Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Act II

 

More Ecclesia, as I try to get into this game. Despite the highly-memorable main character, it completely failed to grab me in the first third or so of the game, and the linear level structure isn't doing it any favors so far.

In the next area I find an interesting glyph, Vol Fulgur, that lets me fire Sith Lightning. However the beams travel in uneven, random patterns, which makes this look a lot cooler than it is functional.

Soon after... I met a giant fish!

This area is almost entirely underwater, and Shanoa can move around freely by jumping repeatedly.

The save point here looks like it's buried in the Fortress of Solitude.

Making sure to go back and do the quests given by townspeople is important, as various items and equipment are locked behind these quests. Most of the quests basically "finish themselves" just from playing normally, since all of the drops are pretty common during the appropriate phase of the game. With some exceptions, like the woman who wants you to slay 30 ravens. That's a bit of a farming target, and I skipped that one.

Whenever going to the merchant, take a moment to say hello to The Cat.

One major plague on this game: These spider-things that poison on contact. They're super obnoxious to deal with because they poise right through your attacks while walking into you. Also poison really chunks you in this game.

I rescue the greatest of the game's rescuable villagers. This is Laura, a gorgeous woman who was lover to Camilla (you know, Camilla, the flying mask from Simon's Quest)

She was doing...whatever it is that Laura does, when a man walked in. Not only did she completely lose her ladyboner, she also got trapped in a glyph. The guy in question was Albus, who has been a busy bee.

Back at the town, Laura openly lusts after Shanoa's 'bod.

Shanoa is having none of it. She ain't gay! ...or anything for that matter, because the Order of Ecclesia basically sterilized her emotions and she doesn't feel any attraction towards anybody.

This starts a game-long sidequest of Laura trying to find a way to make Shanoa smile. I can think of a few ways.

An up+attack weapon super move, which requires hearts. A good way to level up (that doesn't involve Laura) is to go out and spam super-attacks on larger foes that are near the entrance of a particular area, then warp back to the village and get hearts restored. At least, this works well early on. There are much better options a little later.

This next area is a very cool Sleepy Hollow esque wood with Bloodborne refugee serial killers running around.

They did a great job with some of the enemy designs in this game. In addition to serial killers in trench coats, we've got floating Baphomet goats doing yoga. They could have just recycled enemies from the previous game, but instead they got creative.

After slaying a bunch of Liliths, I manage to get this transformation that turns Shanoa into one of them temporarily. While in this form she can fire bats that travel through walls and do significant damage, giving me a more traditional range attack that works REALLY well. Most of this game is heavily melee-oriented and this allows you to stay back a bit. Also, the transformation is hot as hell.

Back at the ranch, Laura tells Shanoa to smile more, before asking to see the Lilith transformation up-close so she can drink champagne off of Lilith's feet like that one Salma Hayek scene in that one movie.

Shanoa ain't into smiling or having champagne sipped off of her feet.

I can think of a few things.

So this game has basically become Laura and Shanoa's innuendo-filled non-relationship, because I need something interesting to talk about besides THE HALLWAY.

Pretty much every area consists mostly of hallways, without a whole lot of non-linear exploration to speak of.

This one particular room in the Skeleton Cave is the single best place in the game to level Shanoa up (besides Laura's place, anyway). I'm talking multiple level-ups per hour, just leveling and leveling. However, you need the right setup, and I don't have it yet. I'll need to come back with Luminatio (the first tier of the light magic attack), and there's also a zombie summon that helps a bit. Luminatio is the important thing, though. I'll get back to this later when I really need to.

The next boss is...whatever the hell this thing is. I might not have Luminatio, but I noticed that blunt weapons do a lot of extra damage to undead.

It also helps to use the buffs that the game gives you, since they last for an entire boss fight off of one cast. I think only one can be active at a time, though. +Str is the best one, but it's late in the game, and in the meantime +Con is good.

The best powerup in the entire game and it isn't close. The game opens up a lot with this, plus it's just plain more fun to play now with that extra mobility. Hilarious how the item in question is called "Ordinary Rock"

The next area is entirely underwater, which is always interesting. The large rooms of this area are a good break from the hallways.

Next boss, Rusalka, is the hardest boss yet by a country mile (and roughly the halfway-point boss of the game). My attacks did almost no damage to her and it was a real plink-fest. Her massive wave attacks, on the other hand, decimate.

Realized I was making a mistake though. Blunt weapons might be very strong against undead in this game, but they're weak against a lot of other foes. This boss is particularly strong against blunt, which means she's weak to slashing/stabbing (I think they're counted as the same attack type).

