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Suffering Castlevania Fatigue

Posted by Bob Mackey

It's hard to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it comes to Castlevania--I'd rather see an installment from Koji Igarashi's beloved franchise on the DS than yet another animal grooming game. But since the series has moved to the DS, I've been slightly disappointed. As good as Dawn of Sorrow was on its own terms, the game felt waaay too much like Aria of Sorrow, even within the limited Castlevania framework established over a decade ago by Symphony of the Night. (I'll go ahead and admit that, three years later, Dawn is a game I really need to re-visit, now that I'm even further removed from its predecessor.)

My reaction was even worse with 2006's Portrait of Ruin which claimed to be a return to the roots of classic Castlevania that I never liked much to begin with. I can't tell you if Portrait lived up to its promises, because my limited time with the game was spent pressing the character change button in order to annoy people in my immediate vicinity.

"Charlotte!"
"Jonathan!"
"Charlotte!"
"Jonathan!"

You get the idea.

But the new Castlevania game, Order of Ecclesia, actually has me thinking my disappointment might go away, even if the Symphony of the Night formula doesn't hold the novelty that once made people think Circle of the Moon was even remotely good. For one, the art has reverted from the kid-friendly redesigns back to its former gothic glory--and that's a move we can all be happy about. Word on the street is that the game also features adventurey gameplay elements that are very similar to Castlevania II, except not retarded--frankly, any change to the format is welcome at this point. My interest is piqued; here's a trailer in case you're still on the fence.

Related Links:

It's Official (And Officially Sad): Castlevania Judgement Is Ghoulish
Watcha Playing: Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin
When Good Developers Go Bad: Koji Igarashi

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Posted Oct 21 2008, 09:00 PM

Filed under: castlevania, castlevania 2, ds, koji igarashi, bob mackey, castlevania portrait of ruin, castlevania aria of sorrow, castlevania dawn of sorrow

Comments

Demaar said:

Artwork is loads better. Kind of a happy medium between the stock anime garbage of the past couple of games and the gorgeousness of Ayami Kojima's style.

October 22, 2008 8:59 PM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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