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| Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia; Tentative placeholder | |
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| Topic Started: Tuesday, 25. November 2008, 00:15 (290 Views) | |
| Foxhound_Fox | Tuesday, 25. November 2008, 00:15 Post #1 |
Hashshashin
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I am going to post this here while I finish the game and then modify it accordingly for the main board front page. As of right now, at 91.90% complete after 14 hours and 14 minutes of play time I have to say I *really* like the game. I hate to admit it but, even though it goes against everything my nostalgia and rose-tinted Castlevania glasses tell me, Order of Ecclesia is, fundamentally, a better game than Symphony of the Night. ~ Shining points that are prime examples of the genre: + The boss fights Easily the highlight of the game that absolutely shames Symphony of the Night. Each boss fight is insanely creative in terms of art design. All of them are challenging and have tried my patience on several occasions. They all take different approaches to attacking the player and require a cunning sense of creativity and reflexes like a cheetah. The third boss in the game, the giant fiddler crab in the lighthouse, is easily one of the most frustrating and interesting bosses I have come across in a long time, in any genre of game. It chases you up the entire height of the lighthouse and you have to avoid being hit by its giant claw and the bubbles it spits at you. The catch is, the more you progress up the lighthouse, the harder it becomes to avoid the attacks, as the platforms you stand on are becoming fewer in number and smaller in size. Two other examples of Ecclesia's wonderful boss fights come in Dracula's Castle. The first is a giant centaur-like creature and the other is Death. Death of course is in every major Castlevania title and like Dracula, it wouldn't be Castlevania without him. However, Ecclesia puts some great spins on his old tricks and made for an interesting time figuring out how to avoid being hit by his incredible attacks. Eligor, the centaur creature, is fantastic. He is at least four screens in size and took some amazing reflexes to beat. + The gameplay Order of Ecclesia has everything that the best Castlevania gameplay should have. The glyph system itself is outstanding. It took what was good about the soul system in both "Sorrow" games and made it way better. There are a far larger variety of glyphs in Ecclesia than there ever was souls in Dawn of Sorrow. There are two basic methods of attack, both stemming from the glyphs. You can either do physical damage with swords, axes, lances, etc. or do magic damage with elemental attacks (fire, ice, light, dark, etc.). There are three glyph "mounting" points. Both of Shanoa's arms and her back. The two arm points mount the offensive glyphs and the back mounts the technique, stat-boosting and familiar glyphs. You also have the "glyph sleeve" which allows you to have three different sets of glyphs that you can switch between in real-time. As usual, you also have head, body and leg armor and accessories to further modify Shanoa's kit. They added some great accessory items to the game that make me wish there were 7 or 8 accessory slots. Based on all my experiences with the Castlevania series, I would have to say that Ecclesia is the best among them all in terms of gameplay. It is as smooth as Symphony of the Night, with none of the stiffness of Dawn of Sorrow and highlights everything that is great about what Castlevania has done so far. + There is no drawing with the stylus I cannot stress how much I despised drawing on the touch screen with the stylus in Dawn of Sorrow during boss fights. It was excruciatingly frustrating, having to either have the stylus in hand during a boss fight (which messes up my hand placement) or pull it out once the magic seal flashed up on the screen, then only to get hit by the boss and die after you fail to get it right because the window of opportunity is so tiny. Like every quality Castlevania, Ecclesia presents its boss fights with no bull****. You get the bosses HP down to zero? They are dead. Period. ~ Things that are comparable with the rest of the series: = The graphics They are practically the same as Symphony of the Night. Some of the enemy models from Symphony and Dawn of Sorrow are reused for Ecclesia but they are integrated along with the other ones seamlessly. The new additions to the family are very nicely done and I have found many new favourites among the list: Werebat/Lilith, Arachne, Lizardman Blade, Lorelai, Fomor, Ladycat/Black Panther, Draculina, Final Knight and Rusalka (a boss) to name a few. The detail in all the locations is outstanding. Every room has been meticulously designed and ordered. Dracula's Castle is