Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

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A direct sequel to Castlevania: Bloodlines, ''Portrait of Ruintakes the "switch a character" gameplay ofDracula's CurseandDawn of Sorrow'''s Julius mode and fully fleshes it out.

Leftover Face Debugging Dialog#

Of course, Portrait of Ruin wouldn't be complete without, well, portraits. And not only do you have the actual paintings in the game, you have, of course, face portraits too. At some point during development, they had a script of dialog that would basically cycle through each and every face graphic. If you notice carefully, "ka," "ge," "ma," and "sa" are cycled through each message. When put all together you get "Kagemasa" (Kozuki) who is the current chairman and CEO of Konami.

The complete text dump for both English and Japanese versions:

Note they changed the Japanese expression name to the "Kagemasa" name placeholders in English.

Watch on YouTube

Room Select#

Within the code for handling the map, there is a map/room warp that was presumably used for debugging. It can be accessed by opening the map with Map Type 0. (1 is used for warp rooms, and 2 is used for the map option on the pause menu.) To access the room select, use the Action Replay code 02082C70 0110A0E3 and back out of the warp room select with B.

The room select will appear as crude outlines of each map bordered by a yellow square. Select a map by tapping it on the touch screen. This will then open the normal map of that area on the bottom screen. Touch a square on the map to be warped to exactly that square. NOTE: The area map uses your actual map completion, so if you have not explored a room/map yet, it will appear invisible, but you can still warp there.

Unused Item Coding#

HP and MP Max Up Items#

Mp Max Up	Hp Max Up

The "HP Max Up" and "MP Max Up" items are normally used immediately after picking them up. However, fully-functional inventory versions exist, which can be accessed with the Action Replay code 02111BFC 99999999.

Alternate Mode Weapons#

Much like the previous game, some of the "alternate game mode" primary weapons – specifically Richter and Maria's – are actually items rather than hard-coded to each character. As such, it's possible to get them in a Normal Game through the use of glitching or Action Replay codes. Sadly, this isn't the case with the Sisters or Old Axe Armor, whose weapons are hard-coded to their respective game modes.

Richter's Vampire Killer#

Japan	English

Richter's Vampire Killer can be accessed in the US version of the game by using the Action Replay code 22111C31 00000010. The description is the same as Jonathan's "unlocked" Vampire Killer whip (or either whip, in English releases), but it has less attack than the unlocked version (22 instead of 28).

Due to the sprites being aligned for Richter, it technically has better range than Jonathan's Vampire Killer, but it lacks any weapon-specific Critical Art. The limp whip-dangle move can be used with Whip Skill 1, but it isn't compatible with Whip Skill 2's diagonal-down attack.

Since this version of the Vampire Killer is considered a different weapon from the one Jonathan starts the game with, you can carry it over to a New Game Plus and just run riot.

Maria's Dove#

Japan	English

Maria's vicious attack dove can also be accessed in the US game and used by Jonathan using the Action Replay code 22111C50 00000001. It lacks a unique or fitting icon, defaulting to the Knife, and has a very basic description which differs between regions (「まりあ」 ("Maria") in Japan and "Tori" in English). Incidentally, "tori" (or 「とり」) is the Japanese word for "bird". Ergo, Maria's bird is literally called "bird", here.

Unlike Maria, Jonathan can only toss one dove at a time when standing. It is possible to launch more when coming down from a jump or back-sliding, however. Otherwise, it works exactly as expected. Again, no Critical Art for this weapon.

Alternate Mode Sub-Weapons#

Japan	English

Lastly, it's possible to get the Alternate Mode sub-weapons in a Normal Game through the use of glitching or the Action Replay codes 02111A6C 11111110 and 22111A70 00000011 on the US game.

Every sub-weapon that's available to Richter, Maria, and even Old Axe Armor's "Puppet Master" ability are fully functional for Jonathan. None of them can be leveled up, but they all work as expected with two exceptions: Maria's (misspelled) "Genbu" is virtually identical to Jonathan's "Stonewall", and…

… Jonathan defaults to his Dual Crash animation when using Richter's "Grand Cross". The result sadly looks a bit off.

