Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - Pikasprey

[@Ecko_Effect]

You know what’s funny? The doppelgänger copies your equipment the moment you enter its chamber, so if you unequip everything, the boss will only have unarmed attacks.

[@titocristobal5573]

That's the tactic I use to do the endgame quests that require you to master subweapons. Go in without equipment, then re-equip everything and kill the enemy with the last hit being the subweapon. Wear Master Rings too, so it's maximized.

[@guidofedeli851]

Even better: if it's Charlotte, her attack doesn't even reach you.

[@alyssasalmon4883]

@@titocristobal5573 you only have to hit them with the weapon once, you don’t even have to use it for the final blow

[@lhaven85]

I do that all the time lol

[@magicman612]

Dammit why couldn't I figured it out i died 14 times

[@felixfischer6168]

Hello Pikasprey! You most likely will not read this comment, but if you will, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude towards you for staying true to your style, and rocking it like a king. I love your content, and I'm glad you're finally beginning to get all the recognition and attention you deserve. Also I would like to express my gratitude for indirectly motivating me to make my own content. You are my muse. Much love!

[@GlitchManOmega]

No flashy ten minute introductions. No clickbait titles. No obnoxious webcam antics. Just pure content. This man is what KZbin used to be, and should be again.

[@MegaDeathRay10]

Felix Fischer you are mega lame

[@mattfahringer148]

Felix Fischer is a kiss ass

[@mattfahringer148]

GlitchManOmega wrong

[@bottinator22]

@@mattfahringer148 wow hate comments

[@gizoginjr]

Excuse you, the only sub-weapon worth mastering is the paper airplane.

[@dracmeister]

Oh thank goodness, I'm not the only one.

[@XDBenjy]

no t h e p i e

[@titocristobal5573]

For my taste, I prefer the creampie. Lol

[@_Gilles_]

@Sugarbunnies kinky Richter

[@adamkhan985]

@Sugarbunnies the creampie has dark damage

[@KainYusanagi]

Hey Pikasprey, the reason Death has 4444 HP is because "4" is "shi" in Japanese, and that sounds like their word for "death". So his HP is "deathdeathdeathdeath".

[@CarmsCelestia]

Additionally, obviously, Draculas Hp is a play on 666 being called the number of the beast.

[@Estra_Estra]

Well, he did say "now, I'm sure the devs thought this little detail was hilarious" so I think he knew.

[@KainYusanagi]

@@CarmsCelestia Yup!

[@KainYusanagi]

@@Estra_Estra Maybe, but he didn't say anything about why.

[@Estra_Estra]

@@KainYusanagi That's true, but also I don't see any other reason for him to have said that if he didn't get it, or at least like mostly.

[@Drewiker]

CHARLOTTE! JOHNATHAN! CHARLOTTE! JOHNATHAN!

[@gManGabe]

CHARLATHAN! JONALOTTE!

[@navzy6211]

watching speedruns be like

[@Megalopros]

hmmmm...someone knows about the speedrun of this game

[@otaking3582]

Kagome! Inuyasha! Kagome! Inuyasha!

[@unworthyBeatrix]

Rocky!

[@Aster_Iris]

Fingers crossed for Order of Ecclesia next year!

[@Prodigial]

How has he not talked about this one yet? It's probably the hardest and easily the best of the Castlevania DS games and is in the running for best in the series IMO, although I am partial to the OG NES Castlevania. Portrait is really good under you play OoE and then you never go back to it lol.

[@Aster_Iris]

@@Prodigial Is it weird I actually found Portrait of Ruin harder? I didn't have much trouble with Order of Ecclesia other than the Giant Skeleton boss, Albus to some extent until I saw his pattern, Blackmore, and the final boss of course (plus the bonus dungeons). Everything else was manageable for me, but I had fun all the way through. Meanwhile I found myself dying in Portrait of Ruin regularly (especially to the Creature ironically enough given Pikasprey said that fight was easy), except when playing Sisters Mode, which is also hyper easy mode (except, again, with the Creature).

[@Prodigial]

@@Aster_Iris It's certainly an exception. Most people would agree that OoE is the hardest of the bunch on DS. Albus mode is also quite difficult against certain bosses since they are often resistant to most of his attacks.

