For a game that has a ton of travel and vicious enemies, the fact that you have to double-tap a direction to run is a glaring mistake.
I was being sarcastic, it's is honestly my favorite of the three GBA Castlevanias for it's overall atmosphere and design (hell I just spent like four pages of this thread heaping praise on it).
Double tapping to run I had no issue with. It was a little faster to do the offensive dash with the trigger anyway since you'd be running through corridors infested with enemies. There was also an awesome DSS combination that let you use the other trigger to run super fast.
Neo Rasa on
"You know how Batman hangs people over the edge of buildings and gets them to spill information. That's Neo Rasa's way of it, but instead of information, he just likes to see people suffer." ~Senor Fish
I, I've stayed out of this thread because I feel they need to bring back moonwalking.
That is to say, they need to bring back STAIRS. Different animation for walking up and down them. Being able to jump on and off them, the works.
The classic Castlevania STAIRS combined with the newer platform jumping would make for unlimited potential for incredible level design.
I've actually kind of thought the same thing.
And you know, I even miss pits. They bugged the hell out of all us back then, but they made for some really ingenuous platforming portions. I wouldn't mind it if a Metroidvania included some instant-death spike pits in its design, but then I'd also probably have to ask that they spawn you somewhere more recent than just your last save.
Ideally it would be like Zelda where you go back to the beginning of that room/area.
I'm a fan of the older castlevanias and one of my favorite parts was the jumping puzzles, but I don't think it would work at all in the new style.
What made them complicated in the older games wasn't the complexity of the jumps, but the fact that if you got hit once in mid air you'd be screwed due to the physics of the game, you had 0 air control in your jumps, and the whip wasn't an ideal weapon for combating foes that occilated up and down while flying.
The new style games depend on some degree of air control, you need it to get around and it makes the actual combat a lot more fun and reflex based, rather then “get boomerang and triple shot stand in this area and throwâ€. And that degree of air control would wipe out all the complexity of any jump puzzle.
For a game that has a ton of travel and vicious enemies, the fact that you have to double-tap a direction to run is a glaring mistake.
I was being sarcastic, it's is honestly my favorite of the three GBA Castlevanias for it's overall atmosphere and design (hell I just spent like four pages of this thread heaping praise on it).
Double tapping to run I had no issue with. It was a little faster to do the offensive dash with the trigger anyway since you'd be running through corridors infested with enemies. There was also an awesome DSS combination that let you use the other trigger to run super fast.
I know you were being sarcastic. I was just voicing an issue I had with the game.
I didn't play it long due to the random nature of card drops. Couldn't get anything done.
I'm so pissed at myself for selling CotM. "Now that I have Aria, I wouldn't play it anymore," I said, and I guess I was right. But I miss owning it, ya dig?
DSS was a fantastic magic system. It was such a treat to get a new card and see what new abilities you got. Like Eternal Darkness's Rune system, another of my favorites. I like to play around with my magic a bit.
EDIT: Uranus+Thunderbird and Jupiter+Serpent fo' life. Fuck false candles, too.
Yeah they just needed more frequent drops and/or some more cards.
I wouldn't mind another Castlevania that uses the same system, wherein instead of getting progressively more powerful weaponry you get a tighter variety of stuff that's all useful at various points. And different people would have different experiences depending on which ones they got first.
Neo Rasa on
"You know how Batman hangs people over the edge of buildings and gets them to spill information. That's Neo Rasa's way of it, but instead of information, he just likes to see people suffer." ~Senor Fish
I hope in the next Castlevania (I think I've been hoping for this since Aria) you can upgrade your weapons. The Nebula from PoR was so badass, but it's worthless because it's so weak later in the game.
I hope in the next Castlevania (I think I've been hoping for this since Aria) you can upgrade your weapons. The Nebula from PoR was so badass, but it's worthless because it's so weak later in the game.
Playing RE4 again and Deus Ex have made me realize that all games should have upgradeable weapons. DoS's system was on the right track.
I hope in the next Castlevania (I think I've been hoping for this since Aria) you can upgrade your weapons. The Nebula from PoR was so badass, but it's worthless because it's so weak later in the game.
I don't think they need to go that far, they just need to design the items better. I've had one huge gripe with all the metroid style CV's... there are tons of unique weapons with really fun abilities, but then they turn to crap and there is never another one that emulates it. Yet at the end there are a bunch of completely broke items as well.
There is no reason they can't carry over abilities through several weapons.
