I love Order of Ecclesia

[ConantheContrarian]

I have come to vanquish the dark night that is the "I hate Order of Ecclesia" thread.

I played through most of the Castlevania games for the first time this year and Order of Ecclesia is easily my second favorite out of the entire series, with Symphony of the Night being my favorite and Castlevania III being my third favorite. (The only games I have not completed are Rondo of Blood (No PSP!), the Adventure (Ugh), Chronicles, Legends, and the 3d games.)

The changes this game made to the normal Igavania formula really set it apart for me. The overworld gets us out of Dracula's castle for the first time since the classicvanias, which is a pleasant change. The environments look very good and the levels are tightly designed compared to their immediate predecessors. Dracula's Castle does not disappoint once you reach it either, as it comprises a nice chunk of the game and grants you some really awesome glyphs. The world map also makes backtracking much easier as you move through the game. I have seen complaints that there are too many corridors in the level design, but I do not understand this criticism. There are countless corridors and hallways in almost every other Castlevania game (Marble Gallery SotN, that hallway with the maids in PoR, the hallway with the Frankens in CotM, the tunnels in PoR, every castle entrance stage, I could go on). OoE at least makes the combat in the hallways interesting with the emphasis on damage avoidance.

The glyph system feels like a direct upgrade from the subweapon and soul systems from the previous games. The emphasis on exploiting enemy weaknesses makes you actually experiment with your arsenal instead of just going for the hardest-hitting or fastest weapon available. I went through DoS with basically just two weapons types and about ten souls. There was never really any need to change things up, and even if I did, it would have meant grinding for hours trying to get more than the basic tier of the other weapons and souls. PoR was better on this, but there was almost no need to use subweapons at all because of the incredible strength of basic attacks. I feel OoE focused on attack quality instead of variety and benefited from the choice. Almost all glyphs are viable and you need to adapt your glyphs based on the situation instead of just spamming attack and throwing a few axes and crosses like in the previous games. It even delivers on the power scaling of the previous games with the endgame glyphs like the hell-hound heads and the golem punches.

The enemy, boss, and difficulty design is also an improvement over the previous games. I don't mind to much that the other Igavanias are fairly easy, but I feel like difficulty suits Castlevania as a franchise pretty well. It gives weight to the fact that you are supposed to be fighting the forces of darkness. OoE delivers on the difficulty without resorting to the cheapness of Castlevania III. The longer distance between checkpoints delivers tension as you move through levels, but the enemies are not placed in an unfair way where you cannot avoid damage without fore-knowledge of the area. The bosses also feel much more carefully designed, with an emphasis on learning patterns and careful movement instead of brute force.

The character designs and music are also among the best in the series. (Although, Castlevania almost always shines in these areas anyway.)

My only real criticisms of this game are that they could have implemented some branching paths on the world map to spice things up and they needed to add a little more enemy variety and one more section to Dracula's Castle. I will also accept the criticism that they could have come up with new level ideas instead of re-skinning existing ones towards then end of the first part. (Dracula could also laugh a little less in the final battle.)

Please post here if you love this game!

[vilsal]

It's a brilliant game, probably my favorite Castlevania after III and the only Igavania I've felt compelled to replay. Turning every attack into a spell was a brilliant design choice that ensures you actually experiment with the different options and don't leave major parts of the mechanics unused, as so easily happens in earlier games. The increased difficulty also makes said experimentation necessary, particularly in the tough boss fights. Playing it just feels so good.

If OP has access to a PS4 or PS5, Rondo of Blood is available in the Castlevania Requiem collection. You know how sometimes games that are hard to access gain an almost mythical reputation that turns into a huge disappointment when you finally get to play them? Rondo isn't like that at all. It's definitely one of the crown jewels of Castlevania, a uniquely strong franchise.

[burn1none]

yeah I'm having an absolute blast re-playing it. the glyph system and being able to switch builds on the fly is much more interesting than using the sword with the highest attack power like in SotN. I'm glad they released it because trying to emu it with two screens is kinda a pain.

I would highly encourage you to try Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the PS2, I found it to be super fun in weapon variety and I think unfairly criticized for level design. if you watched the Netflix series you'll probably be familiar with some of the characters. I'd wager eventually it will come to steam but who knows how long that will take.

Still hoping Harmony of Despair comes to Steam but I have less confidence that one will tbh which is a crying shame

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by burn1none:

yeah I'm having an absolute blast re-playing it. the glyph system and being able to switch builds on the fly is much more interesting than using the sword with the highest attack power like in SotN. I'm glad they released it because trying to emu it with two screens is kinda a pain.

I would highly encourage you to try Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the PS2, I found it to be super fun in weapon variety and I think unfairly criticized for level design. if you watched the Netflix series you'll probably be familiar with some of the characters. I'd wager eventually it will come to steam but who knows how long that will take.

Still hoping Harmony of Despair comes to Steam but I have less confidence that one will tbh which is a crying shame

I mean, there's more to SotN than the strongest sword. like with the other metroidvanias, you have speed vs power. although there is that one blood sword that can get infinitely powerful.

curse of darkness was pretty fun, but waaaaaay to grindy. raising them innocent devils was a full time job.

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by vilsal:

It's a brilliant game, probably my favorite Castlevania after III and the only Igavania I've felt compelled to replay. Turning every attack into a spell was a brilliant design choice that ensures you actually experiment with the different options and don't leave major parts of the mechanics unused, as so easily happens in earlier games. The increased difficulty also makes said experimentation necessary, particularly in the tough boss fights. Playing it just feels so good.

