Product Description: The legendary Castlevania series is back in its 3rd installment on the Nintendo DS. Order of Ecclesia follows on the success of Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. This time you play as a member of the Ecclesia, an organization that has sworn to defeat the evil forces of Dracula. Use the brand new Glyph attack system that has more than 100 different combinations to battle Dracula and his minions throughout 20 explorable areas. Take part in side quests and collect items to power up your character in the next great Castlevania game produced by Koji Igarashi.
Replay more than once to discover multiple endings
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - More Castlevania
It has the same formula as the rest of the "Metroidvania" games in the Castlevania series: go through a bunch of different areas, collect weapons and magic, and level up so that you're strong enough to face Dracula and seal his powers. It's a formula that works well, and works well enough to go through several iterations.
The combat system has been reworked for this game: this uses a newly-created 'Glyph' system. A weapon glyph can be attached to each arm, and a passive glyph can be mapped to the 'R' shoulder button. Holding doesn't use a subweapon, but combines the two weapon Glyphs to use a powerful attack. Every time you use a Glyph, it costs MP. It makes the system of magical weapons a little more believable, and your MP usually regenerates fast enough that you won't run out.
The two biggest problems I had with this game were the length and the difficulty. The game is extremely short; by far the shortest Castlevania game on the DS. I completed my first playthrough of the game in eight hours, and I had found all of the secret areas. The only real difficulty comes with a few of the bosses: they all take a couple of tries to figure out their patterns. But the only area I had trouble moving through was the Clock Tower in Dracula's Castle, and only because it had areas completely covered in spikes. A lot of the bosses were fairly easy, too. Most of them took very little skill, and the only problem was figuring out the right combination of Glyphs to use.
And the secret areas and items were fairly disappointing, as well. One of the secret areas is just a rehash of an arena filled with tough monsters, and the other is an obstacle course. I cleared them both pretty easily, and the only reason to clear them is for completion's sake. You get items to finish a couple of sidequests, but the rewards from both the dungeons and the sidequests they help you complete are of little use.
After beating the game, you unlock Boss Rush, Hard mode, and the ability to play as Albus, the gun-wielding antagonist from the beginning of the game. Boss Rush will unlock items that are fairly useful, especially if you're playing through the game on Hard mode. But playing as Albus leaves a lot to be desired. It's just a carbon-copy of the regular game, with a different character who will never unlock any new abilities, and can't do any of the sidequests or treasure hunting that make the "Metroidvania" style of Castlevanias so appealing.
I was excited when this game came out, but I'll have to be more frugal about what games I buy on release in the future.
Rating: - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, just a bit outside the plate
When I received this title, I figured it would be similar to the combat system of Portrait of Ruin. However, getting used to the fact that every attack drains a part of your resources takes some getting used to. Besides that, the game is very well done and entertaining. For the price I paid for it it is a good buy, but that could differ depending if you are a fan of the series or not.
Rating: - Best. Castlevania. Ever
this is my first review on amazon, and could possibly be my last, but i'd like all castlevania loyalists, to check this game out, it is absolutely incredible, the animation is beautiful ,the gameplay is surgical, ,you cannot blame your death because of the game or the enemies, true it is difficult, but the first castlevanias were the most difficult, the bosses in this game will kill you multiple times, but the thing of that is.. persistence.. if you persist you will triumph, and that is the best feeling when you go up against a boss and it has beat you fifteen twenty times, and then you GET it... and you boot the game back up and you win! the story-line is also very excellent, the music is hauntingly beautiful, the level design is incredibly creative and beatiful, do not worry about no back-tracking, the levels have quite a bit of depth in them, this is without question one of my favorite games of all time, symphony of the night on ps1 was incredible, brilliant, and a masterpiece, ,and this is the DS's Masterpiece... if it is not the greatest castlevania, it is right NEXT to Symphony of the night.
BUY THIS GAME, ENJOY THIS GAME, So Konami will make others!
Rating: - Great handheld Castlevania with "just right" difficulty
If it's one thing that Konami excels at, it's 2D Castlevania games. Order of Ecclesia is another Metroidvania style game with another Non-Belmont character in the lead (Some may hate this, but I for one love it. Keeps things fresh). A welcome comeback was the more subtle and more western feel towards the character art, something I've rather took a distaste to in Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. The music was mostly amazing with some rather odd sounding tunes, but the collecting of classic Castlevania tracks offset that for me. The graphics are a definite improvement from the previous DS Castlevanias and the quality shows in all the levels though they are recycled.
The key thing that pulled me toward this title was the increase in difficulty. For me it just felt right, the overall toughness of enemies, the planning ahead to use the right Glyphs for the right job.
Rating: - worth it
It's very easy to like this game, whether or not a castlevania fan. It has a certain simplicity while at the same time feels like a castlevania game. Not saying the game is simple though. One thing for sure is that the difficulty has increased compared to many castlevania games (which is a plus to me). The story is as powerful as many other castlvania games though, but it doesnt interfere with the game play. So really it just feels like your playing instead of following a story (which isnt exactly a negative). One of two problems though is that the game isn't too stratigic anymore. You feel as though your just playing and not thinking too much on what your doing like past games. The other problem is the music is extremly generic. It's so bad I couldn't even hear it because it wasnt interesting or enjoyable (heck, i played my mp3 while playing some times). Truly, this arn't huge factors because the game is still very fun and I was pleased at the end. I strongly recomend this game to any fan of 2-D scrollers with hard bosses and tons of attacks (though not as many as "dawn of sorrow" or "portrait of ruin") or if your just a fan of castlevaina.
- More Castlevania
- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, just a bit outside the plate
- Best. Castlevania. Ever