[@willworkforfood7028]

@@Aster_Iris I found portrait of ruin harder as well. I think its because in Order of Ecclesia monsters and bosses hit much harder but have attacks that are easy to dodge once you figure it out. It seems much harder to dodge attacks in Portrait of Ruin but do much less damage. IMO If you're underlevelled Portrait of Ruin is much harder than Order of Ecclesia. Order of Ecclesia seems to actively encourage you to try get through the entire game without taking any damage, such as those medals you get for doing bosses without taking damage and that death ring that gives you very high stats but you die in one hit.

[@kaziashfaqulhuq8765]

Can't wait

[@philipdraco]

17:57 Small correction, The sub weapons just need to HIT the monster once at any point in the fight. Once the monster dies, the last used sub-weapon gets points, so you don't have to use them as the final hit. I think the best way to level weapons is the room under the second warp in dark academy (One of the last four paintings). There's two minotaurs near the door that can be dispatched quickly, are worth 10 points each, and can drop an ax worth $10,000. I hope this helps in future runs! :D

[@kanekiken-hg3jx]

I just max every sub-weapon without knowing this

[@Xpwnxage]

It'll definitely help me, I just started my first playthrough :)

[@willworkforfood7028]

10:20 The nations of fools makes more sense when you remember that the game is set in 1944 in the middle of world war 2. Bruaners backstory also mentions how he is driven by revenge after his two real daughters died in WW1. A ruined city that revolves and gravitates towards a tentacle monster protected by a mass of bodies, that uses said bodies like disposable cannon fodder. Given how much experience Bruaner has with war, I wonder what kind of statement he was making when he drew that world?

[@keen7youtubeistoast796]

That he likes clowns? Screw gravity?

[@WhimsicottFanatic]

Best guess I have, at least with the spiraling and whack gravity, is that perhaps war is being equated to a black hole? A destructive force that pulls everything into it with no escape, consuming even light, distorting the space around it, and ultimately bringing everything to the singularity in the center That's just my interpretation though *Edit:* Alright well I guess it also helps there is _literally_ a black hole in the background in the center area of the level...whoops

[@therealdoc]

31:35 I definitely did. I farmed old axe armors for *something* when I was a kid, probably trying to master something and I fondly remember playing that bonus mode.

[@keen7youtubeistoast796]

The thing is, you can't master anything against these enemies. They are immune to subweapons and give 0 points. ^^

[@JB-bc2ry]

Hmmm, a tale of a youth named Jonathan going on a quest with his waifu to defeat a powerful vampire that can transform humans into his monster servants... Where have I heard that one before....

[@jruler93]

Actually, while Charlotte has a crush on Jonathan, he has no such feelings towards her.

[@JB-bc2ry]

@@jruler93 ....I mean, that actually makes even more sense given Speedwagon is the waifu I was thinking of.

[@TheBloodswordsman]

@@JB-bc2ry You, good sir, win at life.

[@lehtivaa]

Even Speedwagon gets this reference!

[@mythosinfinite6736]

Bram Stoker's Dracula.

[@JoeCoolMaveric]

10:23 This is kind of a stretch, but I always got the impression that this was a twisted version of a bombed out city. Like many British and German cities because the game is set during World War II.

[@lyca0n535]

Not if you're Swiss.

[@Astraldragon0]

Yeah, I think Brauner is german, so he could be calling Nazi Germany a "Nation of Fools".

[@blarg2429]

@@lyca0n535 If you reread JoeCoolMaverick's comment and then your own, it sounds like you're saying that the Swiss had some magical ability to access unharmed versions of Britain and Germany, rather than merely staying out of the war. Just thought that was funny.

[@lyca0n535]

@@blarg2429 My bad 😂

[@blarg2429]

@@lyca0n535 It's all good.

[@storymaster21]

i love how you can cheese the nest of evil and the hardest bosses by using the ancient armor. also beating richter using pies and beating the doppleganger by just unequipping everything on you thus making it powerless.

[@MasterKcoop]

The Doppelganger has always been like that since Sotn

[@Notexisting1]

I've missed you talking about castlevania!! Good to see you back at it!

