Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

[CHOZO]

I don' know about everyone else, but I am finding this game very challenging. Anyone else finding it difficult? I miss having a whip. :(

[mailman187666]

it is very challenging but I really like it alot. I do wish they had a whip also but I got used to using different weapons with other releases. I'm kind of glad they upped the difficulty a little bit with this title. I welcome all the changes made in the game compared to the GBA and other DS titles. I think I like it better than portrait of ruin, but I liked dawn of sorrow more.

[Arcade_Ness]

The added difficulty and linear level progression reminds me of the old school CVs. The glyph system is similar to the soul system in DOS, but there's so much more to it. I really dig the dual wielding aspect. Also CRAB BATTLE!

[CHOZO]

CRAB BATTLE!

Hahahahaha, That's the part I'm actually on... Ugh, it broke my knife! ROFL

[jonnyutah]

castlevania64 owns all newscool castlevania's

[Sudo]

I liked the game a lot, it's the best Castlevania since SotN IMO. I finished it a couple days after it came out, and the higher difficulty was definitely welcome.

[super nes]

I finished it yesterday i think the final battle wasn't really challenging i beat it on my third try but i think that this was a great game im doing Albus mode right now and im really enjoying it. After im gonna try hard mode and see how it goes but anyone who hasn't tried it already should definitely pick it up.

[aclbandit]

castlevania64 owns all newscool castlevania's

My god, I hope that was a joke...

[heybtbm]

I'm just happy they abandoned the lame anime-inspired art direction. This game seems more in line with SotN and the GBA Castlevanias.

[2Dskillz]

I think reworking Rondo of Blood for the PSP gave Iga fresh insight into what people enjoy about this series, and the biproduct is an amazing DS incarnation.

[Sotenga]

As a massive CV addict, I naturally have to say that this game rules, and... well, it does. No, not just because I'm biased, but it is one of the better recent CV games. Perhaps for me, it's because the game eschews elaborate exploration for crushing challenge. Holy crap, this game is hard and I have died MANY times. Portrait of Ruin was fairly challenging, but OoE makes PoR look like a pie walk. The amount and strength of enemies that you encounter are often very difficult the first few times you pass through them, Shanoa seems to level up at a slower rate, and the boss fights are as impressive as they are difficult in this game. Side note to the bosses: They freaking rule in this game. Almost all of them are original in concept (though a couple of familiar faces are expected, and an unlikely enemy from a previous title gets upgraded to boss status here), but the sprites are all new and incredibly well-animated. Graphically, this is THE most advanced game yet, and while the music is a bit of an acquired taste first, it really sinks in as you play and I'd match it up as being about as great as PoR's music.

It's hard to say which game I like more among those two, but they're both incredibly solid, better than Dawn of Sorrow and all the GBA CV titles in my opinion. PoR MIGHT still be ahead, if not mostly for having four character modes (seven characters overall), However, for being one step closer in design and challenge to an "old-school vampire killing jam" (credit to Dire 51 for that term, I use it way too much nowadays LOL ), OoE is a fantastic title that I highly recommend.

If there's any fault with it, it's that it doesn't REALLY change the formula radically. I do acknowledge it feels somewhat different with the aforementioned boot up in difficulty and stratification of levels, but at its core, it's still another "Metroidvania," a term that I almost hesitate to use as it seems to have taken on a pejorative tone lately. Still, it's a solid formula that has become the model for most CV titles as of late, and I'd rather they'd stick to it than make every title like "Castlevania: Judgment" from here on out. I doubt that will happen, but if it does, I will put a stop to such madness personally.

[walrusmonger]

I don't find this game too hard yet, but it is fantastic.

[Oobgarm]

I'm quite happy with it. I really liked the last 2 DS outings, and this one is similar enough for me, yet does some things differently to breathe new life into the formula.

[calthaer]

I hate this stupid crab.

[super nes]

the crab was easy just stay to the left platforms and you'll be fine then when you see an elevater with spikes at the bottom go to it and press down and thats it.

[tomaitheous]

I hate this stupid crab.

If my 6 year old can beat the crab in the tower without any help, I'm sure you can do it too ;)

[kupomogli]

The game is alright, though I'm a bit disappointed with it. The CV series has went downhill since CoD(minus IGA remaking Rondo.)

[CHOZO]

I hate this stupid crab.

You have no idea how much I hate the crab...

[2Dskillz]

I hate this stupid crab.