Japan	English

As a sidenote, it would appear that Old Axe Armor's "Puppet Master" the alternate "Axe" sub-weapons were Bullet Souls ported straight from Dawn of Sorrow as they have the exact same descriptions and Japanese names (「パペットマスター」/ "Puppet Master" and 「アックスアーマー」/ "Axe Armor") as they did in that game.

Unused Rooms#

There're five single-screen unused rooms located in Nation of Fools and Burnt Paradise areas. They all have tile data and entities deleted in the final game, but room transitions to the intended nearby exit rooms were not deleted.

Area 05 (Nation of Fools), Sector 01 (Overlay 97), Room#09 (020EB940)

Area 05 (Nation of Fools), Sector 01 (Overlay 97), Room#12 (020EBBD0)

Area 06 (Burnt Paradise), Sector 00 (Overlay 107), Room#31 (020EFF98)

Area 06 (Burnt Paradise), Sector 01 (Overlay 108), Room#09 (020F0390)

Area 06 (Burnt Paradise), Sector 01 (Overlay 108), Room#12 (020F0610)

The exact reason of these rooms' removal are unknown, but it should be kinda obvious as they broke the Symmetrical of overall map shaping in these area. If the suspend function is executed inside these rooms, the save file in question will crash when loaded.

Unused Text#

Tori

In the game ROM, the text "Tori"("とり" in Japanese ROM) refers to Maria's Dove attack (stored in Weapon slot in the game's memory). In the Japanese ROM it has a description reading "まりあ" (Maria) while the English ROM simply copies its name.

• Side note: When Tori is equipped by Jonathan the default value of weapon swing animation is 03 (heavy weapon) though 02 (long sword) is more suitable in animation-wise.

ANOTHER MODE

Likely a scrapped menu system for the alternate characters (Richter/Maria, the Lecarde sisters and Old Axe Armor).

English
Deutsch
Français
Italiano
Español

Texts for a language switch option are present in the game ROM of US version. A hidden language switch option is present in the later European version which can be activated by holding the L and R buttons on boot-up.

Pointers 4BE to 4E6 (4BA to 4D6 in the Japanese ROM) are song (and area) names in Dawn of Sorrow. The Aguni boss theme, Portal To Dark Bravery ("闇凛の大扉" in Japanese ROM) is used in the game (albeit renamed "Great Gate of Darkness"), but the rest remain unused.

Unused Graphics#

Not as interesting as leftovers from recycled graphics, but there's still something shiny.

Holy Water#

There is evidence that the Holy Water subweapon would've used a different NES-style flame for a non-mastered version, but was eventually abandoned for final.

• Fake Trevor uses a similar one to the smaller Holy Water flame but the palette is grey-ish and the flame is taller.

This is probably the bigger (mastered) version of Holy Water flask but never actually used in-game. Final game uses version 1 (the smaller flask) instead.

B-U-T, this particular frame was actually used in a preview video of early gameplay - for placeholder graphics of relic pickups!

Watch on YouTube

Early Title Menu#

There is evidence that the secret modes were originally meant to be selectable in the title menu (Dawn of Sorrow style), but since the game engine had been updated to the newer one used in the final they are no longer needed and abandoned.

Sprite version of Richter Mode selection graphic.

Sprite version of Sister Mode selection graphic.

Sprite version of the mysterious "Another Mode" selection graphic, misspelled. It's yet another evidence of "Another Mode" itself did exist at one point but being abandoned/replaced by Old Axe Armor mode fairly early.

Fake Trevor#

Fake Trevor never had an exclamatory mark following a partner's action in this game, nor in Symphony of the Night.

A bone made tomahawk-like weapon. Probably intended for Axe sub-weapon for Fake Ralph/Trevor. Even in Symphony of the Night it didn't make an appearance.

Item Graphics#

Inventory graphics for what are presumably the Lizard Tail, Stone of Flight, and Griffon Wing. Relics don't use icons on the menu, and always appear as cubes when placed in a room, rendering these graphics unused. The Lizard Tail sprite would later be used in Order of Ecclesia.

TODO: There may be more unused item icons.

Unused Enemies#

Ruler Sword/Spectral Sword's graphic data has a strange rope-rod-like weapon that can't be seen in the final version. The grey-ish palette is the closest palette possible for it.

Unused Attack Motion#

Richter has an unused air dive kick attack that even has hitbox properties programmed, but didn't make its debut until Harmony of Despair.

