Blue Chi’s

I didn’t play a lot of games last year, and Castlevania is the first game I play in 2009. I’m a die hard fan of 2D Castlevania games, I played all the three games that were released on the DS and the Dracula X remake on the PSP. I adore classic 2D platform gameplay.

Luckily, Castlevania Order of Ecclesia does not revolutionize the Castelvania series, it has the same old Dracula plot with a huge map to explore and spells & items to discover. Gameplay differs a bit as the game has a new combo Glyph battle system that requires you to use MP in every single strike you make. Moving between levels is now done through a world map which I thought was cool and much easier than previous games that required you to move around slowly and use teleportation rooms to move around. The game also has a lot of small quests that are accessed by interacting with town villagers – a bit reminiscent of the old NES Castlevania II.

I really enjoyed the game, but I thought that it was a bit too easy as I almost relied exclusively on a single magical spell which I found half way through the game. I was also disappointed by the fact the game does not make any use of the DS touch screen capabilities  - not even to mark the maps as was the case in Portrait of Ruin. If Konami had no intention of the using the stylus and really didn’t have to use the upper screen either, then why the hell didn’t they release this game on the PSP? It would’ve looked a thousand times better in widescreen and they would have been able to improve the graphics as the PSP is more powerful than the DS.

Anyway, still, a very enjoyable game, especially for those who need to have short gaming bursts which you can put down quickly. Found it helpful in breaks between long reading sessions in the library! Highly recommended for fans of 2D platform games and Action RPGs.

4/5

Fans of the Parasite Eve game series were shocked and disappointed today by the announcement by Square-Enix of the release of long waited sequel to the game. The original Parasite Eve game was released in 1998 as a cinematic action RPG, it was an amazing game with a unique gameplay, intriguing storyline and beautiful FMVs. And after all these years, Square decides to release the game on mobile phones in Japan only. Mean while, Square-Enix continues to pump endless remakes and released of Final Fantasy games on all the consoles known to man, FF1 and FF2 are coming the PSP, after being released on the original NES, the PSone, the GBA, the Wonderswan and mobile phones. FF4 is going to be remade for the NDS after being released for the PSone and the GBA. I am, just like the majority of the fans, craving for a new Parasite Eve game, Chrono game, or even a Vagrant Story game on a modern console. Mobile games released by Square-Enix are never released outside Japan.

Yes, I actually finally managed to get and complete one of the games that I’ve been searching for for ages. Castlevania PoR is the second CV game on the Nintendo DS, it is a 2D scroller with action RPG elements (experience points, equipment, custom skills, etc.). The game’s storyline is pretty lame, just like the majority of castlevania games, but the gameplay is awesome. The dual character system is really tight, quick, and adds a new depth to the game, the game progress is quite non-linear with a lot of extra items, spells, and quests to complete even after completing the game. A new feature that I found really helpful and was actually surprised not many people had it in their games was the ability to mark up certain spots on the map to check certain areas again later. It’s so basic, and the use of the style to position those ‘bookmark-like’ markers was just perfect.

A new edition to the game were the WIFI coop mode and the WIFI shop mode. While the concept itself is cool, in reality I did not enjoy any of these modes. Just like the majority of DS games, online gameplay is not about the community, but about being able to play with somebody you know while you’re away. I do not know if that makes any sense to the reader, but there is no online portal that you login to, see who’s online and then decide to play with those people, chat with them, save them to your list, and ‘play with the community’. All you can do is, either play with people you already know from somewhere, you have to input their friendcode, which is an annoyingly long, telephone-like number, or you can just play with random people, that you connect with during that match only and then never see them online again. I did not think that it was fun, because even for the people that you already know the gameplay is not seamless, there is nothing like an alert that tells me someone I know is online so that I can go and play with them, I just have to check and search every once in a while. If I wanted to play with someone I know, I need to call that person and tell him to search for online people from his list (people he added using their long friendcodes), and I then go online, search for online people from my list and only then I can play with that person. Urgh.

That is not to say specifically that CV PoR online modes suck, because the procedure I described is the same for almost all DS games with online gameplay capabilities, THEY ALL SUCK.

Anyway, CV PoR is a really great game nonetheless, the extras awarded by completing the game are really worth it, there is an extra new gameplay mode that introducing a whole new gaming concept to the CV series based solely on touch in-put, another one with Richter playing in the traditional way but in impressive action-packed speed.

I was really pleased with this game, and I’m looking forward to new 2D episodes in the series, especially the new remake of Dracula X on the PSP. I managed to get this game from a gameshop hidden upstairs in Al Wadi Center in Qurum.

4/5