Doctor Jaeger
10-13-2010, 01:35 PM
I said this would be a weekly deal, but while i'm stuck waiting for my order to be made in the Russian deli, i might as well post a new one while i'm stuck wandering the streets of New York City.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Developer: Konami
System: DS
Plot: Set a while after the events of Symphony of the Night, out of humility because of what happened to Richter Belmont, the Belmont clan vanishes into the shadows, not appearing to help combat the reappearance of dark creatures. Mankind is forced to find new ways of combating these creatures using any weapon or magic they can create.
Enter the organization Ecclesia (At least it's called an organization, you only ever see three members). Ecclesia fights these creatures by converting the ambient magics of the world into magical runes called glyphs, enabling people with only a basic mastery of magic to use a variety of advanced and powerful spells. Shanoa, your player character, is one of Ecclesia's best, capable of absorbing glyphs into her own body and letting any previously absorbed glyph appear on her body like a tattoo, letting her use the magic at any time. Shanoa was selected to bear the three Dominus glyphs, Ecclesia's ultimate weapons which would be able to destroy a crystal containing Dracula's soul. When Shanoa attempts to take on the glyphs, another member of Ecclesia named Albus interrupts and steals Dominus, the interruption of the ritual causes Shanoa to lose her memories and emotions. Forced to train her anew, the leader of Ecclesia, Barlowe, sends Shanoa on a new quest to find Albus and reclaim the Dominus Glyph.
Gameplay: Shanoa can use three glyphs at a time, one on either arm and one on her back. Glyphs equipped to the arms are weapons and spells used for offensive purposes while glyphs attatched to the back are enchantments which enable you to do a variety of things such as move at extreme speeds, summoning minions, or sprout wings. Even basic attacks cost magic, but fortunately Shanoa's magic regenerates at an incredible rate. Or, if you run out of magic, you can use a Glyph Union which drains heart points but does massive damage based on what you have equipped. Equipping a shield glyph to both arms and using the union will make you invincible for a breif moment, using two bow glyphs will make it rain arrows, or you can combine hammer glyphs and use Death's Scythe with the Glyph Union. The variety isn't limited there, certain magics can be combined to create special effects in the union. Glyphs only need to be absorbed once to equip, but absorbing multiple versions of the same glyph (Namely summoning glyphs) will cause the spell to level up.
True to the series, this is a 2D platformer with a surprisingly fast pace and a surprising level of skill needed. Though the level of strategy needed is relatively low against normal enemies, a high level of technique is needed as enemies are plentiful and do large amounts of damage. This ranges from classic monsters such as skeletons, zombies, werewolves, and the Frankenstein Monster, but also includes a few interesting additions such as demons from a variety of mythologies. Many bosses require you to use the environment to defeat, including one boss who is actually invincible and can only be killed by crushing him beneath an elevator and another who creates tidal waves that can actually be a one-hit-kill if you haven't been collecting power-ups and armor upgrades. The main quest is highly involved, but exploration is a must as it is literally impossible to beat the game unless you complete a few subquests.
The environments vary, you actually have a map view that can let you visit areas you've cleared before or skip straight to areas that you have unlocked so exploration doesn't always feel like a chore. But if you're like me, you'll try to find 100% of everything. The subquests range from "Would you kindly murder so many creatures," "Would you collect a few rare items?" "Would you find missing so-and-so?" and you are always rewarded for them with new items and sometimes even freebies. You buy your equipment and supplies from Wygol Village, though part of beating the game is rescuing the Wygol Villagers. Some you find easily as they are in ares you have to go through, others you need to go out of your way to look for. Don't worry, you're never more than five minutes away from your next bit of slaughter. Though the gameplay is definitely an acquired taste, for people who like these side-scrolling non-turn based RPGs, Order of Ecclessia a lot of fun.
Sound and Voice: Castlevania, even in the days of the NES, has always been a franchise famous for it's soundtracks. Safe to say, Order of Ecclesia is no exception as even after listening to the tune for half-an-hour, you never really get tired of their choice of music. At least that's how i feel. For a handheld game the variety in sound-effects is impressive, and the voice acting is pretty good, and you are free to swap from Japanese to English voice tracks at any time. If i had to make a complaint, it would have to be the low variety of sounds from enemy monsters, but weigh this against the limited processing power of handheld systems and it is a mild complaint.
Graphics: Surprisingly detailed for a handheld game. The monster design, design of the human characters, and of course the obligatory appearance by the true lord of darkness (The Sith and Death Eaters couldn't even begin to defeat Dracula) are all very impressive.
Programming: Though i haven't found any noticable glitches, the animation of some glyphs can cause frame rate issues. This can get annoying in some spots, but is a mild complaint.
Difficulty: Now while the game isn't riddled with environmental hazards that kill you instantly like the Mega Man Zero series (the only Mega Man game fast paced enough to be compared to this one), the large number of enemies, high damage they inflict, scarcity of recovery items and variety of attacks makes this essentially the Devil May Cry of side-scrollers. Definitely not a game for the casual as it is time consuming, technical, and even to proficient gamers highly difficult.
Fianl Overview: It takes Konami to make a character who had her emotions almost completely lost enjoyable. Though technically she is supposed to be completely emotionless, traces of regret and desperation still shine through. This is an almost perfected Aria of Sorrow system, and a must own for fans of the trilogy. Not quite Symphony of the Night grade, but an excellent game nonetheless.
