it seems)
Unusual time period (1944) and the painting sub areas let you explore outside of the castle
Some other interesting abilities (triple jump of sorts (can gain the ability to bounce off of the other char and then double jump), toad transformation, dual char/team attacks which cost more MP than sub weapons (similar to a super attack in DoS or item crashes in earlier games) - invincibility time during these though not against all attacks, owl transformation spell - flight, speed up spell (there are also such boots but their stats aren't great, clear skies - neutralize all regular ranged attacks?)
Can make the player chars talk to each other via the pause menu for occasional gameplay or directional tips
Gain a slide move almost from the get go (Circle of the Moon (does lower damage here though) and DoS)
Same teleport system (choose where to go in the map view, teleport between visited warp rooms, frequent teleporter rooms) and you can also buy magic ticket items later on to teleport from anywhere
Many different weapons and they're as distinct as in the prequel
Item placement is about on par with DoS and AoS (potions and some equipment are still sort of placed at random rather than having some sort of challenge leading up to them)
In-game bestiary returns (also shows which enemies still have something new to drop)
Very good enemy variation
Critical attack move ability unlocks an alternate stronger attack for each weapon which is trigger via a basic button combo (found in the circus area so 2-3 hours in) - can be done after a regular attack but also costs some MP and seems less efficient to use than spells and sub weapons overall
Pretty nice anime-style intro cutscene, Nice animation overall
Improved hazard variety
MP and HP upgrades are back
Very good menu interface (still no item sorting though), Control config
Enemies flash blue if a damage has no effect
Some sequence breaking possibilities (can do an unintended alternate double jump by tapping the screen and then switching chars to jump again)
Can't hold more than 9 of each item at once - still OP though
Various good bosses (blob in the pot has a puzzle element to it, Legion - multiple phases, Astarte makes you switch char to avoid being charmed, medusa, brauner except for his petrify attack though it doesn't always happen, dracula except for one rather cheap throw attack - fight both him and death for the first phase) and some very good ones (Stella and Death, Mummy Man, )
A few non-teleporter shortcuts
One hidden sub area (nest of evil - a battle arena, requires a map exploration rate of at least 888%)
Three different endings (best - save both the sisters and the shopkeep/good - save the sisters/bad - don't save either (ends the game prematurely))
Some unlockables (richter and sisters modes, new game+ with partially carryover - see the wiki, magus ring, old axe armor mode, boss rush gear rewards)
Partial boss rush mode unlocked from the get go however the second and third courses require further unlocking by getting the best ending (interestingly the first course is also a partial enemy gauntlet and you fight some bosses from DoS in it)
Some breakable walls (the item that shows breakable walls is an annoyingly rare drop by the peeping eye enemy though the stone circle spell can also reveal them as it damages walls (however this spell is a very rare drop as well), trial & error required to find them without this item)
Altered enemy patterns and abilities on hard mode (besides you doing less damage and taking more from hits)
Story references CV: Bloodlines (Eric, 13h street music) and has one unexpected twist to it
Some unique enemies like the bartender
The game switches out torch drops if you're maxed out on one resource (max MP for example)
One nice transition to another room (where you get the divine storm ability)
Some risk/reward abilities (1k blades, slow weapons in some situations)
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (sub levels accessed via the large paintings within the castle which are generally more self-contained (few rooms that require abilities gained later on to explore (and backtracking to these is generally optional though you will want to get at least the sanctuary spell to get the good ending) and these sub areas don't connect to each other) in structure and you can only go into one of them at first, lets you pick between 2 painting sub areas after the first one but then only one for the fourth, can choose between 5 side quests at a time but these are optional - have to also come back later at times to make more quests appear if you don't finish all 5 available ones in order, some painting sub areas are almost linear (1/city, 4/forest, 5/dark academy, 13th street, nest of evil), when reaching the last four paintings you can do part of and exit the forgotten city one then play the second and third (fourth as well if you got the owl spell from the dark academy one) - at this point you can also fight the whip's memory boss whenever you want to)
The sub areas inside the paintings generally aren't like Zelda dungeons in that you don't gain one new movement ability used to progress in each one (you tend to gain one at the end of them instead). Sub areas instead tend to have more platforming gimmicks in the style of the classic CV games (circus's fire wheels and sideways rooms in the circus area or the rolling boulders in the desert area for example, some like the first one doesn't really have this though).