[@Vavane]

IIRC skills points are earned for a skill even if it doesn't deal the finishing blow.

[@Meanlucario]

As someone that grinded skill point, I can confirmed that. Hit the foe with a weak subweapon and kill it with a claymore, and you still get the points.

[@SphereKuribon]

Yeah this is true. I would farm the minotaurs in the dark academy. I would hit them once with my sub weapon then kill them with my weapon and still get points

[@calemr]

Yup. Though the double attack specials will stop you getting the points. Also: Some enemies give really decent amounts of SP, making grinding quick. And the way skills change as they get mastered can be big. I really disagree with Pikasprey's comments on only using 2 of them. If nothing else, the cream pie, being dark type, is fantastic against the spirit of the whip.

[@PokePika01]

The hwat now?

[@keen7youtubeistoast796]

@@PokePika01 This cake isn't a lie.

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

23:07 I just used Jonathan's stone wall ability and stuck charlette all the way against the door. The sisters can't hit her and if they start to get you low pop a couple potions. Super easy if you do it that way.

[@MinoruLeo]

You can also bait the long-winded skills of Loretta to use Sanctuary as well. You do have to be very careful not to get a faceful of ice or sword attacks, though.

[@MasterKcoop]

“I can take it!”

[@arman_llc624]

MasterKcoop is that a quote from charolete?

[@joshuapiplup]

@@arman_llc624 That's a quote From Johnathan when he use Stone Wall.

[@MatthewRichardson1]

I loved the DS titles. Picked up every single one. One thing they improved over dawn of sorrow was more than 3 save slots.

[@soyeahsauce]

that's probably only because there were 4 game modes though, seeing as OoE brought it back to 3

[@Miicrowahvei]

I love Portrait of Ruin. It's the first Metroidvania I completed and the one that got me hooked.

[@eggsack]

My absolute favorite Castlevania game and one of my favorite games of all time in general..

[@eggsack]

Who else got 1000% on this game??

[@romanreignsthetribalchief5224]

Same such an underrated title

[@rattlehead999]

I love all of the Metroidvania Castlevanias, PoR is excellent, but I prefer Order of Ecclesia, Dawn of Sorrow and Aria of Sorrow over it.

[@spencerpommier806]

Something that wasn't mentioned in the video is that Quincy Morris is the character that John Morris's father is based on who in Bram stoker's Dracula actually killed him. I just think that's neat

[@alraunejuno1285]

I’ve been waiting for this so much

[@SpecterReaper]

I read it in Akihiko's voice

[@thehussiteking]

I wish they would rerelease the Castlevanias after SotN so we can play them on non-emulators.

[@brightestlight9462]

@@Nikkis_Archive why not just have a castlevania collection with ALL of the games

[@megamob5834]

@@brightestlight9462 I’m working on that. Starting to get pretty expensive lol

[@cheangizzz]

@@megamob5834 wait what? Tell more

[@megamob5834]

@@cheangizzz oh, just trying to collect all the Castlevania games. So far I’ve got 1-3, IV, Bloodlines, Rondo, SotN, the 3 GBA games, the 3 DS games and mirror of fate for 3DS. So basically I just have the bad ones left to get lol

[@Multienderguy37]

⁠@@megamob5834 the ps2 games have flaws, but are extremely fun. Belmont’s revenge is also a masterpiece.

[@Caraviaggio]

I was waiting so hard for a video tonight and the universe has blessed me with one of your videos... so happy

[@chadwolfius3620]

0:13 That's some kick-ass looking Sword! 0:40 That's some kick-ass looking Spear! 4:04 Sweet Mother of All Battleaxes! I almost wanna play this game now just to wield those things.

[@Pyco_]

Just a note: Skill points aren’t from the finishing blow only. You just need to hit the enemy at some point.

[@dreameater8548]

While I disagree with you about the last four paintings, since I personally enjoyed them a lot (except Burnt Paradise, that place is a nightmare incarnate when you try to move around it), I understand your point of view, and I'm glad to see there are still people who pay attention to these games. Hope you enjoy your next playthrough. Good video m8!!

