Jonathon Howard, longtime Castlevania fan, analyzes the recently debuted trailer for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
So we have another Castlevania in the vein of Symphony of the Night. I imagine we’ll have to explore a large castle with many of the areas locked off until we receive the upgrades necessary to enter them. As for general game play, there doesn’t seem to be anything new; If it’s not broke don’t fix it. Just as in Portrait of Ruin it looks like you can play as two different characters, though if you switch out a la PofR or not, I can’t tell.
One is a long haired beauty who wields a variety of weapons, the other is a young man with large flintlock pistols. If the amount of screen time is any indication, the girl is the primary protagonist. Since those are flintlocks, my guess is that this game takes place before 1999 and the ridiculous Soma story-arc where Dracula dies and is re-incarnated as Soma. The farther we stay away from that storyline the better. I didn’t see any whips, though, which means we won’t be playing as a Belmont either. The story should be completely new then - as new as any story that takes place in Dracula’s castle (you can tell it’s his because of the tower with the smaller tower coming off of it.)
Graphically, things look good. I only saw one recycled sprite, though several monsters looked like slightly made over sprites; I’m getting somewhat tired of seeing the same enemies over and over. The two bosses we saw are completely new and there seems to be a crustacean theme. I have no idea if that is throughout the game. The visual effects on the ghost ship scene were especially nice, as were several of the magic spells the girl seemed to be casting. I also appreciate the fact that the deformed kid-friendly manga feel seems to be gone; the visuals in the intro were somewhat more mature.
Gameplay-wise, it’s hard to tell what is going on without actually seeing someone play it. Good news is there doesn’t appear to be any drawing necessary. I hated those seals from Dawn of Sorrow. That hook shot/grapple arm though might require the stylus. I’m hoping not though, as it looks necessary in the middle of boss battles, which could be awkward to physically handle. The stylus would definitely get in the way…
The girl looks to be able to equip various different weapons and spells. The magic in the game seems to be fueled by hearts, which is traditional, but instead of support it appears to be the primary form of attack. In just under a minute I saw over 10 weapons, most appeared magical in nature (flames, ice shards, stone fists, rain of arrows, etc., etc.) I’m just going to guess that the glowing runes(?) we see throughout the trailer are the various magic spells you can equip; this seems similar to the soul system found in Dawn of Sorrow, if so, we might be be able to equip more than one at a time. Hopefully, if that is the system, it will have matured a little more since we saw it in Dawn of Sorrow. A little more customization or influence between the spells might be nice.
Finally, the music sounds great! My guess is that they’ve stayed with composer Michiru Yamane, who has been composing Castlevania games since Bloodlines was released on Sega Genesis. Yamane’s style is best described as electronic classic and in my opinion she is one of the best video game composers today.
If you were able to parse out of the trailer something I missed let me know in the comments below! Oh, and get excited! A new Castlevania is almost upon us!
