Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

"Still kicking Dracula's butt. This time, it's a woman's job to do it."

I must say, I can't remember the last time I've played a Castlevania game, enjoyed it AND felt angry due to its difficulty at the same time. This game's definitely great, don't let the difficulty get to your head.

-Story: 9/10

The story begins with Shanoa, the heroine, entering her "home", Ecclesia. It was one of the clans set to find a way to destroy Dracula, as the Belmont clan and their vampire killer whip had vanished. Just as she enters, she finds a close person to her, Albus, waiting for her. Barlowe, the leader, promised Albus he'd use Dominus -the gylph made to destroy Dracula-, but Shanoa says that's her role, according to Barlowe. The end up arguing, but in the end, Albus just stops and Shanoa hurries to the room Barlowe is in. Just as Shanoa's absorbing the 3 parts of Dominus, Albus gets pissed off and attacks! After Shanoa wakes up from that unfortunate incident, it turns out she's lose her emotions and memories, and the person closest to her ran away with Dominus. What could he be up to?


-Gameplay: 10/10

Same old 2D Castlevania. It's an action-adventure side-scroller. Instead of weapons and magic/MP-consuming special weapons, you get to use gylphs on both Y and X. Gylphs are drawings that contain a certain power inside. For example, the first gylph you absorb is a rapier gylph. After equipping it to X, Y or both, you can use it. Gylphs cost MP to use, but your MP regenerates fast in this game. Also, you can use gylph union with both gylphs. It costs "hearts", your REAL "MP" in this game. That's it for attacking. Castlevania's mainly about exploring places and killing monsters in a somewhat "straight" way. You won't get lost much, but you may need to backtrack after obtaining special gylphs. You also get bonuses for doing special actions as well, check the cheats section for that.

After a few minutes in this game, you'll notice some villagers being stuck in some sort of orange ice. Free them, and they'll repay you by giving you things (in exchange for items, obviously), open up their shop (only one of them does that) or give you a certain item, ask you to use it in a certain place and get your reward. You also have to rescue all the villagers in order to avoid the bad ending.


-Visuals: 8/10

It's the same 2D graphics used for the other (DS) Castlevania games. However, it seems a little less anime-like this time. Also, the pictures used in conversation seem slightly realistic. It's pretty safe to say the game's around the medieval age. Shanoa and the other characters' sprites are a bit too small, so you can see the details in their faces, but they look great in conversations. Nothing much to say here.


-Audio: 9/10

Most characters in this game have actual voices. You can hear Shanoa shout while using normal gylphs or gylph unions and such. Some bosses also yell while attacking (at least the ones that are SUPPOSED to be able to talk). The music in this game's pretty good, too. It may not be worth humming or whistling, but at least you won't turn down the volume and listen to something else.


Difficulty: 10/10 (from a "hardcore" gamer's view)

This game is, believe me, hard and it WILL get frustrating at times. It's not just a "run through and slash randomly" game anymore. You actually have to focus on avoiding attacks too, especially when it comes to bosses. They have insane attacks, but once you open up your senses, predict their attacks and learn to avoid them, they'll be nothing but cake. Personally, if you're the kind of person who loves easy games, you might end up hating this.


Multi-player and extra modes: 8/10

There are three (I believe) main multiplayer modes in this game. One of them is a race mode. You can race online. You basically have to walk/jump/magnetize yourself in a certain path while getting points by avoiding damage and killing enemies and reaching the finish line quickly. The points are tallied up then and the one with more points wins. The second mode isn't really multi-player, but it involves interaction. It's a shopmode, just like Portrait of Ruin.. You can set up a shop online (you have to stay on, though) and have other players buy items for you. The price is slightly cheaper than it is in-game, but that's better actually. The third mode is, I believe, boss rush. I haven't gotten this yet, but I can see it from my records. I think you have to unlock this first. If it's like any game, you go in a certain number of rooms in order while killing bosses in those rooms. I'm not sure if it's possible to do it online, though.


Last words...

Buy this lovely game. Really, if anything, instead of asking me why you should get it, ask me why you SHOULDN'T get it. It's great, but if you play it non-stop it might get boring, but that's with almost every game out there. You shouldn't regret getting this.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/27/08

Game Release: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (US, 10/21/08)