[@kyokonull]

oh boy, time to spam the switch character feature for voice clips back and forth

[@lfestevao]

Portrait has many high points. Of course the Drac Death combo made my jaw drop back then and is a high for the whole series. Also the Brauner story is really touching for a one time villain. In the bad ending he literally gives up on vengeance and flees with his daughters (he really is convinced). I felt legitimate bad for not being able to save him too.

[@chiefmonrovia6691]

I know these vids dont get as many views as the pokemon ones, but I absolutely love them. The genuine passion for the series and the in depth analysis is such fresh breath of air in a youtube climate where so many people do what gets them the most views even if they're bored by it. Plus your voice is hella soothing and helps me sleep because you dont yell in your videos

[@HowlingWraith]

I’m always excited whenever you have a new Castlevania video. Your videos are actually the reason I picked up the series myself. Thanks for introducing me to what is now one of my favorite game series.

[@blackdragonxtra]

I thought Jonathan was counted in "Greatest Five."

[@Rihcterwilker]

Leon, trevor, simon, juste, richter. Johnatan is not a belmont.

[@aNdroid-tk2xb]

@Rachel the Seeker I think Quincy is part of the canon in the wiki. He is probably the first morris to obtain the vampire killer, and later passed it on to his son, John.

[@ceruchi2084]

He never mentioned that Richter is misspelled Richiter on the menu lol

[@goddess-of-wisdom5790]

I always thought that the small kind of bland castle in this game was a reflection of the level of control Brauner really had over Dracula’s power. He gets the idea and the concept, but all of the creativity, brutality, and majesty that Dracula wields when he remixes the castle is gone

[@CriticsConfession]

This is probably my favorite second Castlevania game tbh, the gameplay just felt so good and fast

[@kinnikuboneman]

GG on finally getting this video out, even if it did have a ton of issues, but it turned out to be another great one

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

Honestly a lot about Portrait seems to imply it was planned to be a classic style castlevania, just a feeling I have. As for most of the issues you had, I agree, still love it but damn it's flawed, and the director confirmed it's because it was rushed like a mother fucker. I wonder what it would have been like if it got more time.

[@nomad1812]

Nice to see another castlevania vid dude thanks.

[@drewcummings2453]

Every vid you post makes my month man, I love it

[@Andyblarg]

Portrait of Ruin will forever be my favorite Castlevania game.

[@SumTr011]

I'm glad we can always rely on Pikasprey to keep the quality Castlevania content coming!

[@Nekucloud]

In my last playthrough I used to Alucard's Spear rather than the Vampire Killer, and I used Max Bomber over Greatest Five.😊

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

24:50 fun fact, Richter is super weak to the cream pie ability. Why? Who knows, funny though.

[@hannabal96]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

@@hannabal96 not that kind

[@Rohjake]

That's because the pie has the "dark" attribute for some reason

[@RolandTheJabberwocky]

@@Rohjake ah yes, slapstick, the darkest of comedies.

[@VG_Yugi]

Thank you for playing games I’m interested in.

[@Venty179]

Ahh, my favorite Castlevania game, thanks so much for covering it and doing it justice with this great review Pikasprey! :D

[@bryancurrie1486]

Haven’t seen the video yet, but this is the first Castlevania I ever played, so I’ve been waiting for this review for a while!

[@fortello7219]

Well now I can't wait for Order of Ecclesia! There wind up to gaining power and entering Castlevania nearly full powered was a great feeling. (Save for the stupid rescue quests.) Not to mention it had some of my favorite combat in the series.

[@MagitekBahamuto]

Nice vid, I'll wait for the best one for DS: Order of Ecclesia!!

[@DocDoesGamingTV]

Is it only me or was Ecclesia harder than any other DS title?

[@MagitekBahamuto]

@@DocDoesGamingTV For me only the postgame dungeon friggin' hard. I never reached the boss... Need to play it again!!

[@cosmicgamer613]

Agreed, but in my opinion portrait of ruin was the weakest of the castlevania ds games.

[@muffet1536]

@@DocDoesGamingTV the bosses are mich harder and you need to learn the pattern Brute force wont work this timw

[@romanreignsthetribalchief5224]

I respect your opinion but por>>>>>>>>>>>>> ecclesia

[@TheDarkstorm69]

No really good video. I like these in depth looks with a personal touch, some of your best content so far, keep it up.

