Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is the third Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS handheld platform. Though developed by the same team that created Portrait of Ruin, it has dropped the anime inspired artwork of its two predecessors in favor of a more traditional Gothic style. It is also notably the first canonical game to feature a female lead (due to popular demand), who is known as Shanoa.

Releases
This game is confirmed to be released on October 21st, 2008 in the US and October 23rd 2008 in Japan on the Nintendo DS.

Gameplay
The basic gameplay is like all other "Castleroid" style games. The system for this game is known as the Glyph System. Shanoa is able to absorb the powers found in glyphs found throughout the castle and within enemies. These glyphs give her magical weapons and abilities and consume her magic meter, which automatically replenishes itself. She can equip a glyph in her right hand, her left hand, and on her back, marking a return to the two-handed weapon style only seen in Symphony of the Night. Each usage of glyph absorbs magic meaning simple attacks use magic. However, equipping certain glyph combinations in each hand will give the ability to activate a "Glyph Union", which will execute a powerful special attack that consumes hearts instead of magic. Glyphs can be found in certain locations on the map, or can be dropped by enemies; at which point, Shanoa can absorb the glyphs simply by holding the up button. Additionally, there are Glyphs that affect the environment; Shanoa will have to absorb these in order to proceed. Besides from attacking, there are also glyphs that will boost skills, increase speed, transform Shanoa into an enemy creature, and so forth.

Plot
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia takes place after Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, sometime in the early 1800s. As the Belmont Clan had vanished by that time, several organizations are created in order to research countermeasures against Dracula and his army's eventual return. Between these organizations, the most promising was the Order of Ecclesia who created a triad of magical glyphs named "Dominus". Shanoa is a young lady chosen by the order's leader, Barlowe, as the human vessel for Dominus, but just before the ritual is performed, the glyphs are stolen by Shanoa's best (and only) friend and fellow Ecclesia member Albus, disrupting the ritual and apparently costing Shanoa her emotions and memories. Upon awakening, Barlowe tells her of his version of the events and orders her to retrieve Albus and Dominus.

In her pursuit, Shanoa arrives in the deserted Wygol Village and finds out that Albus kidnapped its inhabitants and keeps each one of them imprisoned in a different location. As Shanoa rescues them throughout the game, she learns that Albus captured them to perform some kind of twisted experiment in them which involved draining samples of their blood. Each villager rescued provides Shanoa with tasks that once completed, provide new rewards. Although completing the tasks is not required to complete the game, its final areas are only unlocked when all villagers are rescued.

On two occasions, Shanoa manages to track down Albus, who willingly lets her retrieve one of the Dominus glyphs. But when she finds him possessed by the power of the third and final glyph, she is forced to battle him; it transpires his objective in gifting her with the glyphs was to learn her absorption technique. If there are villagers left to rescue at that part of the game, Shanoa retrieves the final piece of Dominus after killing Albus and immediately returns to Ecclesia to perform the ritual. The game ends with her untimely death and Barlowe's master plan completed.

However, if all villagers are rescued before Shanoa's final confrontation with Albus, his conscience fuses with hers when she absorbs the final glyph and she learns that Albus's true intentions were to find a way to defeat Dracula without Shanoa using Dominus, as he knew that it would cost her life if she used it. He also reveals that the reason he experimented on the villagers was because they were the last descendants of the Belmont Clan, and he (erroneously) believed their blood would have the power to help him control Dominus without it consuming him. As for her lost emotions and memories, he revealed that Barlowe used them as a sacrifice to gain control of Dominus, a fact he hid from her. He also revealed that Dominus is made from Dracula's own essence.

Confronting her master after learning the truth, Shanoa hears from him that his true objective all this time was to bring Dracula back to life using her as a sacrifice. After Barlowe is defeated, he ends up offering his own life to fulfill his ambition. With no memories left, no emotions left, and with the death of those who were most precious to hers, Shanoa sets for Dracula's castle to put him back into his slumber, and complete the task she has spent her whole life preparing herself for. Shanoa infiltrates Dracula's castle, defeats many of his underlings, and finally confronts him. She successfully defeats him using Dominus, but seemingly at the cost of her own life. However, Albus's spirit appears and reveals to Shanoa that while using Dominus demands a life in return, it need not be hers. He gives up his own in Shanoa's place after restoring her emotions and memories back, but not before he asks her to smile for him one last time. Albus's soul disappears, Castlevania crumbles into ruins and Shanoa escapes. It is also said that all records of Ecclesia vanished soon afterward.

Reception
Shane Bettenhausen in the August 15, 2008 1Up Yours podcast raved after his hands-on experience with the game, "It's maybe... the best Castlevania ever", and called it a cross between Symphony of the Night and Simon's Quest, noting that the high difficulty level ("You will die a lot. You will die all the time") was balanced by the roleplaying elements. Bettenhausen also raved about the quality of the game, despite the length, noting there are "3 or 4 levels of things to find". He concluded his experience with the game stating "It's all action-RPG oriented Castlevania at its best". He later awarded the game an A- for 1Up.com, stating, "With this game, series director Koji Igarashi proves that he can still breathe new life into this long-running, often self-cannibalizing franchise."

Order of Ecclesia has gained generally favorable reviews, with the reviewers often praising its increased difficulty over the older installments of the series, the new "Glyph" system and the renewed artwork.