DoS's system was on the right track.
Errr, the soul system was pretty obnoxious. At best it lead to soul farming and wasting time bogging the game down to a grind. At it's worse it was so boring you'd skip upgrading entire sets of weapons, or flat out just stop playing the game or fist fight through it.
Plus abilities didn't carry over, each weapon was unique and then you didn't have the prior weapon.
I'm glad that's gone, I've always hated it with a passion.
Errr, the soul system was pretty obnoxious. At best it lead to soul farming and wasting time bogging the game down to a grind. At it's worse it was so boring you'd skip upgrading entire sets of weapons, or flat out just stop playing the game or fist fight through it.
Plus abilities didn't carry over, each weapon was unique and then you didn't have the prior weapon.
I'm glad that's gone, I've always hated it with a passion.
Right, I never said it was perfect. Just that it was the kinda thing I want to see more of. I want to see only a few types of weapons, with upgrade trees. You can choose what attributes you want the whip or whatever to have, and upgrade towards that. And you should have to make tough decisions, like whether the Gergoth soul or the Claimh Solais is more valuable to you.
I'm sick of weapons in games in general being useful for ten minutes and then garbage when you get a better one. Make that weapon better instead! Reduce, reuse, recycle and all that shit.
Errr, the soul system was pretty obnoxious. At best it lead to soul farming and wasting time bogging the game down to a grind. At it's worse it was so boring you'd skip upgrading entire sets of weapons, or flat out just stop playing the game or fist fight through it.
Plus abilities didn't carry over, each weapon was unique and then you didn't have the prior weapon.
I'm glad that's gone, I've always hated it with a passion.
Right, I never said it was perfect. Just that it was the kinda thing I want to see more of. I want to see only a few types of weapons, with upgrade trees. You can choose what attributes you want the whip or whatever to have, and upgrade towards that. And you should have to make tough decisions, like whether the Gergoth soul or the Claimh Solais is more valuable to you.
I'm sick of weapons in games in general being useful for ten minutes and then garbage when you get a better one. Make that weapon better instead! Reduce, reuse, recycle and all that shit.
I'mf fine with upgrades if it's items you have to find in rooms, or win (100% get from say a boss).
What I object to is the random farm concept soul system brings in. It seriously ruins the games. You can be moving along at a great pace and then blamo, have fun farming golems for 3 hours. It breaks up the game. In an RPG you can get away with it, but in an action style game like Castlevania it's a pain.
I think it can be done well if they did it right. But until they do random weapon drops are the best. At least with those you don't have to go through your items in a linear line (the key and core problem), you can opt to farm when you want, rather then farm for it all or you're stuck with a certain weapon level.
I want to play CV, not korean MMO grind for drops.
Errr, the soul system was pretty obnoxious. At best it lead to soul farming and wasting time bogging the game down to a grind. At it's worse it was so boring you'd skip upgrading entire sets of weapons, or flat out just stop playing the game or fist fight through it.
Plus abilities didn't carry over, each weapon was unique and then you didn't have the prior weapon.
I'm glad that's gone, I've always hated it with a passion.
Right, I never said it was perfect. Just that it was the kinda thing I want to see more of. I want to see only a few types of weapons, with upgrade trees. You can choose what attributes you want the whip or whatever to have, and upgrade towards that. And you should have to make tough decisions, like whether the Gergoth soul or the Claimh Solais is more valuable to you.
I'm sick of weapons in games in general being useful for ten minutes and then garbage when you get a better one. Make that weapon better instead! Reduce, reuse, recycle and all that shit.
I'mf fine with upgrades if it's items you have to find in rooms, or win (100% get from say a boss).
What I object to is the random farm concept soul system brings in. It seriously ruins the games. You can be moving along at a great pace and then blamo, have fun farming golems for 3 hours. It breaks up the game. In an RPG you can get away with it, but in an action style game like Castlevania it's a pain.
I think it can be done well if they did it right. But until they do random weapon drops are the best. At least with those you don't have to go through your items in a linear line (the key and core problem), you can opt to farm when you want, rather then farm for it all or you're stuck with a certain weapon level.
I want to play CV, not korean MMO grind for drops.
I'll agree with you there. Some of DoS's souls (I'm looking at you, Valkyrie) were used far too much for their rarity. Ideally, the upgrades I'm talking about wouldn't require much or any grinding; you should naturally come across what you needed.
