This game sure has some staunch defenders and I think I somewhat understand where they're coming from. The music is a lot more atmospheric compared to other Castlevania OSTs and, uh actually, that's about all I got. It's not as bad as a lot of its detractors say it is, but it's not this misunderstood gem either.

As is (mostly) standard for early 3D games, the camera is a mess at points, usually at times when you don't want it to get fucky. The biggest cause of death in this game isn't the enemies or bosses, it's the one-two combo of the camera and jumping into poisonous water/bottomless pits. Speaking of the enemies, they feel mostly uninspired (except for the skeleton bikers, they're rad). The bosses were quite pathetic, I literally threw axes at Dracula's face, and he couldn't do a thing.

There are two playable characters, Reinhardt and Carrie. I was originally going to play through both campaigns but after finishing Reinhardt's hollow story I opted out of doing so. Carrie is supposed to be the "easy mode" of the game, so if you're curious enough to play this, then it's probably in your best interest to go with her instead. On the subject of easy mode, if you want to see this game through to the end, then select normal difficulty after choosing your file. The game will end early after finishing the Castle Center level.

I actually had this game as a kid, and I know for a fact I never really got much further than the Castle Wall level. I remember the big skeleton boss in the first level and that's about it. I must have shut it off after falling into the poison river one too many times and switched over to Mario 64 or Pokémon Stadium instead. It's not awful, but it's also not good and I even struggle to call it mediocre since I felt almost nothing playing this. From what I hear, Legacy of Darkness is a better experience and retroactively makes this one obsolete, so you should probably just ignore this one altogether.