I was stuck on the Crab for 2 days, I feel ya on that one. I have since made it much further and this is easily the best Castlevania since SotN.

[calthaer]

Oh, I beat the crab. It's totally do-able - but it's a pain in the neck. It's back to the old-school "memorize all the boss patterns" type of thing. Which was fine back in the NES days. Nowadays I like less trial-and-error and more think-fast-on-your-feet type of action.

[slip81]

I'll have to pick this up when I finally finish PoR, though I was never a stellar Castlevania player, I wonder if the difficulty will anger me. Is it harder than SOTN or any of the GBA incarnations?

[mailman187666]

I'll have to pick this up when I finally finish PoR, though I was never a stellar Castlevania player, I wonder if the difficulty will anger me. Is it harder than SOTN or any of the GBA incarnations?

I would have to say yes to this, but not because of exploration and stuff like that. Some enemies will hit you a lot if you aren't quick enough, or aren't ready for thier attack. There is also a bunch of spots, like in the old CV games, where an enemy can hit you off a ledge into a pit or spikes.

Also, for everyone who has gotten far in it, I feel like the game is too short, but I beat it without having everybody. Is there more to this than the quests and the levels available?

[Sotenga]

Also, for everyone who has gotten far in it, I feel like the game is too short, but I beat it without having everybody. Is there more to this than the quests and the levels available?

If you want the short answer: Yes. You still have a fair deal to go and will not see the rest of the game until you rescue all villagers and beat the boss at Mystery Manor. I'll elaborate on what to do there in onyx-colored "Spoilervision."

BIG SPOILERS IN BLACK TEXT

You get the bad ending if you beat Albus without saving all of the villagers first. Beat that boss again after finding all of them, and you'll find out that Albus is the good guy in this case and Barlowe is the not-very-good-at-all guy. You'll then return to Ecclesia to fight Barlowe, and after you kick his ass, Dracula's Castle rises and it serves as your final area. However, the castle's pretty big in this game (bigger than the base castle from Portrait) and makes up about an entire third of the entire game's main length. IIRC, It has eight separate areas five bosses; one of which is ridiculously easy and more of a gimmick fight than anything else, but the other four of which are serious and royal pains up the anus.

A note concerning one of the villagers: Almost everyone missed Irina their first time around, myself included. You'll want to look beneath the waterfall at Tristan Pass. There are three ledges, two with treasure chests. You want to land on the one ledge that does NOT have a chest and break the wall there. Coincidentally, Irina's children, Anna and Serge, are also difficult to locate. Both of them are hidden in Somnus Reef; Anna is hidden beneath the breakable wall of a six-square room that's out of the way of the main path from the entrance to exit of the reef. Serge is in a hidden room that's just before the exit; when you exit the ocean, jump across the boxes to the ledge on the way left and break the wall to find Serge.

Also, there's a breakable fixture above this hidden entrance. Destroy it to get the Vic Viper bonus item! Also, there's a Twinbee one and Konami Man one that can be discovered in breakable ceilings at Kalidus Channel and Minera Prison Island respectively. Heh.

[mailman187666]

thanks for that spoilervision explaination. I tried to be as vague as possible when I asked my question initially so it wouldn't spoil anything. I hope I didn't give anything away, you'd probably read something similar to what I wrote in a review. Then again the IGN review for it has spoiler warnings in it.

[ShinobiMan]

I finally beat this game last night. It was the first Castlevania title to literally take me a week to finish. The most recent efforts have all been completed within two days. I must say, this game is stellar. It is far and above POR and almost as great a DOS in my opinion. The throwback to the Castlevania's of old is a welcome return. It's really the best of both worlds.

I'd also like to point out that the fight with Dracula at the end was one of the hardest battles I've ever fought in a Castlevania game. I haven't felt this satisfied defeating an end boss in years!

[megasdkirby]

I don't want to read what others have posted, due to spoilers since I have not finished the game.

I love it, but it sure is harder, though not terribly hard...just a nice challenge.

Right now I am stuck...trying to defeat Albus (in the manor). I know this is the "fake ending", like in other Castlevania games. I can defeat him, but I don't know what to do next...I always end up dying while trying to do what the master says.

I WILL find out what to do...though I have no idea what to do next! :p

[Sotenga]

I'd also like to point out that the fight with Dracula at the end was one of the hardest battles I've ever fought in a Castlevania game. I haven't felt this satisfied defeating an end boss in years!

You're not kidding there, sire. More black-obscured SPOILERS, if I may...