[@Ravenford]

I don't know if I said it in the gameplay you did, but I leave it here just in case. Nation of Fools can be a reference to the tarot card "The Fool" (Japanese people love those cards), although as it is a card without number and that some forget that it exists and have confused it for "The Hung" and have Adopted the aesthetics of this all upside down. Another possibility is that it is a reference to King Lear's phrase, "When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools." (The circus setting as an equivalent to "stage").

[@raye48]

Just wanted to say that I love your vids. Keep it up!!!

[@InfoManiac742]

33:02 I always interpreted "Greatest Five" as being Jonathan + the four Belmonts, coming to five characters total.

[@Buzterer]

And now, Order of Eclesia

[@bloodclaw123]

Yo, great vid, but you got one minor detail wrong, my dude. Johnathan's sub-weapons don't need to do the finishing blow. All you need to do is hit them once with the sub-weapon, then as long as they die while Johnathan is the active character (the one you're controlling), he gets the skill points for his sub-weapon. I played this like a mofo back in the day, and learned that thorugh the numerous times I played.

[@davidcole2913]

17:57 - it doesn’t need to land the finishing blow. It just needs to hit the enemy once and then you can kill it however you want to get the skill points.

[@Harryx74]

This game is fun. As a kid, I beat the game at lv.1 cap on hard difficulty. All you need is the ancient armour and of course, get all the weapons on an easier difficulty. I remember that after you beat dracula, you get a boost in your attack and int stat. It was a big flex showing this to my middle school friends lmaoo

[@ChaosArchives667]

Request: Castlevania Curse of Darkness!

[@pagannova3621]

yes please. I quite liked that game..if only it got a remaster on modern consoles.

[@ChaosArchives667]

@@pagannova3621 Agreed!!!

[@lfestevao]

I like that one a lot for many reasons. But stand out for me the steal mechanic, which existed in other Castlevania before but in this one each enemy had a steal condition to figure out instead of just farm and random drop. Coupled with a crafting which allowed to see dependencies and create the requirements in the same screen was a delight to use.

[@comradezach]

I can’t believe there’s people that aren’t me that know Curse of Darkness

[@Seiyol]

I'd be surprised if he'd be too positive about it. It's a really repetitive game.

[@MaskedGuyCh]

Fair review. Hope you do one for Order of Ecclesia someday, it's a great Castlevania. Harmony of Dissonance deserves one too. Regarding skill mastery, you only need to hit the enemy once with the subweapon before killing them to acquire skill points (SP), you don't need to finish them with the subweapon. Enemies give different SP values (viewable in-game), so just find ones that give high SP without being too much of a pain to kill, you will master subweapons in no time.

[@Foxfisher159]

I've been looking forward to this.

[@eduardorpg64]

Funny. I kept this video on my "Watch later" playlist to watch it later, and it turns out that the day that I finally get to fully watch it was on Halloween (October 31st). How fitting. Awesome job as always!

[@Pirate_Knight27]

These videos are great! Would love to see you do Order of Ecclesia as it's a classic. It's a shame the Castlevania videos don't perform better for you, because they are very high quality.

[@nathangilham2743]

Thought I would be first down here. Glad to see this video made it out and doesn't have to stress you out anymore! Great job pikasprey

[@punijelly]

just wanted to thank you for these detailed game review videos, particularly the castlevania series' ones! these are quite soothing and interesting to listen to in the background while i wind down for the night. i find myself relistening to them often, so thank you for these surprisingly relaxing videos of monster murder! 😊

[@chaosdestructionlove]

This was actually my first castlevania game. I'm not actually great at video games so continue to be shocked that teenaged me actually got to the last boss fight (with a lot of grinding but still!) At any rate this retrospective was really fun, great seeing the features and bits I'd likely never see.

[@WordsOfWisdomForReal]

You're actually gonna make me play these after purposely ignoring it for my entire childhood, it seems like so much fun

[@HatTrex]

18:57 you don't know the op power of ninja stars. The cheap ones, once mastered those are the most op thing in the game.

