FA+
Shop
"The Jet Gamer" Game Review: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
9 years ago
Finally got the third part of this series. Took me long enough. And yes yes, I know it's Konami.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
The third of the three Castlevania games on the DS. Order of Ecclesia is yet another game to come along in the SoTN style of gameplay, and once again can be taken with you wherever you go on the DS. Yet, how is this one going to fare in comparison to the other other games in this series. Is it holdings its charm after three games, or has the third game on the DS started to diminish in shine that it has had with the other games?
Gameplay
With Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, once again we return to the SOTN format of running around on 2D maps, trying to level up your character, while collecting items and money while on your way to getting strong enough and far enough to take on Dracula. If you were expecting this game to be an different from this format, then you will be glad to see it is still in that format, but there are some twists to this which in my opinion does sort of hinder the gameplay a bit. You still get to roam around reveling a map as you go, but half the game takes place on many small maps, instead of the one large map that you play on like in SOTN. This makes many of the maps you go through actually quite linear instead of being so free to explore and do as you wish. There is still some exploring in these maps, but so often, the maps are quite straight-forward with little new to explore or very little reason to return to some areas unless you need new items or to level up some more. Speaking of leveling up, it is something you might want to spend some time doing in this game. I say this because this game is hard, and I mean damn hard at times. There is nothing wrong with a game having some difficulty, but honestly, I find some of the difficulty in this game comes from some of the new mechanics that this game offers. One of the big thing in this game, is unlike the older games where you had weapons and could select the ones that fit your play style so well, you now have a glyph system. The glyph system involves going around absorbing these sparkly glyphs in the levels that have various different attacks tied to them. Most of these involve the spells and weapons you used to use in the other games. However, now, most of the enemies in the game involve certain weaknesses to certain weapons and spells. So this means you have to constantly be switching around to use different weapons on different enemies to find the ones that work best on them or else you do next to nothing in terms of damage. This can be a little frustrating, as the weapons you may like using may not work on many of the enemies you are going to encounter. There are certain weapons that are obviously more effective than others, but they are not always the easiest ones or the quickest weapons either. This all really depends, since honestly, the way to success is by finding these weapons that do the most damage or close to the most damage and using those ones against the enemies, especially the bosses. This game really encourages you to learn the bosses to beat them. That's alright, but it would be better if you could use whatever weapons you wanted like you used to be able to do, instead of which ones the game sort of encourages you to use. Stuff like this can lead to many cheap deaths and frustrating times as you try and beat this game. Then there is also the fact that money and heart refills are much harder to come by as well. Money seems to have a lower drop rate in this game compared to the other Castlevania's, so it is hard to get the armor's and potions you may need as you will have trouble affording all the items you will need unless you simply grind for them. Honestly, this game isn't bad in the gameplay department really, but it really comes down to the game being quite frustrating at times. The difficulty just at times feels unfair and really it just feels like your hands are tied due to the weaknesses that the enemies have instead of just being about figuring them out and beating them with your weapons. Other than that, it isn't too bad, but the combat could have definitely been better.
Story
The story of this Castlevania is a bit simple, but also with an interesting new twist. This time you are playing as a female named Shanoa who is on a journey to complete a strong glyph named Dominous so that she can use it to destroy Dracula. The Belmonts have apparently stopped appearing to stop Dracula and this organization called Ecclesia has appeared with this new glyph with the hope of trying to stop Dracula in a new way since the Belmonts and the whip have disappeared. Definitely quite the change when it comes to a Castlevania game that's for sure to not have to deal with the Belmonts at all, even in many of the other games, they are at least one of the side characters or minor characters you play as in the game. So the bulk of the game is actually split into two parts, the first part is chasing a former friend named Albus who has stolen Dominous to try and get it back, while the other half is trying to eventually try and take on Dracula in the traditional large castle that you have to explore. The story actually does have its moments, especially when it comes to Albus and the things he has done. I don't want to spoil it for any of you of course, but really, the moments that make you care about Shanoa and even a bit for Albus come with the interactions between these two during the journey and their encounters with each other. Albus does have some hidden plans with Dominous, but he isn't letting on what they are. What he does though, is actually quite brilliant though, but it will take you awhile to figure out what it is he is doing though. The story is pretty good here, but I do wiish there was a little more of it. I sort of felt the way about many of these metroidvania style Castlevania games. They have alright stories, but they do usually concentrate a lot more on the game play than they do on the stories.
