Nintendo DS

Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia

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Special Features

Intense side-scrolling action gameplay
Collect elements that will help you in your quest against Dracula
Explore all-new outdoor areas from the forests to the ocean
Compete head-to-head mode via the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection
Sell and buy items and equipment you have found while playing with other players utilising Nintendo DS Wi-Fi Connection
Connect to the upcoming Wii version of Castlevania for special unlockable items
Utilise multiple abilities and attacks simultaneously with the all-new Glyph Attack System
Replay more than once to discover the multiple endings

Review

Following the huge success of Producer Koji Igarashi's Castlevania titles 'Dawn of Sorrow' and 'Portrait of Ruin,' the new game casts the player as a member of the titular Ecclesia. The Ecclesia is a hand-picked organisation sworn to defeat Dracula and his undead cohorts. Thus, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia pits the player against the Vampire Lord and his hordes in a sprawling game world that spans 20 beautifully-realised maps.

Retaining the famed side view that is synonymous with the series, the action moves both indoors and outdoors as the player scours forests and oceans for the Vampire leader. New to the series, however, is an all-new 'Glyph Attack System,' giving the player access to over 100 offensive moves. These new moves are exclusive to the Ecclesia Order, and allow the player to combine weapons and attacking styles instantly during the heat of battle.

As the player explores Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, a series of secondary side quests are offers, and these reward the user with ever more useful items and ways to power-up their character, and also affect the way the game progresses with a number of different endings ensuring the game has strong replay value.

Customer Reviews

Average rating (1 review)

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2D castlevania is the way to go - proven 3 times now.

Chrissy0jay | 13/02/2009 | See all Chrissy0jay's reviews (40) »

Top 10 Games Reviewer

You may have figured by now that I really like these 2D castlevania games, so with great fervour I pre-ordered this upon release, and guess what? I was glued to my DS for 8 hours straight, the time it took me to finish this 24 karat gold piece of gaming.

The gameplay is typically 2D castlevania fare. You scramble around the maps, solving the odd platforming puzzle and teabagging the almighty minions of dracula, broken up by the odd (and damn difficult) boss fight. New additions are a map system, where you pick a level from the world map, and the glyph system.
The first is an excellent edition, and cuts back on much of the tedious and unneccassary backtracking that plagued "Portrait of Ruin" and its predecessor, "Dawn of Sorrow". The second is an excellent addition. Instead of obtaining new weapons for the same style (i.e. iron spear, long spear, wind spear etc), Shanoa obtains low, medium, and high power versions of weapon 'glyphs'. She can wield a 'glyph' in each hand, and can wield a support glyph on her shoulder. Wielding glyphs in each hand enables you to string together complex combos if wielding two of the same glyph, or unique glyphs allow for strategisation (lance for long range hits, and a sword for close range combat). On top of this, the two glyphs can be combined to use your heart points in "Glyph union", a powerful magic attack that deals lots of damage, but is limited both in the combination (You have to experiment for effective ones) and your available casting points. The support glyph will usually boost Shanoas attack power, call down friendly forces to lend a hand, anything like that really (hence the name).

The gameplay is also made a bit more strategic now in that you can only strike a limited number of times before your stamina goes down, and most enemies have resistance to certain glyph types. It forces you to strategise, plan your attacks, and the real beauty is that it prevents "spamming" of bosses, since you make a few strikes then peg it to let your stamina refill for a few seconds.

The game looks gorgeous, and as usual the environments are grand and have a medieval watercolour style to them. Enemy graphics and animations are superb as always, and there is less recycled material in this game (PoR I'm looking at you). The music and sounds are top notch, music of particular note is typical gothic rock-electro style of castlevanias past.

The real show-stopper is the amazing boss fights, which are stacked with Hit points and can take you down in a few hits. The beauty is that in this game you are forced to learn their attack patterns, choose the best weapon for the situation, and play with your best skills to have any hope of beating them.

On top of that, you have multiple endings, a huge map to explore for secret items, and dozens of side-quests to reward you with better armour and weapons.

So overall, it doesn't really add much to the beloved castlevania series, but it is another step toward perfection for the 2D castlevania formula. Anyone who enjoys skillful, hardcore old-skool gaming, step right up with your 25 notes and purchase this little beauty - you won't be dissapointed. 9/10

Pros:
+ Beautiful graphics.
+ New layer of strategy to combat.
+ Bosses are some of the best in the series yet!
+ Plenty of extra features.
+ Map system is convenient and welcomed.
+ Brilliant soundtrack and voice acting.

Cons:
- Over too quickly.
- Wi-fi features feel like an afterthought.
- May be too difficult for newcomers.
- A few cases of dodgy collision detection with enemies.

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