My Rating: 9/10
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Developer: Konami
System: DS
Plot: Set a while after the events of Symphony of the Night, out of humility because of what happened to Richter Belmont, the Belmont clan vanishes into the shadows, not appearing to help combat the reappearance of dark creatures. Mankind is forced to find new ways of combating these creatures using any weapon or magic they can create.
Enter the organization Ecclesia (At least it's called an organization, you only ever see three members). Ecclesia fights these creatures by converting the ambient magics of the world into magical runes called glyphs, enabling people with only a basic mastery of magic to use a variety of advanced and powerful spells. Shanoa, your player character, is one of Ecclesia's best, capable of absorbing glyphs into her own body and letting any previously absorbed glyph appear on her body like a tattoo, letting her use the magic at any time. Shanoa was selected to bear the three Dominus glyphs, Ecclesia's ultimate weapons which would be able to destroy a crystal containing Dracula's soul. When Shanoa attempts to take on the glyphs, another member of Ecclesia named Albus interrupts and steals Dominus, the interruption of the ritual causes Shanoa to lose her memories and emotions. Forced to train her anew, the leader of Ecclesia, Barlowe, sends Shanoa on a new quest to find Albus and reclaim the Dominus Glyph.
Gameplay: Shanoa can use three glyphs at a time, one on either arm and one on her back. Glyphs equipped to the arms are weapons and spells used for offensive purposes while glyphs attatched to the back are enchantments which enable you to do a variety of things such as move at extreme speeds, summoning minions, or sprout wings. Even basic attacks cost magic, but fortunately Shanoa's magic regenerates at an incredible rate. Or, if you run out of magic, you can use a Glyph Union which drains heart points but does massive damage based on what you have equipped. Equipping a shield glyph to both arms and using the union will make you invincible for a breif moment, using two bow glyphs will make it rain arrows, or you can combine hammer glyphs and use Death's Scythe with the Glyph Union. The variety isn't limited there, certain magics can be combined to create special effects in the union. Glyphs only need to be absorbed once to equip, but absorbing multiple versions of the same glyph (Namely summoning glyphs) will cause the spell to level up.
True to the series, this is a 2D platformer with a surprisingly fast pace and a surprising level of skill needed. Though the level of strategy needed is relatively low against normal enemies, a high level of technique is needed as enemies are plentiful and do large amounts of damage. This ranges from classic monsters such as skeletons, zombies, werewolves, and the Frankenstein Monster, but also includes a few interesting additions such as demons from a variety of mythologies. Many bosses require you to use the environment to defeat, including one boss who is actually invincible and can only be killed by crushing him beneath an elevator and another who creates tidal waves that can actually be a one-hit-kill if you haven't been collecting power-ups and armor upgrades. The main quest is highly involved, but exploration is a must as it is literally impossible to beat the game unless you complete a few subquests.
The environments vary, you actually have a map view that can let you visit areas you've cleared before or skip straight to areas that you have unlocked so exploration doesn't always feel like a chore. But if you're like me, you'll try to find 100% of everything. The subquests range from "Would you kindly murder so many creatures," "Would you collect a few rare items?" "Would you find missing so-and-so?" and you are always rewarded for them with new items and sometimes even freebies. You buy your equipment and supplies from Wygol Village, though part of beating the game is rescuing the Wygol Villagers. Some you find easily as they are in ares you have to go through, others you need to go out of your way to look for. Don't worry, you're never more than five minutes away from your next bit of slaughter. Though the gameplay is definitely an acquired taste, for people who like these side-scrolling non-turn based RPGs, Order of Ecclessia a lot of fun.
Sound and Voice: Castlevania, even in the days of the NES, has always been a franchise famous for it's soundtracks. Safe to say, Order of Ecclesia is no exception as even after listening to the tune for half-an-hour, you never really get tired of their choice of music. At least that's how i feel. For a handheld game the variety in sound-effects is impressive, and the voice acting is pretty good, and you are free to swap from Japanese to English voice tracks at any time. If i had to make a complaint, it would have to be the low variety of sounds from enemy monsters, but weigh this against the limited processing power of handheld systems and it is a mild complaint.
Graphics: Surprisingly detailed for a handheld game. The monster design, design of the human characters, and of course the obligatory appearance by the true lord of darkness (The Sith and Death Eaters couldn't even begin to defeat Dracula) are all very impressive.
Programming: Though i haven't found any noticable glitches, the animation of some glyphs can cause frame rate issues. This can get annoying in some spots, but is a mild complaint.
Difficulty: Now while the game isn't riddled with environmental hazards that kill you instantly like the Mega Man Zero series (the only Mega Man game fast paced enough to be compared to this one), the large number of enemies, high damage they inflict, scarcity of recovery items and variety of attacks makes this essentially the Devil May Cry of side-scrollers. Definitely not a game for the casual as it is time consuming, technical, and even to proficient gamers highly difficult.
Fianl Overview: It takes Konami to make a character who had her emotions almost completely lost enjoyable. Though technically she is supposed to be completely emotionless, traces of regret and desperation still shine through. This is an almost perfected Aria of Sorrow system, and a must own for fans of the trilogy. Not quite Symphony of the Night grade, but an excellent game nonetheless.
My Rating: 9/10