Very frequent save points (only one slot per game though, they also heal you and restore MP)
More expensive potions but not quite expensive enough so from the mid-game onwards they become OP
Can't attack again right after landing to cancel the first attack animation if using a whip or large sword (can do it with regular or small swords and other fast weapons) - on the other hand your character doesn't hold out his weapon in mid-air for as long with fast weapons
You can attack again once by dashing backwards and canceling it with another swing right after the first one connects. Can also switch chars between attacks with a fast weapon to hit faster if timed right - along with the above this serves as the game's basic combo system similar to DoS
Use-based leveling for Jonathan's sub weapons (as they level up the attack changes and hits more times) - this would lead to either some grinding or sticking with one sub weapon throughout most of the game (there is a ring that makes it faster but it's way too expensive at 200k) however you can actually skip grinding to master them by simply buying more of each one in the shop. Although only some sub weapons can be bought you can buy the two best ones
Can't move nor dash while ducking
Can make the supporting char jump by tapping the screen with the stylus - hard to use for sync dodging but can be used for sequence breaking with additional jumps in mid-air as mentioned above
Enemies and torches (these contain consumables) generally respawn when re-entering a room - in a few rooms there are frequently spawning flying enemies
Equipment doesn't show on your avatar besides weapons
Killing enemies doesn't refill MP faster - would've encouraged more aggressive play to be able to use combos and sub weapons more often
Some 3D enemies and background elements (looks good for the system but stands out a bit from the sprite art)
Most enemies can shoot through walls
Repeats a lot of enemies, abilities and weapons from previous games
Limp whip ability from SCIV returns - not useful though?
OP shuriken and darts when mastered (the former hits larger enemies 4 times per shot - only weaknesses are its throw arc and not going through walls, back dash canceling makes darts OP) and the axe is also quite strong since you can throw it through walls and platforms at a pretty quick rate. INT/sub weapon attack boost is also OP? Seems Bwaka Knife+time stop is also OP though I didn't try it
Can't move while attacking as either char
Slowly regenerating MP - can be made faster if you get the magus ring by finishing all the side quests (a lot of work)
No proper forward dash here - rocket slash sort of works like one but there's a charge time before each one. There's also the speed up spell though
Forward lunge sub attack however you also bounce backwards so you can't follow it up with a regular one - can sometimes be used to traverse faster though and the attack power is pretty high
Static difficulty (means doing the desert after the circus makes that boss kind of easy for example)
Weird to face the legion (ball of people) boss in a circus themed area and some rondo of blood enemies look a bit out of place
No HP/MP restored when leveling up however the HP and MP upgrades do restore these bars
Quick save/sleep feature lets you quickly backtrack but only to the beginning of the current room so it's not that helpful (would've been better to allow starting at the most recently visited save point instead)
Dropped items disappear after a few seconds
A bit harder to dodge in close combat than in earlier games since (like in AoS) you can't mash the dash button (if you don't time them right the action doesn't register)
Doesn't show bosses' health bars
No crafting/fusing of weapons here
Gain dive kick along with double jump here
Some sub weapons/moves can't be mastered
Poison drains HP again here
You only swim at one point here and it's a boss fight
Can gain the ability to whip attack diagonally downward (SCIV) but not upward
Have to switch to Charlotte to cast a fully charged spell (hold the button down, not explained in-game)
Optional collectathon element (various side quests)
No soul system here
High jump is gained very late and after getting the owl transformation - only needed to dodge one attack from the final boss here though it's also good vs medusa (actually lets you jump infinitely here)
No Ghost/spiritual separation ability for scouting here (DoS)
Have to unlock hard mode by beating the game (additionally you can choose a level cap of 1/25/50 here which will reward you with a stat boost)
Can't stand on petrified enemies (could've been used for traversal)
The vampire killer whip doesn't become useful until near the finale (and the other whips you can find aren't really worth using either)
Can find a ring that removes knockback and stun completely (hercules ring) - doesn't work against certain boss attacks though
Reference to Gradius in the Salamander summon spell
-
