1Up: Order of Ecclesia is Best Castlevania Ever
- Scribbled on August 16th, 2008 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in First Take, Nintendo DS, Platformer, Podcasts, RPG
In the latest 1Up Yours podcast, Shane Bettenhausen is raving about the latest Castlevania game, Order of Ecclesia, saying, “It’s maybe… the best Castlevania ever.” Calling it a cross between Symphony of the Night and Simon’s Quest, he goes on to call it “amazing” and “the most RPG-like [of the Castlevania games].”
He states that it has the full equipment system of SotN and that it “really matters”, because the game’s difficulty is ramped up (”You will die a lot. You will die all the time…bosses are super-hard”), and you must have the right equipment with the right glyphs equipped, because some of the levels are “brutal”. Every area, according to Shane, has “3 or 4 levels of things to find”, and has a lot of replayability.
He goes on to reveal the plot: you have to rescue villagers who have been kidnapped, and shockingly, Dracula does not appear as a villian, much less the arch-villian. [Note: Actually, he does, Shane.] Every villager you rescue opens up subquests as well, singling out one subquest with an old lady who wants you to explore and draw pictures of things in the areas she sends you to, or record what enemies say, and so forth; the game does NOT, by the way, heavily incorporate the stylus in gameplay, to Shane’s relief.
Shane also praises the game’s technical aspects: better graphics (”more parallax”), better sound (tons more sound files including dialogue), and overall better gameplay. He also raves that not only is there “quality”, there’s quantity – it’s a long game. There’s also a perfect ending and a not-perfect ending; getting perfect requires multiple playthroughs. Overall, he raved, “It’s all action-RPG oriented Castlevania” at its best.
[UPDATE: Dracula is the main villian.]
August 16th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Good news, I’ve enjoyed the last few iteration of Castlevania on the DS but nothing has really wowed me, so now I’m looking forward to this even more!
Thank goodness it’s good too, as we have that terrible Wii fighting game coming out if both of them had been bad it could have killed the franchise!
August 19th, 2008 at 1:47 am
What a relief. I was a little upset by the lack of quality I percieved in Portrait of Ruin. It’s nice to hear that the difficulty has been ramped up a bit, and that there’s some gameplay throwbacks to Simon’s Quest. Konami seems to be pulling out a few more stops on this title than they have in the past, and we can all agree that’s a good thing.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:49 am
I’m not sure it’ll be “the best ever”, but it doesn’t hurt to be at least impressive to one fan. According to Shane, the real Castlevania freak at the 1Up offices still needs to evaluate it.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
meh, I think it’s gonna suck.
Everyone, why don’t you see that they just don’t include the whole gylph thing to make the game more enjoyable?
No, IGA’s intention with each and every feat, combat system, or levelling system included in any CastleVania is, and always was!,
to force the player to use and overuse it in order to commence with the game.
Believe me, kiddies:
You won’t be allowed any advances in the game without extensive levelling or monster farming orgies (cause you will need – for a lot of game situations – a certain relic, ultra-rare glyph drop or a high exp level to proceed).
While I understand that some of you are still going to college and have nothing else to do (esp. in American college, as compared to much tougher European school),
the more adult CastleVania fan will have neither the time to play in this manner nor any interest in enforced levelling/glyph collecting orgies.
The game’s gonna suck cause IGA wants a game to be a little bit on the tough side – and he achieves this through the enforcement of hour-long levelling instead of demanding arcade or jump’n'run skills.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
[...] is the best ever made for an FPS. One writer called Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia the “best Castlevania ever.” If you check the upcoming titles, Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Call of Duty: World at War, [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 2:48 am
“Order of Ecclesia is the best since Symphony of the Night” would fit better…
November 4th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Well, Mr. Belmont, our own Alucard has a review coming very soon. Keep an eye out for it.