Graphics
The game looks just like the other DS Castlevania games and also like the PS1 SOTN still. This is one of those games where I guess if something works, don't fix it. The game looks good, and they knew it looked good and made sure the styles matched and kept that same look of each other. I'm sure some people may want them to change a bit, but really, this style worked for all these games on the GBA and DS, so why change it. I didn't find much wrong with how the game looks here. There was the occasional slowdown though when there was way too much going on on the screen at a time, but really, that's is my only nitpick when it comes to the graphics. If you have seen SOTN, or any of the GBA and DS Castlevania games, then you know what this game looks like.
Sound
With the fact you have to roam so much in this game, the music had better be pretty good, and once again it is no disappointment. It isn't as memorable as some of the music in SOTN, but I can see some of this music fitting the areas they are for pretty well, and also making you want to listen to them as you play the game. This isn't one of those games you want to turn the music down as you play, you actually do want to listen to it and not turn the music down. This is especially so on the bosses. They are already hard enough, but some of them do have telling audio cues you may want to pay attention to as you play the game. There is also the fact that many enemies as well have audio cues once they spot you. I know I don't have a ton to say here, but hey, when a game has good music, there is honestly very little to say at times. It's good. Don't turn the music off when you play this one.
Control
The controls are pretty traditional here and does match what you expect from the other games. They also come with some of the same problems as well. Dodging is still a bit iffy at times, and with this games difficulty, that can be a problem as it does force you to often times replay bosses over and over again to learn them and how to dodge them in this game. You have the standard controls such as jumping, attacking, back dodging and sliding on the floor. These are all the same ones as usual, but you will often times be in such a rush from the heat of battle, that it is very easy to miss click buttons which will easily get you killed from the high damage output on you. So really, that's the main thing with the controls is the fact that they are easy to misclick in the heat of battle. They aren't terrible by any means, but I think I could have imagined better dodging moves that were easier to pull off when you are fighting. Other than that, you won't have too much trouble for the most part in the game.
Replay Value
Luckily, even though this game is super hard as I mentioned above, it does encourage the player to keep playing if they can tough out the difficulty. Not only is there the main mode that encourages you to finish the game, but it also wants you to try and do the extra areas and do all the quests the people in the game offer up to you at times as well, which are a big vague at times, but they are doable. There are also two other modes that you can get by beating the game. One of them is hard mode. Yeah, you heard me, Hard Mode. This game is already hard enough, and that can be bumped up even more. There is also Albus mode which lets you play as a totally different character, which is neat and something traditional as well to this type of Castlevania. Albus can be both easier and harder at the same time than Shanoa. He is much quicker and easier to dodge with than Shanoa, but he also has no access to items or the item or equipment menu. So if you do bosses, you have to do it on one health bar and that's it. That is quite demanding in this game already, but it is doable. Really, this game offers a lot of extra in the replay department, it is just the difficulty that holds you back from wanting to keep playing. If you can get pass that, you have a lot of game here for you to play.
Overall, I would say Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is still a good Castlevania game, but it does have some frustrations as well. The difficulty and the odd glyph system I do think hold the game back from being ranked higher. If you liked the other DS Castlevania games though, then you will likely enjoy this one as well. If you aren't a fan of higher difficulty though, then this one may bring some frustrations rather quickly as well. There was definitely some delay in this game at times as I had to play some bosses many many times to try and beat them, even with some leveling. Just be ready to invest some time in this game if you enjoyed any of the other metroidvania style Castlevania games. Overall, give it a shot, but be ready for a fight.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia an eight out of ten.
