Glyphs are the lifeblood of this title, as the souls were the lifeblood of Aria of Sorrow, or its sequel Dawn of Sorrow. Working in a similar regard, certain enemies will drop a glyph when defeated, allowing you to absorb them and use their own powers as your own. This gets unique when you quickly realize that this is you're only means of attacking, using magic you stole from you're enemies. It's an awesome twist for the series, as combat becomes more strategic because attacking costs MP, with special attacks costing hearts. While MP recharges insanely fast when idle, running low in the middle of combat can lead to poor Shanoa's death.

Speaking of Shanoa's death, it will happen A LOT. Order of Ecclesia is a difficult game, with bosses being cheap and enemies being overpowered. It may remind you of Circle of the Moon when you throw your DS into the wall for the third time. It's a good challenge though, reminiscent of the older Castlevania games.

As far as comparing this to the previous titles in the franchise, Order of Ecclesia feels like the child of Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania II Simons Quest. Just like Soma Cruz or Alucard before her, Shanoa handles like a dream. Jump, double jump, side step, its all here and rendered beautifully. Featuring a glyph collecting goal and a variety of locations outside of Dracula's Castle, also included are a number of villagers for you to rescue and run fetch-quests for. The game is a mix of great Castlevania styles but also stays unique in its own right.

Order of Ecclesia's style sets it way apart from the other DS titles, as well as many other Castlevania games. For the first time, you play the entire game as a female protagonist, not an unlockable female. The familiar gothic art style is back, ditching the lifeless anime designs from them previous two. This gives the game a lot of personality and it blends in well with the gothic plot and locations of Castlevania.

Speaking of locations, there's even the token water level that every game is required to have. Even with all the locations, glyphs and villagers, the game can be rather short. There will also be some fans that are growing tired of very similar Castlevania games for the handheld, but with 12 Mega Man Battle Networks, I think others can appreciate a good game when they see one.

Overall, Order of Ecclesia is an awesome Castlevania game and an awesome game on its own. If you're a die-hard fan of the series or just a fan of challenging 2d action games, don't miss this title.