[Super long Review ahead]

I find it funny that this game gets called overhated by 85% of the people who talk about it, while 15% are the ones who actually hate it, but I guess it's not surprising considering that any clip calling something out in this game gets angry comments calling the guy a hater despite them liking the game.
So... where do I start? Ngl, I don't really give a lot of shit about the hitboxes, Estus speed, ADP, and boss runbacks in this game, I just think the areas and bosses aren't good? why does every "negative" review list those 4 everywhere?
Sure, ADP is dumb but the game isn't unplayable without it, you just have to time your rolls better but sometimes it's a bit too precise, why make a long roll animation if most of it doesn't have I-frames, why not at least make the animation match the I-frames, ADP isn't as bad as people say but still a dumb thing to exist.

Hitboxes are also not as bad as people say, sometimes they're funky but people complain about it like they're bad all the time, they aren't.

Boss runbacks... I wouldn't say they're bad, it's mostly the areas that are bad, but I'll get to them later. I half prefer DS2 runbacks over DS1, because DS1 runbacks were mostly a boring walking simulator that felt like a waste of time, at least in DS2, even though they can be frustrating, at least you do more than walking, you learn neat ways to get past enemies and time when to run and roll, I feel like I need to play more of these games to have an opinion on these but for now I feel like you should be punished for dying to a boss rather than spawning right next to it, but that can also depend on the boss. Most runbacks are easy if you know what you're doing, some of them like THAT ONE fire or ice area are very frustrating for no reason, but most of them aren't.

Ok, Estus speed, this one I get the least, I think it's fine. Maybe it should be a few frames faster, but it's good enough imo, most enemies give you time to heal (other than that one enemy in that one goddamn fire area), you just have to position yourself well rather than mindlessly drinking before taking a hit because it heals better than the enemy damages you, it only really sucks when you're fighting a boss that sometimes gives you time to heal after an attack, but sometimes they do another attack instantly for no reason.

With those 4 out of the way, let's talk about what matters the most, Areas and bosses. The areas just aren't good, most of them are a bit below average, some are bad, and a few are good. First impressions were a solid 7.5; the tutorial was boring, but then you have that amazing hub area. The first "intentional" area was also pretty solid, the second one is eh but it lasts short enough not to be insulting, after that, you have probably the best area in the base game, you can take different routes, the enemies are well placed, there are small houses to explore, and the torch gets some use, it also has a few secrets including one that lights most of the area, and you can even unlock a shortcut for the boss, after that you have the Bastille, it's an alright area, there are like 4 spots with enemy spam or bad placements, but the area is acceptable. After that, the game falls off, subpar area after subpar area, there are like... 2 non-dlc areas that are decent but if you don't count them and the dlcs, the Bastille is the last decent area. It's not just enemy placements but also the variety, they try to get you with the same trick over and over with the "haha this enemy is hidden behind a corne- oh you killed it, now walk 10 steps and HAHA got you agai- oh wait, another Estus?". It feels like most areas get 3 enemies but they milk one of them 90% of the time (especially for spamming) and the other 2 are used just a few times (sometimes reused in another area), the first few areas had some of the same enemies too but some of them had different weapons than others that made them slightly different, you don't see much of that later. Even the level layout isn't as interesting, in DS1 they all felt unique in a way, in this game, it's either corridors or flat open areas with or without enemies, or a few stairs, and unironically, feels soulless. People seem to complain about it in DS3 but here it feels like most of the bonfires are so close to one another, especially when I was in NG++ where I blazed through the game, the areas are way smaller than they seem but they feel average-sized by motivating you to kill the same 2 enemies again and again. The game also gives the player a lot more Estus than you need, while I have to explore to get them, they're not hard to get at all; when I get a third of the game done I simply don't mind tanking a few hits because I never run out of them other than a few bosses. The areas feel like they were designed out of order, so they connected them with little effort and added bonfires later. Resulting in some frustrating runbacks; again, most of them are easy if you know what you're doing (some bonfires are hidden in secret walls next to bosses which is a nice reward) people always use the frustrating ones to say that they're all like that because "bad easy better than bad hard" I guess.
Oh, the bosses? what can I say, they suck. So many of them feel like regular enemies because they have very few attacks or feel like they have 3 attacks because you kill them so quickly that they don't use the other ones or they're just too similar. A lot of them have the same generic 3-attack combo which is the attack they use for 80% of the fight while the others can be rarer, some of them show up as enemies later in the game and funnily enough are harder than the times they were bosses. Not a lot to say about them, they're mostly super underwhelming, they either die super quickly or are a damage sponge that repeats the same boring attacks over and over again; this game has like what? 40 of them if you count DLCs? I made a tier list and 12 of them are at least B tier, (4 in each tier better than C).