I've been replaying Symphony of the Night, and we've been wrong about a complete lack of platforming in these games; SotN demanded it because, even if it didn't necessarily kill you, taking a wrong hop would send you plummeting down to the bottom of a whole damn tower. There's still leeway to make that more clever without turning Metroidvania upside-down.
I've been replaying Symphony of the Night, and we've been wrong about a complete lack of platforming in these games; SotN demanded it because, even if it didn't necessarily kill you, taking a wrong hop would send you plummeting down to the bottom of a whole damn tower. There's still leeway to make that more clever without turning Metroidvania upside-down.
The platforming in SotN didn't really offer a whole lot of menace. Yes, you lose some progress if you fall, but you aren't exactly losing your last life and forced to restart the stage.
With a real penalty, platforming is both a challenge and a threat. With virtually none at all save for time lost, it's an annoyance.
I'll say this though, to play Symphony is to realize the kind of piss poor level design we've accepted from its successors.
Games need to stop being so worried about killing the player and just kill the player. Seriously.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
Games need to stop being so worried about killing the player and just kill the player. Seriously.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
I have never liked the concept of the bottomless pit though. It always seems like a cheap way to keep the player from being cool and having fun. Especially in newer games. I'm looking at you Sonic Adventure.
Games need to stop being so worried about killing the player and just kill the player. Seriously.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
I have never liked the concept of the bottomless pit though. It always seems like a cheap way to keep the player from being cool and having fun. Especially in newer games. I'm looking at you Sonic RUSH.
My favorite challenge in a Castlevania game was in Castlevania 64. The goddamn nitroglycerin level. You had to go back down about four levels without jumping, attacking, or running to fast. If you didn't you blew up - instant death. It was sadistic, but awesome.
Games need to stop being so worried about killing the player and just kill the player. Seriously.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
I have never liked the concept of the bottomless pit though. It always seems like a cheap way to keep the player from being cool and having fun. Especially in newer games. I'm looking at you Sonic ALL OF THEM PAST 3&K.
Games need to stop being so worried about killing the player and just kill the player. Seriously.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
I have never liked the concept of the bottomless pit though. It always seems like a cheap way to keep the player from being cool and having fun. Especially in newer games. I'm looking at you Sonic, ALL OF THEM.
Games need to stop being so worried about killing the player and just kill the player. Seriously.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
I have never liked the concept of the bottomless pit though. It always seems like a cheap way to keep the player from being cool and having fun. Especially in newer games. I'm looking at you Sonic, ALL OF THEM.
fixed for me. ruined the game for me.
You know damn it you're right.
Shit guys, get with it.
It's acceptable in the few zones that have a lot of them in Sonic 1-3&k.
My favorite challenge in a Castlevania game was in Castlevania 64. The goddamn nitroglycerin level. You had to go back down about four levels without jumping, attacking, or running to fast. If you didn't you blew up - instant death. It was sadistic, but awesome.
Threre's a lot of awesome in that game that often gets overlooked, even by its developers.
My friend and I found a certain button combination that made Reinhardt blow up instantly while carrying that nitro.
The boss after that was even cooler, a bull with lasers! The way it fell apart during the battle was amazing when I first played it. I used to go easy on it so I could watch the bull slowly decompose.
The boss designs and atmosphere in general in that game is great. It struck a good compromise between being stylish while still having a very gritty, gothic feel to it.
Neo Rasa on
"You know how Batman hangs people over the edge of buildings and gets them to spill information. That's Neo Rasa's way of it, but instead of information, he just likes to see people suffer." ~Senor Fish
The boss designs and atmosphere in general in that game is great. It struck a good compromise between being stylish while still having a very gritty, gothic feel to it.
I've always felt like the game really nailed the progression of a Castlevania game. The slow build-up to entering the Castle's upper towers was fantastic, and I agree, the artistic direction was some of the best in the series.
But, it suffered from alot of design changes, and generally, from being born in the early days of 3D action/adventure titles.
You're not missing much. I've haven't reached it in PoR, but in the other two games it's a total waste. Heck in Aria of Sorrow, you can skip it completely.
You're not missing much. I've haven't reached it in PoR, but in the other two games it's a total waste. Heck in Aria of Sorrow, you can skip it completely.
In the end, only SotN made me go "holy shit" with that boss. Especially because they put it in the best section of the castle possible.
You're not missing much. I've haven't reached it in PoR, but in the other two games it's a total waste. Heck in Aria of Sorrow, you can skip it completely.