[@alexfrank6423]

This is one of my favorite castlevania's and people ive talked to shit on it. I love the music and i see fans say its like the worst and most generic of the series? They say the level design is lacking compared to other titles? They seemingly blended level play with and open castle to explore like a mic of old and new. I love this game and the boss fights and story are exceptional in my opinion

[@deltaquarayza]

As far as I'm aware, Axe Armor mode is listed as a "humorous addition" on the Wiki

[@Waffletigercat]

I actually really like the generally more linear design of the game. But I get why that element isn’t for everyone. I have no problem whatsoever with the second set of portraits though. New enemies, new layouts, new bosses, dramatic changes in color palette, I think they feel plenty different enough to not be tiring.

[@EmilForsberg_GRYBO]

It's kinda funny how this is one of my favorite videos on this channel and it's one of his least popular

[@zombieplasticclock]

I never cared for this one, but I found it kinda neat they went with Dracula's older Lugo Belosi look from the older games. That's kinda cool

[@Roge9]

Shuriken is pretty broken when you master it too, very powerful boss killer.

[@-Anemr-]

Whenever, whatever this man uploads, it's a good day.

[@robincray116]

There is one feature you missed. You can control your partner with the touchscreen. Its kinda useful when playing as charollette and want Jonathan to hit something in particular. I remember using the feature to cheese final armors with high speed punches.

[@qtarokujod3401]

Ahh yes, pikasprey talks about portrait of ruin again

[@TheXell]

Oh hey nice, I'm early! I keep forgetting that I still have pretty much all Non-Reboot CV games in my backlog, thanks for the reminder.

[@timon6427]

Richter mode lvl 1 is the hardest castlevania experience I ever had.

[@dampethenarrator]

Hooray! It's been so long since you've uploaded a Castlevania video.

[@slumberingwealdarts2941]

i absolutely love it when you talk about any of the castlevania games, bc so many are so good despite their flaws

[@MrPooleish]

For the fight against the sisters, give Johnathan the Stonewall ability. Have Charlotte charge with R and stand in front of her and block everything.

[@kadivkida]

been waiting for this one. great video

[@xSkye629x]

Skill points for weapons were easy imo, there was that one street in one of the portraits that was filled with zombies (straight street with an entry/exit on each end). Run in, plow through them all, run out, run back in, rinse repeat.

[@HeroChao132]

Pika didn't use the strongest skill at all; The creampie. It's overpowered.

[@x-Abraham-x2]

This game was pretty solid honestly. Loved doing a Johnathan whip knuckle run

[@Sylocat]

I love that when I get a notification that you uploaded a video I have no idea what it's going to be, and I wish KZbin's algorithm wasn't specifically designed to punish content creators for trying to vary things up and not just make the exact same content over and over again.

[@genkaiba15]

I like this game, and I look forward to your Castlevania reviews so I'm glad to see this. Can't wait to see your next one.

[@RabidCrocMan]

It might have taken a lot of time but the end result was worth it excellent job ^^

[@obananagato]

Im super late to the party but my interior nerd feels the urge to explain something stupid The Nation of Fools look weird until you understand that the Center of gravity is the Boss Room that its right in the middle of the map, as a result all the sides end pulling on that direction giving the weird disjointed feeling Pikasprey was not understanding

[@mynamisora]

My first and probably favorite Castlevania game, recieved it as a birthday gift. Charlotte is great though, totaly not biased because shes cute and shares my name or something >.>

[@MasterKcoop]

k

[@claytonwestphal682]

Yo same, also got this for my birthday. Second video game I ever owned.

[@kyoyamurasaki9169]

Hey Pika thanks for another Castlevania video it was really entertaining! I'll give it a shot when I get some free time

[@xLithePanther]

How can you tell if someone watches JoJo? Don't worry, they'll find a way to insert it into every conversation they ever have.

[@arman_llc624]

xLithePanther is it really good? Aside from overused memes, and wacky shit that I don’t really care about

[@slithermayne2218]

@@arman_llc624 It's decent, honestly not amazing. It has its really fun moments, but it's insanely fucking stupid, and sometimes the storytelling is completely mangled. Shit gets really dumb past a certain point, and not in a fun way.

