Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Review

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Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Review

Mon, Dec 8, 2008

When a video game series has churned out enough titles to set a Guinness World Record, you can bet that not all of them are god's gift to gamers. For Konami's Castlevania, that's certainly been the case -- series producer Koji Igarashi's every attempt to drag Dracula into the third dimension has been critically panned, and the most recent outing, Castlevania Judgment, received one of the lowest scores we've yet awarded in a review last week.

However, there has been one place, year after year, where the Castlevania franchise has struck solid gold: handhelds. Since 2001's Circle of the Moon on Game Boy Advance, every portable Castlevania title has not only been a solid entry in the series, but also a defining moment for the very system that hosts it; a must-play game on the order of a Mario, a Metal Gear, a Metroid.

Does Order of Ecclesia stand tall beside its predecessors? Or will this be the game that finally breaks Konami's wondrous streak?

That all depends on who you ask -- because while this latest installment has some of the most enjoyable, rewarding gameplay in the series, it does diverge somewhat from the norm.

Plotting a Course

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is the story of Shanoa, a female student of a secret organization busy prepping for Dracula's eventual return by practicing special magical powers called Glyphs -- the most potent of which, "Dominus," is based on Dracula's own power. When another member, Albus, steals Dominus and begins kidnapping the residents of a local village, the player is tasked with scouring the countryside and retrieving both Glyph and wayward student unharmed.

"Now, Sean," you, the astute Castlevania fan might say, "Say no more. I know what happens next -- as Shanoa, the series first canonical female star, chases Albus through Dracula's castle and discovers he is the reincarnation of Dracula, she will obviously be torn between killing her fellow and destroying the evil lord."

"That's just how these things play out," you might add.

But you'd be totally wrong, because through a strange twist of fate, Shanoa has no worrysome emotions (or sadly, femininity) to stop her from carrying out her mission... and believe it or not, you'll be playing many an hour before you so much as see a castle in this Castlevania.

Castleroid/Metroidvania No More

Non-linear exploration has long been one of the hallmarks of the Castlevania series. Players typically plumb the depths of a gigantic castle at their whim, only occasionally stopped by obstacles which require the use of a special power (a la Metroid) to get past. For the first half of the game, however, Order of Ecclesia does away with this formula altogether by providing Shanoa with a specific story-based mission, and having her traverse different parts of the unfriendly, demon-infested countryside from one side to the other to complete it.

Though there is a certain amount of exploration that will occur as Shanoa travels from point A to point B -- and there are some very compelling reasons to leave no stone unturned -- for the most part progression in Ecclesia is simply a matter of slicing through everything in your path.

Thankfully, Shanoa has something of a talent for destruction -- and combat is where Order of Ecclesia excels.

The Belmonts have traditionally wielded whips and spells. Nathan Graves taught us how to combine them into spectacular Soma Cruz added medieval weaponry and the power of souls, and Jonathan and Charlotte the importance of lending a second hand. But by condensing nearly all the unique combat systems used in prior Castlevania titles into Order of Ecclesia's Glyphs, Igarashi and company have made Shanoa a force to be reckoned with.

Like the soul system in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, Glyphs are collected one by one as you progress through the game; but unlike those earlier titles, they aren't just passive status boosters and projectile attacks. Glyphs form all of Shanoa's weaponry. From bursts of flame to bolts of lightning, swords and spears made of pure magic to AI-controlled familiars, every glyph is a spell that consumes magic points. In the spirit of Portrait of Ruin, you can assign one to each hand, and then alternate, firing off deadly spells with abandon -- or experiment, combining certain combinations of two Glyphs (using hearts) to create some truly devastating attacks. While we weren't particularly impressed with the weapon progression system -- against standard enemies, newer spells are almost always stronger -- and slightly disappointed that not every enemy has a spell to obtain, they are visually and functionally quite impressive.