absolutely outstanding. Some parts of areas are copy-pasted but overall it is great. = The story It is Castlevania. Dracula is back and it is your job to kill him and bring peace to the world. What else is there to say? Well, there is a bit of a twist on the basic formula, but basically, Dracula's back, as always. = The item/glyph collecting Like with Symphony of the Night, Curse of Darkness and Dawn of Sorrow; Order of Ecclesia offers an intricate system of varying item drops. Ecclesia offers one of the most extensive so far, falling behind Curse of Darkness which stands out thanks to the amazing crafting system. There are items and glyphs hidden everywhere in both secret rooms and under a "five-star" rarity check system on enemies. I love collecting things and the "Metroidvania" Castlevania games have never ceased to hook me until I have absolutely everything. ~ Things that are not as good as they could be: - The music Is the DS incapable of supporting any sound file other than midi? Must I listen to all this electronically composed music all the time? Can I not have live recorded symphonic music like that in Symphony of the Night or Curse of Darkness? The music itself is good and what I expect from any Castlevania game but the midi format has to go. After spending countless hours listening to the Nocturne in the Moonlight OST (SOTN), I feel like Ecclesia hasn't been done justice by such a poor quality audio format. - The characters The character design leaves so much to be desired. Shanoa is an *extreme* disappointment. The first major female lead role of the Castlevania series and because of her being chosen to unite with "Dominus" (a powerful glyph), she loses all her memories *and* emotions. She is just an empty shell of a human being who lacks any humanity and personality whatsoever. She is as one-dimensional as a dot on a piece of paper and shallower than an empty spoon. It is as if the writers decided that they would rather just sit on their asses and write a cop-out to get paid instead of giving her a personality. She could have been ever so much more... heck, she might have given Alucard a run for his money if written right. Iga should be ashamed. Almost every other character in the game is exceedingly one-dimensional and bland. Not that Casltevania has ever been known for its excellent character design, but Symphony of the Night, Curse of Darkness and even Dawn of Sorrow have set the standard for what a Castlevania narrative should consist of. Order of Ecclesia fails to meet up with that standard. ~ Additional things: The villager fetch quests I am not going to complain. Most of them can be completed as you progress through the game and none of them are overly complicated or tedious. Not exactly a selling point but a nice addition nonetheless. Adds a little more to the depth of the item collecting. The art design Dawn of Sorrow suffered from being styIed like a crappy anime when it came to the hand-drawn art. Now they have brought it back into a much more "Ayami Kojima" styIe that brings out the essence of the Castlevania series and adds a lot to the depth of the graphics design itself. ~ The score Well, the jury is still out on this one until I decide whether or not I want to include one. I don't like scores for the sole fact that people tend to look at them and base the quality of the game off it without actually looking at the game itself. Some of the positives I mentioned would warrant a high score while the negatives, especially the music, warrant a very low score. Which is where the discrepancies come in. I will say this much though, Order of Ecclesia is a fine example of the Castlevania series and should be put alongside Symphony of the Night, Curse of Darkness, Rondo of Blood and the other "greats" of the series. It is just one of those games that any person who remotely enjoys Castlevania should play and own for their DS. I personally like the fact they didn't include stylus stuff just because they could have. It makes it a much more solid Castlevania experience. |
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| mmachine | Saturday, 13. December 2008, 02:09 Post #2 |
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The Champ
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Wow I totally forgot about this game. I should get it soon. Cool review. Through I kinda like the touch screen use in DoS, even through messing up was annoying. Maybe it's because I'm touch screen/wiimote fanboy or something. >_> Edited by mmachine, Saturday, 13. December 2008, 02:09.
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| NFunspoiler | Tuesday, 9. June 2009, 07:39 Post #3 |
The Crucible
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I almost got this game but I never found it at retail until I lost interest. |
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1:46 AM Nov 28
