With Ecclesia being the seventh (excluding Shadows) Castlevania action-adventure, we say goodbye to the terms 'Metroidvanias' or 'Castleroids' and focus on a series that has earned its right to stand by its own. And it seems Konami are set on mastering this adventuring gameplay style, which is fine by us, because with every release they just get better and better.
Better, yes. Best? No. Being up front, Order of Ecclesia is not the crown perfection of the series. There is much to be improved before we can even contemplate a word in the vein of perfection, but looking at what it achieves over past titles, Ecclesia is perhaps the best one yet. It’s the most progresive that Konami have ever been with the series and that alone is worth the experience for old and new fans alike.
Order of Ecclesia takes place after Symphony of the Night, a time were the Belmont Clan has vanished and several organisations are created to stop Dracula from being resurrected. The Order of Ecclesia is just one example, and has created magical Glyphs based on Dracula’s power to bind him from rising. Ecclesia’s star pupil, Shanoa, is chosen to become the vessel for the main Glyph “Dominus;” but before the ritual is completed, jealous colleague Albus steals the Glyph and flees setting up a narrative of search and retrieve.
Ahh, the great outdoors.
Ecclesia has succeeded in creating a fresher Castlevania experience via two elements. The first is finally introducing many new enemies and different types of animation. Say goodbye to some of those ten year old recycled sprites from the Symphony days, and welcome more new additions to the enemy roster then any previous Castlevania title to date. The second is stepping up the overall difficulty. It’s not impossible; far from it actually, but some parts of the game do bring back nostalgic memories of challenging gameplay, which is definitely one of the steps in the right direction.
Expanding from Potrait of Ruin’s environmental level shake ups, Order of Ecclesia introduces an over-world map system where players do not begin their journey at a castle. Instead you traverse through map locations, which on completion will reveal a new area to visit.Ecclesia is the closest Castlevania game to mimic the NES’s Simon’s Quest, with the variety of locations and even an inclusion of a town-like village.
Wygol village becomes a place of frequent visits, as Albus has imprisoned villagers and if freed by the player, will offer services. When we say services we actually mean do their dirty work, with most offering a series of quests carrying certain rewards; those playing Potrait of Ruin’s mission system should be familiar with this. Some of them are really quite well executed, others not so much, but overall it’s a wonderful stride in expanding the role-playing presence in the game.
The level design is also a notch up from past titles, with each map location falling into one of two archetypes - the ‘action-adventure’ exploration type ones, or classic Castlevania, linear, endurance ones. The latter are a great challenging experience most fans will appreciate and bring back memories from the earlier games in the series. You simply must get from point A to point B, but despite sounding painless, they can be tough - the segment Misty Forest Road can attest to perhaps being the most strenuous level in any recent Castlevania game. The exploration maps are a similar affair that reek of familiarity, though on the whole are slightly better structured because they seem tighter and more focused. Because of the multiple settings to explore, progression doesn't feel quite as artificial. There are less moments where you will have to backtrack after gaining a specific new ability (like increased jumping or flying) and due to the smaller level sizes, it's actually refreshing in some ways that you are continually pushed forward with a more action-orientated stimilus. Warp gates in these map locations are back, allowing for instant travel between rooms and it’s where you will encounter many of the game’s boss fights.
Google Earth during Beta testing.
Counting the many boss encounters over the course of the game, there is a mix of plainly sufficient to outstanding and frantic. Without giving away too much, one fantastic battle takes place in an elevator shaft involving multiple attack patterns and phases. With the damage they can output now increased, the challenge rises, meaning learning attack patterns has never been more crucial. This difficulty helps prolong the length of the game; but as it stands, Ecclesia is the longest DS outing yet, without mentioning the tacked on Wi-Fi multiplayer boss and course runs.
Glyphs are the new addition in Ecclesia, and Shanoa can absorb them in a Kirby-like manner. They come in a few different categories that grant abilities, attacks and increase attributes. MP becomes the name of the game, as it not only used in various spell casting, but also for ordinary weapon attacks. Traditional weapon equipping is gone, in favour for the Glyphs, which act as your various arsenal of weaponry. Because of this change, MP continually regenerates at a steady pace unlike past titles, forcing a need for good micro management of attacks or you will find it all depleted leaving you momentarily defenceless.
Just like previous Castlevania titles, there are several weapon varieties such as swords, axes and spears with different attack speeds and animations. Unfortunately, the way the Glyph system works, there is only a few tiers of each weapon type to be found, which feels limited compared to say Dawn of Sorrow and its more intriguing weapon upgrade system.
Spells and abilities will also be found in Glyph for as well, scattered throughout the game world. Some will be just waiting to be taken; others will only appear among the remnants of defeated enemies. Some special types of Glyphs which can be found later in the game, even allow for interesting character transformations, though when used do tend to sap away some of the described challenge featured in Ecclesia. Hearts are again collected from candles and similar objects but do not refill MP; rather they are used for specific special attacks which are gained from the combination of two of the aforementioned Glyphs. Overall however, the system feels quite messy, or more like a twisted hybrid of past systems rolled into one. It works, but at the same time you can’t help but think something better could have been implemented; it doesn't particular click with you like Aria's and Dawn's soul system.
We hope Shanoa isn't compensating for something.
As you play through the game, Ecclesia flaunts a lot of little things that just make the overall gaming experience that much more enjoyable. For example, you can quick swap abilities (Glyphs) on the fly, having up to three different configuration sets. Chests replace most of the items you would have been found randomly littered in past titles, giving a more logical context to their existence. Some of the set pieces are visually stunning and the animation is better then ever, with Shanoa's double jump especially pleasurable to watch time after time. Without going too much into the past glory of musical scores featured in the Castlevania series, Ecclesia stands with the best of them; something you'll truly want headphones to fully appreciate. Also there is little setting regurgitation, so after achieving the series' standard false-ending, you can rejoice to a continued experience which almost feels like the start of a new adventure.
And then there are the things that make you realise there is still a good room for improvement. While Konami has attempted to do a better job with item culling, you'll still be bombarded with a massive clutter of stat inducing equipment. In the end you'll mostly just equip what gives you the most increased 'blue' statistics overall, because the RPG elements in this regard, mostly don't justify their convoluted existence. Perhaps the biggest disappointment similar to the past action-adventure titles, is Ecclesia is easy to abuse from a gameplay point of view. With the right equipment and Glyph configurations all challenge goes out the window; even the last encounter in the game can be over in mere seconds with the right combinations.
It isn't a rare instance as well; if you know the right areas and have the right items, gold can be farmed to ridiculous amounts in minutes, allowing you in turn to stock up on health potions from the village shop to spam during boss encounters. Sure player digression and ethical gameplay codes of honour do make this point irrelevant; yet the irony still reminds that Konami in increasing the overall difficulty, has still left in these glaring imbalances and easily abused situations.
No, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia isn’t the best 'action-adventure' Castlevania title; but what it does in trying to captivate the freshness of the genre is admirable and just makes things plain more enjoyable. You know Konami were trying really hard to listen this time around, and a lot of it shows throughout the total presentation of Ecclesia. Yet it still falls a few marks short of an 'action-adventure' masterpiece, which brings back the vibe Symphony of the Night did when it was first released. Perhaps the most exciting prospect is that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has shown that it is possible to continually improve in the series, meaning the anticipation for the next will almost certainly be worth the wait.
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