Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

A week ago, I wrote that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was my favorite Castlevania of all time. But since I just finished Konami's third DS Castlevania, Order of Ecclesia, I may rethink that position.

There's a lot to like about Ecclesia, especially in light of the complaints of the past few games in the series. Many people thought the Sorrow games were quite easy, and made easier when the player ground up their levels. This is true; the enemies aren't necessarily designed to kill Soma easily - they are instead designed to chip away at his health over a long time, as Soma makes his way from save point to save point. And while this still happens a bit in Ecclesia, Konami decided to make the game a bit harder. If you don't play skillfully, or you play carelessly, you will die. It is as simple as that. There are a few enemies in the game that I avoid at all costs, if I can - the Cave Troll, relatively harmless in other games in the series, can kill you if you get caught in its electric attack - you can't move and it drains 30 HP every half second for about five seconds. Three hundred health is just about how much you'll have when you first encounter these guys. In past games in the series, the only time I would die would be on bosses - here, I died all the time. But it was very rarely due to some cheap hits - the Blade Master enemy is incredibly cheap, in my opinion - it was almost always due to poor playing on my part.

In addition to skillful playing being a necessity, the player must take into account enemy typing. Gone are the days when the player need only use one type of weapon - you must constantly shuffle around your Glyphs to be equipped for the right situation. See a skeleton enemy? Get your mace glyphs ready, because your swords aren't going to do much damage to them. See a rock enemy? Get a hammer out! And so on. The game lets you switch between three sets of Glyphs on the fly, and I loved having to switch weapons twice in one room to defeat all the enemies. Makes every room count, really.

One of the things I didn't like about the game the first time I played it two years ago was how the map was split into different areas. There's a town, there's a Monastery, there's mountains, a Lighthouse, etc. I wanted them to put all of that in one map - and I suppose they could, but honestly I think what they did turned out better. Each map flows into the next, which means when you enter the swamp, it is a straight shot from one end to the other, fighting enemies in pools of fetid water the whole way. When you get to the other side of the swamp, you get to a new area. Once you've played through an area once and found a new exit, you don't have to go through that area every time - you just pick the place you want to go to from the map menu. You can always go back if you like. All of this makes the world seem natural because Konami wasn't restricted to forcing all their level designs into one big map.

As you play through the early game, you sometimes encounter villagers you can save. Once you save them, they go back to the village, and will hand out quests to you. Some are easier than others, of course, and many of them unlock more items to buy in the shop. They provide a nice diversion from the main quest, if you're inclined to do them. They also provide some respite from the tough boss fights, if you'd rather take a break from trying to beat them.

The boss fights are likely my favorite thing about Order of Ecclesia - they may be the best in the series. They are incredibly well designed, and almost none of them exploit cheap tactics. They all have patterns that the player can learn, and some sort of weapon weakness the player can try to exploit. I was never disheartened whenever I got to a boss, which is new for a Castlevania game for me - they are all beatable, all at whatever level you happen to stumble across them. Sure, if you have more levels, you can take a bit more damage and deal a bit more, but if you play smartly, you will beat the boss.

I won't spoil the Dracula fight, but I will say this: he will not let you jump over him in his first form. You cannot exploit that age old tactic of getting him to start his attack animation, jumping behind him, and wailing on his head until he teleports. He quickly slaps you down with his cape, and it does a bunch of damage. The first time he did that to me, I smiled. Dracula wasn't going to put up with my bullshit this time. Overall, it's a fairly challenging fight, but he, like all the other bosses in the game, is fair and beatable.

I'm really not sure whether I like Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia more. They both have their benefits... Ecclesia is very streamlined, tough, and largely a new experience for Castlevania, whereas Dawn takes the format of the Symphony of the Night type of game and almost perfects it. I definitely know that Dawn and Ecclesia are my two favorite games in the series, at least.

God, I love the DS.