A review for Order of Ecclesia.*gamepro*

I just got my new issue of Gamepro, and they have a review for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. I not sure if it on their site also (do they share the same reviews?), but here the pros and cons from this review.

Pros: A fun and complex addition to the Castlevania franchise.

Cons: It's ridiculously hard, has some confusing puzzles and some design faults.

Score was 4/5

So they went from a too easy difficulty (DoS and PoR were pretty easy, at least to me), to a very hard difficulty lol. Oh well, I still excited for this game.:D

"Cons: It's ridiculously hard..."

yay:D

Bring it on Order of Ecclesia.

Good, PoR and DoS were rediculously easy.-Oath

I agree. Most of the castlevania games (metroidvania style) that I play are so easy. The only ones that IMO were hard was Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance (kinda). SotN, DoS, AoS, and PoR were too easy IMO, but I still love them all (well actually I didn't think HoD was great).

[QUOTE="-Oath"]Good, PoR and DoS were rediculously easy.Wanderer5

I agree. Most of the castlevania games (metroidvania style) that I play are so easy. The only ones that IMO were hard was Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance (kinda). SotN, DoS, AoS, and PoR were too easy IMO, but I still love them all (well actually I didn't think HoD was great).

Yeah, the NES, SNES, GEN and T16 CVs, and CotM were probably the only castlevanias that could ever be considered challenges. But yes, all of them are great except HoD which for some odd reason was pretty horrible :S.

Can you elaborate on what it says about "design faults" and "confusing puzzles"?clicketyclick

Sure.:) Here are the parts about those flaws (I think):

"Ecclesia has some aggravating quirks that cut into the fun. Take, for instance, the fact that it treats every attack as a magic spell, even using physical weapons (this is where the Glyph system comes into play). This means you expend mana points every time you attack something. The mana regenerates quickly enough but this unnecessarily caps your offensive capabilities and often leaves you in vulnerable in sticky situations."

Kinda sound like The sisters's attacks in PoR. I am kinda not impress by this part.

"The Boss fights will also frustrate you as you'll usually defeat them only after learning their patterns and there are confusing environmental puzzles that have no clear solution."

I dont see how being ridiculously hard is a con.whosgotthe311

Totally agree, reviewers seems to hate hard games, come on, there is a diference between hard and challenging than infuriating and frustating.

Maybe they think that being hard, will make children with 6 and under complain about the game, so especifically this game wasn't make for 6 and under children, people need to stop thinking that games are only for children. (since the most famous games had a bit of childish looks, like pokemon, kirby, mario etc. some people (even gamers) grow thinking that games are for children, or that you wont play a certain game/console because the game is for children, but hey, GTA isnt made for kids, and F.E.A.R. potentially can make any adult wet the pants)

Or maybe reviewers dont like to lose and hate when the game is to hard. hm...

Besides hard games are good too, sometimes easy games can get tiresome because you don't have a proper challenge to test your skills and get past the game too fast and easily.

In my opinion, when a game is:

Hard: when you need to use all your skills, putting yourself to test to pass through the game, and maybe it wont be enough.

Infuriating: when you have annoying mini-bosses/bosses/enemies or after several tries when you think you have the boss moves all read-on and is ready to fight him, then you make a simple mistake (like going 2 cm to the left instead of 1 cm) and screw the whole fight and you die because of the mistake, or because the game controls is a bit complicated and then you die because you pushed the wrong button at the wrong time... things like that.

Frustating: When you pass through a really LOOOONG/annoying stage *cof*... slow moving platforms... *cof* just to reach the boss and you die and have to go through the stage again from the start

Or When you need to go to point A to get something, but this something is locked in a safe and you need to go to point B that is on the other side of the world to get information and then go to back to point A to procced to point C to get the key then get back to point A to open the safe, but there is a map inside the safe that says that the something you're looking for is in the point D that is far beyond point B...