But despite Shanoa's hefty arsenal, the foes in Ecclesia are anything but pushovers -- they're some of the strongest in the series, and there are often enough demons on screen at one time that when all parties are trading fire, the DS' framerate often drops significantly. Add this to the fact that Shanoa is particularly vulnerable to curses and poison (reliant on mana and without the constitution of a Belmont, both finally mean something in Ecclesia), and enemy resistance to certain types of magic, and you have a game where you will die, a lot, regardless of your skills. According to my in-game timer, it took me 8.5 hours to trek through the entirety of Ecclesia -- but the thing is, this timer only counts when you're actively progressing through the game, not dying and restarting from the last save point. In reality, I spent at least twice that.

And a good portion of that time was spent challenging the game's brilliant bosses.

Like most every other Castlevania in recent memory, Ecclesia has a number of particularly nasty creatures, lurking behind enchanted doors, that must be defeated to progress. But unlike most others, these aren't button-mashing affairs where you can soak up attacks and then counter at predetermined intervals.

Because the boss AI doesn't rely on set patterns, but rather your own-onscreen position, their current HP, and a random element, these fights always feel fair... and because you must constantly be on your toes and change up tactics to survive the truly devastating blows of crashing waves and giant arrows, they are also mad, frenetic, down-to-the-wire fun.

But though Ecclesia's hordes make for quite the challenge, a few quirks of Ecclesia's mostly linear game progression can (optionally) take away the sting. Remember those kidnapped villagers? Assuming you take the trouble to rescue them, they dwell in a central village that you can warp to at any time using an easy-to-acquire item called a magical ticket -- or for that matter, from anywhere else on the world map. Featuring a save point, a pot stocked with infinite hearts, a shop, and villagers for whom you can complete a host of optional quests in exchange for rare and unique items, the village can become a nexus to which you can return often, Diablo-style, bearing a load of items to trade and simply, unobtrusively grinding your way to an easier game...

...or just in a pinch when you need to heal, if you don't mind a bit of backtracking in exchange for an unpunctured hide.

Quench Your Thirst for Portable Beauty

As is par for the course with Castlevania titles, the production values of Ecclesia are superb, with beautifully animated character sprites and plenty of gorgeous enemy deaths wherever you look -- and, here and there, some truly breathtaking backgrounds.

Though recent Castlevania games have played with the notion of 3D -- Portrait of Ruin famously making a few of the enemies polygonal for no apparent reason -- backdrops like the above, with a 3D ship rocking in the background and sending waves towards the player that actually raise the level of the nearby ocean and its floating boxes are sights you won't soon forget, and I hope that future games in the series embrace this style.

Music is typical catchy Castlevania fare that you won't even think about unless you're looking for it, which as many composers will tell you, is the entire point.

And when it comes to extras, Konami pulled out all the stops. CDs of classic Castlevania songs are hidden around the world, and can be activated in the middle of the game for a change of pace. Every boss you defeat without taking damage drops a collectible medal. There's an optional dungeon with an extra boss. The game includes the full Japanese voiceover for attacks and one-liners, and you can switch at any time. The game supports the DS' virtual surround sound. There's an online mode where you race fellow Ecclesia owners to the finish of a miniature dungeon, scored by time, enemies defeated and damage taken. You can trade items online. And of course, when beaten, the game unlocks the usual collection of extra modes with which you can prolong your experience.

The Only Thing Missing

But if you've yet skipped to the bottom of this review, you'll see that Order of Ecclesia didn't quite get our coveted five-star award. Why is that, with all it has to offer? It's just that Ecclesia simply doesn't have the addictive qualities that have long driven the series. There was a story in Harmony of Dissonance, but the true goal of the game was to achieve 200% -- to explore every inch of the gigantic castle and discover all its secrets. There was a story in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, but the real objective was to collect, Pokemon-style, every enemy soul to try out the diverse set of powers they conferred. There was a story in Portrait of Ruin, but the fun part was traversing every painting and seeing just how freakish the alternate worlds could become.

When I finished the story in Order of Ecclesia, however, having already been guided through 90% of the world and collected most every Glyph as a matter of course, I simply sampled the extras, shut off my DS and was done.

Castlevania fans will surely want to add this to their collection, but for all others, a simple playthrough is enough. But don't get me wrong -- that playthrough comes highly recommended.