Now for the smaller things that still have some importance

Stamina regens slower than men after sex. It gives them more importance, except it was already good enough in DS1? And I swear I feel 0 difference when I equip something that makes it regen faster. It didn't feel like the game got more strategic, it just felt like it was wasting my time. I give more of a fuck about END stat than ADP if I want to attack more than twice with a strength weapon without waiting for 10 seconds each time.
Something I forgot to mention and didn't pay much attention to without someone else saying it, the enemy progression is just not there, in DS1 you start off fighting weaker-looking enemies, as you progress they get more intimidating as you get more powerful yourself; in DS2 there is none of that other than the very first main area. (and only because it wants to be like DS1 Undead Burg so badly) You fight guys in armor 2.5 times taller than you in the very first few hours, and later you fight guys in armor that are smaller than you, and then they get reused in a much later area.
Also forgot to mention Life Gems, but what do you want me to say about them? They're good, I just wish you could select either Heal with Life Gems or Estus as they recover from bonfires, cuz both are already too much but the best way to get them is to buy at an okay price, still good for not being free; they're a nice risk VS reward healing, too slow for my taste but it's good.
Did DS1 have that many chests? every time I Found a chest in that game I would get excited, in this game they spam even the chests, you open them and you get like, this fruit thing that increases poison defense by 0.00fuckyou%. And since we mentioned chests, a lot of them give you torches and they're way too underused, I don't exactly want more dark areas, but the game makes the torch mechanic look more important than it is.
Power Stance is a little overrated, they look cool but they're very situational, you either use it to instakill an enemy that takes 99% damage against Normal Stance or because it has a different attack type that you normally don't have with that weapon, I always found normal stance more useful.
Weapon Variety is good, but Build Variety is a little overrated? idk...? At first, I thought it was good, but in NG+ I remember playing with a build where almost every stat was the same level (30 - 20 each), I was dealing damage like paper to a DLC boss so then decided to go 99 magic to see if it's op as ppl say and I felt no difference? I changed to 99 dex and it also felt the same. I had weapons that scale to those too, maybe I did something wrong, maybe that's just NG+, or maybe damage stats are not that great for damage and their purpose is to unlock weapons or magic rather than dealing damage with their scaling? no idea.
PvP and Weapon variety is probably the best two things about the game (other than that part I will get to), I thought DS1 PvP wasn't for me when in actuality it sucked, I fought people only like 10 times in the whole game, and Enjoyed 9 of the encounters (one of them was a tryhard), PvP in this game is just fun, I'm just not a fan of standing and waiting so I guess PvP and Co-op isn't for me after all (or maybe waiting isn't for me...). No, I am not gonna be talking about scripted invasions... those can be fun but holy shit they spam even those.
The Lore and Story aren't something I cared about so I didn't pay much attention, I hear it's good, and it seems alright, some of the areas and bosses seem to suck DS1's dick, they're either connected or just lazily built. I can't even remember the name of the NPCs despite 100%ting this game, they are not bad, they're just there (I have Platinum Trophy autism so don't wonder why I 100%ted this game).

Oh fuck, I forgot to mention that the final bosses are garbage, fucking shit...

So yeah the game falls off after Lost Bastille, barely anything fun happens afterward, right? Well no, iT taKEs 50 hOuRs tO gET goOd; the DLCs... that's when the game "gets good", especially the second one, the top 3 best bosses in the game are from the DLCs, they're absolutely amazing, FK might be my favorite Soulsborne boss so far (I only played 1 and 2). The areas are pretty solid too, but sometimes they remind you it's DS2 and they do DS2 stuff. But for the most part, I felt like I was back to DS1, which is a good thing.

But overall this is a very mediocre game, it has great DLC content but that isn't enough to make the game great when the rest of it isn't, the game can't get good in 50 hours (unless it was at least 120 without being bloated but you get it) and that's a dumb excuse because you are literally saying that the first 50 hours are worthless, when that's the majority of the game and the DLCs are still optional content, so you can fucking skip the "good part". I just kept missing DS1 when I played this, it's playable, but I can live without this game.

