I purchased this the day after it came out, however, I would have preordered it if DS Fanboy had mentioned the CD bonus that you got for preordering. I'm enjoying the game so far (Almost beaten it), and the way the map is setup into separate areas was a nice change. If more bonus content existed, such as unlocking something by having one of the GBA games, that would have been cool.

But the ONE thing that irked me the most?

Freaking chainsaws, yes, CHAINSAWS, in the 19th century. I mean, what the hell?!

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Wallman: The best thing that Konami ever did to a Castlevania game, LOL.

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Order of Ecclesia is pretty damn good. It revisits what is great about the past few hundred Castlevania games. And this might be getting somewhat tired, but they seem to be sticking with what works. The combat system has been tweaked, you can now switch up two different weapons with a combo system, and the glyph system in general is pretty good.

For me, the game sits right between SotN and Simon's Quest in terms of gameplay. The bosses, however, are RIDICULOUSLY difficult. They have way too much HP. I find myself powering through stages and then coming back to them repeatedly until finally nailing the patterns. The lighthouse battle with the giant crap is ridiculous, but I overcame.

I didn't play Portrait of Ruin, or the previous DS release though, so I wonder if I might have grown tired of this style of gameplay if I had?

Shaking things up in the Castlevania series does not always work out so well, though. Look at the N64 games as an example. They totally sucked if you ask me..

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Yeah I had absolutely no idea about the preorder bonus either... I found out about it after I bought the game via the Castlevania Dungeon on classicgaming.com

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I've been playing with for a bit now and though I've taken my time (mostly because of work) I've enjoyed it very much. As a die hard fan of the metroidvanias i found this game to be quite the awesome (yes just like that ;) the newly setup for common monsters being harder than the usual makes you smite cleverly through their weaknesses (at least until ye olde brute force kicks in). Excellent music very fresh and in tune with the time setting as well as the artwork done by Masaki that differs from Kojima's (though i like hers as well)

A great addition is the option to change the voice from English to Japanese, on the bad hand though i saw a lot of recycled sprites and sometimes the difficulty hinders the progress, I also wished i had seen more use to the microphone as well as the touch screen.

The overall finished product nevertheless is very appealing for both new and older fans, and while i agree that seeing something new would be sweet, so far i can't complain

jac

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I've already beat it, got all enemies and items logged, beat level 1 hard mode, piece of cake.

I even put an insane boss rush on youtube, which I plan to improve on after I've done some holy-grinding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSk3KKzUrJs

Lol frnachise.

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I just got it over the weekend and haven't had the time to play through it; right now I'm at 25% completion or so. To be honest, I don't quite know what to make of it at this point. As stupid as this may sound to some people, it just feels like less of a Castlevania game without the castle. The levels are too disjointed from each other, too short, and too easy to escape from when you're in a pinch between the multiple save points, warp points, and magical tickets (which I will only use when I've gotten a rare drop and might die before getting to a save point.) The design of the levels just takes away the sense of imposing largeness and feeling that you're truly winding your way through a labyrinth that the castle brought, and much of the beautiful gothic horror feeling has gone with it.

On the plus side, even if the levels are shorter, the amount of detail that goes into them is spectacular. Just something as minute as seeing my shadow lengthen when I jump in front of a spotlight on Minera Prison Island is enough to astound me. The enemies and bosses are also more difficult and require strategy and pattern recognition to beat. So, as much as it doesn't feel like Castlevania, it still does, and I'm having a lot of fun with it thus far.

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I think it's a pretty good game. For me, i always loved the Castlevania games for the DS.
The only thing i didn't like too much was all the separated areas. I enjoyed the whole castle exploring as a whole more so.

Glyph system is good, very reminiscent of Dawn of Sorrow, but i wished weapons and glyphs are separted. I cant find the glyph im looking for sometimes in the menu :X

Difficulty can spike once in awhile, especially when you fight a boss. I died several times because they would so so much damage as well.....

Other than that, Ecclesia is a great game. Definite recommend for any of those people who like the igavanias :D

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I'm enjoying it so far, mostly because of the heightened difficulty. I just kind of walked around in Dawn of Sorrow -- now I find my self having to try bosses over and over until I get it right. :P

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the enemies are challenging and difficult. You die a lot but never feel frustrated, and you experiment with glyphs to really punish some bosses. When you do, you feel really good. The levels and graphics look beautiful, and Shaona looks great. I double jump just to see how she does that little back-flip, and the hair up to absorb glyphs is cool also.

The new enemies are refreshing, the sounds and types are great, and I see a whole lotta replay value. The gothic-esque portraits of characters are great and add a lot of style to the game. I love it.

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I absolutely love this game. I'm not even that big of a Castlevania fan, and I've only ever played SotN on PSP, but I'm loving this game.

My only complaint is the boss battles. They are tough, more so because of the specificity of the strategies needed to beat them and the 10,000 variations you have in the glyph system that you have to sift through to find the one thing that beats them, it completely ruins the pace of the game.

But the game itself is great, and it's not nearly as difficult as people are saying. I wish more non-Castlevania fans could get a chance to pick this one up, it's such a great platformer.

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Bought it on release day, beat the main game already. Didn't tackle all the extras yet.

The glyph system is a great idea, makes combat a lot more fun. I prefer Metroidvania level design though, so splitting up levels into small areas was a small downer.

Bosses are too easy in my opinion. Look, you can deal damage out at least twice as fast with the glyph system. (Vol/Melio) Scutum glyph union gives you temporary invulnerability, makes dodging normally difficult boss attacks too easy. That said, the crab lighthouse battle and Wallman win points for creativity. Eligor and Dracula were the only challenging bosses.

Totally recommend this game. There are never enough excellent 2D platformers out.

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Im actually skipping out on COD:WOW so i can buy this and the other one for the DS (i forget its name)

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I bought it on day one, but I'm saving it for my Christmas travels. Can't wait to play it.

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I think the only thing I don't like about the game is the glyph system. It's cool, the way they have it set up, it's more just like the fact that every single attack you do uses magic, and you can't attack without it. It almost seems like they made it that way just to make it hard (and it is pretty damn hard). I almost wish that they would have just made the bigger attacks or the back glyphs use magic or something... I don't know.

But the way they have to two buttons set up and everything else about the glyph system is really cool.

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