Although I generally welcome (and expect) a hyper-awesome demon form of Dracula to conclude the epic finale, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they merely made his human form more powerful midway into the fight... and he actually freaking walks! His attacks here are just outright ruthless, particularly his trademark Soul Steal. Seriously, that shit's hard to dodge. Not to mention that he bitchslaps you for trying to cheat and jump over him or blasts you with big purple energy if you just try to fly over his attacks. What they did with Dracula here reminds me a lot of Super Castlevania 4: There, he only had a single gigantic lifebar and his latter phase was only slightly altered from his human form, but he was damn tough nonetheless. He took me... at least ten tries to finally beat? Perhaps more? While Eligor still wins my vote for most frustrating and difficult boss in the game, Drac's a close second. The finale against the big D is always a great challenge and pleasure to beat, but it REALLY felt satisfying in OoE to triumph over such a massive struggle!

[videogameking26]

Just finished it last night, big CV fan and thought this one was a great addition to the series...only thing that disappionted me was how easy the final boss was, yes the crab was a pain till you figure it out, then it was a piece of cake.

[DigitalSpace]

This somehow slipped under my radar (which is pretty unusual for a 2D Castlevania game to do). I'll probably get it soon.

[G-Boobie]

I didn't like it at all when I first popped it in, but it grew on me to the point where I'm comfortable saying that it's my favorite portable entry. I loved the Sorrow games, but they still felt like faded polaroids of SotN. Ecclesia feels just new enough to be exciting, and just close enough to past entries to be comfortable in that particular 'Castlevania' way.

Good job IGA! I'm glad OoE is such an excellent game, because I get the impression that you're gonna need all the Castlevania fan goodwill you can muster when Castlevania: Judgment drops...

[kupomogli]

Huge Castlevania fan, but the series has really been going downhill. PoR was poor and OoE was even worse.

For OoE, the game seems no more than just a button masher. Regardless who you're facing it's more or less stand there and switch between Y and X. Weapons become completely worthless in comparison to spells later in the game which is what ruins any replay value near the end of the game.

The worst part of the game is the fact that it's actually not difficult. Bosses and enemies are not hard at all, easy as hell infact. The reason some people have problems is the fact that they're layered with thousands of HP and all your attacks are all less than 50 throughout the game. It's just pathetic that killing a boss takes 20 minutes of monotonous attacking and dodging.

Then another thing I dislike are all the areas. OoE pretty much points out that the entire game is laid out from point A to point B. Look at almost every single area and aside from maybe one venture out of the way at small various points, every single area is just a straight line pretty much towards the exit or boss. If you look at the last area, quite awhile into the game(with Shanoa atleast) is nothing more than one straight line looping back and forth until you get to the first boss/save point/warp point.

Worst game in the series. I'd rather play Curse of Darkness or Vampire Killer(that's pretty sad.)

[Icarus Moonsight]

Good job IGA! I'm glad OoE is such an excellent game, because I get the impression that you're gonna need all the Castlevania fan goodwill you can muster when Castlevania: Judgment drops...

I have a feeling that you are very correct on this one.

This game rocks. I'd post a bit longer, but I'm gonna go play some more. :D

[FieryReign]

This one is fucking hard. The glyph system is dumb. Bout to give up on it, it's getting boring. Haven't finished a single one of these DS CVs.

This Iga dude is overrated. SOTN remains the best. Later games are just weak wannabes.

[kupomogli]

This one is fucking hard. The glyph system is dumb. Bout to give up on it, it's getting boring. Haven't finished a single one of these DS CVs.

This Iga dude is overrated. SOTN remains the best. Later games are just weak wannabes.

This one is only hard because the bosses are damage sponges that kill you in a few hits. OoE is pretty much a shmup, every boss has near undodgeable attacks unless you know the exact location you need to stand at during each attack, and if you know the bosses three attacks, you'll get through them without getting hit once(which you actually get a reward for doing that.) Watch the videos below and watch how you defeat them, you'll understand why I call them shmup bosses. Included a playlist with the second video so you can click on literally any boss and see that the entire list is just as much of a shmup boss as the two I've listed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkWnYGuEZ3E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKQ7-8l3Sk&list=PL7D9EB99C55E58B23&index=10