Some control/interface issues (very short invincibility time, sword attack and other fast attacks are canceled when landing if you attack right before landing, kinda slow falling speed acceleration - same as in DoS?, can't spam back dash - added timing requirement where the dash won't register if you press too soon, can't make a summoned supporting char stay in place nor vice versa - have to resummon them (they also start following you again if you move away until they're off screen), can't place markers or notes on the map screen and it doesn't auto-mark points of interest, can't jump or duck cancel out of an attack animation (can back dash to cancel it), charlotte is a lot slower at pushing the large statues - makes sense but feels pointless, shop menu doesn't wrap around and you can't quickly browse lists with l and r, no "auto-equip overall best gear" feature - one more char means more fiddling with gear in menus, can't drop items, the CPU controlled ally sometimes attacks while out of range of an enemy and sometimes faces the wrong way when using a sub weapon with them (they're also a bit inconsistent about mirroring your jumps which can be bad when trying to dodge hazards since MP is lost when they're hit), can't jump out of a slide and it's kinda slow at the end - can still spam it by switching chars while sliding to go a bit faster, shop menu doesn't show if an item is currently equipped or not, all weapon attacks are canceled if you fell far enough to trigger a "long fall" animation, can't see the damage of a sub weapon/attack in the menu, dive kick should've overruled double jump if pressing down in mid-air, can't perform a critical attack in mid-air, can't use spells in mid-air, can't dive kick as charlotte, some walls within rooms aren't shown on the map, too easy to get hit by accident when dive kicking certain enemies - makes it harder to quickly get past them, too hard to perform the dodge roll move (spinning art) - makes it useless, can't spam dive kicks to travel faster, only jonathan can high jump, Charlotte sometimes stays after being temp-summoned for a spell - happens when using a stat boost spell and can throw you off when fighting bosses)
Overly easy enemies early on (can just destroy axe armor axes for example, some strangely weak larger enemies) and some enemies can be hit through platforms
Some trial & error (finding breakable walls/floors unless you have the item that reveals them (or use stone circle a lot but you'll still probably miss some like the one placed where the bike segment is) - no visual clues, first boss's head attack does tons of damage very quickly, vague quest descriptions (butcher in town - apparently this means the first sub area), others don't even mention a location), most other boss patterns, mind stat isn't explained in-game - magic defense, the spike trap near the beginning of the clock tower where the tempest spell is, some char combo attacks can be canceled by certain attacks - 1000 blades, the dual bike ride segment where you switch between chars - interesting idea though, some fast enemy attacks like the wheel enemies, can bounce on the frankenstein's monster's machine gun shots, weirdly you can slide through the whip's memory boss without taking damage, there's nothing to the bathroom ghost, weird how the blob in the pot won't come out during the boss rush unless you keep hitting the pot)
Some tedious aspects (some grinding (some quests require killing 10+ of an enemy type, for various gear and spell drops such as Dogether), $1 coins, can't finish the statue's tear fetch quest without first activating it, being able to buy sub weapon mastery for jonathan would've allowed for more flexibility in what to use later on though some of them are clearly better than others anyway - similar sub weapons could've also been grouped to speed things up, some one-way paths (pyramid), kinda slow first elevator room in the NE - hard to triple jump just right to speed it up when traveling upwards, getting the last two cakes in the hidden bakery as 500+ coin drops are very rare - needed for a quest (gold ring helps a bit), minor backtracking for save points and teleporters and sometimes back from dead ends, casting sanctuary successfully on the sisters is mostly based on luck and doing so also makes you miss out on most of the actual fight, overly tight timing on stopping the train at the beginning of the 13th street area)
The large rusty block hindering your progress which is found early on seems pointless since you'll soon end up on the other side of it and can teleport between the two areas it blocks the path between anyway
Various redundant or soon to be redundant gear and some abilities feel like they should've been default moves (limp whip and downward diagonal jump attack with the whip)
Overly wordy and kind of silly dialogue (and what was even the point of Death making himself known in the third area?)
Some slowdown
Some weapons are too similar (mace/axe/claymore)
Some weak sub weapons and spells (grenades, ice needle, thunderbolt unless fully charged, summon ghost, etc.)