• Even attempting to force the double jump-air dive kick into Richter's arsenal doesn't trigger this sprite, defaulting to the spinning kick animation as a failsafe (→, ↓, ←, → + Y) instead, meaning a further in-depth hack is needed to replace the misplaced graphic pointer + animation of air dive kick to the correct one.
• If the proper animation of air dive kick is loaded, the air dive kick move works just as it should, but the leg has rather strange hitbox behavior which makes it hard for Richter to avoid taking a hit after landing one himself. This is because the attacking animation itself is executed wrongly; the animation set will load what should be the graphic of the start up sprite

thus Richter's leg would retreat after a kick instead of always stretching to its full length when performing an air dive kick from on high.

• • The air dive kick also didn't have a straight down variant, which is probably another reason of it being abandoned: it's still not polished enough to pass the final cut.
• The back flip counts as a successful double jump thus the player can execute an air dive kick during the back flip animation should the air dive kick be restored.

Lerajie's unused shooting variant; it's actually a leftover from the preview video mentioned above, though she never shoots bullets without an arc in the final game.

Unused Enemy Behavior#

Razor Bat retains the spawner version variant from Rondo of Blood and uses the exact same speed as in Rondo. This may cause it extremely hard to avoid its blade attacks so the reason it got abandoned is probably because balance concerns.

Leftovers From Previous Games#

A huge portion of leftovers from previous Castlevania games.

Dawn of Sorrow Leftovers#

Bullet Soul: Axe Armor Level 2 and 3#

The game contains a leftover of Bullet Soul: Axe Armor (Level 2) from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. It can be accessed in the Japanese version (NDS-0676) by using an Action Replay code below:

Use the code and press SELECT in-game in order to add the Axe Armor Bullet Soul (Level 2) as a replacement for Richter's Axe sub-weapon. Compared to it, the normal Richter Axe sub-weapon sprite, and the Level 1/Level 2 forms Bullet Soul: Axe Armor in Dawn of Sorrow, it strongly supports a theory that Richter's version was borrowed directly from Dawn of Sorrow, and even the abandoned (old/DoS system) leveling system was not deleted. Julius in Dawn of Sorrow, actually, also borrowed that very soul for his Axe sub-weapon. It likely was never claned up by mistake during development or they just didn't bother.

Here's a text dump comparison below:

...All sub-weapons/soul abilitles borrowed from Dawn of Sorrow, included Julius mode-only sub-weapons, had their description/name untouched, but some may have updated in English text in order to match the description of existing version (?) - Jonathan's sub-weapon. Maria, on the other hand, used capital M for description placeholder like how capital J was intended for Richter's sub-weapon - which are - actually borrowed from Dawn of Sorrow Julius (!)

• Richter's Axe sub-weapon can be edited through editing tools as an enemy drop/pickup and thus can be equipped by Jonathan. If any Skill Mastery point milestones are set and then reached in game, Richter's Axe sub-weapon will change to the one seen in Dawn of Sorrow just like the regular Axe sub-weapon.
  • By default, the evolved "Axe Armor Bullet Soul's" damage is the same as Jonathan's regular Axe sub-weapon and thus can deal abnormally high damage output to enemies with slash weaknesses or has large body frames.

• All three levels of Bullet Soul: Axe Armor are stored along with other leftover graphics of Dawn of Sorrow Bullet Souls, even a single frame of Soma is along with them!

Dawn of Sorrow Axe Armor#

The folder sc/f_axe00.dat-sc/f_axe01.dat contains graphics of Dawn of Sorrow Axe Armor! It could be anything, from a legitimate way to get richter's Axe move for Jonathan, or just a leftover along with its soul powerup, or they could have merely forgot to remove the DOS Axe Armor altogether.

Old Boss Intros#

The Balore and Zephyr boss intros from Dawn of Sorrow remain in the game data should the player hack them in a more-than-two-screen length room in anywhere other than Nest of Evil through map editor tools, and set their Var A value as 01.

• When the Var A value of Dawn of Sorrow bosses is set to 01, the game will read their variant in Dawn of Sorrow story mode glitches may ensue when putting them in one-block rooms.

