Reviews

Castlevania has gone downhill of late. It's not that Dracula and I have got on well in the past anyway, as my experience with venturing in to the vampire's gothic world is frequent deaths and utter frustration. I am one to recognise a quality game though, and while Castlevania has lost form over the years, it seems the third outing on the DS has rediscovered what made it great in the first place, thus delivering a somewhat challenging and extremely fun Action-Adventure-Horror-2D-Platform-RPG! (...and breathe - Ed)

Ultimately the Castlevania plots revolve around same objective: Defeat the evil Count Dracula, and Order of Ecclesia is no exception. As Shanoa, you are the most promising member of Ecclesia, the only order deemed capable of taking on the man himself. When a ritual doesn't go to plan and an Order member steals the significant Glyphs, it's up to Shanoa to find him and take back what's theirs. Not exactly original or stimulating, but it's an excuse to travel from village to woods to castles disposing of ghouls and ghosts with your newly found Glyphs.

It's always about the size of the sword, isn't it?

Glyphs play a major role in fighting and puzzling your way through the eerie locations. They come in the form of weapons and magic, replacing the trusty whip that appeared in all the previous instalments. Whip fans shouldn't panic, as there's several worthy replacements, including hammers and swords amongst many other unique inclusions. You can acquire Glyphs by defeating enemies and mastering challenges, and much like Samus Aran's space suit in the Metroid series, the upgrades can allow you to enter new areas and generally become a tougher vampire slayer. Two Glyphs can be equipped at a time, alternating between X and Y to use and combining the two together gives you the ability to perform special attacks. It is fun trying out different combinations to suit your killer needs and the hardcore fans will soon forget about the whip.

Essentially Ecclesia is a traditional 2D platform adventure, with added RPG elements. The combat is standard button tapping at oncoming foes, but the RPG in the game allows you to equip armour and cast spells, also giving you the ability to level up to increase your stats. With a mixed variety of different monsters coming at you from every angle, one thing is certain - You will die a lot. This is even more so during the unforgiving boss encounters. Some people may thrive on the challenge, but for those who loathe the epic certain death battles, levelling up can increase your chance of taking out the beasts more easily, but only if you're prepared to grind your way up the levelling ranks. The RPG elements surprisingly work well attached to an adventure game, and for one so challenging it certainly balances out the difficulty.

You're not dreaming now, dear.

Ecclesia has the look of any other Castlevania game. The locations will be fairly familiar to those who have ventured into Dracula's world before and as expected the monster art design is still the stuff of pure nightmares, from floating horse heads, banshees, zombies and skeletons to name just a few of the freaks that'll be looking for your blood. The bosses each have their own terrifying look, with deafening screams to match, for which they're never a pleasure to meet, but for the right reasons. Although the look and mood has been done before in previous titles it still manages to capture the gothic horror perfectly.

When the adventure is complete new features become available, including hard mode, boss rush mode and Albus mode (an alternate playable character). It also features online play, allowing you to trade items with other players or go head-to-head in a versus mode. Sure the game can be frustratingly difficult at times, but that being said, difficulty is in the eyes and thumbs of the individual player and level grinding to a suitable strength is always an option if you need it. Order of Ecclesia is a return to form and reminds us why we love Castlevania, so put on your leathers, equip the stake and enjoy hunting down Dracula.