Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

The third and last Castlevania game developed for the Nintendo DS, and the last of the "Metroidvania" styled ones, though it definitely puts much more focus on action this time.  Seemingly drawing inspiration from games like Contra, Mega Man Zero and Astro Boy: Omega Factor, your weapons are now more or less "sidegrades" to one another, being earned by defeating specific enemies or found in specific spots in dungeons, and all run off of your MP gauge, meaning you have to ration even your normal attacks now and getting cursed makes you completely unable to defend yourself until it wears off.  Bosses are huge, extremely sturdy and based around pattern memorization, as you die in only a few hits and they take dozens of blows to whittle down.  Leveling up and getting new armor only helps you to a point - you really do need to fight and die to each boss several times, learn exactly how to avoid each of their attacks, wait for openings and use the small handful of weapons best suited for each fight if you want to stand any chance at all.  Enemies will also "hard counter" many of your moves (Dracula himself famously instantly swats you down if you attempt to fly), so there really aren't any cheap exploits this time - you have to play by the exact rules it lays out, which takes away the element of experimentation present in most of the older Metroidvanias.  It's not without its charm if you like games with difficult marathon boss battles, but I would strongly recommend playing it on the Dominus Collection with a proper controller, as the DS's clunky D-pad really does not suit its style of gameplay whatsoever.

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Released: 2008

Platforms: Nintendo DS