Castlevania: Portrait of Elegance (New Portraits Hack)

Original game : Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Platform : NDS

Author : ShadowOne333

Release date : 12 June 2020

Category : Improvement

Patch version : 1.4

Modifications : G, T

Downloads : 5088

ROM Information

0735 - Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin (U)(XenoPhobia).nds
CRC32: 96DF4C4D
MD5: 2EDD57540CAE45842FBD19C45A4214F9
SHA-1: 382602E3615B2282EEAD584014125E71B5b0F033
SHA-256: 1174A36FD91F79E95E90B76AA1268AF8FC09F69C04CC8E5B4FF791E872254ABD

Hack description

Castlevania: Portrait of Elegance is part of a dual project called Castlevania: Choir of Redemption, which aims to give proper gothic artwork to both Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin.

The main focus for Portrait of Elegance is a graphical hack for Portrait of Ruin which attempts to get rid of the generic anime-like artstyle that plagued 2/3 of the NDS Castlevanias, in favor of a much more akin artstyle to that of Ayami Kojima to keep consistency with the overall artstyle of the franchise, and also, keep it in line with other modern depictions of the main characters, as seen in the recent releases of both Harmony of Despair and Grimoire of Souls.

This hack implements different artworks, including official artwork for games releases after Portrait of Ruin, as well as completely new artwork and reworked artwork from several sources based in Ayami Kojima's work.

The graphical changes were made exclusively to the portraits found in game for the characters, as well as HUD portraits, and icons which had some sort of anime-like imagery.

Contributions

Contributor	Type of contribution	Description
DarkSamus993	Original Hacking	Sprite and palette offsets
JohannGralog	Original Work	Original project and artwork contribution
Zierrion	Original Work	Artwork contribution
ShadowOne333	Hacking	Project leader and main hacking
LagoLunatic	Original Hacking	Death Glitch fix for original PoR
bogaabogaa	Hacking	Support on Death Glitch fix implementation

Reviews

Ayami Kojima's work on display	Supergamerguy	2024-01-01	Version 1.4
This hack's work is leaps and bounds ahead of what the art used to look like. In the vanilla game, you had decent, if simplistic, art that got the job done. Portrait of Elegance introduces beautiful, highly-detailed character portraits into the mix, making every cutscene and NPC interaction leagues better than their previously dull encounters. The work done here to replicate Ayami Kojima's work is highly commendable, and along with the Symphony-of-the-Night-styled Death and the Glitch Fix patches, you have the best version of Portrait of Ruin out there. Combine this hack with the Refined Edition hack, and you're set for a great playthrough.

Anime is no more!	Masked Dedede	2020-01-18	Version 1.2
This hack is simple, yet effective, removing the anime portraits makes the experience a lot better, and authentic. This, combined with Pemburu Vampir's Cosmetic Hack, makes the definitive Portrait of Ruin experience, at least in my opinion.

How POR Should have looked.	caminopreacher	2019-12-19	Version 1.0
Let me say that I have waited for a portrait hack for this game. The portraits are gorgeous. Charlotte and Wind are especially beautiful. I have a palette issue with Charlotte and Jonathan's faces when I use the item crash, but I hardly use them, so in light of how elated I am about these portraits, it's hardly worth mentioning... Thanks again for this!

Doesn't Feel Weeaboo Anymore	Morinis	2019-12-14	Version 1.0
Loved PoR for years, still do, though had to put up with the anime art style in it. This not so simple change definitely does eliminate it making it feel better. I normally don't support simple changes but when actual handwork goes into making portraits it shows me the creator and those involved are passionate about changing something that somewhat threw the game off originally for people like me. Never did like the anime approach that happened to the DS games. Do give this a playthrough. It feels different with the portraits. Kudos to the individuals involved as it doesn't feel weeaboo anymore :)

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