If you are looking for a hack for Portrait of Ruin, this is it. A brand new story, new weapons, new character portraits, and new skills, top it along with some new voice lines, and bam, instant best 48 hours of my life.

The hack definitely has its pros and cons that we can all agree with.

Pro:

• Heavy focus on the whip weapons by giving new elemental whips to play with instead of just fire, holy, and dark.

• New skills that Richter can use that prove himself to be a lot more versatile than Jonathan such as hit slide kick, spin kick, and blade dash.

• A backflip mechanic implemented at the start of the game, which basically gives the player a free double jump, and have it pretty much implemented so well in the game that the player would need to get used to it until of course, they get griffon wing, then its bonk your head on the ceiling for the rest of the game.

• Platforming and puzzles. Need I say more?

• Certain spells being instantly castable and being able to cast it while in the air.

• Giving Maria new weapons that she can play with instead of the basic ones Charlotte has in vanilla.

• A revamped Nest of Evil giving it a true challenge that only those with a will as strong as iron can overcome.

• Tunes from classic Castlevanias such as: “Castlevania The Adventure”, and “Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge”

Now as with most games and romhacks, it comes with its cons.

Cons

• Early game focuses too much on the whip and not much exploring of other weapons such as swords, greatswords, and spears. The game is too whip-heavy and might need to be balanced perhaps so that other weapons might have a chance to shine. Even though Richter is a Belmont, surely they must have trained in other forms of fighting besides the whip.

• Vincent is still stingy as ever. I hate Vincent. :( (This is not a con of the game I just want to say how much I hate Vincent)

• Vague Quest description regarding Art of Zephyr. I had to fiddle around with it and turns out you had to do it on the stairs in front of Alucard. (I think, I tried it with other stairs and it didn’t work)

• Inside the pyramid in the forgotten city changes it to the original music, would’ve loved to get another Gameboy banger while down there.

Things I’d change:

• If possible, add the sprite of Rebirth Christopher Belmont so that it feels more fitting with the rest of the crew and their modern sprites.

Overall, a really great romhack that you can spend some of your time playing if wanted, and just have a really great time.