Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS, 2008)

Shanoa is bringing sexy back.

Wait a minute. They also brought back Ayame Kojima's classic artstyle! Yes! YES! After two games of generic anime art that could have been anything, we're back to looking like Castlevania. Pretty awesome to go out with the old artstyle returning, but it would have been really cool if they'd continued that train of thought and also brought the Belmonts back for one last hurrah. Ah well.

Playing this on the Castlevania Dominus Collection, like the last two. Hard to believe I'm finally at the end of the normal 2D Castlevanias, and even harder to believe that the last new one was in TWO THOUSAND EIGHT. Since then all we got in this style was the Adventure Rebirth remake...as a temporarily-available Wii Shop game that proceeded to disappear forever and now exists only as a ROM online. That one was pretty decent when I played it a year or two ago, but it's over in a couple hours at the most.

I used to think that this installment should have been the much-hyped 1999 game, the final battle between Julius Belmont and Dracula. However, I'm also glad it turned out the way it did. Shanoa is cool as hell and it's nice that the series got one sole female protagonist before it went out (Charlotte Aulin of course shared top billing in the 2nd-to-last game).

Ideally we could have split the difference and created Shanoa to be the second character in a duo along with Julius Belmont in a 1999 game. It'd be kinda like Portrait of Ruin's duo except a mature serious version.

Every 100 years, Dracula returns, and every 100 years he gets slain by a Belmont. ...though the Belmonts have really fallen off as far as this series goes, with Alucard, the Morris family, and various other vampire-slayers picking up the slack.

1899, Quincy Morris and the Morris family took out Dracula (off-camera). 1999, Julius Belmont finally gave the Belmonts another notch in the win column (off-camera lol).

Richter Belmont was at the end of the 1700s, but after being manipulated by Dracula (leading Alucard to take over), he was ashamed and gave up the whip/responsibility. This resulted in various other organizations being formed to deal with Dracula if he re-emerged, including the Order of Ecclesia at some undetermined point in the 1800s (which is when this takes place).

I'll never stop saying this: Hard to believe they just left the 1899 and 1999 stories out there as un-tapped potential. No games for them, and apparently there never will be.

It would be kind of interesting to try playing the Castlevania series in chronological order. For the 2D games that'd start with Trevor and end with Soma. However, chances are, the eras they take place in wouldn't really have that much of an effect on the games themselves, outside of elements like whether the enemies have firearms or not.

The star player of the Order of Ecclesia is Shanoa, a potential slayer who is slated to inherit Dominus, a mighty sword designed by the OOE specifically to slay vampires. Where was the Vampire Killer at this point in time? Somewhere in the Morris family's vaults.

Shanoa from Castlevania Judgment, released less than a month (October/November 2008) after this game.

Shanoa's friend(?), accomplice (?).... some guy, Albus, is also a member of the Order. Five seconds after we're introduced to this guy, he turns on Shanoa in a SHOCKING BETRAYAL because he believes that it is HE who should get the Dominus!

Also, this guy looks WAY too much like Balthier from FFXII to be a coincidence. That game was still a big deal and fresh in everyone's minds when this game dropped two years later. It isn't a stretch to say it influenced OoE's development.

Barlowe is the leader of the Order, and he's already decided that Shanoa is getting Dominus because only she has the goodness needed. Also she's hot, and he's trying to curry favor with her.

"Who me?" says Shanoa when reached for comment.

Is this some sort of pharmaceutical medication ad? Take it for your light cough, may cause skin lesions and death?

Next thing we know, Albus is sneaking in and grabbing the Dominus!

"Now I am the slayer-uh! Me-uh!" he says in a Triple H voice, before running off with it. So I guess we gotta track this guy down now.

The game begins. Shanoa is incredibly well-animated, with numerous animation frames. It reminds me of Super Metroid and how many character frames that had compared to other games of the era.

Much like souls and whatnot in the other games, Shanoa can absorb glyphs into her back tattoo by tossing her hair into the air and posing sexily. Everything onscreen gets drawn towards her, including runes, men, and occasionally women.

This character is a delight to see onscreen in-action. Does the rest of the game measure up to the coolness of the main character, though? That's what I'm going to find out.

Glyphs can be equipped to give Shanoa various attacks, and you can equip the same glyph in both hands to dual-wield a move. Every standard attack uses MP from the bar, which had me worried for a second that I'd be restricted on how many attacks I could do at a time. However, the bar regenerates so quickly that it's more like a stamina bar from a Souls game. Can't spam attacks for very long without needing to back off and give your arms a second to recover, giving the fights more give-and-take like a realistic fight.

Other than that, this is very similar to the other Igavanias. One difference is that it goes for a more area-based system with a bunch of medium-sized levels (like Super Metroid) rather than one big castle world, with each area being distinct.

The first "standalone level" is the Monastery, which starts out with some gorgeous scenery. Portrait of Ruin was good at this too, and their background design has gotten incredibly refined.

Save statues are ported directly from PoR, only a little bit less sexy for whatever reason. The pose isn't as feminine and there's less midriff.

That's a POINT DEDUCTION for the series ranking I'm working on.

Teleport rooms are back as well. This game seems like it'll be pretty much PoR in structure, only the levels will be in a linear order rather than an open Mario 64 painting system.

Shanoa's big thing is giving off attractive magnetic fields. Also, it's an ability she can get.

This is a little bit like the Super Metroid Grappling Beam, only harder to use. You can grab onto magnetized anchor points and slingshot off of them.

