E308: DS Fanboy hands-on with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

by David Hinkle { Jul 18th 2008 at 9:30AM }

What can I say about Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia? You've played this game plenty of times before. Sure, there are some slight changes here and there, but, ultimately, this is pretty much the same as every other DS Castlevania title released. Don't take that as a bad thing, though.

Gallery: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

The demo at E3 opens up in a tutorial level, as the game's heroine Shanoa is being tutored on how to vanquish evil and use her nifty ability to absorb Glyphs. Once I got a basic rundown of the controls, I was then able to absorb my first Glyph and get on my way.

Absorbing Glyphs is as easy as standing in front of them and holding up on the d-pad. Literally. My first Glyph? A sword. Once I absorbed it, I equipped the sword to both of my hands, allowing me to bust out the combos by alternately hitting the X and Y buttons. So, I headed off into the world. This meant heading into the world map, which allowed me to travel to one place: Monastery.

Once I arrived there, it turned into the good old Castlevania I've come accustomed to. And that is very good. I was going through areas, including the woods outside of the Monastery, as well as a nice library-looking area, among others. Quickly, I discovered another Glyph that ended up being a lot more fun than the initial sword.

This Glyph gave me a magic ability, which was a magnetic field. By holding in the R button, a small blue bubble revolved around Shanoa, which allowed her to be pulled toward small nodes located in the level. By holding a direction, I could slingshot her fairly far, allowing me to hook up to more nodes and navigate areas otherwise unreachable.

Shortly after this, the demo came to an end. This, of course, made me incredibly sad.

Tags: 2d, castlevania, castlevania-order-of-ecclesia, e3-2008, e3-hands-on, e308, igarashi, konami, order-of-ecclesia