My main gripe for this game comes from the format. I like one big, dense map to run around, and this game doesn't deliver for the first half, and even then Dracula's Castle is pretty linear. The game is still plenty enjoyable however, having some of the cooler and more creative bosses in an Igavania Castlevania. The game's art direction is doing the whole, "late 2000's gritty aesthetic" right. The music downright fucks from beginning to end. I wasn't too keen on combat this time around, but I respect what it was going for wholly.

Also as a pro vibe chaser, this game felt really surreal, being the final mainline Castlevania to most likely ever come out. The more muted look of the game kinda felt like how life was being sucked out of the franchise. Castlevania was in its death throes, but goddamn did it go out with honor.