[@arman_llc624]

@@slithermayne2218 yea I think I'll skip. I'm binging attack on titan right now, So I don't really need anything else

[@TyreeseTheAscendedOne]

@@arman_llc624 it’s kinda good but overrated and like the guy above said, the story is all over the place.

[@keishaharmon2720]

Great channel keep up the good work! :)

[@yuumijungle548]

charlotte is actually pretty useful for all her buff spells, those increase their stat by an entire 30 points if channeled fully, this makes it really easy to clear those quests where you need to raise a stat to 100, also its just good in general. btw shuriken is also really powerful next to the darts, and also its not so bad to max out every subweapon, first off, the ones you can buy, you can just buy 10 times and they are maxed out, so all of those you dont have to grind for to begin with. but even for those that do require grinding its not nearly as bad as you think, you can actually equip 2 master rings at once unequip everything else, maybe equip johnathan with the berserk armor if you have it do decrease your defense further, go to the nest of evil, fight doppelgänger, hit them once with your subweapon then use thousand blades, this will kill them in 1 to 2 casts, your partner attack scales with your level, arround level 40 they die in 2 casts, i dont know how high you need to be to kill them in 1 cast, either way do this once and you get 400 entire points of mastery for your subweapons, most subweapons need less than 1000 points to master, so do this 3 times for every subweapon and they are all maxed out, only cross, holy water and axe need 2k and spear needs 1.5 k i think, but even then it doesnt take that long.

[@onekill31]

The real challenge in Hard Max Level 1 is using the Berserker Armor.

[@nileshollowthorn]

I can’t believe you never talked about 1,000 blades and how OP it is against bosses, as that’s how I won like everything

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

My favorite way to defeat the Whip's Memory of Richter is to spam him with pies. And yes, it actually does a shocking amount of damage.

[@DarkLitUniverse]

Weren't there a few other bonus modes for beating the game with the level caps/hard difficulty , or was it just bonus items? On another note, quite a few people came across old axe armor mode by accident due to the foe dropping... well the old axe armor. Which is basically a necessity for lvl 1 cap mode since it alters all damage to 10% of your total life and the drop rate for the thing was something stupidly low if I recall correctly.

[@Jimmywty99]

For each difficulty in Hard mode, you get items that boost you Luck (1/25/50), INT (1/25), STR (1) stats for the file you complete it with. Though there is a glitch to carry said item over to other bonus character mode... Only in OoE will you unlock a new difficulty setting after beating Hard Mode Level 1. Ironically, this new difficulty setting is actually easier (Hard Mode Level 255), which is likely for completionist to max out their file.

[@andyoats]

Hold on, the subweapons increase their skill points simply by being the last subweapon used on that enemy. You don't need to deal the finishing blow to it using the knife to upgrade it, you can just open the fight with the knife and then never use it on that enemy again and it'll still gain points. You can even switch to Charlotte and kill it using her, it'll still gain the points.

[@lonetraveler3480]

16:44 I always headcanoned that Jonathan proved himself to Richter and kept the whip in his back-pocket, but, with Charlotte's help, found a way to defeat Dracula without the whip anyway.

[@dawnevergarden3275]

This is my favorite Castlevania and it has my favorite cast to boot.

[@Kodiak_P]

There is a much easier way to do the Stella and Loretta fight, it doesn't make it a good fight but it does work without exploits. Don the Impervious mail(it can straight up block attacks, but any High DEF armour will do) and spam Taunt with Johnathan. When your HP gets low just pause and heal, as pausing does not effect casting you won't cancel sanctuary. This is the easiest method I have found for fighting them that doesn't not involve manipulating their AI.

[@averageplayers5288]

As much as I love your soft lock picking videos I love your breakdowns as well

[@grooves9291]

To get EXP for Jon's subweapons you don't have to let it be the final hit, you can hit them with it once and the game will give EXP to the subweapon you hit them most recently with.

[@ZeroOnMoon]

While I do agree the last paintings are blatant padding, I can't really agree with you on your take about the inverted castle having more charm. They're smaller, with different music and they don't require you to fly as mist or as a bat all the time to complete them. If I have to hear Final Toccata one more time........