Some enemies like the cleaning ladies are placed haphazardly in terms of the theming of the backgrounds
Kind of anti-climactic end to the bull chase segment in the beginning (does almost no damage and disappears when exiting and re-entering the room)
The chars shouting each others' names when switching gets old
Some rooms are long corridors or empty and the pointless empty corridors between areas from SotN return
Invisible roof in the sky outside the pyramids and at the entrance
Some lame abilities and side quests (having to gain an ability to be able to push big blocks together when a large statue could be pushed by one char and you barely get to use team pushing before encountering these blocks, the quests where you just perform an evasive maneuver or reduce your MP to zero for example)
Sometimes repeats enemies in later areas (makes them feel a bit less distinct)
New enemies do not appear in already explored areas (see CotM; not having them makes backtracking less interesting)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (easy fourth painting area boss while Stella is kinda tough, second phase of dracula sometimes does his cheap attack more often and sometimes not at all, whip's memory is very tough without potions and one of the OP sub weapons (especially if you fight it before finishing the last four paintings) - near impossible to dodge in melee, some enemies like gunmen can't turn around)
Three of the the last four painting sub areas re-use most assets from the first four
No parallel worlds theme as it's done in DoS (can enter mirrors in DoS to explore the "other side" of certain rooms - an underused element which could've been further explored here)
Annoying how non-key spells don't carry over in new game+
The miser ring's damage boost takes too long to accumulate unless cheating (1 per 100k)
Can't dash or attack in owl form and it's not used much
The last four painting sub areas are mostly quite similar in layout to the first four
Bugs:
-Can easily duplicate item rewards from side quests by pressing start after pressing accept twice after selecting a finished quest in the quest menu
Level Design-7 Frustration-7/6* Fun-7 Originality-5
Overall Score-7
*w/ mastered shuriken and intelligence boost+good gear+potions up until the final boss. Lower vs some bosses if spamming mastered darts
+
Two playable chars that you can switch between on the fly. Can also call on the other char to help solve basic puzzles as well as fight alongside the one you're controlling (if the other char falls behind they'll auto-teleport to your location, the supporting char also takes damage from enemy attacks however it only drains MP, down+y to make them stay where you summoned them, gain the ability to make the ally use their sub weapon in the first sub area, the secondary char also replaces the gear set switching from DoS)
Optional side quests via an NPC near the beginning, Quest log (not particularly descriptive though)
One shop (still can't buy back rare items you've found and sold, adds more items as you spend more money and beat more bosses though you have to spend a lot of money it seems)
Unusual time period (1944) and the painting sub areas let you explore outside of the castle
Some other interesting abilities (triple jump of sorts (can gain the ability to bounce off of the other char and then double jump), toad transformation, dual char/team attacks which cost more MP than sub weapons (similar to a super attack in DoS or item crashes in earlier games) - invincibility time during these though not against all attacks, owl transformation spell - flight, speed up spell (there are also such boots but their stats aren't great, clear skies - neutralize all regular ranged attacks?)
