2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

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halfw1t

2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Postby halfw1t » November 24th, 2010, 5:56 pm

I agreed with the text from the review.  I disagree with the "D+".  The game is better than that.  OoE was a huge disappointment to me.  A D+ makes the game sound like trash.  I don't think its trash. 

JWK1
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2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Postby JWK1 » November 30th, 2010, 1:29 pm

Nice review, my friend.  You know I've been waiting for this one!!  As the boards self-appointed Castlevania expert, I agree with pretty much everything you state in the review.  Scratch that; I agree with everything.  While I actually love the cookie-cutter portable Castlevanias as they (and the Super mario Bros 3 port on GBA) are what pulled me back into gaming, I'm not above stating the faults of even the most sacred of cows.  That said, Ecclesia was a big disappointment on a personal level for me after the excellent Portrait of Ruin (I know you didn't like this one either) and the stellar, classic, absolutely PERFECT Dawn of Sorrow.  It's certainly the worst of the three on the DS.  It's also the most polarizing amongst critics.  Dave, check out IGNs review of the game where Mark Bozon calls Ecclesia "probably the best DS game ever."  It's truely astounding.  While I don't mind the recycled sprites at all (yes, the skeleton is tradition... but your comment was funny), what I do mind is laziness in level design, which Order of Ecclesia is the worst offender in Castlevania history.  Poor level design + brutal difficulty = .  And that's coming from Castlevania's biggest fan!  It's a poor swan song for the 2D series, as Lords of Shadow will likely be the series' next evolution.

But there's no way this game is a D+.  I gave it a B in my review, which I think is much too high in retrospect.  What say we split the difference?  It's a "C" caliber game, warts and all; certainly not worse than that.  Once you get to Dracula's Castle (about 50% completion) things start getting much better.  And you gave the game it's due; it's one of the best looking handheld games ever. 

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2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Postby VideoGameCritic » December 1st, 2010, 10:49 pm

Looks like we're all on the same page except for the grade itself.  I find it odd that people would interpret a D+ as "trash".  In school, D+ is a passing grade, just below average.  I played this game a lot, so it's not terrible.

I could see how people might say an F game is trash, but even those games have some redeeming features and will appeal to a [limited] audience.  I think grade inflation on other sites is influencing how people think about the grades here.

I guess most site can't afford to offend publishers because they have advertisement revenue to worry about.  I don't, so I just call 'em as I see 'em.


JWK1
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2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Postby JWK1 » December 2nd, 2010, 9:17 am

I'm with you 100%, Critic.  1up is a site I really like, but I almost never see a grade below a C.  Every major new title is almost guarenteed a B+ or higher.  If you actually read the reviews, sometimes the reviewer will lament about how the game pales compared to its competitors, how certain features break the game, poor gameplay, etc, etc, and the game gets a B-...  what is that?  An average game is a C.  A superior game is a B or higher.  D is simply below average, and that's how you view Ecclesia; that's cool.  I think the game is about average (C).  A's and A+'s are reserved for stone cold classics.  Period.


Samael

2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Postby Samael » December 2nd, 2010, 2:10 pm

I'm in perfect agreement with the grade. I'm just debating whether this counts as cookie cutter. Any cookie with that much poison in it, stands out a little...

red_curry_paste
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Re: 2010/11/23: Nintendo DS: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Postby red_curry_paste » December 10th, 2018, 9:43 am

Gonna dig up this old thread to talk about Castlevania. Brought Portrait of Ruin with me to entertain me on a flight this past weekend, and I ended up getting bored. Hadn't played it in years, and I was surprised at how underwhelmed I was this time around. The game just feels half-baked - the music is blah, the castle is forgettable, the characters are annoying, and the anime style looks cheap. I think the developers got kind of lazy towards the end, too - the final four paintings are just palette swaps of the first four.

Circling back to OoE, I felt exactly the same way as the Critic did when I first bought it back in '08 - I think I ended up playing up to the crab boss, then put it down in frustration. Fast forward to 2011, I decide to give it another go when I had a few weeks to myself in China, and I was hooked. Once you get past that initial learning curve, it's one of the most engrossing Castlevania titles out there. It doesn't top Dawn of Sorrow, but it comes damn close, IMHO.


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