Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Review

And so the craze continues in my second-last post in this Castlevania marathon review segment!

The third (and final) Castlevania game to grace the DS was 2008's Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Yes, that last word is pronounced "EE-KLEE-JA". Kinda weird, right? I suppose they're simply running out of names for these games, but really, does the name matter? Not at all, because this is Castlevania! Now, let's go whip some baddies! Wait, what! Are you telling me that there are ABSOLUTELY NO WHIPS in this game!/ You mean, not even the bonus mode has one, like DoS' did!? Well, in that case, can you really call this Castlevania?! Well, as a matter of fact, yes, yes you can, because despite the many tweaks and changes the developers made, this game still feels wholly like one of the best Castlevania games around. Whoops, did I just spoil the review?

Order of Ecclesia (OoE) takes that oh-so-familiar whip-cracking action and changes things up a little. Well, a lot, actually. Instead of a manly-man (or, in more recent games, dangerously pale transvestites), you play as tough girl Shanoa on your quest to rid the world of the old bat, Dracula. There's your first hint that this is a Castlevania game, good ol' Drac is still in here. Anyways, moving on... The biggest change this time is that, unlike like most free-roaming Castlevania titles, this game doesn't take place within one giant castle, but rather over a variety of different areas. This allows for way more varied environments, but as a result, the game doesn't feel quite as large, because, like Portrait of Ruin did with its bonus portraits, tilesets have been reused, but changed a bit in things like colours or the like. On top of this, most environments are simply flat, making you run from point a to point b and kill anything in your way. The reason these levels aren't as engaging as they could've been is because theres no stair climbing and no boss battles. It's just plain, flat terrain, with nothing but legions from Dracula's army to help break up the running. And while there are some considerable large areas, and that all in all the extra environments you unlock (such as the huge-normous Dracula's Castle towards the end) add up to something roughly the same size (if not larger) than Symphony of the Night's or Dawn of Sorrow's (not Portrait of Ruin, that game is freakin' huge), the fact that the areas are all broken up and disjointed causes you to feel like you're not achieving as much, and that the game is much smaller as a result. And there's one more glaring issue here that the developers really shouldn't have overlooked. Seeing as how Shanoa, instead of using actual physical weapons, uses magical things called Glyphs that only she can absorb, which allow her to create things such as an axe right out of the palm of her hand, there's no way to sell old weapons, oh, excuse me, Glyphs, to the shopkeeper, meaning that money is a pretty hard thing to come by in this game. And while you can earn some extra dough by doing fetch quests and the like for other villagers that you find hidden away in the game (that's right, villagers have been imprisoned in weird glass-like shards throughout the game), most of these net you no money, but rather send new items to the shopkeeper or give you some lame, useless thing that you never wanted. And the worst part is you can't buy anything that you just unlocked because there isn't enough money! *sigh*... why, Konami, could you do this to us!??! And normal potions, instead of regaing, no, not 80, and no, not 100 health, but only 50 health! They're practically useless, and you don't unlock the High Potion until the end of the game!!! Seeing as how the potions cost way too much, and you can only hold nine, they have barely any use! Whatever, you get the point, the shop system is flawed to say the least. Wouldn't it have been nice if Shanoa could permanently make a glyph a spell scroll or a physical weapon so she could've sold it or something!??!

Ignore my rant above. This game is still amazing, so let's focus on the positive parts from here on down. The action is still awesome. You'll be running around from environment to environment, knifing baddies, tossing axes, and casting spells to advance. The game is pretty damn long, and you'll be spending a lot of time with this one, especially considering the fact that the shop mode that was introduced in Portrait of Ruin has been enhanced here, meaning that if in need, a friend who's advanced farther than you can sell you some valuable stuff that you're not supposed to get until a bit later, powering you up a bit and making it easier to advance. And trust, you'll want every break you can get, because this game is really hard. Like, REEEEAAAALLLY hard! Unless you're a seasoned player like myself, you'll be tearing out your hair and yelling at your DS. Just don't throw it out a window or anything. Hell, I could barely get past the second boss. Also, with the new Glyph system come some other catches. Weapons use Mana Points now, so be prepared to be drained when you decide to wail on a boss. Luckily, your MP refills a heckuva lot faster now, and you can even dual wield your weapons for faster attacks. Also, picking up new Glyphs works a lot like the Soul system in Dawn of Sorrow. Enemies have a certain percentage as to whether or not they will drop glyphs, but not all enemies use glyphs. You can always tell when an enemy might drop a Glyph though, because it will always flash beneath an enemy right when they die, not quite materializing so that the actual glyph itself stays a mystery, but letting you know that you can indeed get a glyph from that dude. Shanoa has some other tricks up her sleeve, but I'll let you figure those out for yourself. Also, the item screen has been significantly improved. It looks sharper, and instead of just using an item as soon as you hit the "A" button, there's now a prompt asking you if you're absolutely sure you want to use that item. It's much less annoying than it sounds, and it helps to fight those times when you accidentally use that Super Potion when you have 348/350 health. Yeah. Plus, treasure chests are much more common, and seemingly self-aware of the shop system's flaws, they hold much more than money this time around.

OoE is by far the best looking Castlevania game on the DS. It uses more 3D elements, and features more stickies, as well as enemy bodies that remain on the ground instead of spontaneously combusting like in past games, giving you a better sense of the destruction you've caused. Characters also have more joints this time around, and the animations are amazingly fluid, and look two times better than the previous games. The atmosphere is really strong in this one, and it really immerses you more into the game. Of course, this is also due to the game's new art style, which goes for a much more mature tone than the anime style we've seen in the previous DS games, as well as Symphony of the Night.

Sound design in this game isn't quite as good as Portrait of Ruin's in my opinion, because some sounds sound way too tinny for a DS game, and don't give you a good sense of the damage you've caused in most cases. However, this game still sounds superior to Dawn of Sorrow, which still sounds amazing today, and so that means that this game is still awesome in this regard. There are some wonderful touches in here too, such as some of the things the bosses say to you, I would mention one particularly impressive element in one of the final boss fights, but that would spoil the story for you, which is much more a part of the game this time around. More on that below. Also, the music is still breathtaking, but some tracks have a tendency to be reused too often. This doesn't really bug you, though, when most of these tracks are awesome, and you'll be humming them for weeks!

The story is a very integral part of the experience in this Castlevania title, which is almost unheard of for the series. While it's true that it's hard to relate to Shanoa due to her losing her memories and emotions and all in the beginning of the game, there are still some wonderful plot twists, and if you fulfill all the conditions necessary for the good ending, then you'll really be surprised by someone who you thought was a no-good dirty little betrayer. All in all, I quite enjoyed the story here, and Shanoa actually seems to gain some emotion later on in the game, but I won't say any more, for fear of spoiling anything.

In the end, OoE is one of the best Castlevania games in years, and while, once again, it's not as good as Dawn of Sorrow or Symphony of the Night, it's still fantastic.

I give Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia 96/100 Glyphs.