Critical Art

Critical Art, also known as Super Attack or Special Attack, is an ability used in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Harmony of Despair, which works in a similar way to the classic Item Crash from other Castlevania games, except that it is used for normal weapons instead of sub-weapons. The user can do such things as improving the attack's speed, strength or range, or invoke a hidden power of the weapon. For example, the Gungner spear can launch a long range lightning blast, while the Vampire Killer has the ability to set itself on fire and hit the enemy with a powerful flaming attack.
==Game specific information==
===Castlevania: Symphony of the Night===
Only the rarer weapons have special attacks, but they are generally unique or have special effects. Weapons which have special attacks are activated with two possible inputs:
*↓ ↘ → + [ATTACK] (also abbreviated "QCF + [ATTACK]", for quarter circle forward)
*← → + [ATTACK]
The Shotel, for example, can be thrown using the QCF input, and the Sword of Dawn can summon minions to attack for Alucard. Other weapons, generally the most powerful or rare, possess two different critical attacks. The Fist of Tulkas has a fireball attack and a flurry of punches attack which can be performed with the two different commands.
Some weapons also have special attacks which are invoked with weapons equipped in the other hand. For example, Alucard can equip a Heaven's Sword in both hands and invoke a special attack by pressing both attack buttons at the same time. The Shield Rod is also well-known for activating special abilities based on the shield equipped in Alucard's other hand when both attack buttons are pressed.
===Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow===
In this game, the system is known as Super Attack (in-game), Special Attack (manual) or Magical Strikes (Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - The Official Strategy Guide). Pressing the Special Weapon Attack button makes Soma deliver a powerful secondary attack based on his equipped weapon at the cost of some of his MP. Many weapons simply perform a more powerful strike which may nudge him forward a small bit, but certain weapons' special attacks have other properties as well as unique animations; the Claimh Solais, for example, gains increased range and speed in addition to a damage boost.
It's worth noting that Dawn of Sorrow is the only game in the series where this type of super attack can be performed through the use of a dedicated button; all other games where these techniques appear in require the input of a special sequence in order to perform them. This arguably makes this type of attack much more versatile during gameplay, allowing the player to make use of it often in combination with their other normal combat movements.
===Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin===
Critical Art is a relic which allows Jonathan to use his weapon's critical move with the input → → + [ATTACK]. It functions the same as the special attack system from Dawn of Sorrow.
===Castlevania: Harmony of Despair===
Like in Symphony of the Night, some weapons, particularly those that can only be equipped by Alucard and/or Soma, as well as Simon's Vampire Killer, have special attacks that are executed with the input ↓ ↘ → + [ATTACK]. In some cases, where both Alucard and Soma can equip a specific weapon, such as the Laevatain, only one can perform its special attack. Alucard's Heaven's Sword and Shanoa's Pneuma are the only weapons where their special attacks are executed by equipping them in both hands and simultaneously attacking with two.
==Item Data==
==Gallery==
Death's Scythe DOS2.png|Death Scythe's Super Attack from Dawn of Sorrow.
Portrait of Ruin - Nation of Fools - 06.png|Critical Art relic from Portrait of Ruin.
Category:Relics
Category:Portrait of Ruin Items