This is both 1 or 1.5 stars really. The first half can be beaten by a 4-year-old; the game only really starts in the second half. The first half is so... yawn... They start the first level with a cool gimmick, only to never use it again. Some guy once said this is the Mega Man 5 of Castlevania games yet he wasn't wrong at all, everything dies with ease with the whip, and the weapons are mostly useless. The diagonal whip isn't bad, the first half is yawn with or without it anyways, half the time you take damage is because they make the enemy blend in with the ambient or because you get lost sometimes.
The game is actually nice looking for once, what isn't nice are the bosses (again), I don't remember 100% of it because I have beaten the game the same day I started, what I remember is mindlessly mashing to kill the bosses, some of the last ones actually had pattern you had to learn, but they were either annoying or just plain out repetitive, but hey, gotta give it to this game for having the first good boss in the franchise after all the load of shit, it's the very last one and he's just okay, but a huge step up from the rest of them. The levels in the second half of the game are pretty average, their quality is very inconsistent, sometimes they have fun challenges then 2 seconds later, Simon gets jumpscared by a giant gear, or you wanna get past a pit, and they spawn an enemy the moment you get at the very ledge 0.001 seconds before you jump. Teaching elements can be questionable, sometimes they introduce an enemy with 2 other enemies, you get past a platforming gimmick and when ur forced to use it you die because you didn't know that this one platform would flip, or there is this weird thing spinning around then suddenly it kills you because you're meant to go up before it gets to you.
The major praise I have is the enemy variety, almost every level has a new enemy, even if some of them are from other games. Overall It has a boring first half, average second, bosses are still bad, hitboxes are funky sometimes, nice music I guess, and the diagonal whip and easier movement isn't something I cared a lot about, it fits the second half but doesn't make a difference at the first. Can these games get good already? before I get salty replies

(My review seems like it got duplicated for some reason, no idea what happened...)
Castlevania 3 and this version of it feels like a modern game when you don't play on normal, you have the boring easy mode and the frustrating hard mode squeezed into the game for the sake of existing and with very little effort. I expected this to be a more balanced version of Castle 3, but they made this way too easy, your whip is faster and you take less damage, some enemies seem to have less HP too I guess, anything else is a small change or something I didn't notice.
I just quickly breezed through the game feeling like a TAS, which isn't exactly what these games are about, I didn't plan any of my attacks like you do in other games, I just saw an enemy, killed it, and moved on, sometimes I just damage boost myself because it didn't matter, the whip being faster and your defense being higher just made this game too easy, I died very few times and only one of them wasn't from pits, I was so used to killing everything with ease that I didn't put much effort into a few of my jumps. Would've been better if either the whip was faster or if you took less damage, but not both at once, or maybe it's just impossible to make this game good. I just quit out of boredom, at least the original made me put some effort into the game to progress, rather than:
walking forward
attacking
walking forward
spam attack at a boss with even more ease than the original
yawn
a million stairs
yawn
repeat

Castlevania 3 and this version of it feels like a modern game when you don't play on normal, you have the boring easy mode and the frustrating hard mode squeezed into the game for the sake of existing and with very little effort. I expected this to be a more balanced version of Castle 3, but they made this way too easy, your whip is faster and you take less damage, some enemies seem to have less HP too I guess, anything else is a small change or something I didn't notice.
I just quickly breezed through the game feeling like a TAS, which isn't exactly what these games are about, I didn't plan any of my attacks like you do in other games, I just saw an enemy, killed it, and moved on, sometimes I just damage boost myself because it didn't matter, the whip being faster and your defense being higher just made this game too easy, I died very few times and only one of them wasn't from pits, I was so used to killing everything with ease that I didn't put much effort into a few of my jumps. Would've been better if either the whip was faster or if you took less damage, but not both at once, or maybe it's just impossible to make this game good. I just quit out of boredom, at least the original made me put some effort into the game to progress, rather than:
walking forward
attacking
walking forward
spam attack at a boss with even more ease than the original
yawn
a million stairs
yawn
repeat