On-topic: Great, i'm looking foward for this castlevania, i hope the gameplay is more similar to DOS (not the ms-dos, lol)

[QUOTE="clicketyclick"]Can you elaborate on what it says about "design faults" and "confusing puzzles"?Wanderer5

Sure.:) Here are the parts about those flaws (I think):

"Ecclesia has some aggravating quirks that cut into the fun. Take, for instance, the fact that it treats every attack as a magic spell, even using physical weapons (this is where the Glyph system comes into play). This means you expend mana points every time you attack something. The mana regenerates quickly enough but this unnecessarily caps your offensive capabilities and often leaves you in vulnerable in sticky situations."

Kinda sound like The sisters's attacks in PoR. I am kinda not impress by this part.

"The Boss fights will also frustrate you as you'll usually defeat them only after learning their patterns and there are confusing environmental puzzles that have no clear solution."

ROFL! The amount of frustration in this Castlevania sounds K I C K A S S !!!!

[QUOTE="clicketyclick"]Can you elaborate on what it says about "design faults" and "confusing puzzles"?Wanderer5

Sure.:) Here are the parts about those flaws (I think):

"Ecclesia has some aggravating quirks that cut into the fun. Take, for instance, the fact that it treats every attack as a magic spell, even using physical weapons (this is where the Glyph system comes into play). This means you expend mana points every time you attack something. The mana regenerates quickly enough but this unnecessarily caps your offensive capabilities and often leaves you in vulnerable in sticky situations."

Kinda sound like The sisters's attacks in PoR. I am kinda not impress by this part.

"The Boss fights will also frustrate you as you'll usually defeat them only after learning their patterns and there are confusing environmental puzzles that have no clear solution."

Thanks. Does it give examples of environmental puzzles with no clear solution? God, I hate that in games. I can't stand irrational puzzles. I hope that's just a few puzzles rather than a constant feature. If every environmental puzzle is like waiting for the tornado in simon's quest then forget about it!

[QUOTE="Wanderer5"]

[QUOTE="clicketyclick"]Can you elaborate on what it says about "design faults" and "confusing puzzles"?clicketyclick

Sure.:) Here are the parts about those flaws (I think):

"Ecclesia has some aggravating quirks that cut into the fun. Take, for instance, the fact that it treats every attack as a magic spell, even using physical weapons (this is where the Glyph system comes into play). This means you expend mana points every time you attack something. The mana regenerates quickly enough but this unnecessarily caps your offensive capabilities and often leaves you in vulnerable in sticky situations."

Kinda sound like The sisters's attacks in PoR. I am kinda not impress by this part.

"The Boss fights will also frustrate you as you'll usually defeat them only after learning their patterns and there are confusing environmental puzzles that have no clear solution."

Thanks. Does it give examples of environmental puzzles with no clear solution? God, I hate that in games. I can't stand irrational puzzles. I hope that's just a few puzzles rather than a constant feature. If every environmental puzzle is like waiting for the tornado in simon's quest then forget about it!

Not really. The reviewer just said is that he gets hopelessly stuck in the game and has no idea how to proceed. He even wanted to send an e-mail to Konami to beg them for help lol.

A- from EGM, 4/5 from gamepro, looking good :)

And I agree with some other people here, being "hard" isn't at all a con.

I just got my new issue of Gamepro, and they have a review for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. I not sure if it on their site also (do they share the same reviews?), but here the pros and cons from this review.

Pros: A fun and complex addition to the Castlevania franchise.

Cons: It's ridiculously hard, has some confusing puzzles and some design faults.

Score was 4/5

So they went from a too easy difficulty (DoS and PoR were pretty easy, at least to me), to a very hard difficulty lol. Oh well, I still excited for this game.:D

Wanderer5

LOL so Gamepro reviewers play EASY games? For me, the highlighted statement in red should be in the Pros section ( excluding the design faults though ). Sometimes, i just don't dig reviews done by Gamepro.