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Fox's Review: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

Started by Fusion, January 01, 2009, 07:30:46 PM

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Fusion

January 01, 2009, 07:30:46 PM Last Edit: January 01, 2009, 07:32:43 PM by [Matsuda]
The year is back in the 1800s, not too long after the Belmont clan's disappearance.  Several groups have appeared trying to find new ways to destroy Dracula.  Enter Ecclesia, the group that claims to have a sure fire way to take down Dracula's evil.  This is the sun that's come to vanquish the horrible night.


(Graphics 8/10):

The graphics here have a better showing than the odd-looking character sprites of Portrait of Ruin.  Shanoa's sprites animate beautifully most of the time, though there's the occasional odd-appearing set of sprites (Shanoa's absorbing glyph animation startup, for one).  The enemies are mostly new environments, the tone of the world has a far less colorful appearance and the style remains consistent throughout the entire game.  It just looks like a Castlevania game should.  There are re-used sprites that snuck in, for example, the Medusa Heads whose only new entry into their 2-now-3 colored variety is a grayscaled head.  Most of the other new enemies use sprite rotation on their various limbs, even the Lord of Darkness himself uses these effects at one point.  The Glyphs I can't say the same, some are animated well, the others just use simple animation tricks to try and make themselves look important.


(Sound 7/10):


The music in this game is hit or miss, depending on what you think it should sound like.  While it's not close to the ambience-like tunes of some of Symphony of the Night's music, it carries the overall darker theme in it's tune.  The sound effects, some are carried from Portrait of Ruin & Dawn of Sorrow, some even go back as far as Symphony of the Night!  The voice acting in this one isn't half bad, either.  It also seems that Konami of America have finally found a consistent set of voice actors for the general characters.  The Japanese voices are included, though for a change I think they're inferior in quality.

I should note: There's also a set of Castlevania Game Boy-sounding tracks you can unlock and purchase in-game.


(Gameplay 8/10):

The new Glyph system is the highlight of Order of Ecclesia.  It's like the whip customization system from Circle of the Moon kind of combined with the Soul system from Aria of Sorrow.  You hold two Glyphs at a time, and can alternate between each for rapid strikes.  Or you can use a Glyph Union, which attempts to combine the two Glyphs (or 3, depending on Glyph combos) and 1 of 2 things can happen: 1. It works, or 2. Shanoa shoots out a gigantic cloud of dust.  An example of the 3 Glyph combo is the importance of Dominus, as there's 3 pieces to it.  Using certain Glyph combos can yield interesting results, such as a screen-filling explosion.

One of the things Castlevania fans might be happy about are the return of the Hearts.  In Portrait of Ruin, the Hearts were lowered in importance back to the MP of the character, where collecting a heart raised your MP.  Instead, Hearts behave like they did in the classic games, while MP is used for Glyphs.  Don't worry, MP regenerates quite quickly, and using any aura effects doesn't drain your MP since Shanoa regenerates it at a rate that would make Alucard jealous.

The last of the special gameplay modes is Albus Mode.  Sadly, Konami still hasn't learned their lesson and has not given us an actual second story, just whipped up a second playable character.  Albus himself plays a unique game unlike the traditional Belmont.  His primary weapon is, actually, a gun.  He's harder to use than Shanoa, but I'd at least like some explanation for Albus vs. Albus.  Heck, I'd rather Albus and Shanoa swapped storylines for the special mode so we could see what Albus would play like if he used Glyphs for ammunition.  The game developers WERE smart enough to program a set of platforms so Albus wouldn't be dependent on spamming Super Jump to make it over long patches of spikes or so.

Though like the rest, there is still the lingering problem of it getting too easy after a while or it being too easy with the right combination of weapons.  It all boils down to whether or not you can keep yourself alive and how fast you can kill the opponent.  Sometimes I can't tell if the game's actually using HP values or working on a time-based system.  There's plenty of new challenges and every boss has at the least new sprites, if not new concept entirely.

The traditional walking-to-every-area-in-the-game has been done away with for sure this time.  While in Portrait of Ruin you had to walk to a specific area to reach a painting, Order of Ecclesia gives you an overhead world map to which you can select areas.  This may be bad in the sense it detracts from the formula, but it's good that you can zip back to the Village, save and restore your HP, Hearts and such then rush back and continue your journey.  For those looking for a traditional castle to explore, the actual Castle part of this game isn't very expansive, as well as not very interesting, either.  You also have to aim for the good ending, which includes saving all of the villagers.  Thankfully, there's only but so many of them and doing their quests isn't necessary. 


(Story 9/10):

The Story opens with a introduction to Albus' research, detailing the Belmont clan's disappearance and what people have tried to do since then to fight Dracula.  After this introduction, we are introduced to Shanoa and her master Barlowe as she's going to absorb and use their final weapon against Dracula known as Dominus.  As Shanoa starts to absorb the three glyphs of Dominus, their proceedings are interrupted by Albus himself, who claims that -he- was intended to be the bearer and that Barlowe lied.  He inadvertently harms Shanoa and renounces his membership of Ecclesia, at the same time, taking all three pieces of Dominus.  Several weeks later, Shanoa's back on her feet and Barlowe sends her on a mission of reclaiming Dominus so that they can use it to destroy Dracula.

While it sounds like Castlevania is starting to take cues from RPG plot, the Story has an interesting but solid twist should you fulfill a certain condition, and we see characters twist and develop even if ever so slightly.  There's even a reference to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.

(Overall 8/10):

This latest Castlevania title is no exception: It's a great game.  Some might say it doesn't live up to Symphony of the Night.  Now, the only thing I can wonder is, "What's next?"  More non-Belmont adventures?  Then again, we've been going without Belmonts since Aria of Sorrow, so...