It does take you out of the action to pop into a map screen, and almost ruins the cohesiveness of the game world, something Castlevania has always taken very seriously. The first few areas feel particularly disjointed, since they're so short.

The map isn't a bad idea, but it also feels a bit unnecessary. Rescuing all of them is also required to unlock the second half of the game - a traditional Castlevania castle to explore. As you rescue more people, they settle down and open up shops, or give out quests, similar to the Wind quests from Portrait of Ruin. When you begin, the town of Wygol is almost completely barren. In fact, fully exploring them is required to save all of the villagers hidden throughout the land. That being said, some of them do feature hidden areas and other knick nacks. Each stage is relatively small and usually fairly linear, so it's not quite as focused on exploration as the other titles. Once you conquer an area by leaving through the exit, the next area will open up, and so forth.

Instead, the countryside is broken up with an overhead map, allowing you to select your area. (The Japanese title, 'Ubawareta Kokuin' or 'The Stolen Seal', is even similar to Noroi no Fuuin, or 'The Cursed Seal'.) This isn't entirely accurate - while it's the first Metroidvania where you actually get to explore areas outside the castle, it's still not quite structured the same way. Since it was unveiled, Order of Ecclesia has been extensively compared to Simon's Quest. But it is, however, a step in the right direction.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS isn't quite the breakout title that rebirthes the series and takes it out of rehash territory. But even the most forgiving Castlevania fan can probably admit that, yes, the formula just might be growing a little bit stale. Like the NES Mega Man names, none of them are actually 'bad', but rather just varying degrees of 'fairly good'. Since the release of the PSOne title, there have been six more entries, all for portably Nintendo systems, within the past dozens years or so. The release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in 1997 began a new subseries within the franchise, which we all know as 'Metroidvanias'.

Order of ecclesia maps