Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia Review

Man. I love this game. It’s that a spoiler? I spoiled it. I love this game.

After the events of Symphony Of The Night and before the events of Bloodlines the Belmont clan has seemingly vanished. Other groups and individuals have stepped up to fill that void. One of those groups is the Order Of Ecclesia. This order has been researching the use of magical glyphs to use against the evil of the world.

The two most promising students of the order are Shanoa and Albus. Both have the potential to use the Dominus glyphs which Barlowe, the head of the order, have determined will seal Dracula’s power forever. Albus, though talented, does not have the skills to use the glyphs the way Shanoa can.

When the time comes for the ritual, Albus crashes the party and steals the power of the glyphs before the ceremony can be completed. This leaves Shanoa without her emotions and memories. Essentially an empty shell, Shanoa is sent by Barlowe to track down Albus, retrieve the glyphs, and complete the ritual.

Unlike some of the other games that take place either stage by stage or inside a singular location like a castle, Ecclesia takes place in the region around Wygol Village. Shanoa will visit different locations like forests, caves, haunted mansions, a light house, underwater, and several others. She is tasked with the elder of Wygol Village to find and rescue all the villagers and help them with their worries. That introduces a quest system to the game. They are not required to complete the game, but maybe something good will happen if you do help everyone.

The villagers will, depending on how much you help them, add things to be sold to the store such as medicines, accessories, and armor.

The game plays like an Action RPG. You’ve got equipment to manage, items to consume, abilities to unlock, and weapons and spells to find. It’s also harder than the other two games on the system. Dawn is a little easy and Portrait has a neat gimmick but it’s a little easy I think. I appreciate the challenge of this game very much.

Weapons and spells in this game are in the form on glyphs. Shanoa can “hold” a glyph in each hand and can combo her attacks between the two. Glyphs can be paired and used in a fusion attack, a stronger attack that combines the two glyphs she was equipped. These attacks take hearts and different combinations do different things. It’s a neat system, I like it.

The graphics in this game, I think, are excellent. I love the art style used for the characters, it’s exactly how I think Dawn of Sorrow should have looked. The character designs are great, the enemies are good, the backgrounds and area designs are great. Some of the bosses are REALLY well done. It’s a joy to look at and experience.

The music is also excellent. Konami and all them did an amazing job with the DS games, for real. Some of the traditional tracks are back in new renditions that are great and some of the original music is really damned good as well. Did I mention that I like this game?

I think of all three of the DS games I like this one the most. I think the story is excellent (but the ending still kind of sucks), the gameplay is great, the graphics are great, the music is great. It’s great. You’re great. I’m pretty great. Everything’s great.

Go play this game.