Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Out Now!

[marcel]

hey guys, remember these leaked screenshots of castlevania 3 for the ds?

(and we all looked at the first bottom picture that displays wii just above game start?)

Well you guys it turns out the leaked screens were real afterall, becouse Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was officially announced in Famitsu.
Scans of the announcement:

[darksnowman]

How does this mean the Wii one could be happening? (serious question!)

Its good to have confirmation on Order of Ecclesia- my bet is that it'll be at E3 this year and will win the award for game of the show or whatever its called. Who dares bet against me? Maybe I should have noticed before from those three original leaked screen shots, but it looks like that woman is gonna be the lead character- you can see clearly in the scan that in the gameplay screenshots the playable character has long hair.

[IMJ]

Yay for this game! It seems to be another 'Metroidvania'. The artstyle looks good, hopefully no more general anime-style this time.

I like how this game has a female protagonist. Also, this game is a 1-2P game. Still only 2P Boss rush mode or something else? Cant wait to hear more of this!

[Goron_3]

Dawn of Sorrow is still one of my favourite DS games. Can't wait for this!

[Funktion]

Another year, another Castlevania game, another day one purchase...

Can't wait for proper screenshots and videos. Although I must say, judging from these screens the game looks remarkably like the last couple of games, even more so than usual. I was hoping they would add a new thing or two, since this time they had a little more time between games.

[James McGeachie]

Really hoping this isn't as "to the book" again with the same bosses and what not. I liked Portrait of Ruin but I've honestly yet to even finish it. Dawn of Sorrow was great as it was the return of SotN sprite quality but it was still just AoS all over again essentially.

I love the Metroidvania formula but it's undoubtedly wearing thin. They could definitely do with more focus on the "lead up" to Dracula's castle or not having the castle at all. Portrait of Ruin made an attempt at that yeah but the areas just felt like separate provinces within the castle again...as well essentially they were.

[flameboy]

Great news...Portrait of Ruin is one of my fav games on the DS...so a sequel is very much welcome.

[Ten10]

I don't think POR has much life left in it for me so this can come out soon enough. Finished POR with the lv 1 cap and completed even that so bring on the CV love.

[Ike]

I've never played a Castlevania game before, I've wanted to buy one of the games but I've never got round to it. I might pick up PoR cheap or one of the games on VC. Any suggestions which I should get first?

[Funktion]

Personally I loved the duo Aria of Sorrow (GBA) and Dawn of Sorrow (DS). Circle of the Moon (GBA) and Symphony of the Night (PS1, X360, ...) are also great.

Of the "older" level based games my favorite is Super Castlevania IV.

If I were you I would start with the Castlevania Double Pack for the GBA (which includes Harmony of Dissonance, plus Aria of Sorrow), it should be cheap if you find it. You get two games, Harmony of Dissonance is entertaining (although a lot of fans didn't seem to enjoy it), and Aria of Sorrow is one of the best (in my personal opinion). If you enjoy them, especially Aria of Sorrow, you can continue the story and play Dawn of Sorrow for the DS.

You should try to get the games while you can, Castlevania titles are usually a bit hard to find after a while; the DS games have been re-released, so they should be easily available, but as time passes the games will disappear from the shelves and you'll have a hard time finding them.

[James McGeachie]

I'd advise to be careful trying to obtain those Castlevania GBA games though and not to buy from Ebay. Even from respect sellers there's a crapload of bootlegs out there. My copy of Aria turned out to be bootleg (bought it from Ebay) which annoyed me as I didn't realise until I finished the game and then read that no one else had crippling framerate issues like I'd had.

[darksnowman]

Originally Posted by Ike

I've never played a Castlevania game before, I've wanted to buy one of the games but I've never got round to it. I might pick up PoR cheap or one of the games on VC. Any suggestions which I should get first?

Seeing as you are willing to go for one of the VC games, then Super Castlevania IV gets my full endorsement. Its a classic game, and is in a different style to the subsequent GBA/ DS games seeing as they have introduced things like lots of items and RPG levelling up. They are all great games, but IV is good old whip action at its purest, imo.

