Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has you play as an amnesiac emo girl in thigh-high boots that gets all her powers by absorbing magic symbols into her back

yeah I’m interested

here it is: the last Metroidvania. no more after this! there’s still a couple Castlevania games that were made since, many of the questionable variety, but for all intent and purposes this is the final Castlevania that follows the style Symphony of the Night introduced all the way in 1997.

what is this “Order of Ecclesia” you may ask? well I can’t tell you because that’d be a spoiler, but Ecclesia is the residence of this game’s main character Shanoa, and she’s tasked by her mentor Barlowe to take part in a ritual to absorb the power of Dominus, a powerful glyph that have the power to destroy Dracula. however another member by the name of Albus sabotages the ritual, stealing Dominus for himself and leaving Shanoa without her memories in the process. you remember Hugh from Circle of the Moon? well Albus is like him, but worse, yet simultaneously better at the same time. Albus’s actions are definitely more catastrophic, but believe or not there’s a reasonable explanation for why he does this, though once again that’s spoiler territory. for most of the game onward Shanoa has to go after Albus, who sends her on a wild goose chase through various locations. he’s encountered at least another two times during the journey, and in neither of these times does he choose to willingly attack Shanoa, hinting that his motivations are deeper than they seem. this is definitely a return to form after Portrait of Ruin had a little more lighthearted vibe, and the story only gets darker for the characters (specifically Shanoa) the further you go into it.

okay you’re not actually spending your time venturing in Dracula’s Castle, well for most of the game anyway. what you thought you wouldn’t be going in that castle eventually? what do you think this is, Dawn of Sorrow??? likewise with Portrait of Ruin, most of what you’ll be doing is going through smaller contained areas, though this time they’re actual locations rather than paintings that you enter. and just like with real life, reality can often be disappointing. a good portion of the locations don’t really have much going on with them, both in size and visually so expect to see a lot of forest and mountains. that said there’s still a couple of cool places to venture through such as the Monastery which is a former religious building taken over by monsters, the Kalidus Channel that has extremely stormy weather as well as a sunken ship to visit, Minera Prison Island where you need to avoid the spotlights unless a powerful monster comes to attack you, the Lighthouse while pretty small also houses a giant crab that chases you to the top, and probably the coolest area being the Skeleton Cave, an cave entirely made of bones and has nothing but skeleton enemies, one of which being a big old skeleton dinosaur, what a cool area. well I mean the Skeleton Cave was already done in Harmony of Dissonance, but that doesn't mean it still isn’t cool the second time. eventually you do get to return to Dracula’s Castle and it has a couple of the usual stuff that you’d expect to see (a library, underground section, clock tower etc.). the castle here, despite not being able to enter it until the last third of the game, is probably bigger than the one in Portrait of Ruin. I suppose this is the power of having an upper left section.

you’re back to being relegated to only one character in this game, but that’s okay since Shanoa’s cool. defensively she uses her equipment as you expect by buying them at shops or finding them along the way, offensively however is where things are a bit different. Shanoa doesn’t get her weapons by enemy drops, instead she has to rely on absorbing glyphs to obtain access to her weaponry. when she obtains, say, a Sword glyph, she’s able to equip them on both of her hands and attack with both the X and Y buttons, meaning you don’t need to grind for another sword. once you have one you’re all set, until you find a more powerful version of that glyph. protip: use Axes. a lot. they’re really good in this game, you have my word. she can also use magic attacks as well such as the Elementals, Light, and Darkness, and you can combine them by having a weapon in one slot and magic in another to create a special combination move powered by your Hearts, all you need to do is perform the old school technique of pressing Up and the Attack button at the same time (it can be done with the same glyph on each hand too). just keep note that your glyphs are powered by the MP bar, meaning once the MP bar is drained, Shanoa will be unable to attack for a brief period, emphasis on brief as it’ll go back up to full after about three seconds so it’s really not a hindrance. there’s also glyphs that you can use by pressing the R button. a lot of them are pretty situational but eventually you do get some that boost various stats temporarily so you’ll likely want to stick with them for the boss fights. all the bosses have some sort of weakness whether it’ll be elemental or even weapon based so keep in that mind if you want to have an easier time with the bosses, because they will kick your ass. this does mean that a lot of the boss fights will tend to go down to “use the big damage move until your hearts are gone, then mash X and Y with their weaknesses every chance you get” so it can get a bit repetitive at times, but the bosses are pretty well-designed and challenging despite that so they’ll still be able to keep you somewhat engaged.

