Topic: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is mediocre at best

[AxeArmor]

Where to start? I am so disappointed. Well the glyph system is nothing more than a Soulsystem, only with less glyphs. And because of its magic use, it feels very secondary. Yeah wtf, it feels like there is no primary weapon system in this game.

Sword glyph > Better Sword glyph > Even Better Sword glyph

Damn, it is so laughable.

Then the level design. More simon's quest esque? Not really! It has one tiny village which can be accessed at any time. The world map is so pointless, they might as well crammed everything in the usual castle like they did with the 2nd half of the game.

And dont get me started on the music. Castlevania is one of my favorite franchises ever when it comes to music. I have almost loved every installation for its awesome soundtrack. I expected no different with OoE, especially since it was 2 years since PoR was released.

But wtf happend here? The music is so uninspired that it's in fact worse then HoD. HoD had horrible sound quality, but atleast it had some catchy melodies. (marble gallery etc)
I cant really hum one single track when I am not playing this game, and the music in dracula's castle in particular is barferific.

so is there something good with this game? The artwork, some of the bosses and an upped difficulty are all on the plus side, but it doesn't make up for all the mistakes.

Seriously, what happend with this game? There is no doubt that it is

[paletteswapmonster]

Worse than PoR? lolwut

[AxeArmor]

Worse than PoR? lolwut

I believe so yes

[Algernon]

Couldn't disagree more. The music is great. You may not have rhythm or something, but I did plenty of humming while playing this game. The level design isn't amazing but it's perfectly functional and a step up from POR. You also failed to mention the slew of new enemies and how much variety we got in the areas.

The world map, I'll agree, wasn't the best idea since all of the areas are so damn small besides a token few. But it doesn't disrupt gameplay THAT much, and I really like how you're outside of the castle this time.

This is the best of the Metroidvanias in my opinion. I don't see why you hate it so much- I got a blast out of playing this game.

[shelverton.]

In Reply To #1

Wow.. I think the music is fantastic in this game, probably better than either of the other DS games (and I really liked the music in both, especially PoR. Shame about the actual game though). There are only maybe 3 or 4 songs I don't care for, but the rest is excellent IMO. I don't like how they arranged "Riddle" though. The original is much better.

[Profbeanburrito]

In Reply To #1

Wow, you may be the only person to not like this game!

Harmony of Dissonance is better!? That's is probably the only Castlevania game I don't like...

[AxeArmor]

Yes I am sadly not satiesfied with this game, sorry. I also think that the items and equipment were seriously lacking. Most of the rings are useless.

[paletteswapmonster]

In Reply To #3

You're silly. That's like saying CotM is better than AoS.

[AxeArmor]

In Reply To #3

You're silly. That's like saying CotM is better than AoS.

I think it is.

[paletteswapmonster]

Explain why.

[Long John Silver]

if ooe is mediocre, portrait is a pure shitstain.

[AxeArmor]

if ooe is mediocre, portrait is a pure shitstain.

the characters, artwork and story is horrible in PoR, but the gameplay isnt any worse than OoE, that's for sure. I liked the "regular" equipment system, and the dual spells you could do over the glyphs. Believe it or not, but I liked PoR's music and draculas castle better also.

Then again, DoS is better than both.

[paletteswapmonster]

if ooe is mediocre, portrait is a pure shitstain.

PoR is a shitstain in any case.

[Omegasigma]

actually the only good point i liked in this game was shanoa, and dracula's design, rather then that i felt the levels were to small, the music was ok but could have been better since i know the ds has larger game carts avalable to it, so the excuses are minimal, and yes i said before ti was a DOS expansion with POR elements, and that is essentially what it was, not to mention the POR team was the ones who made it. i domnt know its ok but it jsut doesn;t seem to fit, i'd love it if i could assign the cv1 songs to dracs castle at least :p

[CapComMDb]

One flaw I see is that there is little incentive to return to earlier locations. For one thing, enemies don't drop anything that's worth collecting, and for another, there aren't any serious secrets to find in older spots. As a result, OoE is much more linear.

Personally, I think the length is fine. Just when you think the game is over, they keep giving you more places to explore. But it would have been nice to have more than one town and another mansion (including a Dwelling of Doom mix). Difficulty was also fine, though some people complained. Those people need to play the old games again

I think the music is good overall, but there are a couple tracks I don't like (mountain and misty ridge). Also didn't like that a few of the tracks were reused in a couple levels (though Emerald Mist is one of my favorites). And then the voice acting of the enemies gets kind of annoying.

Ultimately, it doesn't add too much to the series. There's really not much differentiating this from PoR or DoS. But most people seem to like playing the games, so because it's a SotN-style game, and it's Castlevania, most fans probably decided to buy it anyway. The series IS getting rather worn though. Not as much as the Mega Man formula though...