What a horrible night to have a curse...
User Rating: 8 | Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin DS
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia and I have had a sort of love/hate relationship since I started playing it. I love it for it's smooth 2D graphics which look superb on the DS, it's soundtrack is one of the best on the DS and it's gameplay is difficult, but the main element that makes this game fun. Well, that's the praise out of the way now I can get the story across not that it matters because the story is the last thing I think about when playing this game. You play as Shanoa, a black-haired sorceress/warrior/emotional mute born with glowing marks on her body (not the excuse you'd want to give your mother after a quick visit to the tattoo shop, boys and girls.) These marks are not just for show or for cheeky pin-up pictures posted on deviantART, they allow Shanoa to absorb Glyphs which in turn can be used as weapons such as rapiers, swords, hammers, bows, even the malice of the dead. Now early on if you were paying attention, I said Shanoa was an emotional mute and you might be asking yourself why. Well at the start of the game, Shanoa's master Barlowe performs the Dominus ritual in which Shanoa's body is the host for the Dominus glyph, a monster of a Glyph who's destructive power is matched only by Hurricane Katrina. Anyway, the Dominus ritual get's messed up by Albus, Shanoa's brother who then runs off with the three pieces of Dominus and completely erases Shanoa's memory and emotions. Barlowe then gives her a quick tutorial and a memory check, massages her hips and sends her on her way to stop Albus from being a complete and utter ass. The gameplay layouts changed from being a Metroidvania to being a Metroidvania but with levels instead of staying in the same castle for the entire game. This works well as it allows you to visit previous levels and EXP grind or do quests for the villagers. Yeah, you heard me, fetch quests seem to be important for NPCs in games like this and most of the quests are in this format. Early on in the game, Shanoa stumbles upon a small village with only one resident who tells her that they've all gone missing and has the audacity to tell you to go find them. They aren't that hard to locate and are pretty easy to find considering they're trapped in bright yellow crystals and during the course of the game you may forget to rescue these needy idiots like I did and then the game gives me a bad ending in which Shanoa gets killed and the screen shows the villagers that I missed. Excuse me, Order of Ecclesia but you never told me that I had to rescue all of the villagers and why would I want to? They only give things and improve their services if I do quests for them first and some of these quests are perfectly manageable without me like that goddamn photography quest given to me by a very creepy newspaper reporter who seemed to be more focused on my characters breastplate then he was with his conversation with her. I still haven't beaten this beast, it's long not to mention difficult with most bosses able to take you out in several hits if you don't come prepared with Potions, Tonic, and various different soups including Corn Soup and Minstrone. To wrap this up, this game is well worth playing even if the quests can be a little samey. Regardless, this is probably the crème de la crème of the Castlevania DS trilogy, the next Castlevania DS game should be a RTS game with Medusa Heads causing players to spontaneously combust with frustration