Can make the player chars talk to each other via the pause menu for occasional gameplay or directional tips
Gain a slide move almost from the get go (Circle of the Moon (does lower damage here though) and DoS)
Same teleport system (choose where to go in the map view, teleport between visited warp rooms, frequent teleporter rooms) and you can also buy magic ticket items later on to teleport from anywhere
Many different weapons and they're as distinct as in the prequel
Item placement is about on par with DoS and AoS (potions and some equipment are still sort of placed at random rather than having some sort of challenge leading up to them)
In-game bestiary returns (also shows which enemies still have something new to drop)
Very good enemy variation
Critical attack move ability unlocks an alternate stronger attack for each weapon which is trigger via a basic button combo (found in the circus area so 2-3 hours in) - can be done after a regular attack but also costs some MP and seems less efficient to use than spells and sub weapons overall
Pretty nice anime-style intro cutscene, Nice animation overall
Improved hazard variety
MP and HP upgrades are back
Very good menu interface (still no item sorting though), Control config
Enemies flash blue if a damage has no effect
Some sequence breaking possibilities (can do an unintended alternate double jump by tapping the screen and then switching chars to jump again)
Can't hold more than 9 of each item at once - still OP though
Various good bosses (blob in the pot has a puzzle element to it, Legion - multiple phases, Astarte makes you switch char to avoid being charmed, medusa, brauner except for his petrify attack though it doesn't always happen, dracula except for one rather cheap throw attack - fight both him and death for the first phase) and some very good ones (Stella and Death, Mummy Man, )
A few non-teleporter shortcuts
One hidden sub area (nest of evil - a battle arena, requires a map exploration rate of at least 888%)
Three different endings (best - save both the sisters and the shopkeep/good - save the sisters/bad - don't save either (ends the game prematurely))
Some unlockables (richter and sisters modes, new game+ with partially carryover - see the wiki, magus ring, old axe armor mode, boss rush gear rewards)
Partial boss rush mode unlocked from the get go however the second and third courses require further unlocking by getting the best ending (interestingly the first course is also a partial enemy gauntlet and you fight some bosses from DoS in it)
Some breakable walls (the item that shows breakable walls is an annoyingly rare drop by the peeping eye enemy though the stone circle spell can also reveal them as it damages walls (however this spell is a very rare drop as well), trial & error required to find them without this item)
Altered enemy patterns and abilities on hard mode (besides you doing less damage and taking more from hits)
Story references CV: Bloodlines (Eric, 13h street music) and has one unexpected twist to it
Some unique enemies like the bartender
The game switches out torch drops if you're maxed out on one resource (max MP for example)
One nice transition to another room (where you get the divine storm ability)
Some risk/reward abilities (1k blades, slow weapons in some situations)
+/-
Partially non-linear structure (sub levels accessed via the large paintings within the castle which are generally more self-contained (few rooms that require abilities gained later on to explore (and backtracking to these is generally optional though you will want to get at least the sanctuary spell to get the good ending) and these sub areas don't connect to each other) in structure and you can only go into one of them at first, lets you pick between 2 painting sub areas after the first one but then only one for the fourth, can choose between 5 side quests at a time but these are optional - have to also come back later at times to make more quests appear if you don't finish all 5 available ones in order, some painting sub areas are almost linear (1/city, 4/forest, 5/dark academy, 13th street, nest of evil), when reaching the last four paintings you can do part of and exit the forgotten city one then play the second and third (fourth as well if you got the owl spell from the dark academy one) - at this point you can also fight the whip's memory boss whenever you want to)
The sub areas inside the paintings generally aren't like Zelda dungeons in that you don't gain one new movement ability used to progress in each one (you tend to gain one at the end of them instead). Sub areas instead tend to have more platforming gimmicks in the style of the classic CV games (circus's fire wheels and sideways rooms in the circus area or the rolling boulders in the desert area for example, some like the first one doesn't really have this though).
Very frequent save points (only one slot per game though, they also heal you and restore MP)
More expensive potions but not quite expensive enough so from the mid-game onwards they become OP
Can't attack again right after landing to cancel the first attack animation if using a whip or large sword (can do it with regular or small swords and other fast weapons) - on the other hand your character doesn't hold out his weapon in mid-air for as long with fast weapons
You can attack again once by dashing backwards and canceling it with another swing right after the first one connects. Can also switch chars between attacks with a fast weapon to hit faster if timed right - along with the above this serves as the game's basic combo system similar to DoS
Use-based leveling for Jonathan's sub weapons (as they level up the attack changes and hits more times) - this would lead to either some grinding or sticking with one sub weapon throughout most of the game (there is a ring that makes it faster but it's way too expensive at 200k) however you can actually skip grinding to master them by simply buying more of each one in the shop. Although only some sub weapons can be bought you can buy the two best ones
Can't move nor dash while ducking
Can make the supporting char jump by tapping the screen with the stylus - hard to use for sync dodging but can be used for sequence breaking with additional jumps in mid-air as mentioned above
Enemies and torches (these contain consumables) generally respawn when re-entering a room - in a few rooms there are frequently spawning flying enemies
Equipment doesn't show on your avatar besides weapons
Killing enemies doesn't refill MP faster - would've encouraged more aggressive play to be able to use combos and sub weapons more often
Some 3D enemies and background elements (looks good for the system but stands out a bit from the sprite art)
Most enemies can shoot through walls
Repeats a lot of enemies, abilities and weapons from previous games
Limp whip ability from SCIV returns - not useful though?
