Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: Difference between revisions

''[[Castlevania]]: Order of Ecclesia'' was released for the [[Nintendo DS]] in 2008.

 

 

Enter the [[Title Drop|Order of Ecclesia]], whose glyph-based magic system has made great progress. They have discovered a spell, Dominus, that has the power to destroy Dracula once and for all. Shanoa, under her master Barlowe's order, plans to absorb the glyph and destroy Dracula.

Unfortunately, Albus, a member of Ecclesia and a close friend of Shanoa, chooses then to interrupt the ceremony; he attacks Barlowe and runs off with Dominus. Shanoa recovers a few weeks later, with her memories gone, and learns Albus attacked Wygol Village and kidnapped all the villagers. Barlowe sends her off to rescue the villagers, recover Dominus, and fulfill [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|Mankind's Greatest Wish.]]

 

 

=== ''Order Of Ecclesia'' provides examples of: ===

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Albus is a Type IV.

* [[Author Avatar]]: Koji Igarashi designed Shanoa as an envisioning of his wife, while he designed himself as Albus.

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Surprisingly enough, the potions (at least, in normal mode, after you rescue Aeon). While they're useful for healing damage (and, of course, the more expensive potions heal more), they're less cost-effective than Aeon's food items.

* [[Ax Crazy]]: {{spoiler|Barlowe upon the reveal. It's also heavily implied that he was like this all along, and that his betraying Sharona was due to his insanity, as, during his [[Teleport Spam]] attack, he says, with each punch, "HOW DARE YOU...! EVEN FORGETTING... WHO RAISED YOU...! YOU... STUPID DISCIPLE!!"}}

* [[BFS]]: Taken to ridiculous extremes with glyph unions, in which the weapon can be at least twice as wide as Shanoa, and ''3 times as tall''.

* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Albus is this to Shanoa. {{spoiler|[[Knight Templar Big Brother|It's the motivation for all of his actions]].}}

* [[Bonus Dungeon]]: 2 of them, in different flavors, even. Training Hall is a [[Platform Hell]]. Large Cavern is full of [[Demonic Spiders]] and a [[Bonus Boss]] (a [[Chinese Vampire]])

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Shanoa defeats Dracula and saves the world, but Albus is dead, Barlowe, the man who raised both of them, was revealed to be a batshit insane Dracula worshipper, and the ending states flatout that the only people who will even remember the events of the game are Shanoa herself and the villagers she rescued. On the plus side, even if Shanoa won't be remembered, she ''still'' saved the world, Albus retrieves her memories, and it's implied that the villagers, who are actually descendants of the Belmont line that have lost their way, have begun training themselves in the ways of the Vampire Hunter.}}

* [[Climax Boss]]: {{spoiler|Barlowe}}. He's the last boss before you go to {{spoiler|Dracula's Castle}}, you fight him after you find out about {{spoiler|Albus' motives and the true nature of Dominus}}, and he has his own battle theme music.

* [[Colossus Climb]]: The battle with Eligor. Albus can kind of cheat with his teleporting though, and if Shanoa takes time to get the Redire glyph from Training Hall before fighting him, she can use it to quickly get to his weakpoint as well. Both characters might have some trouble actually taking him down without destroying the crossbows on his flanks, though.

** The names of the boss battle themes reference other Castlevania games in order of release date. See [[Theme Naming]] below.

* [[Copy and Paste Environments]]: Despite the visuals being genuinely very beautiful, there are many times when you'll see relatively distinctively complex map formations repeated verbatim in a conspicuously unlikely way. This is especially apparent in the caverns of the mountain area maps.

* [[Demonic Possession]]: One of the villager quests is freeing a girl from demonic control by bringing back her cat.

** {{spoiler|This is also the most likely reason for Barlowe's [[Face Heel Turn]] -- he was possessed by Dracula, kind of like how Richter Belmont was possessed by Shaft.}}

*** On the other hand, we have {{spoiler|Albus, who is possessed by Dracula after being consumed by Dominus. He briefly regains control to tell Shanoa to run, before Dracula takes over and launches into his [[Boss Banter]] and the battle itself.}}

* [[Digital Bikini]]: See [[Magic Pants]] below.

* [[Easy Amnesia]]: Averted (mostly) with Shanoa: she loses her memories at the beginning of the game, doesn't get them back {{spoiler|until Albus wrestles them back from Dominus at the end}}, and it changes her personality considerably. The last one does have a bit of [[Take Our Word for It]], though, since we don't see much of her before the incident.