Leftover Objects#

A leftover road blocker object from Dawn of Sorrow, redrawn and unused in that game anyway. Likely used in a demo version, although a preview of early gameplay did show this roadblock graphic in action.

Watch on YouTube

• When the blockade object is restored in-game through editing tools, it will be considered a solid wall by the game, blocking off both players and corporeal enemies.

The Dawn of Sorrow style wooden wall included within the barricade's graphics.

A single frame of Soma's Bat Company Morph from Dawn of Sorrow is left within the graphic data of Owl Morph for some reason.

Leftover destructible objects from Dawn of Sorrow Castle Top Floor.

• Though Mimic did appear in this game, an ordinary variant of Mimic's treasure chest is not included in-game.

Symphony of the Night Leftovers#

Hidden within the graphical data for Amducias are graphics for the Discus Lord from Symphony of the Night. The enemy has two animations for idling and throwing his discus.

• Hitbox properties intact.

Legion's old "berserk mode" laser attack from Symphony of the Night after all corpse parts removed.

Malachi's graphic data contains his old Symphony of the Night fog effect leftover.

A single frame of Owl from Symphony of the Night. Owl didn't appear in the DS title until Order of Ecclesia.

Minotaur still has his Symphony of the Night blocking animation as a boss.

Richter still has most of his Rondo of Blood graphics in the ROM, including all stair-related animations. These unwelcome reminders of Castlevania's past thankfully go unused.

Technical explanations:

• The 2D Castlevania games from Symphony of the Night to Order of Ecclesia all treat stairs like ramps for character's mechanisms (excluding Harmony of Dissonance which used specially coded stairs for the hidden NES Simon).
• The new Portrait of Ruin system defaults Richter's moving animation to running (excluding when Richter is moving the pot in Keremet fight; the pushing animation uses walking animation graphic from Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night but the Keremet fight room didn't have stairs. It's because even in Symphony of the Night Richter's pushing-boxes animation is treated as a walking animation.)
• Richter's graphics didn't get a total overhaul following the system moving to DS.
  • Despite all the old Rondo of Blood sprites are in the ROM, the animation set is incomplete (lacking animation set when walking down stairs).

Richter's unused Symphony of the Night punching/power-up animation.

Richter's Symphony of the Night power-up animation used when he's about to power-up his whip to flame whip.

• Animation set is still in the ROM but left unused.

Richter's Knife Item Crash Animation is still in the ROM, but Richter never uses any Item Crash other than Grand Cross (which itself was a receycled Julius Mode move).

Rondo of Blood Leftovers#

Old Axe Armor's graphic data contains their shield from Rondo of Blood but never used in-game.

• Hitbox properties intact.

Minotaur's graphic data contains his old boss intro from Rondo of Blood but never used due to him being a regular enemy in this game, and never having the opportunity to bust through a door.

The graphic data of Frankenstein's Creature contains his old stone debris attack from Rondo of Blood but never used since all his attacks are upgraded for the new game engine.

• Hitbox properties intact.

Mummy Man/Akmodan II still has his old Rondo of Blood bandage attack in the ROM but it's actually modified in this game to be a heat seeking bandage attack.

Along with Razor Bat's graphics assets are chipset graphics from Stage 7 of Rondo of Blood.

Stored in Laura's graphic files are tiles for the Carmilla boss arena from Rondo. All original Rondo of Blood palettes are intact.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	International

Typos#

US	Europe

Richter's name was spelled as "RICHITER" on the Japanese and US versions' file select screen (due to an apparent miss in Japanese-English spelling conversion). This was corrected in the European version and the Japanese revision, and in the US version in Castlevania Dominus Collection.

US	Europe

Charlotte's name was missing an L on the Equip screen (also because of Japanese-English romanization). This was also fixed in the European version, the later Japanese revision, and Castlevania Dominus Collection.

Vampire Killer Description#

Japan	English

It should be no surprise that a lot of items were renamed or had their descriptions changed during translation. However, while the English version just uses the same line of text for both versions, the Japanese version describes the "unleashed form" as "The legendary whip which has destroyed countless vampires".

Glitch Fixes#

There are several glitches and exploits in Portrait of Ruin in other countries that got fixed for the European release and Japanese revision.

Note that Castlevania Dominus Collection is a rare specie which leaves the quest reward duplicate bug intact, while other bugs are in fixed state.