Like many Castlevania games, Portrait of Ruin has extra alternate play modes available after completing the primary quest. In this case, you get to play as Richter Belmont and Maria Renard, using a dual character system very similar to the main quest.

Richter and Maria blaze a path of destruction through the castle, pacifying foes with a combination of crosses, doves and other wonderful things. Complex multiple-character motion is used to move as quickly as possible; see the author's comments for an in-depth explanation.