Gameplay: 6
Story: 8
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Control: 7
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 8
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
The third of the three Castlevania games on the DS. Order of Ecclesia is yet another game to come along in the SoTN style of gameplay, and once again can be taken with you wherever you go on the DS. Yet, how is this one going to fare in comparison to the other other games in this series. Is it holdings its charm after three games, or has the third game on the DS started to diminish in shine that it has had with the other games?
Gameplay
With Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, once again we return to the SOTN format of running around on 2D maps, trying to level up your character, while collecting items and money while on your way to getting strong enough and far enough to take on Dracula. If you were expecting this game to be an different from this format, then you will be glad to see it is still in that format, but there are some twists to this which in my opinion does sort of hinder the gameplay a bit. You still get to roam around reveling a map as you go, but half the game takes place on many small maps, instead of the one large map that you play on like in SOTN. This makes many of the maps you go through actually quite linear instead of being so free to explore and do as you wish. There is still some exploring in these maps, but so often, the maps are quite straight-forward with little new to explore or very little reason to return to some areas unless you need new items or to level up some more. Speaking of leveling up, it is something you might want to spend some time doing in this game. I say this because this game is hard, and I mean damn hard at times. There is nothing wrong with a game having some difficulty, but honestly, I find some of the difficulty in this game comes from some of the new mechanics that this game offers. One of the big thing in this game, is unlike the older games where you had weapons and could select the ones that fit your play style so well, you now have a glyph system. The glyph system involves going around absorbing these sparkly glyphs in the levels that have various different attacks tied to them. Most of these involve the spells and weapons you used to use in the other games. However, now, most of the enemies in the game involve certain weaknesses to certain weapons and spells. So this means you have to constantly be switching around to use different weapons on different enemies to find the ones that work best on them or else you do next to nothing in terms of damage. This can be a little frustrating, as the weapons you may like using may not work on many of the enemies you are going to encounter. There are certain weapons that are obviously more effective than others, but they are not always the easiest ones or the quickest weapons either. This all really depends, since honestly, the way to success is by finding these weapons that do the most damage or close to the most damage and using those ones against the enemies, especially the bosses. This game really encourages you to learn the bosses to beat them. That's alright, but it would be better if you could use whatever weapons you wanted like you used to be able to do, instead of which ones the game sort of encourages you to use. Stuff like this can lead to many cheap deaths and frustrating times as you try and beat this game. Then there is also the fact that money and heart refills are much harder to come by as well. Money seems to have a lower drop rate in this game compared to the other Castlevania's, so it is hard to get the armor's and potions you may need as you will have trouble affording all the items you will need unless you simply grind for them. Honestly, this game isn't bad in the gameplay department really, but it really comes down to the game being quite frustrating at times. The difficulty just at times feels unfair and really it just feels like your hands are tied due to the weaknesses that the enemies have instead of just being about figuring them out and beating them with your weapons. Other than that, it isn't too bad, but the combat could have definitely been better.
Story
The story of this Castlevania is a bit simple, but also with an interesting new twist. This time you are playing as a female named Shanoa who is on a journey to complete a strong glyph named Dominous so that she can use it to destroy Dracula. The Belmonts have apparently stopped appearing to stop Dracula and this organization called Ecclesia has appeared with this new glyph with the hope of trying to stop Dracula in a new way since the Belmonts and the whip have disappeared. Definitely quite the change when it comes to a Castlevania game that's for sure to not have to deal with the Belmonts at all, even in many of the other games, they are at least one of the side characters or minor characters you play as in the game. So the bulk of the game is actually split into two parts, the first part is chasing a former friend named Albus who has stolen Dominous to try and get it back, while the other half is trying to eventually try and take on Dracula in the traditional large castle that you have to explore. The story actually does have its moments, especially when it comes to Albus and the things he has done. I don't want to spoil it for any of you of course, but really, the moments that make you care about Shanoa and even a bit for Albus come with the interactions between these two during the journey and their encounters with each other. Albus does have some hidden plans with Dominous, but he isn't letting on what they are. What he does though, is actually quite brilliant though, but it will take you awhile to figure out what it is he is doing though. The story is pretty good here, but I do wiish there was a little more of it. I sort of felt the way about many of these metroidvania style Castlevania games. They have alright stories, but they do usually concentrate a lot more on the game play than they do on the stories.
