Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DC): Part 5: Chambers, Stairways & Death's Return

After beating the boss of the City of Haze, I gained the ability to Shoulder Jump off of my partner. It doesn't matter who's doing the jumping and who's doing the shouldering. What does matter, is that I can use this to go further through Dracula's Castle. From this, I picked up Whip Skill 1, which lets you free jostle around whatever whip weapon Johnathan currently has like way back in Super Castlevania IV. ---------- Remember that Behemoth beast at the start of the game that chased after you through a cluttered hallway? NOW you get to fight it at the next boss! If you manage to beat it, you can keep going. ---------- I eventually reach the Buried Chamber, a dungeon full of screaming souls locked behind bars. Try to find more skills for Johnathan and Charlotte to pick up down here. Charlotte's Ice Fang, in particular, is pretty good to use. ---------- I eventually reach another grand second of the castle: The Great Stairway. It is here that Johnathan & Charlotte run into Death, the most loyal servant amongst all of Dracula's minions. Surprisingly, however, he did not know until the duo told him that the castle was now being controlled by Brauner, instead. Death found this unacceptable, and now wanted to find some way to seize this control from Brauner and back to his rightful master... Johnathan was ready to settle the score against Death right now, but then Death mocked him for not being able to wield the Vampire Killer like his father John once did. Johnathan EXPLODED! Charlotte tried to calm him down, but then Death mocked her as being a "little child" as a coddle to Johnathan. And then so he left. ---- Johnathan apologized to Charlotte for being so angry at that moment. He just has so much resentment towards his father over how little he taught him about using the Vampire Killer. And now that John's dead, it was up to his son to take on the whip without any presence of the Belmonts. At the very least, Charlotte reminded Johnathan that, even without using the Vampire Killer's full strength, he was still a capable fighter without it, so far. For now, it was time to push forward, with the Vampire Killer's full power or not. Death, Brauner AND Dracula must be stopped at call costs! ---------- Quite a ways to go through the Great Stairway, and quite a few quirkier enemies to run into, too. Probably the most amusing on amongst them are the Persephones. They got new looks, but they're still demon maids... and they still know martial arts. But this time, some of them will scurry around with vacuums. These will not hurt the duo, but they interact with them differently. For Johnathan, a Persephone vacuum will just try to suck up his jacket, only for it to get stuck... But for Charlotte, however... the vacuum tries to pull her dress UP! Again, nothing harmful. I think Konami just wanted to be cheeky, here. Do the Persephones enjoy doing this against Charlotte, though...? ---------- The boss you can find here is a Keremet, a living massive slime that rests in a demonic caldron. A good strategy to try here is to have the duo push the cauldron all the way to the right until you reach some platforms. Have Johnathan stay on the top platform while Charlotte is right at the cauldron. The Keremet will come out of there after a few hits to it. Just let Johanthan tank some MP hits from it at the top while you prepare to use some Charlotte spells, like the Ice Fang I brought up earlier. One more thing that I had learned unrelated to this boss: If you hold Up long enough, as either Johnathan or Charlotte, they will strike a flashy pose! You can do some fun stuff with Vincent from this that I'll eventually show later. ---------- East from the Keremet Boss will lead into some caves. Here, you will pick up the Stone of Flight, which lets you Double Jump. Johnathan can use divekicks after a Double Jump. While Charlotte can't do the same, you get an amusing sight of seeing her wield a witch broom to help her with her Double Jump. Other parts of Great Stairway includes... rooms with actual stairs everywhere. Watch out for the Hill Guards that protect these steps from your wrath. ---------- In the Northwest sections of the area, another dynamic enemy you can fight is a Lilith. She will be very eager to want to "play" with Johnathan, but if you try to approach a Lilith with Charlotte, she'll just call her a "FILTHY COW!" Their kisses are poisonous, and Poison actually works like a traditional one this time where it saps at your HP instead of nerfing your stats. A status effect like this, however won't actually affect you if it's only affecting your partner. ---------- I will soon go into another magic painting, this time in those aforementioned caves which has its own loads of Persephones that want to suck in jackets and pull up dresses.