Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Thoughts
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was released in 2008 for the Nintendo DS. Order of Ecclesia marked the last mainline entry in the Castlevania series. There have been spin-offs like Grimoire of Souls for mobile devices and the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series, but Order of Ecclesia at the time of this writing is the last of the Metroidvania style games to be released on a handheld or home console device. This means that there hasn’t been a “real” Castlevania game released in 16 years…very sad.
The game received the usual favorable reviews like most Castlevania games, taking note of the overworld map, side quests and the main character of Shanoa as bright spots in the game.
Shanoa is also technically the first true player-controlled female protagonist in the series. Indeed, females had been playable in other entries such as Maria in Rondo of Blood and Charlotte in Portrait of Ruin, but those were either ancillary characters or accompanied by a male character.
What I liked 😃
Location Hopping
Order of Ecclesia tries to do a lot of different things than its predecessors and I appreciated that. One aspect that has changed is there is now a village “hub” area as well as an overworld map.
Harkening back to Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, there are townspeople inhabiting the village of Wygol. Initially, Wygol is sparsely populated. But, through side quests, Shanoa can bring villagers back to the town who then offer their services such as buying and selling weapons and accessories. This is also a place where Shanoa can rest up and heal (and save).
Once Shanoa is ready to leave the town, there are various locations to choose from. There’s a monastery, a lighthouse, a prison island, etc. These locations slowly become available as the story progresses. Instead of Dracula’s Castle being the sole location, Order of Ecclesia tries to make the game feel bigger, offering up many locations. I think it largely succeeds, unless you are a stickler for the tried-and-true Castlevania formula. At the end of the day, it’s not much different from Portrait of Ruin’s portrait hopping, but the world feels more expansive because of the overworld map.
And - spoilers, I guess - but the game eventually does reveal Dracula’s castle as a location. It’s not as large as other games but still visually impressive in its own right.
Shanoa
Shanoa as a character is one of the more complex characters in the Castlevania series. Other characters such as Simon and Trevor Belmont are cool, but their backstories are told inside of game manuals. And, because of the era in which they were created, there wasn’t much substance there anyway. Shanoa, on the other hand, has an interesting arc that we get to experience throughout the game. Starting as “the chosen one” to be the vessel for the entity Dominus, she seems like a foreboding character from the outset. However, she promptly ends up losing her memories and emotions. Shanoa spends most of the rest of the game trying to figure out why her friend stole the Dominus power - and her memories - from her.
Visually, Shanoa is interesting also. She wears a long, flowing dress and has long black/brown hair. On her back is the location at which she absorbs glyphs. She is also decked out in some gnarly looking boots. It’s a stark contrast from the typical Castlevania protagonist and looks like something more like Bayonetta than a Belmont.
The Premise
Order of Ecclesia’s plot is pretty different from other Castlevania games. It’s the 1800s and the Belmont clan is no longer around for some reason. But Dracula is still prophesied to return and wreak havoc once more. Humanity creates several organizations that research various ways to fight back once Dracula eventually returns. One of those organizations is the titular Order of Ecclesia whose specialty are magical glyphs. The combination of glyphs (Anger, Hatred and Agony) that would take down Dracula is called Dominus and there must be a human host for it to work. Shanoa was selected as that host. Unfortunately, during the ritual the glyphs are taken by Albus, Shanoa’s friend and colleague and the fallout causes Shanoa to lose her memories and emotions.
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It’s a pretty neat set up for a video game. It takes the standard Castlevania formula and throws wrenches into the mix. The Belmonts are gone but Dracula will return. How does humanity deal with that? The creation of the organizations makes sense within the context of the world. The introduction of some unknown ancient glyph-based magic that suddenly can be used to defeat Dracula? Well, that’s a little far-fetched but hey this is a video game.
What I didn’t like ☹️
Magic for Everything
Every attack Shanoa has costs magic. Swinging a sword? That takes magic. Thrusting a dagger? Magic. Using magic? Yep, you guessed it, that takes magic too. I’m uncertain why the decision to make even melee attacks rely on Shanoa’s magic points. The only thing I can think of is that she uses the magic to give the weapons enough power to defeat the hordes of enemies that she is facing. Kind of like enchanting the weapons because otherwise normal weapons would do nothing.
Anyway, if you run out of magic, you cannot attack. And that becomes a bit of a problem. At that point, you have to stay put and wait for the magic meter to replenish or, in the case that you can’t stay put, bob and weave around enemies and hope they don’t kill you.
Glyph Absorption Time
The Glyph system is somewhat similar to other Castlevania games like Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. Killing certain enemies will drop glyphs which allow Shanoa to perform special skill and attacks. The difference between the Glyph System and the Souls System from those other games is that Shanoa has to do an extra step to absorb the power after defeating an enemy. She has to stand near the glyph and then “absorb” it through her back. In concept and visually, this is really neat. But it takes a few seconds to absorb the glyph and it leaves Shanoa open to attack.
It wasn’t a huge issue throughout most of my playthrough, but I was attacked when trying to get a glyph and it was annoying. I think maybe if the developers had at least slowed down time for the enemies, they would have been able to retain the neat absorption effect while lessening the chance of being hit.
Overall Thoughts 🤔
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is a stellar entry in the Castlevania series. For a game to be fun and interesting and bring new things to the table AND be the latest (and last, for now) entry in the series is quite an accomplishment. Shanoa is a compelling main character; the story is truly different and even has kind of a What If feel to it. Combat is just as smooth and fun as previous Metroidvanias and of course the music is wonderful. I think the things I didn’t like were really more nitpicks than anything else. This is definitely one of my top Castlevania experiences.
Where Can I Play This? 🕹️
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is a Nintendo DS title. It has yet to be re-released in any collection or on a new platform, so your only option right now is to emulate or find a copy of the DS cartridge.
What do you think of Shanoa? Have you ever played this game? What are your thoughts? I would love to hear!