Graphics
The game looks just like the other DS Castlevania games and also like the PS1 SOTN still. This is one of those games where I guess if something works, don't fix it. The game looks good, and they knew it looked good and made sure the styles matched and kept that same look of each other. I'm sure some people may want them to change a bit, but really, this style worked for all these games on the GBA and DS, so why change it. I didn't find much wrong with how the game looks here. There was the occasional slowdown though when there was way too much going on on the screen at a time, but really, that's is my only nitpick when it comes to the graphics. If you have seen SOTN, or any of the GBA and DS Castlevania games, then you know what this game looks like.
Sound
With the fact you have to roam so much in this game, the music had better be pretty good, and once again it is no disappointment. It isn't as memorable as some of the music in SOTN, but I can see some of this music fitting the areas they are for pretty well, and also making you want to listen to them as you play the game. This isn't one of those games you want to turn the music down as you play, you actually do want to listen to it and not turn the music down. This is especially so on the bosses. They are already hard enough, but some of them do have telling audio cues you may want to pay attention to as you play the game. There is also the fact that many enemies as well have audio cues once they spot you. I know I don't have a ton to say here, but hey, when a game has good music, there is honestly very little to say at times. It's good. Don't turn the music off when you play this one.
Control
The controls are pretty traditional here and does match what you expect from the other games. They also come with some of the same problems as well. Dodging is still a bit iffy at times, and with this games difficulty, that can be a problem as it does force you to often times replay bosses over and over again to learn them and how to dodge them in this game. You have the standard controls such as jumping, attacking, back dodging and sliding on the floor. These are all the same ones as usual, but you will often times be in such a rush from the heat of battle, that it is very easy to miss click buttons which will easily get you killed from the high damage output on you. So really, that's the main thing with the controls is the fact that they are easy to misclick in the heat of battle. They aren't terrible by any means, but I think I could have imagined better dodging moves that were easier to pull off when you are fighting. Other than that, you won't have too much trouble for the most part in the game.
Replay Value
Luckily, even though this game is super hard as I mentioned above, it does encourage the player to keep playing if they can tough out the difficulty. Not only is there the main mode that encourages you to finish the game, but it also wants you to try and do the extra areas and do all the quests the people in the game offer up to you at times as well, which are a big vague at times, but they are doable. There are also two other modes that you can get by beating the game. One of them is hard mode. Yeah, you heard me, Hard Mode. This game is already hard enough, and that can be bumped up even more. There is also Albus mode which lets you play as a totally different character, which is neat and something traditional as well to this type of Castlevania. Albus can be both easier and harder at the same time than Shanoa. He is much quicker and easier to dodge with than Shanoa, but he also has no access to items or the item or equipment menu. So if you do bosses, you have to do it on one health bar and that's it. That is quite demanding in this game already, but it is doable. Really, this game offers a lot of extra in the replay department, it is just the difficulty that holds you back from wanting to keep playing. If you can get pass that, you have a lot of game here for you to play.
Overall, I would say Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is still a good Castlevania game, but it does have some frustrations as well. The difficulty and the odd glyph system I do think hold the game back from being ranked higher. If you liked the other DS Castlevania games though, then you will likely enjoy this one as well. If you aren't a fan of higher difficulty though, then this one may bring some frustrations rather quickly as well. There was definitely some delay in this game at times as I had to play some bosses many many times to try and beat them, even with some leveling. Just be ready to invest some time in this game if you enjoyed any of the other metroidvania style Castlevania games. Overall, give it a shot, but be ready for a fight.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia an eight out of ten.
Gameplay: 6
Story: 8
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Control: 7
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 8
chinook_orca
~chinookorca
As a long-time fan of the series: kind of bummed that it doesn't look like we'll ever be getting more great Castlevania games.
Tails_Fanatic
~tailsfanatic
OP
Yeah I know.
