While I would prefer to have a new 2D castle crawling Castlevania every year, I’ll have to settle for the rate they put them out. That said, Castlevania Order of Ecclesia hit a few days ago and I am of course in love.
It’s kinda hard to take my opinion too critically on these games because I haven’t met one that I hate yet. Hell, I replay them in my sleep. But I won’t be afraid to acknowledge some flaws, even if I don’t let them bother me.
One of the issues with these games is the difficulty. Some argue losing the RPG-esque stat system would up the difficulty. This is one option, but Konami went another route in upping the difficulty in Ecclesia.
Fucking hard bosses.
I mean, goddamn. I have died at least six or seven times on each boss so far, if not more. I’m only on the third boss I think but they each have been quite a struggle to go through. Their patterns can be figured out, but surviving the damage output and taking down their massive HP has been almost frustrating.
I say almost because they have, in tradition, put the save points right by the boss rooms. And, as they have added a world map with multiple zones to pick from this time, sometimes the boss is just right off the bat when you get to the new area. So there isn’t much time taken getting to the boss, although before I get the patter down, I sometimes spend less time actually fighting them.
But it’s the castle crawling, RPG stat having awesome-fest that I can’t get enough of.
And it has a giant enemy crab named Blackula.
