Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

"One of the Best Castlevania games on any system."

Overview

Castlevania has been a long running series since the 8-bit era. For gamers alike, the series has proven itself as one of the best side scrolling action and platforming games around. With the birth of the PSOne's Symphony of the Night came a newer Castlevania that added RPG elements, and exploration to what would combine to become something similar to a Metroid Game, with many of the Castlevania staples. Order of Ecclesia fits the bill perfectly under that genre, and does everything to a near flawless finish.

Story

The story begins with you playing as Shanoa, a highly skilled individual belonging to the Order of Ecclesia, a group formed to bring the destruction of Dracula. As the highest skilled and gifted member, Shanoa is the only one who can absorb magical symbols called Glyphs from enemies defeated, and can use their own attacks against them. Her master, Barlowe, and the head of the Order, has given her the task of absorbing the ultimate Glyph, called [Dominus]. This mysterious power has the ability to defeat Dracula. However, along the way, a jealous member of the group named Albus becomes enraged at the fact that Shanoa is chosen and not him, and steals [Dominus] along with all of Shanoa's memories. Now the main task is to track down Albus, and recover [Dominus], all while powering up Shanoa by defeating enemies. The game has plenty of twists along the way as long as the gamer is willing to go the distance, like most Castlevania games.

Sound

The game has an amazing set of sound samples, for the characters, and for the normal game sound effects. Characters are not fully voice acted, however you get a sense of each characters personality when you talk with them with brief voice samples. The intro theme and a few other themes sound great, however the rest of the music in the game isn't nearly as good as previous entries to the Castlevania series. There are also a few classic themes that can be found or purchased throughout the game, however you need to access your inventory to play them, and leaving an area turns the music off, which makes the feature almost not worth using because of this.

Graphics

Order of Ecclesia has to be one of the best looking games on the DS. Even better than Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow, OoE is probably the best looking 2-D Castlevania game on any console. The best part is that the art style has returned to Symphony of the Night's style. The character art looks realistic once again, versus the anime-esque style of the previous DS installments. The style really complements the story as well, which I thought the previous installments styles did not as much. Backgrounds and lighting effects are used throughout the game to add great effect, and the special effects are some of the best ever in a 2-D game. The one downside here is that if there is lots of things going on, there is some slight slowdown, but this rarely happens and never really interrupts the gameplay.

Gameplay

Classic Castlevania gameplay meets classic Metroid gameplay for an amazing mix of RPG, Platforming, and Action. Shanoa controls beautifully, and the ability to map two attack glyphs to the face buttons, along with glyph combinations that you can experiment with, really gives the game lots of depth. Shanoa has the standard Metroidvania moves, like back dashing, powersliding, and double jumping, and all work just as expected. Support glyphs can be used to alter your stats, change your form, or give you an extra ability to change the way you navigate the levels. The level design in the game is great, because not too many areas repeat, and you always feel in danger which keeps your attention span in the game for the most part. If you're not careful, you'll definitely feel the pain of seeing the game over screen, but the game provides a moderate challenge, and is a satisfying game to finish. The game also includes tons of collectibles and a few fetch quests that are optional, but add to the game.

Conclusion

Order of Ecclesia is a staple Castlevania game, and is definitely worth the purchase. There are few things that hinder the game itself, but for the most part, it is one of the most enjoyable games on the DS. I highly recommend it, along with its two other DS iterations if you are a gamer, and are looking for a great overall game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/09

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