$20 Game of the Week/Lost Classics Halloween Special

It’s Halloween weekend! Time to dress up in your costume, scare the neighbors, and grab some candy! Along with Powet’s creepiest games feature, this week’s Lost Classics and $20 GOTW focus on some very scary video games. We’ve got the most recent Castlevania along with an adventure title from the Playstation era. As a bonus, we even threw in some import love. Click below and check out the scares.

$20 Game of the Week: Castlevania-Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS)
A series that sticks this closely for this long shouldn’t be allowed to be enjoyable. However, despite sticking to the exploration-heavy style of 1997’s Symphony of the Night, each Nintendo portable installment of Castlevania has managed to add in enough gameplay mechanics and variety to keep the series fresh and enjoyable, and the latest entry in the series, Order of Ecclesia, is no exception.

OOE takes place between SOTN and Castlevania Bloodlines. The Belmonts are MIA after the Vampire Killer whip’s power was corrupted. In their place, several organizations have sprung up, each dedicated to taking down Dracula. Ecclesia is one of these organizations, and your character, Shanoa, is a member. The Order may have discovered a way to take down Dracula for good: a set of glyphs called the Dominus. When a jealous rival steals the Dominus, causing Shanoa to lose her in the process, Shanoa sets out to get it back, dealing with any supernatural threats along the way. Your main way of attacking is with glyphs, objects which draw from your magical power. You gain them by defeating certain enemies or by completing certain sections of the game. These glyphs include everything from swords and temporary stat boosts to projectile attacks and familiar Castlevania sub-weapons. They all use magic, so while they recover quickly, one must be careful not to overuse them, least they be out of juice at a critical moment.

OOE once again takes the SOTN approach, in which exploration and backtracking are the key to getting ahead. You’ll gain relics and abilities which will open up new sections, so you always want to keep your eye open. This time around, the world is split up into several smaller locations instead of one huge central location like in previous games. A village serves as a hub world of sorts, where you can buy items, converse with non-player characters, and recover. Throughout the game you’ll rescue villagers, who then give you requests to carry out. Most of these revolve around finding an item of sorts, but there is a big reward for doing so. One thing you’ll notice about this game is that it’s very hard, especially in the first few areas. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself doing some level grinding. The boss fights are especially tough, but if you can decipher their attack pattern, they become a bit easier. In typical Castlevania fashion, there are numerous unlockables available after completing the game.

Once again, Konami has recycled their familiar formula while still keeping things fresh. Although many Castlevania fans have been patiently awaiting something new for a long time (such as the upcoming Lords of Shadow), Konami is still releasing quality entries such as this to tide them over in the meantime.

Lost Classics: Clock Tower (Playstation 1)
This Playstation 1 game is actually a sequel to the Super Nintendo Clock Tower game which was only released in Japan. It’s basically a point-and-click adventure title, but there are also survival horror elements, and it’s the video game equivalent of a slasher flick. Playing as one of two characters, you must discover the truth surrounding a series of murderers carried out by Scissorman, a deformed serial killer. What’s notable about this game is that the main character is weaker than the villain. While solving the game’s puzzles, you’ll be attacked by Scissorman at random, and you’ll either have to find some way to temporarily fend him off or find a safe hiding spot. The story changes depending on what choices you make, and both characters have 5 different endings. Clock Tower has enjoyed a strong cult following. It spawned two sequels, with Clock Tower 3 being published by Capcom. Hopefully it won’t be long before we see tis game on the Playstation Network, as horror fans looking for a different type of survival horror will love it.

Lost Classics: Sweet Home (NES)
Designed by Resident Evil’s Shinji Mikami, Capcom’s Sweet Home served as the inspiration behind Resident Evil, along with the survival horror genre itself. This Japan-only Super Famicom game was released in conjunction with the movie of the same name. As a matter of fact, a trailer for the movie included footage from the game, advertising both at the same time. Although it didn’t sell too well and wasn’t released outside of Japan, Sweet Home introduced a number of innovations to the RPG genre, and even included a few elements from the adventure game genre. Features such as limited inventory management, the mansion setting, the use of notes to tell parts of the story, and even the ‘door’ loading screen all show up in other survival horror games, most notable Resident Evil.

Players control a team of 5 characters who end up trapped in a haunted mansion while on an assignment to photograph and restore a series of wall murals. They must contend with a series of ghosts and creatures, and try to survive the mansion. Each of the characters has their own abilities, and you’ll have to use each of them in order to make it through the game. However, if a character dies, then you’ll find an item which can simulate their abilities. This is important too, because if a character dies, then you lose them for the entire game, thus making the survival theme more important than ever. You can switch between the characters at any time, and there are 5 different endings depending on who survives.

It’s a shame that this game never made it over here, nor is there any chance of the game showing up on Virtual Console. Beside hunting down an import, the only way to check out this game is via an unauthorized fan translation. Despite its limited popularity, Sweet Home helped lay the foundation for survival horror. Now would be a good time for a sequel, or even a remake.