While the portraits have enabled Konami to flex its creative muscle and break out of the traditional Castlevania settings, the downside is that they hamper a lot of the freedom to explore which made Dawn of Sorrow so great. Players access these areas by jumping through the portraits and, once the boss for each area has been defeated, warp back to the castle before progressing to the next painting. Each has its own distinctive style: the gothic town is plagued by ghouls while the pyramid is infested with mummies that ensnare our intrepid duo with bandages the haunted forest is packed with possessed animals and finally there's the freak show, which is enough to give anyone with a fear of clowns nightmares for a week. Although you do spend a fair amount of time exploring Dracula's castle, it's really just a hub that contains four portraits leading off to different realms. However, a new feature that does work well is the inclusion of portraits.
True, some puzzles require players to use Jonathan and Charlotte together - like standing on a switch to enable the other to walk through a gate - but they're often clumsily implemented and feel forced, like shoving a melon through a letterbox.
While the dual character system works well, mainly because you can wade through enemies in half the time, it's never an essential part of the gameplay and occassionally feels far too superfluous for its own good.
Players can control the two either individually, fighting as one while the other provides AI back-up, or they can combine forces to really lay the boot in. Joanthan Morris is a close-combat specialist who excels at getting stuck in while spell caster Charlotte Aulin is better at hanging back and dispatching with enemies from afar using magic.
As for the game itself, Castlevania's trademark bat-slapping, skeleton-bashing gameplay is still very much intact, but now there are two characters dishing out the death.
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