EPTFor those who haven't played it, read on, for I will be including a short review of the game. Should be like 99.9% spoiler free, but just in case:
*SPOILERS* maybe
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia:
Gameplay - 9/10: Well, not too much to say here, since it plays very similarly to the previous installments, with a couple of innovations. First is the inclusion of a "world-map" and multiple areas rather than just one gigantic castle. I found this to be quite neat actually and a welcome change from having one ginormous castle. Second is the glyph system, although I wouldn't really call in that much of an innovation, as it's really just a new way to present the same old thing. IE, weapon system, soul system, glyph system, etc. all pretty much come out to the same thing in the end. I do like the fact that you can create various combo's and such with the glyph system though. Third, female protagonist (Shanoa), if you care about something like that. *Edit: Almost forgot. There are quests too, but they don't add that much to the gameplay. They're mostly kinda gimmicky fetch and carry quests which give you some rewards/shop unlockables.
Story - 5/10: Not that great honestly. Minor plot/char spoilers ahead: + Show Spoiler +
The fact that Shanoa lacks emotions makes her kind of a bland protagonist. Also, the "twist" in the story is SUPER RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS.
Boss Fights - 8/10: Ah yes, the best part of CV games, the bosses. Overall, OoE's bosses stack up well with it's predecessors, HOWEVER, it loses big points because the final boss, whom you can probably guess, IS TOTALLY WEAK SAUCE. While this is coming from an above-average platformer, I definitely feel that the last boss fight was too easy. Several of the earlier bosses were much harder (and much more fun).
Replayability - 9/10: Has all the standard CV extras/unlockables, including Boss Rush, an alternate char mode (which is pretty cool in this one IMO), and a hard mode. Hard mode has caps of LVL 1, 50, or 255!. So for those of you who like grinding, =p.
Oh, and OoE's length is fairly similar to previous CV titles, just broken up into more areas.
Speaking of which,
Grinding - Now, what the hell is this section? Well, frankly, a big part of CV games is the item hunting, map completing, enemy list completing, weapon/armor/souls/glyphs collection, etc. Now for some, this is a big draw, and for others, it's an annoyance, so that's why this section doesn't have a score. As for OoE, collecting is definitely MUCH easier than in previous CV's. You don't need multiple copies of (most) glyphs. It's quite possible and fairly easy to collect most weapons/armors/glyphs on one play through without TOO much hunting/grinding. For comparison, it took me like 30+ hours in DoS to get pretty much everything (not counting extra mode rewards), while I did the same in OoE in about 15 hours. Whether that's good or not is up to the player of course. I kinda like collecting crap, so I wish there had been more stuff to get.
Graphics - 8/10: Nothing really special for the DS, but that's not really the point of a CV game anyway. More environments = more varied art though.
Sound - 7/10: I don't feel that it has the best CV music/atmosphere ever, but it's not bad.
Overall - 8/10: Solid, maybe not the best CV ever. As far as the DS goes, probably inferior to DoS but superior to PoR.
Well, that's that. Feel free to ask me any questions, ask for help, whatever. Or just discuss the game, the series, the DS, world peace, or anything really.
Oh and POLL:
Poll: Best handheld Castlevania game?
(Vote): Order of Ecclesia
(Vote): Portrait of Ruin
(Vote): Dawn of Sorrow
(Vote): Aria of Sorrow
(Vote): Harmony of Dissonance
(Vote): Circle of the Moon