I switch to dual rapiers and unleash hell. That's more like it. Using twin rapiers and alternating the two attack buttons as quick as you can get away with is a great way to dish out massive damage in a short time, if the boss stays still for a second.

Next area has an awesome orange sky. Besides hallways, this game also really likes throwing giant enemies into your path. Usually I just slide under them (taking the hit in the process) and then wail on them from behind. Most of the big enemies in this game...can't turn around.

Another borderline-miniboss of a giant foe, this guy looks like a HadesGigas that escaped from Zozo.

Turning into Lilith and blasting away from a distance is a good way to trivialize a lot of otherwise-dangerous foes.

Another Albus encounter, and again he gives up part of Dominus so Shanoa can absorb it. Why does he keep helping her out?

Next up is a shocking revelation: Barlowe, leader of the Order of Ecclesia, has been collecting interesting specimens over time. None more interesting than the very soul of Dracula himself, stored away in here. Why would he need to keep the soul of Dracula in their vaults? To make sure he doesn't return, of course.

Side note: Great reference to Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials here.

Occasionally, a treasure box will turn into a vicious, chomping mimic. This has to be my least-favorite mechanic in videogames right now, after getting murdered by one in Dragon Quest 1 HD.

I respond to the mimic by OBLITERATING IT WITH SUPER ATTACK.

It's the only way to be sure.

After traversing more linear areas (there really isn't a lot to say about this game), I find the next boss:

Another very strong one, like Rusalka, just larger and harder to avoid. This thing can roar out of the sand and pretty much mow you over.

In retrospect, I should have sought out Luminatio and grinded EXP in the Skeleton Cave as early as possible, because it would have made all of this so much easier.

There's a manuever that the game doesn't tell you: You can press down mid-leap to do a downward dive kick, and bouncing off of airborne foes with this is a good way to clear leaps that the double jump alone isn't good enough to clear.

Shanoa reaches a stunning realization: Albus has only been giving her glyphs because he's observing how she is able to absorb them. He can't actually absorb them himself yet, so he's got a Dominus he doesn't know how to use.

Well, he can't, because absorbing glyphs requires having a sexy back tattoo.

"get your sexy on" indeed.

Nearly at the end of the game (yeah, already) but I still have quite a bit left to do before it's really done. ......check out the map. This game is Final Hallway XIII....2

After farming these guys to get a sweet light-ball weapon, I proceed to the FINAL BOSS* of the game:

Albus. That's right, we finally get the one-on-one that they've been avoiding all game. This is only the final boss* in the sense that these Igavanias always have a pseudo final boss that has the last quarter or so of the game locked behind it if you meet the right criteria to continue.

It's a great fight, but it's pretty easy considering how tough some of the bosses have been (and how blistering the pseudo final bosses usually are in each of these games. I make heavy use of my new light ball spell:

And eventually eke out a win.

This gets Shanoa to return back to The Order, now with Dominus in tow, and...

...sacrifice herself at an altar by using Dominus, which kills the user.

So that's the bad ending, Shanoa dies and we don't even see why. It probably revived Dracula or something. This Barlowe guy is real seedy, keeping Drac's corpse in his closet in a gimp suit or something.

How do you not get the bad ending, and actually see the real finale? Pretty simple in this one, just have to rescue all 13 (heh, 13) villagers. Without particularly trying, I found the majority of them already. I was pretty thorough on the first pass of the game for the most part, so chances are most of the remainder just required endgame abilities like the double jump.

At this point I bring Luminatio back to the Skeleton Cave and do THE BIG GRIND. What you do is go into this room with the jumping skeletons, inch forward while ducking as they leap over you, and then blast Luminatio rapidly while standing in this spot. It'll hit all of them as they leap around in an arc, and rack up hundreds of exp.

It doesn't take long, maybe 45 minutes, to go from level 24 to 40 (the recommended level to beat the final boss). The EXP starts getting pretty slow in the late 30's so I think 40's a good time to call it, regardless.

Now to find the rest of those villagers.

That...isn't exactly some sort of feat. I mean, have you SEEN Shanoa?

Pretty sure she'd look good in a potato sack.

None of the villagers I missed are a particular issue to get, they're just a little off the beaten path in most cases.

The hardest of the villagers to find, BY FAR, is this one. It's in a side room of Tristis Pass, off the map. Have to break this one particular wall in a long vertical tunnel with a waterfall that makes even getting to this ledge a bit difficult. Not sure how anybody would have ever found this without a guide unless they were making sure to strike every possible surface in the game.

That gets me Irina, the last villager I needed for a complete set.

Alright, now to fight Albus again and see what the real endgame looks like...

...in the next episode! This one has gone too long already.

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