Aria of Sorrow on the Gameboy Advance and Dawn of Sorrow on the DS though are pretty good, you should go back to those two and try them out. I'd also state Harmony of Dissonance is also a bit disappointing, and Harmony of Despair is absolute trash, sure it's Castlevania, but it's as soulless as they come. Circle of the Moon is great, not by IGA, but is an exploration style with lots of platforming. Game gets a lot of hate, but Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate imo is another great game. Then obviously most of the classic Castlevania games are good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5sE0eqDdU&t=265s

I dropped $125 as I liked the Kickstarter, so I really hope Bloodstained is a great game, but as for IGA, I agree, he's overrated as sh*t. He had a partial responsibility for SotN and he's been mimicking it ever since, then once he created Aria of Sorrow, every game afterwards had enemy souls as your abilities in some form or another. He's pretty much been making the same game over and over with a different coat of paint. The best thing IGA has ever done imo though is perfect the remake of Rondo of Blood by fixing the balancing issues that Rondo had too easy on some parts, too hard on others, and some sections that had poor level design.

[Tanooki]

Great description and now that I think about it, it's probably why I couldn't enjoy Eccessia and stopped trying to finish it after awhile. The only one I really hated was the annoying buddy system game Portrait of Ruin as it did not work well. I Harmony on GBA I don't get the hate other than people ragging on the map as it could be confusing with 2 castles or the chiptune music which was a downgrade over Circle of the Moon (which is solid, just hard.) Aria/Dawn between GBA and DS are by far the best of the SOTN style.

[FieryReign]

This one is only hard because the bosses are damage sponges that kill you in a few hits. OoE is pretty much a shmup, every boss has near undodgeable attacks unless you know the exact location you need to stand at during each attack, and if you know the bosses three attacks, you'll get through them without getting hit once(which you actually get a reward for doing that.) Watch the videos below and watch how you defeat them, you'll understand why I call them shmup bosses. Included a playlist with the second video so you can click on literally any boss and see that the entire list is just as much of a shmup boss as the two I've listed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkWnYGuEZ3E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKQ7-8l3Sk&list=PL7D9EB99C55E58B23&index=10

Aria of Sorrow on the Gameboy Advance and Dawn of Sorrow on the DS though are pretty good, you should go back to those two and try them out. I'd also state Harmony of Dissonance is also a bit disappointing, and Harmony of Despair is absolute trash, sure it's Castlevania, but it's as soulless as they come. Circle of the Moon is great, not by IGA, but is an exploration style with lots of platforming. Game gets a lot of hate, but Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate imo is another great game. Then obviously most of the classic Castlevania games are good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5sE0eqDdU&t=265s

I dropped $125 as I liked the Kickstarter, so I really hope Bloodstained is a great game, but as for IGA, I agree, he's overrated as sh*t. He had a partial responsibility for SotN and he's been mimicking it ever since, then once he created Aria of Sorrow, every game afterwards had enemy souls as your abilities in some form or another. He's pretty much been making the same game over and over with a different coat of paint. The best thing IGA has ever done imo though is perfect the remake of Rondo of Blood by fixing the balancing issues that Rondo had too easy on some parts, too hard on others, and some sections that had poor level design.

Sponge ain't even the word. That goddamn crab boss was ridiculous. Standing in the same spot and chucking about 1000 axes at it. Then you have the Wallman boss where you literally stand by the door, press up, and he's done in 2.2 seconds. Piss poor design.

It's not just bosses either. I made it past the Wallman and got his glyph power. Tried to go back to a previous area with that power to tie up loose ends. Got thrashed in a long hallway of lizard swordsmen that have a completely undodgeable attack that takes huge chunks off your healthbar.

That's when I said "fuck that", shut it down, and deleted the garbage off my system.

And what's with all the useless armor/accessories? It's just dumb when you find a new piece of equipment only to find out it has +1 ATK and -3 DEF -2 CON. When did this turn into a goddamn tabletop rpg?

[celerystalker]

This thread has me interested in playing it again. I played through and beat it when it was new, and I remember beating a lot of the post game boss rush stuff, but I don't recall some of the issues here. I'm thinking it may be time for a replay before I recommend it again.

[BlastProcessing402]

OOE was way harder than any other GBA/DS metrovania. I got stuck at a boss at some point so put in some codes to get past, and it never really toned back down so I wound up playing the whole game with codes on. I can't recall the specific point that was hanging me up, as I played it when it first came out and didn't touch it after I "beat" it.

It really seemed like they were trying to go back to Nintendo hard, but man, I was really glad when SOTN and the like left that behind. Those were above my skill level when they were new, and 20-30 years didn't improve my skills any! LOL