Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

 

Seems a lot like the characters from Bloodstained.

The final Castlevania-game for the DS and the last entry into the old lore of the series (besides Castlevania: Judgment, but that's a fighter game so doesn't count... and I don't have it as well) before rebooting it with Lords of Shadows. It was also a return for the art style they used on the GBA games and updated the sprites so it wasn't just a copy-paste of previous games.  It is also hard as hell playing from the start since the enemies pack a punch and you can't take anything. Great then to start the game from level 71 and pretty much every equipment and glyph taking away a lot of the grind making it a rather smooth experience.

Story is that since the Belmonts disappeared after the event of Symphony of the Night and Nostradamus prophesy predicting that they shouldn't return until the year 1999 and the final battle with Dracula different orders appeared in their stead to stop Dracula whenever he showed up in the meantime, one of is the Order of Ecclesia, led by the alchemist Barlowe. He has help from Albus and Shanoa, "step-siblings" that lost their parents to the darkness that swore to fight evil. They have created the Dominus glyph which will end Dracula once and for all, but at the night of the ritual Albus interrupts it and steals the glyphs for himself as he was promised to be the one receiving Dominus. The interruption makes Shanoa loose her memories and emotions as well her combat skills so Barlowe trains her quickly to get back the glyphs so that they can defeat Dracula.

Her travels across Transylvania takes her to the village Wygol who's citizens have been kidnapped by Albus and imprisoned in crystal. Rescuing them all and absorbing the seals is the way to get the true ending since by doing so Shanoa absorbs part of the blood that the citizens possess since they are in fact the Belmont Clan in hiding, but without any powers to stop the darkness. At a confrontation in an abandoned mansion Albus is able to absorb the three Dominus Glyphs after studying Shanoa, but is overtaken by the soul of Dracula which the Glyphs are powered by. Shanoa defeats him and get the glyphs back, but the soul of Albus is absorbed by the glyphs and tells Shanoa that he did this because Barlowe promised him that he would be the vessel of Dominus in order to save Shanoa and that the Glyphs are powered by her memories and emotions as well, meaning that Barlowe lied to them. Confronting Barlowe and he is shown to be in league with Dracula and as he is defeated sacrifices his life to destroy the seal upon Dracula's soul so that he can return and his castle shows up again.

Alone Shanoa braves the castle and its dark secrets. At the top of the castle she confronts the resurrected Dracula and as he is about to unleash one final devastating attack, Shanoa assembles the three glyphs of Dominus and defeats him, but to the cost of her soul. Until Albus soul intervene by finding Shanoa's memories and emotions, giving them back to her and then taking her place as the soul sacrifice needed. Shanoa is alive and can finally smile and be happy (and cry) and the game ends.

I won't cry... *sniff*

This game is rather good. Gathering glyphs can be a hassle and it's not always clear what they do by reading the name and description, but it is easy try it around and you got at least three different set-ups compared to Dawn of Sorrows two, a pity the armour isn't switchable in the same way. You finally got to travel the lands of Transylvania for the first time since... is it Castlevania II, III or Bloodlines... maybe Castlevania 64... Curse of Darkness? It has been a while at least. Villagers to talk to get quests and such is rather enjoyable, at least more intuitive than Wind blocking Jonathan from certain rewards that can be helpful to defeat Brauner and rescue his daughters. Also interesting tidbits like the demon possessed child Anne and Danielle the old vampire hunter woman that found vampires along her grandfather... might that have been Richter Belmont? Now, some of you might complain that I played it to easy what with level 70+, but I compensated by the no-hit challenge with bosses instead. If you are able to defeat a boss without taking damage, you get a medal. Equip the Death Ring that boost your stats through the roof, but a single hit kills you, then go to town on the bosses. First two just spam attacks before their first attack, but after that it gets harder, the crab boss being the hardest early boss since it's more about avoiding attacks until you can activate the elevator in the lighthouse to smash it. I thankfully forget all this to after that boss, up until I tired out in Dracula's castle with the shadow man and after that just raced to the finish. 

I recall really hate you the first time through.

Other content is an Albus mode where you play as Albus, attacking everything with your gun and that's it. A bit of a let down compared to the four different modes in the last game. You also get hard mode and such. Music is alright, the best thing though is that you have the option to play any of the tracks from the original Castlevania by buying records and playing them. A bit cumbersome since any room that is a passage between areas reset the music and it is a bit of hassle to go into the item menu and look it up. Still, I found it fun and the rapid flu glyph is amazing to speed things on.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

 

Well, New Generation works rather well for this game

The second DS game and continuation to the Mega Drive Castlevania: Bloodlines. And as of writing... and probably forever, the closest game in the timeline before the Battle of 1999, the event that destroyed Dracula for good mentioned in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow. And we're never gonna see it due to IGA leaving Konami and Konami... being Konami. The lore of these games was fascinating. In this game you play as Jonathan Morris, the son of John Morris that defeated Dracula in Bloodlines (who in his turn was son to Quincy Morris that stabbed Dracula in the Bram Stokers Dracula, which is strange since I recall that he was a suitor for Lucy and therefore didn't have any children?) and Charlotte Aulin. It's the end of the second world war and Dracula have appeared so the church has contacted Jonathan to investigate. Turns out that it isn't Dracula, but a vampire named Brauner with his two daughters that summoned the castle which he intends to use in order to destroy the world (he also looks a lot like count Olroc from the silent movie Nosferatu).

On this adventure you also meet Vincent the priest that sells you potions and such and Wind, the ghost of Eric Lecard, the other main player of Bloodlines that died while fighting Brauner in order to stop Dracula's resurrection, which caused his daughters to follow him into the castle and Brauner believing them to be the reincarnations of his daughter's that died in World War 1. Brauner is a painter and have trapped the castle as well as Dracula with his paintings that acts as portals to the worlds painted. You have 18th century english town, a derelict mansion in a forest, a pyramid in the desert and a gravity defying ruined town and circus. So the painting concept allows us to go beyond the usual castle interior that have been standard since Symphony of the Night or something like that. Nice change of pace, Sadly four more stages, which are like mirrored versions of the first ones. Kinda boring, but the bosses is Wolfman, Medusa, the Mummy and Frankenstein, the classic monster villains as well as a staple of Castlevania bosses.

Next us is the fight against the daughters which can be skipped if you found the sanctuary spell and uses that to cure them off their vampireism so that they can help you unlock the Vampire killer. Brauner doesn't take that lightly, but he goes down easy and then Death shows up and kills Brauner and resurrects Dracula that you know have to fight both at the same time. Played it on normal and don't get how I could have so much problem with this as a kid. I mean, I finished it at level 43, when I think I grinded to level 80 or something like that. Maybe mostly for the Nest of Evil, a gauntlet of enemies and bosses from Dawn of Sorrow, and thankfully no stupid magic seal making them so much more fun to fight. There's also other modes, you can play as the sisters that search for their father, a Richter Belmont mode... which isn't that special when the main guy also is a whip wielder. There's also Hard modes and a Living armour mode. Get's overkill on it, but it has a lot to replay the game for.  Takes 8 hour as well. Mostly gets out of the game after 4 hour when I hit the Mansion and Circus level since they are the most boring.