OP shuriken and darts when mastered (the former hits larger enemies 4 times per shot - only weaknesses are its throw arc and not going through walls, back dash canceling makes darts OP) and the axe is also quite strong since you can throw it through walls and platforms at a pretty quick rate. INT/sub weapon attack boost is also OP? Seems Bwaka Knife+time stop is also OP though I didn't try it
Can't move while attacking as either char
Slowly regenerating MP - can be made faster if you get the magus ring by finishing all the side quests (a lot of work)
No proper forward dash here - rocket slash sort of works like one but there's a charge time before each one. There's also the speed up spell though
Forward lunge sub attack however you also bounce backwards so you can't follow it up with a regular one - can sometimes be used to traverse faster though and the attack power is pretty high
Static difficulty (means doing the desert after the circus makes that boss kind of easy for example)
Weird to face the legion (ball of people) boss in a circus themed area and some rondo of blood enemies look a bit out of place
No HP/MP restored when leveling up however the HP and MP upgrades do restore these bars
Quick save/sleep feature lets you quickly backtrack but only to the beginning of the current room so it's not that helpful (would've been better to allow starting at the most recently visited save point instead)
Dropped items disappear after a few seconds
A bit harder to dodge in close combat than in earlier games since (like in AoS) you can't mash the dash button (if you don't time them right the action doesn't register)
Doesn't show bosses' health bars
No crafting/fusing of weapons here
Gain dive kick along with double jump here
Some sub weapons/moves can't be mastered
Poison drains HP again here
You only swim at one point here and it's a boss fight
Can gain the ability to whip attack diagonally downward (SCIV) but not upward
Have to switch to Charlotte to cast a fully charged spell (hold the button down, not explained in-game)
Optional collectathon element (various side quests)
No soul system here
High jump is gained very late and after getting the owl transformation - only needed to dodge one attack from the final boss here though it's also good vs medusa (actually lets you jump infinitely here)
No Ghost/spiritual separation ability for scouting here (DoS)
Have to unlock hard mode by beating the game (additionally you can choose a level cap of 1/25/50 here which will reward you with a stat boost)
Can't stand on petrified enemies (could've been used for traversal)
The vampire killer whip doesn't become useful until near the finale (and the other whips you can find aren't really worth using either)
Can find a ring that removes knockback and stun completely (hercules ring) - doesn't work against certain boss attacks though
Reference to Gradius in the Salamander summon spell
-
Some control/interface issues (very short invincibility time, sword attack and other fast attacks are canceled when landing if you attack right before landing, kinda slow falling speed acceleration - same as in DoS?, can't spam back dash - added timing requirement where the dash won't register if you press too soon, can't make a summoned supporting char stay in place nor vice versa - have to resummon them (they also start following you again if you move away until they're off screen), can't place markers or notes on the map screen and it doesn't auto-mark points of interest, can't jump or duck cancel out of an attack animation (can back dash to cancel it), charlotte is a lot slower at pushing the large statues - makes sense but feels pointless, shop menu doesn't wrap around and you can't quickly browse lists with l and r, no "auto-equip overall best gear" feature - one more char means more fiddling with gear in menus, can't drop items, the CPU controlled ally sometimes attacks while out of range of an enemy and sometimes faces the wrong way when using a sub weapon with them (they're also a bit inconsistent about mirroring your jumps which can be bad when trying to dodge hazards since MP is lost when they're hit), can't jump out of a slide and it's kinda slow at the end - can still spam it by switching chars while sliding to go a bit faster, shop menu doesn't show if an item is currently equipped or not, all weapon attacks are canceled if you fell far enough to trigger a "long fall" animation, can't see the damage of a sub weapon/attack in the menu, dive kick should've overruled double jump if pressing down in mid-air, can't perform a critical attack in mid-air, can't use spells in mid-air, can't dive kick as charlotte, some walls within rooms aren't shown on the map, too easy to get hit by accident when dive kicking certain enemies - makes it harder to quickly get past them, too hard to perform the dodge roll move (spinning art) - makes it useless, can't spam dive kicks to travel faster, only jonathan can high jump, Charlotte sometimes stays after being temp-summoned for a spell - happens when using a stat boost spell and can throw you off when fighting bosses)
