Stat freaks will really love this game. Those who hate grinding out stats will find this game soul-crushingly difficult.
Even when the player gets some good loot, the stat benefits come with a heavy price. For instance, the "death ring" gives players a great boost in stats but one hit is all it takes for a "game over" scene.
In the previous games I'd find some way to power level and I'd be able to kill the bosses with a few simple whacks; I wouldn't even have to dodge because my defense was so beefy. Order of Ecclesia didn't give me that cop-out. I spent hours raising my stats only to find that even with power leveling some bosses and hidden monsters can kill me in about 4-6 hits. When I first encountered a troll (those orange-yellow critters that can shoot their tongue out really far) it killed me (I was around level 20) in one hit with it's tongue attack.
I finished the game but at the end I felt something was missing. Perhaps it was the short ending sequence (which didn't have much closure) or perhaps I thought it didn't have enough distinctiveness in character development. It's like Shanoa seemed too flat as a character (perhaps that's what the devs were going for because she lost her memory and emotions at the beginning of the game). I'm sure people feel a better closeness to the odd couple from Portrait of Ruin or the returning reluctant hero from Dawn of Sorrow when compared to Shanoa. I also wanted more alternate endings with more elaborate cutscenes but none were to be found (Only two endings, one good one bad). I felt that this game was a step back in terms of story when compared to Symphony of the Night.
When dealing with a gamer who's played all of Konami's Castlevania games the developers must have a very hard time trying to make the game feel new and I thought that it would be logical for Konami to start developing more "story driven" Castlevania games but I guess it didn't occur to them.