The Castlevania series of games is one of my favorite franchises, but honestly, I haven’t played all that many games from the series. I played all the NES incarnations and then pretty much jumped to the DS titles when I got mine this past summer. Only recently have I booted up the old emulators to try and catch up otherwise.
But with a new Castlevania now out on the DS, Order of Ecclesia, that retro moment will have to wait. I played through most of Potrait of Ruin on the DS, but never finished it - I got stuck, I think - and then I moved on to other games.
Having just played Ecclesia for an hour or so, I can say it’s a good game. It plays just like the Portrait of Ruin but with a little less to manage. Portrait had a lot of inventory management and equipment to worry about, Ecclesia has a little less…at least so far.
In Ecclesia you play as this ass kicking chick with the power to absorb powers. These powers come in the form of weapons, like swords, and other abilities like magnetism. Overall it’s pretty easy to dive in to, letting you get right to the action. So far this game is a little more linear than Portrait, which had you going back and fourth between areas often.
Ecclesia doesn’t sport any sort of noticable graphics or sound upgrades. I did notice a little more “expression” from the character sprites, but otherwise it’s just another Castlevania game.
At one point early in the game you visit a village in need of help and you get to rummage around in houses and rooms, which was very reminisent of Simon’s Quest, my all-time favorite Castlevania. But then again, the whole idea of vampire hunters is pretty cool. The name “Belmont” is now synonymous with video games in my mind. I know a lot of folks dismissed Simon’s Quest because it went in a totally different way than the first game, but I liked the simple RPG element it used. Not to mention it had a great soundtrack.
So far the Order of Ecclesia is another very solid title in the DS library of games. With the Wii ball dropped, the DS has filled the time very nicely. And with my birthday just around the corner, I have a feeling another chapter in my video game career will begin (I hope).
Just bite the bullet and buy the PS3. I don’t want to be reading on here in a year that you have Xbox regret.
I, too, do not want to read about any Xbox regret. In fact, if he has any Xbox regret he’d be smart to keep his lips zipped!
Oh nay, there will not be any Xbox regret. There are too many good games and good downloadable games to be regretful.
The only thing I may regret is trying to drill a hole through the wall so I can get a network cable to the Xbox!
I am still not impressed by the current gen of consoles. The wii is kinda cool but REALLY lacks games. The PS3 and Xbox360 are shiney but still have the same games the xbox and ps2 had. The DS is even starting to get a bit samey.
Someone need to make a NEW game. Something that isn’t a franchise or a copy or a spiffed up re-release. Give us a new genre, new game play, something…..