surprise surprise, side quests are back, and this time they’re nowhere near as schizo and random as the ones in the previous game! during the course of the game, Shanoa will encounter villagers trapped in stasis hiding in various areas. she can free them by absorbing the glyph above them. the villager you rescued will then return to the Wygol Village which acts as a somewhat hub of the game and they’ll offer you a quest when you go back and talk to them over there. the quests are a bit more traditional this time around as most of the time they’ll usually ask you to retrieve items for them but on some occasions they change it up by asking you to take a picture of an enemy or defeating a certain number of enemies or some other thing. unfortunately a lot of those item ones require you to get rare enemy drops, which means you’re going to have to increase that Luck stat as much as you can. a lot of these quests can be pretty annoying but the rewards you get for them are pretty great so if you want to take the chance to get some helpful items (which you’ll want to because this game’s pretty tough) then make sure you get to work on those quests.

there’s not as much sprite reusing as last time so I’m guessing that this game had a little more time in the oven, that and instead of reusing four locations, it only reuses two locations this time! on top of that the art style for the portraits returns to the gothic style rather than the anime one, though Ayami Kojima is still not the one making the portraits as they have Masaki Hirooka being the illustrator this time. I like this style, it's not quite Kojima but it's still very nice and a worthy successor to her art. for the music, well it’s great, though you probably already knew that. this is the first track you hear when you boot up the game, so that should say more than enough but I’m still continuing anyway. Ecclesia is what you hear during the beginning monologue that’s in a lot of the later Castlevanias and no other track can better set up the mood for the game then this one. Sapphire Elegy is probably one of the memorable tracks in this game as this is essentially where the tutorial takes place, it’s a pretty soothing theme that suits Ecclesia yet also hints to some darker things going on in a brief portion of the track. Destiny’s Stage is your world map theme which is cool since there hasn’t been one since Belmont’s Revenge, anyway I appreciate the gothic and mysterious tones that this one gives off, it really makes you feel that you have a serious mission to accomplish. Chapel Hidden in Smoke plays at the Monastery which is the first actual area with active enemies, I don’t actually have much to say about this one it’s just another solid beginning theme that suits the vibe of the game. Serenade of the Hearth is an interesting one. I think the intention was to have a another relaxing track but I always found it more melancholic which suits the Wygol Village when you first visit it since almost all the inhabitants are abducted when you first arrive, which became a little more odd of me when it kept playing even after all the villagers were returned. Metal Slug is that you??? nah that’s a boss theme of this game, but you do hear it when facing a giant crab so that has to count for something. A Clashing of Waves should tell you how cool it is by including a rocking guitar during most of the track. you might be surprised to find out that this tune plays during a water area, well a stormy water area. Cantus Motet -1- is pretty much the Albus theme, some part of the tracks are oddly tranquil but there’s also feelings of regret throughout giving you an insight that’s more to Albus than it seems. Jaws of a Scorched Earth is a title that goes hard, which is ironic considering the track is more groovy than intense, I’m a little surprised it’s actually from Castlevania since it feels like something I’d probably hear in Pokémon B2/W2. I’m not sure if this is my favorite track of the game but it’s definitely close.
bassbassbassbassbassbassbassbass
pianopianopianopiano
VERTICAL SHOT

yeah I’m thinking Order of Ecclesia has a great soundtrack

and finally I’ll conclude by showing off Welcome to Legend, which plays in the file select screen after completing the game. Order of Ecclesia can be a bit rough at times, but it is nonetheless an excellent entry in the Castlevania franchise, and unfortunately the final entry to not only be apart of the official timeline, but also the final to follow the Metroidvania format as the sales for the game were at an all-time low, which might have contributed to this regrettable end. no more leveling up, no more increasing your HP and MP, no more 100%ing the castle, no more items or techniques to cheese through the game, it’s all over. almost 15 years later and there still hasn’t been a Castlevania in this style since, at least not in an official capacity. it lives on through Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which not only has Koji Igarashi at the helm, but with Michiru Yamane composing the music and they even got Ayami Kojima to draw a single illustration for it, but this isn’t a Bloodstained review so I’ll end it off there. Order of Ecclesia is an end of an era, but it along with the games before have helped create a genre that still thrives to this very day. as a motivational quote from a quick Google search might say, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

TL;DR: Shanoa did nothing wrong