As is tradition, there's a room near the start with infinitely-spawning 1 EXP enemies. There's no whip twirl or otherwise way to AFK farm them like there was in Circle of the Moon (what an oversight) so I won't be farming any crazy levels out of the gate.

In addition to regular attacks and the stamina bar, you can also press Up+Attack to do a super move with any given weapon. This consumes hearts, which you collect from lamps as usual and have a cap on how many you can carry. So the super attacks are pretty much only for desperate situations like boss fights.

The boss door is one of many, many returning assets from the other two DS games. So far, I gotta say, there are a lot more long hallways here than the other games. To the point of them getting a little tedious. The areas seem extremely linear as well. It almost feels more like a traditional 'Vania than an exploration-based one.

The first real boss is this giant brine shrimp with a human face. What circle of hell did this crawl out of?

It can roll up in a ball and bounce around like that one boss in Skyblazer.

Albus shows up to be all dickish. This would have more effect if we'd seen literally anything showing he and Shanoa as allies before he turned on her. I think they were introduced and the betrayal happened inside of the same scene.

Shanoa is suffering from some amnesia after the attack in the intro, which is their way of saying that she's supposed to be much more powerful than she is now and has to get her abilities back. With Albus having Dominus and his memories intact, he has a huge advantage over Shanoa. Knowing that she's pursuing him to get Dominus back, why doesn't he just take her out now? Instead he keeps being smarmy and then just kinda leaving.

The overworld map is new for this game and takes on the role of organizing areas (rather than having to keep track of what is what on a giant castle map like earlier games in the series). This is good from an organizational standpoint but it also results in a lot of short, disconnected areas.

This (very atmospheric and pretty) town is now the base of operations for the rest of the game. It's nearly devoid of people currently, and you can restock the inhabitants by rescuing them from the various levels. Not sure how optional this is yet. It might be an overarching game-wide sidequest sort of deal, or it might be a requirement to get to the endboss or get a good ending. I'll find out.

Note: I've only finished this game once before, back in 2015 or so, and basically speedran it at the time. It's one of my least-played 'Vanias, and I barely remember anything about it because it came at the tail end of a 'Vania marathon. So this is my first time really absorbing the game.

At this point I get a little lost and run around on the rooftops, trying to make something happen. Turns out you're supposed to go right back out to the overworld after talking to the NPC here. A new area materializes there:

The woods, which is another short, linear, hallway-based area. Yeah, it's safe to say that level maps not being interlocked in any way causes the game to lose some of that "Igavania" mood and feel more like a standard level-based action game.

After the woods, there's a "crossing the sea" level that looks pretty intense. And straightforward. Alright, this is definitely the most like a classic 'Vania out of all of the six on GBA/DS. If this were released as a standalone game before the other five, I might not even count it as a Metroid-like, I might just think it's the next game in the classic series lineage. These are literally just conventional stages.

"Our time has come!" yell the Sahagin as they emerge from the aquatic depths.

Morgan Freeman V.O.: "Their time had still not come."

Next boss is this giant skeleton that leans back and crab-walks towards you like Bray Wyatt. At this point the bosses are taking a TON of hits to bring down and I'm only a fraction of the way through the game. Wondering if I missed a power-up path, like what happened in Dawn of Sorrow, that would enhance my damage output.

Albus is cornered again, and this time he...just gives up a fragment of the Dominus for Shanoa to absorb. Surprisingly, this isn't a trap. Then he runs off with the rest of Dominus. Again.

Using Dominus Hatred (the fragment in question) as a weapon gives you a punch attack. Charge it up and it rains green fireballs from the sky. Read it and weep, Johnny Cage!

This would be a great super-attack if it didn't A) Consume a ton of your hearts

I mentioned how townspeople can be rescued from the various levels. Some of these townspeople are...weird. Like this alchemist who gives you ingredient-hunting sidequests.

Is this guy trying to summon Asmodeus or something?

Elsewhere, I finally unlock the town equipment merchant, and double my defense right off the bat by buying the best equipment available in every category.

The next boss, a giant crab in an elevator shaft, is extremely difficult. The hardest fight up to this point and the hardest fight in a few games now. He basically chases you up the tunnel, swinging his claws in huge sweeping motions that are tough to avoid and do huge damage.

I get on the sides and hack away....and hack away. Either this game is much harder than the earlier Igavanias, or I'm missing damage upgrades, because the bosses taking a zillion hits is only getting worse.

The fight just goes on and on, is brutal, and once you reach the last stage of it, the boss has infinite health so you basically just die by attrition if you keep fighting. What I had to do was go up top and activate an elevator, which...

...falls down and obliterates the boss in a trauma-inducing fountain of blood.

Goddamn, Konami. Kids played this!

On that brutal note, it's break time. Didn't get as far as I wanted to, and I'll have to do the rest later. I'm about a third of the way through this game, at least area-wise. It doesn't feel like I'm a third of the way through it, because very little has actually happened. Nothing is particularly memorable about it, which is probably why I don't remember it. It doesn't feel like a Metroid-style 'Vania and it doesn't feel spooky or Halloween-like.

All in all so far I'd say this game is a bit of a disappointment, especially for being the final 'Vania I have on the docket. I suspect that people who rate this game highly or remember it fondly are mainly doing that based on the coolness of the main character, and the fact that we didn't get anything else after this.

Maybe it'll pick up as it goes on, but it'll need to pick up significantly to get to the level of Dawn or Portrait.

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