Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has been released!

GameSpot rated it 8.3, you can check the review out here.

Has anyone gotten their copy yet?  Does anyone have any first impressions they would like to share?

I'm also interested in hearing your thoughts about the pre-order bonuses.  I've already talked to at least one person that was not able to get their wax-sealed box because the store's supply ran out.  What do you think of the soundtrack disc?

I've only put a few hours in so far, but I'm impressed with what I see. I like that Jonathan can equip BOTH whips and swords. Gives the player a choice between the style of the whip-wielding Belmonts and Soma/Alucard sharp-object finesse. I was afraid that a second character would kill the difficulty (like the Innocent Devils did to Curse of Darkness), but it's still there. Although I haven't died durring a stage, it took me a few tries before I managed to defeat Dullahan (the first boss) by the skin of my teeth. Very pleased. I find it odd that IGA decided to go with a greater than 100% map completion again. It's not 200% like it was in Symphony, it's now 1000%!!!! The game doesn't even try to hide it either. I've only defeated the first boss and I'm already past 100%. Weird.

The bonus package is nice, though not as over the top nice as I thought.  The case for Dawn of Sorrow & Portrait of Ruin is only slightly bigger than the 2 DS cards.  I was hoping for more.  The time-line is nice, but for whatever reason, games that were removed from the series are still on there.  Circle of the Moon, CV64, Legacy of Darkness, & Castlevania Legend have just their name and date present, as opposed to a mini-story synopsis for the rest of the games.  The stylus is nice, although it feels a bit flimsy when extended.  I'm hoping that it doesn't matter as the extension will just be resting on my hand when in use.  Makes the stylus much more comfortable to use.  Too bad the game doesn't really use the stylus.  I haven't had a chance to listen to the CD yet, but I must say I'm impressed with the track list.  Tracks like Abandoned Castle from CoD, The Silence of the Daylight from Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, and Corridor from Aria of Sorrow are all wonderful choices.  I"m very pleased with it.

im sorta disapointed
after playing dawn of sorrow, and  having the cool soul collecting feature, PoR is a little dry. also, they recycled like, half the monsters from DoS also. while i like having two characters, it reminds me of the extreamly boring julius mode from DoS, where you could change characters, but it was pointless to use other characters than your fighter. having a new vampire hunter (its been reused quite often), he doesnt really have a lot of character. mabey if they make a sequel, he'll be more interestingbladeswinger77

[QUOTE="bladeswinger77"]im sorta disapointed
after playing dawn of sorrow, and having the cool soul collecting feature, PoR is a little dry. also, they recycled like, half the monsters from DoS also. while i like having two characters, it reminds me of the extreamly boring julius mode from DoS, where you could change characters, but it was pointless to use other characters than your fighter. having a new vampire hunter (its been reused quite often), he doesnt really have a lot of character. mabey if they make a sequel, he'll be more interestingvenus577

I beat it. I really liked it actually. Mainly because of the fact that the bosses aren't quite as easy as they have been in the past few games.qwertyuioppizza

[QUOTE="qwertyuioppizza"]I beat it. I really liked it actually. Mainly because of the fact that the bosses aren't quite as easy as they have been in the past few games.venus577

[QUOTE="venus577"][QUOTE="qwertyuioppizza"]I beat it. I really liked it actually. Mainly because of the fact that the bosses aren't quite as easy as they have been in the past few games.falconclan