Overly easy enemies early on (can just destroy axe armor axes for example, some strangely weak larger enemies) and some enemies can be hit through platforms
Some trial & error (finding breakable walls/floors unless you have the item that reveals them (or use stone circle a lot but you'll still probably miss some like the one placed where the bike segment is) - no visual clues, first boss's head attack does tons of damage very quickly, vague quest descriptions (butcher in town - apparently this means the first sub area), others don't even mention a location), most other boss patterns, mind stat isn't explained in-game - magic defense, the spike trap near the beginning of the clock tower where the tempest spell is, some char combo attacks can be canceled by certain attacks - 1000 blades, the dual bike ride segment where you switch between chars - interesting idea though, some fast enemy attacks like the wheel enemies, can bounce on the frankenstein's monster's machine gun shots, weirdly you can slide through the whip's memory boss without taking damage, there's nothing to the bathroom ghost, weird how the blob in the pot won't come out during the boss rush unless you keep hitting the pot)
Some tedious aspects (some grinding (some quests require killing 10+ of an enemy type, for various gear and spell drops such as Dogether), $1 coins, can't finish the statue's tear fetch quest without first activating it, being able to buy sub weapon mastery for jonathan would've allowed for more flexibility in what to use later on though some of them are clearly better than others anyway - similar sub weapons could've also been grouped to speed things up, some one-way paths (pyramid), kinda slow first elevator room in the NE - hard to triple jump just right to speed it up when traveling upwards, getting the last two cakes in the hidden bakery as 500+ coin drops are very rare - needed for a quest (gold ring helps a bit), minor backtracking for save points and teleporters and sometimes back from dead ends, casting sanctuary successfully on the sisters is mostly based on luck and doing so also makes you miss out on most of the actual fight, overly tight timing on stopping the train at the beginning of the 13th street area)
The large rusty block hindering your progress which is found early on seems pointless since you'll soon end up on the other side of it and can teleport between the two areas it blocks the path between anyway
Various redundant or soon to be redundant gear and some abilities feel like they should've been default moves (limp whip and downward diagonal jump attack with the whip)
Overly wordy and kind of silly dialogue (and what was even the point of Death making himself known in the third area?)
Some slowdown
Some weapons are too similar (mace/axe/claymore)
Some weak sub weapons and spells (grenades, ice needle, thunderbolt unless fully charged, summon ghost, etc.)
Some enemies like the cleaning ladies are placed haphazardly in terms of the theming of the backgrounds
Kind of anti-climactic end to the bull chase segment in the beginning (does almost no damage and disappears when exiting and re-entering the room)
The chars shouting each others' names when switching gets old
Some rooms are long corridors or empty and the pointless empty corridors between areas from SotN return
Invisible roof in the sky outside the pyramids and at the entrance
Some lame abilities and side quests (having to gain an ability to be able to push big blocks together when a large statue could be pushed by one char and you barely get to use team pushing before encountering these blocks, the quests where you just perform an evasive maneuver or reduce your MP to zero for example)
Sometimes repeats enemies in later areas (makes them feel a bit less distinct)
New enemies do not appear in already explored areas (see CotM; not having them makes backtracking less interesting)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (easy fourth painting area boss while Stella is kinda tough, second phase of dracula sometimes does his cheap attack more often and sometimes not at all, whip's memory is very tough without potions and one of the OP sub weapons (especially if you fight it before finishing the last four paintings) - near impossible to dodge in melee, some enemies like gunmen can't turn around)
Three of the the last four painting sub areas re-use most assets from the first four
No parallel worlds theme as it's done in DoS (can enter mirrors in DoS to explore the "other side" of certain rooms - an underused element which could've been further explored here)
Annoying how non-key spells don't carry over in new game+
The miser ring's damage boost takes too long to accumulate unless cheating (1 per 100k)
Can't dash or attack in owl form and it's not used much
The last four painting sub areas are mostly quite similar in layout to the first four
Bugs:
-Can easily duplicate item rewards from side quests by pressing start after pressing accept twice after selecting a finished quest in the quest menu