Development
The game was made by the team who developed Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin along with Igarashi. In a Wired interview, Igarashi said, "We're doing another Nintendo DS version. There hasn't been an official announcement, but we're doing it... we want people to enjoy the PSP version Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, and afterwards we're announcing it. So, please wait a little bit". On January 25, 2008 a group of "leaked" screenshots from a DS Castlevania game that also showed Wii connectivity appeared. In response, Igarashi didn't give a direct answer if this was even the same game or said it was an official Konami product—he told IGN that "Konami doesn't comment on rumor or speculation". Eventually, it was confirmed by a later update that these were screenshots from Order of Ecclesia.

Character Gallery
See Also 

Use of Latin
{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" !Click "Show" to view latin words' translation in Order of Ecclesia

The word ecclesia is Latin in origin and used in English to denote either a particular local group, or the whole body of the faithful. Ecclesia is also another name for the Christian Church.

Many of the names in Order of Ecclesia come from Latin, place and glyph names in particular:

Locations

 * Ruvas, possibly from rufus = red, tawny, ruddy
 * Kalidus, from calidus = warm, hot
 * Minera = mine OR possibly from Minerva, the Roman goddess of war, wisdom, and crafting. (The second definition makes about as much sense as the first, considering Minera Prison Island is not a mine.)
 * Tymeo, from timeo = I fear, dread, am afraid
 * Somnus = sleep
 * Tristis = sad, gloomy, grim
 * Oblivion, from the English word which came from the Latin oblivio = forgetfulness
 * Argila, from argilla = clay

If Wygol comes from Latin, it has been so greatly modified that it is no longer etymologizable.

In some rooms of Ecclesia, the words "descendo lumen" are visible on the wall. This is not actually proper Latin; it means "I descend light," which is incorrect because 'descend' is an intransitive verb. In other words, it is not possible to 'descend something.' Perhaps the game developers meant one of the following:
 * "descendo a lumine" (I descend from light)


 * "descensus a lumine sum" (I am descended from light)


 * "descendens luminis" (descendant of light)


 * "transcendo lumen" (I transcend/surmount light)

Characters

 * Albus = white, pale; bright; auspicious, fortunate
 * Irina = Either from the Latin for iris root extract OR a cognate of Irene, which came from a Greek word meaning peace
 * Marcel = from the Roman name Marcellus, which was the diminutive form of Marcus
 * Anna = the Latinate form of Hannah, which came from a Hebrew name meaning favor or grace
 * Eugen = from the Latin name Eugenius, which came from a Greek name meaning well born
 * Jacob = from the Latin name Iacobus, which came from Hebrew through Greek
 * Laura = the feminine form of the Latin name Laurus, meaning laurel
 * Serge = from the Roman name Sergius
 * Note that the names George and Nikolai came directly from Greek with no Latin form

Blue Glyphs

 * Confodere = to stab or pierce
 * Secare = to cut or slice
 * Hasta = spear, lance, javelin
 * Macir, from macia = mace, club
 * Arcus = bow, arc
 * Ascia = axe
 * Falcis = sickle, scythe
 * Culter = knife
 * Scutum = shield
 * Redire = to return or go back
 * Cubus = cube or die (the singular of "dice")
 * Torpor = numbness, paralysis (this is also an English word)
 * Lapiste, from lapis = stone
 * Pneuma = breath, spirit
 * Ignis = fire
 * Grando = hail, hailstorm
 * Fulgur = lightning
 * Luminatio, from luminatus = illuminated, lit up
 * Umbra = shade, shadow, ghost
 * Morbus = sickness, disease
 * Nitesco = I begin to shine
 * Acerbatus = embittered, aggravated
 * Globus = ball, sphere, globe
 * Dextro = on the right
 * Sinestro, from sinistro = on the left
 * Custos = guard, sentry
 * Dominus = lord, master
 * Vol, possibly from volo = I wish, want, prefer
 * Melio = better

Red Glyphs

 * magnes = magnet, lodestone; magnetic
 * paries = wall
 * volaticus = winged, flying
 * fio = I become (It has many definitions, but this one seemed most fitting)
 * rapidus = rapid, swift
 * vis = strength
 * fortis = strong, powerful
 * sapiens = wise
 * fides = faith, loyalty, honesty
 * felicem, from felix = lucky, blessed, happy
 * inire = to enter, undertake, begin
 * pecunia = money
 * arma = arms, weapons, equipment
 * felix, from feles = cat (felis = of a cat). This may also be a reference to Felix the Cat
 * machina = machine
 * refectio = restoration, repair
 * fidelis = faithful, loyal, trustworthy
 * caries = rot, corruption, decay
 * alate = wingedly (Yes, it's a real word)
 * noctua = little owl
 * aranea = spiderweb, cobweb; spider's; spiders'
 * mortus, from mortuus = dead

There are several words that are not actually Latin:
 * chiroptera = the biological order used to classify bats (as in kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species). Look up taxonomy for more information)  This word actually comes from the Greek cheir, meaning hand, and pteron, meaning wing.
 * medusa = in Greek mythology, Medusa was a snake-haired Gorgon who could turn people to stone simply by looking at them.

Related Products

 * Order of Ecclesia Original Soundtrack
 * Order of Ecclesia Promo Soundtrack
 * Official Koma - Comic panels associated with this game.
 * Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - The previous game in the Nintendo Dual Screen series (not chronologically).