I have concluded that I should stop giving too many second chances to a game just because other people say something like "one of the best of "X" thing".
This is somewhat about the same as Castle 1 but it makes that game look safe since this one has more variety than Castle 1, however, they kept their staircase fetish from 2, and the subpar graphics of both games, it can still kill you because the background can get distracting or looks like the foreground, for the third time.
My main problem with this game is that it kind of feels hard for no reason, so many precise jumps and enemy placements, you have enemies from other levels in later ones and they still kick your ass but not in a good way, 85% of the bad enemy placements in this game come from stairs; since they're very janky (since the very first game), you die because the game wants you to turn and kill the enemy but it takes 2 years because you're on a stair, or you try to use a weapon but it's very inconsistent to use it on stairs, or you take damage because an enemy is camping at the top or bottom of the stairs and you have to hope he walks 1+ extra tile back and react to that in a millisecond. Every 5 steps you have 3 enemies that can take unnecessary precision to be killed, you take damage once and then take it a million more times because the enemy is/are too close to the player, resulting in you taking more hits when trying to recompose yourself. Sometimes the precision you need is so ridiculous it almost feels like a Kaizo (and I wonder how tf do I go through a section without an alt character), yes I know that you have to take the game slowly; still, I don't wanna spend 30 minutes killing one enemy for the 546th time because you died to another bad boss (yes they're still terrible), the crows especially, those are the most bullshit enemies I've seen and when they're combined with 3 more enemies (and could be more crows) and there is water that slows you down or... s-s-s-stairs?! just no. It's the 3rd main entry and they still place enemies in checkpoints too, I also have to fast-forward each time there is a door, character swap animation, or an empty staircase because it's that slow.
The first few levels are boring but can be decent at first since you're still learning the mechanics; after that, it can depend, some are bad, some decent with solid enemy placements. There is still some fun to be had here, I don't blame the people who prefer this over 1, it has more levels, new playable characters, and more enemies, but with a more bullshit difficulty, it can be more enjoyable if you have the patience, I don't. I've seen people praising this yet saying you gotta memorize the game to beat it, if it's more about memorizing artificially rather than dying and learning from each death, I don't see how this can be fun. I could try and play this again in years when I have nothing to do. I still prefer this over the easier Japanese version, that one is the very opposite of this version and I usually prefer a game that is hard for no reason than a game that is easy for no reason. But what I prefer the most is a game that knows how to be challenging and not a [Memory Games - Play Online For Free]

Good Platformer but not a good High-Speed Platformer; it's so easy to fly and skip half of the hazards before late-game levels, can't say I was bored messing with and exploring though. You can also beat it in one evening, so quickly I don't even know if it's a 3 or 3.5 stars because I didn't have enough time to conclude that. I never expected the bosses to be the best part of any 3D platformer though, especially the second half, I enjoyed learning them on the hardest difficulty (again) while listening to the bangers of this game

While the story is somewhat good, the game mostly feels like a mobile game ported to consoles except they forgot to remove P2W so enemy cards take 2 hours to get unless you use RNG manipulation. At first I didn't see anything too bad about the game until it slowy started to feel worse because of repetition, I don't even think the gameplay itself is bad, it just feels repetitive after 3 hours doing the same shit, (and can easily be broken by OP Sleights) since the game expects you to fight every enemy in every single room you create, or else you get 2/3 of your health drained because a boss combos you and gives you 1 milesecond to dodge or use a card. I said that the story is somewhat good because a lot of it is Kingdom Hearts 1 again but less because you revisit those worlds like Sonic Generations except it's their second game, it is good when it isn't that. There is no reason not the break the game when it's so repetitive and it would take 4x longer to farm, and while non-KH1 bosses aren't half bad, it is very frustrating to get 2/3 of your health sucked by 1 boss combo that sometimes isn't even their sleight, but the Final Bosses were... Surprisinly fun? At least with max health. Good story, tedious gameplay + part 1.5 of "Donald is useless because I suck"