If OP has access to a PS4 or PS5, Rondo of Blood is available in the Castlevania Requiem collection. You know how sometimes games that are hard to access gain an almost mythical reputation that turns into a huge disappointment when you finally get to play them? Rondo isn't like that at all. It's definitely one of the crown jewels of Castlevania, a uniquely strong franchise.

I dunno. you're not given all that much to expirement with. rolling boss? strongest blade occasionally using magna. big skelly? hammer. crab? hammer. most bosses you're just using 1 of 2 weapon glyphs and what amounts to basically a sub weapon. Axe, Knife, light spell that's basically the bible, or sometimes that yellow crystal. the first fire spell is pretty nice when you finally get it late game. everything gets replaced by death lasers and death moons though.

[AzureTwist]

Order of Ecclesia is the peak of Castlevania.

[Buffster]

Originally posted by Ebola-Chan:

Order of Ecclesia is the peak of Castlevania.

Indeed! Also it have like Castlevania 2 Simon's quest vibe!

[Duckman]

I like the various outside locations in Order of Ecclesia. Somnus Reef, Tymeo mountains, Oblivion Ridge, etc.

[0wnz0r]

its easily my fav. u can explore but u dont get frustrated wit tedious map design, theres reasonable difficulty so i dont feel like its a game made for babies, its a great story wit all new characters n a great protagonist, its a showpiece for a new n awesome art style for the series, n it got a banger soundtrack.

awesome gameplay, graphics, art style, music, enemy design n variety, characters, n bonus modes. it felt like an actual adventure... the journey to the castle, the village u revisit to resupply n chat wit villagers... the best igavania for me hands down.

no silly gimmicks either. pure gameplay.

[AzureTwist]

Originally posted by Buffster:

Originally posted by Ebola-Chan:

Order of Ecclesia is the peak of Castlevania.

Indeed! Also it have like Castlevania 2 Simon's quest vibe!

I agree! I always connected it to Simon's Quest for some reason, the town, some of the map layouts. I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who feels this!

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by Duckman:

I like the various outside locations in Order of Ecclesia. Somnus Reef, Tymeo mountains, Oblivion Ridge, etc.

it's basically like 6 unique areas, with a few repeats, and a few being little more than a straight hallway.

you got mountain range, mysterious manor, water level, skeleton cave, monastery and prison.

it was a unique take, but not really different from the diverse areas the castle had in other games like SotN. instead you get one of the most lackluster castles competing with portrait for worst castles in the series. you have a total of like 14 enemies spread about the entire castle, meaning you end up fighting mostly the same enemies, especially because some of those 14 are like 1 or 2 rooms only. you have two halways that are 2 spectral swords. 2 hallways with a grand guard and barbarian skeleton thing, and 2 hallways that are final guards.

[BigCheese]

I started the collection with this one, first time playing and I think it's great.

[Bluedini]

I saved Order of Ecclesia for last and it ended up being my favorite out of the bunch. Super fun to play and the music is too perfect!

[khaosklub]

I think the appeal of OoE is how simple it is. it's like mega man classic vs mega man zero. both are pretty hard, but zero gives you a bunch of abilities that you can leverage to win, while classic is super simple. you jump, you shoot, you have some weapons that some enemies are particularly weak to.

some people prefer the simplicity of just jumping and attacking with nothing else to worry about, while some like having more abilities to leverage with a high skill ceiling.

in OoE, you have very little options when it comes to weapons. you basically just use your strongest blade or hammer, and just attack. hammer weapon is just as fast as the blade weapon, unlike prior games where hammer weapons was a slow overhead swing with massive lag time. if you wanted a fast strike weapon, you needed to use a scary short range punch.

there's no high jump, no fighting game mechanic moves, no tons of souls to customize and decide what to use. no, the game basically has 4 or 5 arm glyphs you'll use and greatly rewards you for not diversifying your arsenal. the more you use a single weapon type, the stronger it gets.

back glyphs are all the kind that you just turn on and forget about besides the ones you just use to progress like magnes.

[Sacrefice]

Honestly i really enjoy this game. Yeah the small maps are a little bit of a let down but other than that it's great game. Playing around with the runes and gear to find your perfect build is fun, the maps are challenging and force you to adapt your playstyle instead of just finding the one super strong weapon that you use for the rest of the game, droprates are decent and luck actually works, the questssystem idea is neat and i like it more than just getting new items in the shop after a certain point in the game. I like the idea with a combo based combat system and that you have stamina now so you can't just mindlessly spam, bosses are well designed and mostly fair.
Things i'm missing is that you can't have multiple equip setups, so you don't have to change it all the time when going from fighter to mage and they should have added the effect of invincebility to the backdash from the beginning instead of having to wear boots for it, then they could've added a hardmode and you would have something like a mini darksouls ^^

[khaosklub]

Originally posted by Sacrefice:

Honestly i really enjoy this game. Yeah the small maps are a little bit of a let down but other than that it's great game. Playing around with the runes and gear to find your perfect build is fun, the maps are challenging and force you to adapt your playstyle instead of just finding the one super strong weapon that you use for the rest of the game, droprates are decent and luck actually works, the questssystem idea is neat and i like it more than just getting new items in the shop after a certain point in the game. I like the idea with a combo based combat system and that you have stamina now so you can't just mindlessly spam, bosses are well designed and mostly fair.
Things i'm missing is that you can't have multiple equip setups, so you don't have to change it all the time when going from fighter to mage and they should have added the effect of invincebility to the backdash from the beginning instead of having to wear boots for it, then they could've added a hardmode and you would have something like a mini darksouls ^^

there is a hardmode.

but playing with the glyphs? what glyphs did you play around with? there aren't many and most are pretty worthless. have you really found a use for the ice glyphs?