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Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Genre: Platformer
Release Date: October 21, 2008
Platform: Nintendo DS
Reviewer: Eric
The Castlevania has seen new light thanks to Nintendo. While the 3-D action
adventure games see mixed reviews the 2-D platformers are still seeing high
ratings from gamers across the globe. With the fifth portable Castlevania out
can the series prove once again that 2-D is still the way to go?
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the Playstation resurrected the
Castlevania series. The blend of a platfomer game with RPG aspects was great
fun. Even until this day Symphony of the Night is one of the best Castlevania
games, being released almost on every console. Order of Ecclesia is just like
Symphony of the Night, but it adds in some new aspects to the series that are
not quite as enjoyable as you’d think.
There are no weapons in this Castlevania. Our heroine, Shanoa, has to use her
glyph abilities to gain new powers. In order to earn new weapons you’ll have to
beat up enemies and suck up their glyph. This can either be real easy or hard,
it all depends on how the drops here. You get three spots where you can equip
glyphs; later on you can hot key a few others, giving you the chance to switch
between certain attacks.
Certain glyph combinations will give you different special attacks. Most of
the time it seems like these special attacks are set at a default attack, but
that doesn’t mean you can’t try out the endless combinations. Most of the time
you will find new special attacks by equipping two of the same glyph, which sort
of takes away from the whole combination aspects. It is neat to see that Konami
is trying to change things up with the Castlevania series, I just don’t think
this is the right path the series needed to go in.
The last Castlevania on the Nintendo DS, Portrait of Ruin, seemed way too easy.
Instead of trying to make the game a little more difficult Konami went ahead and
made Order of Ecclesia one of the hardest Castlevania games in the series. Boss
battles seem like a game of luck rather than winning on shear strength. Healing
items are a must for boss battles, if you have none or only a few then you will
see the Game Over screen. In general you will see this screen a lot. Figuring
out the right strategy to defeat a boss will take longer than it should. When
you win though you will be treated to more great gameplay.
If the main quest is too much for you then you can always check out the games
many side quests. All of the quests in Order of Ecclesia deal with finding all
the towns people and then ultimately helping them out with a few other things.
This helps make the game last a lot longer and it also opens up a few new
aspects to the story.
Trying to do all of the side quests can become a big problem. Remember how bad
the towns people were in Castlevania: Simon’s Quest? Either Konami had the same
team work on this game or they thought it would be funny to make the towns
people just as bad in this game. All of the hints in this game are not really
hints; you will have to figure out everything on your own. Be prepared to search
every where in the game with your throwing axe, which is the only way you are
going to find any secret in the game.
Final Verdict
With everything this game offers it is a real nice game to own on the Nintendo
DS. It is not the best game in the series but Konami did take a risk and try
something new. Fans of the Castlevania series should pick this game up just be
prepared to look for awhile since most stores are not carrying this game for
some reason.
Rating
9 out of 10
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Trailer
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