* [[Even the Girls Want Her]]

* [[Everythings Cuter With Kittens]]: There are cats you can rescue and take back to the village. When you meet them at the village, you can [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|attack them]], play with them using the stylus, or use the catgirl transformation glyph to talk to them. You even have to save one as part of a villager quest.

* [[Evil Elevator]]: [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] in the fight with Brachyura, where an elevator [[Benevolent Architecture|with spikes on its underside]] is what finishes it off.

** One of the female villagers, in particular, is all but explicitly in love with Shanoa. She even makes her ''a wedding dress''.

* [[Lethal Chef]]: Played with in the case of Aeon. While his backstory shows him to be a lazy "chef" whose restaurants have all failed, Shanoa (his only customer at this point) doesn't seem to mind his cooking too much. Aeon's food items are also more cost-effective at healing than the potions.

** It probably has more to do with the diminished physical weapon choice, and a lot of the physical weapons aren't as useful as in previous games.

*** In a sense, the game pretty much forces you to actively use spells, because the physical stats are only two of the many that cover attack damage. You can still get them stronger by maxing out their attributes, but it is much easier to spam Nitesco to max out light damage than it is to run up close to the enemy to whack them in the face.

* [[Mana Shield]]: An item allows you to take damage to your heart supply rather than your health bar.

* [[Mega Manning]]: That's how Shanoa learns many of her abilities. You want to summon Zombies? {{spoiler|Steal the ability from an enemy summoner.}} Fireballs? {{spoiler|From a fire demon.}} As a bonus, in many of these cases, you literally have to absorb the Glyph as the enemy is casting the spell, preventing it from going off successfully in the process.

** The Metroidvania aspect is also relatively diminished in this game compared to previous entries, as a lot of the areas are smaller and more linear, and upgrades are of somewhat less focus.

* [[Mirror Match]]: {{spoiler|Albus vs Albus anyone?}}

* [[Punched Across the Room]]: Same attack as below, even.

* [[Punctuated Pounding]]: {{spoiler|Barlowe.}}

** {{spoiler|You also have to go through that wall.}}

* [[Random Drop]]: Enemies will drop money, usable items and objects for the various missions you'll go through. You can also get them from chests that replenish themselves.

** [[Rare Random Drop]]: Of course, some drops won't be as easily gotten as others. Merman meat, only gettable with a 6 star chance from a merman-unrelated enemy (Lorelei), is quite the offender, as you need it for better potions. About chest drops, those only available in the brutal Large Cavern can be quite frustrating too.

* [[Rapunzel Hair]]: Shanoa

* [[Secret Character]]: {{spoiler|Albus}} is available when you get the good ending.

* [[Sequel Difficulty Spike]]: It's shades harder than its predecessor ''[[Portrait of Ruin]]''. This can come off as a [[It's Hard, So It Sucks|shock]] to players who grew up with ''[[Symphony of the Night]]'' and its successors.

* [[Sexy Backless Outfit]]: Shanoa wears a backless dress, which is [[Justified Trope|necessary]] because she absorbs [[Instant Runes|Glyphs]] through a large and intricate tattoo on her back. ...For an [[Emotionless Girl]], she sure does lift up her hair sensually.

** The requisite [[Gradius]] shout out occurs three times:

*** One of the villagers hums the first few notes of "Challenger 1985", the BGM of the first stage of the original ''Gradius''/

*** The Vic Viper itself is a collectible item.

** When Albus activates the elevator to crush Brachyura, he says [[Metal Gear|"Show time."]]

** In an in-series shoutout to ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'', as Shanoa arrives at Dracula's castle, she yells "I am the morning sun, come to vanquish this horrible night!"

* [[Tarot Motifs]]: All the Rings are named after Major Arcana cards.

* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: Remember that tune from the intro movie? Are you feeling down after {{spoiler|killing Albus and Barlowe}}? Well, have we got music for your ears!

* [[The Stoic]]: Shanoa's emotions are repressed because of her amnesia.

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: The tinmen are MUCH harder than they were in Symphony of the Night, even despite having basically the same attack patterns. This is because they can whack you even if you jump over them (double jump works though), move faster than you, and can do a lot of damage VERY quickly.