[Hero-of-Time]

Originally Posted by darksnowman

Seeing as you are willing to go for one of the VC games, then Super Castlevania IV gets my full endorsement. Its a classic game, and is in a different style to the subsequent GBA/ DS games seeing as they have introduced things like lots of items and RPG levelling up. They are all great games, but IV is good old whip action at its purest, imo.

What he said!

[Pit-Jr]

Thirded! SCIV is a gem, and if im not mistaken, Castlevania 1 and Simon's Quest are also available on VC, both of which are solid.

[ShadowV7]

I just picked up Portrait of Ruin today at the new Gamestation and i'm loving it so far. I say bring on the 3rd one, even though I still need Dawn of Sorrow.

[James McGeachie]

I dunno if SCIV is the best game for someone new to the franchise. It has well designed levels but compared to the modern games the controls are horribly clunky and unresponsive. It's a great game but it could put someone off the whole franchise if they get the wrong idea from those controls.

[Jamba]

I really like this series but does anyone else think that the crab boss thing looks really bad? (avoids obvious "Gaint Enemy Crab" comment)

I'm surprised that they haven't tried to expand the CV franchise a bit more. Obviously the story has branched out with the new families and stuff but for such a well established franchise, that releases games relatively frequently, you'd think that they would chuck a bit of a curve ball sometime soonish.

[James McGeachie]

I really like this series but does anyone else think that the crab boss thing looks really bad? (avoids obvious "Gaint Enemy Crab" comment)

From the one screen?

It's climbing vertically up the tower chasing you and attacking at the same time, use your imagination and it sounds pretty cool.

[Coolness Bears]

Oooh! another Castlevania!

I have to say the first two slipped under my gaming radar!

They came out at akward times when i had no money.

I've tried to correct this and I have played Dawn of Sorrow which is an excellent game and left me hungry for more.

I might actually dig in for the third slice of Castlevania Pie on the DS.

[Sentient//]

The dark style of the old episodes is back, very good!

[Hellfire]

Not to mention the new battle system sounds great and it has more traditional castlevania levels too.

[darksnowman]

Just had a thought- it would be class if Order of Ecclesia was to have a similar map system to Phantom Hourglass. By that I just mean please let us make notes on the map! Seeing as backtracking etc is a key part of the Castletroid games, imagine how convenient it would be to be able to note down rooms you need to revisit and whatnot!

[/ nando /]

I just completed Portrait of Ruin this morning (I had got to the fight with Dracula several months ago.. but never went back to beat him!) ..I decided last night, after darksnowman's recent foray into Harmony of Dissonance, that I was gonna attempt to bring Dracula and his caslte to an end

With Dawn of Sorrow and now Portrait of Ruin under my belt, I'm eagerly awaiting Order of Ecclesia as the DS 'vanias are awesome!

I agree with what was said above too.. a Phantom Hourglass inspired map system would be a great way to go for things like writing down where unreachable platforms are and such to come back to later

[ShadowV7]

I still keep meaning to get Dawn of Sorrow, at the second last boss at Portrait of Ruin.

[darksnowman]

With their "reveal" of Order of Ecclesia, Nintendo Power have pulled the curtain back on it a bit with some new info:

- takes place in mid 1800s
- “No real weapons in this game” all fighting is through Glyphs (as discussed earlier)
- Glyphs dropped by enemies, found in specific locations as well
- MP refills quickly when not attacking
- combos possible
- Glyph Union special attacks
- Character: Barlowe - teaches you tips, helps you early on in the game
- Character: Albus - controls Dominus (Glyph most suited to destroy Dracula)
- Character: Shanoa (main character) - loses her memory and power at game’s start, sets out to find Dominus
- More than 20 locations
- Save statues, teleportation rooms
- receive side-quests from saved villagers
- Michiru Yamane - sound design
- No returning characters except for Dracula
- Gameplay elements from previous games: Leveling-up, dodging (L/R buttons), select button to switch between map and stats, hard difficulty setting, multiple endings, Wi-Fi support
- Wi-Fi: New item interface: own a shop, vs. competition - considers items used and damaged received to determine winner
- More features that Nintendo Power cannot talk about

http://gonintendo.com/?p=44339