The bones of a fun shooter are here (until Chapters 3 and 4).
Chapter 1 was meh, kill the same 3 enemies for the entire thing; the somewhat interconnected levels weren't half bad to explore, and the secrets were good.
Chapter 2 was a little worse but somewhat similar, killing the same 4 enemies + 1 that appears once in a while, however, this chapter tries a little harder than the first, so the levels feel less bland but a lot more confusing and there is a lot of cheap placements where they go "haha gotcha! secret wall with 10 enemies go brrrrr", which was a small problem with the first chapter, but even more in this one.
Chapter 3 was fucking dog shit, take everything wrong with the first two chapters and throw away everything that was right. Enemies are more constant while ammo isn't, so every encounter feels like a test of my patience, slowly killing enemies with a pistol and tanky ones with a shotgun which isn't even hard, just boring. Even more "haha" rooms with 20 enemies hidden inside secret walls or placed like a bitch, so much forced damage, and extremely boring levels to explore, later levels get better but far from even mediocre. Oh and it reuses music as well as the same 5 enemies
Chapter 4... I only played the first two levels, and I'm not sure if it's fair for me to count those since it's an extra chapter, a very unfair one. How about spawning next to enemies? enemies hidden in front of doors, next to entrances, 20 of them placed in front of you, 21 behind you, barely any space to move, sounds fun? Is this a game or an actual hell made by the devil itself

Alright... WHAT THE FUCK have they done with my boy... This is what Dark Souls would feel like if it had an "easy mode" version. The original version was great, this one can be played with a melted brain, it feels more like Mega Man 5 than 4 because every enemy dies so easily or can be skipped or I can damage boost through. The original holds your hand at times, but this one holds it waaaaay more it is ridiculous, I got so bored I played like I hadn't slept in 2 days and still have beaten most stages (quit in Real Wily 1). Stages barely feel like they have progression because they feel easy from start to end, and 60% of the sections that they kept from the original are the annoying ones, and the good ones just aren't fun anymore cuz it's 1 good section out of 20 sections in a full level. Wish I could rate this lower but the game still keeps the same bosses and music which are great. If you played the original version, you aren't missing a thing.

I don't know if I like it, but either way, it isn't very far from average. I felt like the more I played, the less I enjoyed it. But let's be real, this was a smart move, return the old map so Chapter 5 can be worked on more often, and make it only 1 month so it doesn't feel too long, which was the perfect duration.
It is what you would expect from the OG map, except less, so many lacking details here and there, where is the snow and jungle biome? where are the Season 7 - X locations and The Block? Why start at season 5 and not 3? Where is that house from Fatal Fields? Why can't I interact with Kevin the Cube and the Zero Point, why did the Combat Shotgun leave the game... ON THE UPDATE WHERE IT GOT ADDED ORIGINALLY? (as well as other guns). It is not truly OG, but recreating every little detail would be near impossible, fortunately, the movement and reboot vans are still here, as well as new rifts and ziplines. but the guns also remain the same and feel a lot weaker than the actual OG guns, (except for the pistol which is now auto, and the Scoped Assult Rifle is still as shit as the OG one), any other gun is far from being as good as the OG, Assault Rifle bullets spread more than those times you go to the bathroom, the OG pump and Tat used to hit hard even being 2 or 3 times farther away than the modern ones where it has to kiss the enemy.
It was good for build mode but kinda sucked in Zero Build even with extra ziplines because the OG map was designed for the building mechanic, it is very open and empty which works in that mode, I liked the slow and more strategic playstyle this season had, instead of rushing everyone, having heals everywhere, and infinite movement items (as well as Epic and Legendary weapons actually being rare), you had to worry about preserving shit this season. Shame it got annoying to hide, rush a fight, kill them when they're weak, then someone else rushes, you get killed while you're weak, then they get rushed and killed afterwards, you know the rest. And good luck with vans, since the map is empty, vans are either in named locations where everyone is or in the open where someone might be hiding near, I spent the whole game once, trying to revive someone but I kept getting jumped every time, 73 - 12 players and I was still trying to revive. oh, and the event was average.
I played the OG seasons, and it was nice to be somewhat back, but the OG map isn't the peak of the game like the people who played Chapter 1 for a week say, the peak of the game was the first moments, not knowing how to play, getting your first win and the anxiety of having to win against 99 more players, heck, it felt more intimidating back in the day than rn. If you think chapter 1 was the peak of the game, you're probably blinded by your nostalgia, no offense, they could perfectly recreate OG with every single little detail possible and you will never enjoy it as much as back in the day because you already know everything and winning a 129th time doesn't as special as your first wins, if you want to recreate those never coming back memories, just play another game. It is pretty much like your first memories with Minecraft or Dark Souls or any other game you wish u could forget and go back just to play blind again.
Probably a 4/10 with Zero Build and an 8/10 with build.