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Episode 683: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia - The Metroidvania Book Club Pt. 1
🕑 Added 2025-04-07 11:00:10 +0000 UTCJeremy: Good news, everyone! Now you can play a video game!
This episode marks the first of hopefully many entries in the Metroidvania Book Club series. You'll hear a full explanation of the concept in the podcast itself, but it's pretty straightfoward and hardly original. Every three months, we'd like to highlight a different metroidvania game for a two-part deep-dive discussion. Each game will most likely receive the same treatment: an introductory episode that breaks apart the first half of the experience, and a follow-up that concludes the discussion and incorporates community feedback.
Because, yes, we'd like for YOU to be a part of this process. We'll be continuing the conversation in a special Discord channel, meaning that this will be a shared experience specifically for the Retronauts community. We'll record the next episode in a few weeks, which should give you time to play the game highlighted this episode and take part in the discussion. (I wanted to focus this "book club" specifically on metroidvania games because they tend to be substantial enough to support a couple of in-depth episodes while being MUCH less time-intensive than an RPG or an open-world action game—good, dense, accessible, manageable efforts.)
To that end, I have assembled a team of book club regulars-to-be who each bring a different set of experiences, opinions, and expectations to a metroidvania discussion. Stuart, Nadia, Chris Sims, and Kate Willaert all have ample knowledge about games like these but also hold different enough perspectives on the format to prevent this from being a boring yes-man echo chamber. We'll each take turns picking games to play, and YOU the Retronauts community will be our sixth panelist, not only voicing opinions but also selecting every sixth title in the rotation by community vote.
And we have decided to begin, in a way, at the end: by diving into the final entry of the series that gave the genre half of its name, Castlevania Order of Ecclesia. In this episode, we set up the concepts of the game and discuss the overworld phase of the adventure. Next time we record, we'll hit the big shocking endgame map and voice your opinions live and on the air. So please fire up a copy of Ecclesia (easily accessible on the Castlevania Dominus Collection), spend some time mastering the glyphs and the combat, and hit the Discord to share your thoughts on the entire game (not just the portions discussed here). We look forward to seeing what you have to say! And, of course, please enjoy the episode in its own right—it's a good one.
Edits by Greg Leahy. Art by Greg Melo.
13:18 - An Empty Tome
24:02 - A Prologue ~ Again ~
31:48 - Tragedy's Pulse
41:07 - Dissonant Courage | Chapel Hidden in Smoke
55:17 - Destiny's Stage
1:05:27 - A Clashing of Waves
1:17:41 - Serenade of the Hearth
1:33:28 - Trace of Rage ~ Conversation ~
Closing - Lament to the Master
Comments
Brian Silvers
I’m going to put Shadowman out there as a recommendation. It is a rare 3D Metroidvania that was way ahead of its time. Nightdive did a fantastic remaster a few years ago that actually added some cut content back in the game!
Devon Dale
I remember being excited for Ecclesia when it launched, and I managed to get to the castle before falling off a decade ago. My interest was rekindled by this book-club however, so I revisited the game on the Dominus Collection. This game’s sprite work remains top-of-class and the game plays excellently. The boss fights are nearly some of the best in Castlevania’s history. Still, the grind for glyphs, and the level of difficulty hold this one back for me. I don’t regret finishing the game, but Im not sure I’ll ever indulge in the new game + Looking forward to more of these experiences in the future. Keep up the good work
Rich Uncle Skeleton
Hey all, this may be a stupid question, but why does Iga get so much credit for the post-symphony games, when he didn’t direct any of them, but only produced? Are the two roles that different in Japan? Would be grateful for anyone who could shine some insight on this🙃
Stuart Gipp
New Dark Souls boss: Appalling Misnomer
Stuart Gipp
Wait a second. These aren't books at all. They're video games! This whole club is founded on an appalling mismomer!
Andrew O.
Okay, fine, I've been putting it off for too long. It's been collecting dust on my shelf for years. The only one of the "Dominus" collection I've been neglecting. Now you're forcing my hand with this episode. Time to break out my 3DS just so I can listen to this episode properly.
