Old Axe Armor Mode

Old Axe Armor Mode is one of the alternate modes in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. In this mode, the player controls an Old Axe Armor as a playable character.

In order to be unlocked, the player must defeat at least 1,000 Old Axe Armors in Normal Mode (Jonathan and Charlotte) and defeat Dracula and Death in the final battle. Although the player is not required to complete the final battle if a New Game Plus playthrough is started prior to unlocking this mode, just the aforementioned kill quota is necessary on a second playthrough.

Overview

This mode can be considered to be a humorous addition to Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, compared to Richter Mode and Sisters Mode. First of all, the Old Axe Armor is played as a single character, therefore, the Partner System does not apply in it. Second, his (or her, as some of the official artwork shows it and as how some enemies react) arsenal is of course, very limited; he cannot use items either. Third, he is very weak overall and requires skill and on the player's side if they want to finish the game in this mode.

The Old Axe Armor can only use two sub-weapons: the Axe and the Puppet. the Axe maintains its function of being thrown upward like in most of the other metroidvania-styled games, but interestingly, the Puppet works exactly like its Dawn of Sorrow version, which allows the Armor to throw it forward and then swapping places with it.

Old Axe Armor's special attacks

Source: BradyGames Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Official Strategy Guide page 99.

Item Data: Special attacks
Image	Name - Game   Type - Users Description	Attributes / Consume	Statistics / Sell	Found	Notes
	High Jump [Old Axe Armor] - Portrait of Ruin   Action - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
		Attrib: Slash	ATK +31		Sequence: ↑ + L button (or L button while jumping)
	Upper Axe - Portrait of Ruin   Action - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
		Attrib: Slash	ATK +31		Sequence: ↑
	Running Axe - Portrait of Ruin   Action - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
		Attrib: Strike Consume: 30 MP	ATK +45		Sequence: →, → + Y
	Smash - Portrait of Ruin   Action - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
		Attrib: Strike Consume: 15 MP	ATK +60, Invulnerability		Sequence: ↑, ←, ↓, → + Y
	Deadly Axe - Portrait of Ruin   Action - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
		Attrib: Slash Consume: 75 MP	ATK +31, Invulnerability		Sequence: →, ↓, ←, ↑, → + Y

Gender and identity

There is some debate and confusion over the Old Axe Armor's gender and identity. The character appears to have a male voice (Jonathan's); however, the game treats the character as if they were female (Zacchino presents a rose instead of drawing a sword and Astarte's Temptation attack has no effect). Artwork found on the official Konami web page depicts an unknown female warrior wearing the armor, although it's not confirmed if it is official or simply fan service.

The description of the enemy indicates that it is a "veteran zombie" which is wearing the suit of armor. This suggests that the playable character may be a zombie, although there's also the possibility that it could be someone else wearing the armor in the playable mode.

When the Axe Armor gets on the high score board of Boss Rush Mode, two portraits are listed, one showing the Axe Armor with its helmet down and an image of Maria Renard is shown as its partner. Also, the portrait shown in the end credits is Maria's. This suggests that Maria is the one who is wearing the armor. The artwork found on Konami's website does not resemble Maria, however.

One possible explanation for this is that like all other modes in the game, this mode was intended to be a two-character mode. One character is the armor itself and accounts for the male voice in the game; the other character is the one wearing the armor, who is female and accounts for enemies' behavior toward her. This may have been the intention for this character, but the developers might not have wanted to spend any additional time on this bonus mode than they had to, so they took a shortcut and used Jonathan's voice for the male sounding armor and Maria's portrait to represent the female wearing the armor. Then after the game was created, they put up artwork of what the character is supposed to look like on their website. On a related note, having a female character may be a safeguard to prevent Astarte from killing the player in a single hit, as there would be nobody to save the Axe Armor were they to be charmed.

Rita as portrayed in the All You Need Is Kill manga.

Another possibility is that she could be a reference to the character Rita Vrataski from the Japanese military science fiction novel All You Need Is Kill, who is an armored redhead with a giant axe as her signature weapon (the novel precedes Portrait of Ruin by two years, although the manga came out after the game's release).

The true nature of the Axe Armor may never be known for certain without an official statement and may not be important, as the mode is alternate to the series and has no storyline.

Item Data

Item Data: Old Axe Armor Mode
Image	Name - Game   Type - Users Description	Attributes / Consume	Statistics / Sell	Found	Notes
	Axe - Portrait of Ruin   Weapon (Axe) - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
		Attrib: Slash	ATK +31	Find: Starts with	Effect: Axe Chop Special: Only available in Old Axe Armor Mode.
	Axe (Axe Armor) - Portrait of Ruin   Sub-Weapon - Richter, Old Axe Armor				[edit]
	Throw an axe upwards.	Attrib: Slash Consume: 20 MP	ATK +31 (Richter), ATK +50 (Old Axe Armor)	Find: Starts with	Effect: Arc Throw Special: Only available in Richter Mode and Old Axe Armor Mode.
	Puppet (jpn) [alt] - Portrait of Ruin   Sub-Weapon - Old Axe Armor				[edit]
	Throw a puppet and switch places with it.	Consume: 5 MP		Find: Starts with	Effect: Throws a small puppet forward, allowing the Old Axe Armor to switch places with it. Special: Only available in Old Axe Armor Mode.

Gallery

Screenshots

Animations

Standard attack

Deadly Axe

Running Axe

Smash

External links

• Blorgh1212's Old Axe Armor Mode Guide (GameFAQs)