In the end, only SotN made me go "holy shit" with that boss. Especially because they put it in the best section of the castle possible.
You also never got the same sense of enormity out of the thing in the hand held games, for obvious reasons.
But in Symphony...it really is just a fifty foot ball of corpses.
Harmony of Dissonance was the worst (heh). The background you fight it in is awesome conceptually but the actual scope and nature of the fight itself is beyond retarded.
Circle of the Moon was about a real vampire hunter that might have been a Belmont so pitiful things like Legion aren't even a thread, that's why it was a relatively small normal enemy in that game. :P
Rufus, CV64 hasn't aged great like most games of that time, but replaying it a bit again (from reading this thread) the controls actually still feel very responsive compared to, say, Tomb Raider 2 or Crash Bandicoot or the other big names of the time. I'd go so far as to say that it's held the test of time much better than its contemporaries.
Neo Rasa on
"You know how Batman hangs people over the edge of buildings and gets them to spill information. That's Neo Rasa's way of it, but instead of information, he just likes to see people suffer." ~Senor Fish
In the end, only SotN made me go "holy shit" with that boss. Especially because they put it in the best section of the castle possible.
Just to be clear, I meant in AoS and Harmony of Dissonance it was a complete waste. But yeah, there's a huge difference between seeing Legion on a tv rather than a dinky portable screen.
In the end, only SotN made me go "holy shit" with that boss. Especially because they put it in the best section of the castle possible.
Just to be clear, I meant in AoS and Harmony of Dissonance it was a complete waste. But yeah, there's a huge difference between seeing Legion on a tv rather than a dinky portable screen.
Rufus, CV64 hasn't aged great like most games of that time, but replaying it a bit again (from reading this thread) the controls actually still feel very responsive compared to, say, Tomb Raider 2 or Crash Bandicoot or the other big names of the time. I'd go so far as to say that it's held the test of time much better than its contemporaries.
What bothers me about modern 3D attempts at Castlevania are that they seem to feel obligated to pay service to the RPG flavor of the better respected entries like Symphony, as opposed to being completely original attempts at reimagining the basic Castlevania concept in 3D.
Castlevania 64 was probably the only such game to attempt that, and it's a damn shame it didn't get a warm enough reception to become better developed in future entries.
Sure Lament of Innocence was pretty bereft of RPG elements...but it also tried to ape the Metroidvania archetype with the open castle, limited platforming, and, you know, lots of backtracking.
What I hate about Curse of Darkness was how damn slow the protagonist moves. It would have been a better game if everything moved twice as fast.
Supposedly playing through the game is a totally different experience and feels like a straight action game due to his more traditional move set and faster speed. I never completed the main game.
Neo Rasa on
"You know how Batman hangs people over the edge of buildings and gets them to spill information. That's Neo Rasa's way of it, but instead of information, he just likes to see people suffer." ~Senor Fish
Posts
For a game that has a ton of travel and vicious enemies, the fact that you have to double-tap a direction to run is a glaring mistake.
I was being sarcastic, it's is honestly my favorite of the three GBA Castlevanias for it's overall atmosphere and design (hell I just spent like four pages of this thread heaping praise on it).
Double tapping to run I had no issue with. It was a little faster to do the offensive dash with the trigger anyway since you'd be running through corridors infested with enemies. There was also an awesome DSS combination that let you use the other trigger to run super fast.
I'm a fan of the older castlevanias and one of my favorite parts was the jumping puzzles, but I don't think it would work at all in the new style.
What made them complicated in the older games wasn't the complexity of the jumps, but the fact that if you got hit once in mid air you'd be screwed due to the physics of the game, you had 0 air control in your jumps, and the whip wasn't an ideal weapon for combating foes that occilated up and down while flying.
The new style games depend on some degree of air control, you need it to get around and it makes the actual combat a lot more fun and reflex based, rather then “get boomerang and triple shot stand in this area and throwâ€. And that degree of air control would wipe out all the complexity of any jump puzzle.
I'm afraid these things just can't be mixed.
I didn't play it long due to the random nature of card drops. Couldn't get anything done.
DSS was a fantastic magic system. It was such a treat to get a new card and see what new abilities you got. Like Eternal Darkness's Rune system, another of my favorites. I like to play around with my magic a bit.
EDIT: Uranus+Thunderbird and Jupiter+Serpent fo' life. Fuck false candles, too.
I wouldn't mind another Castlevania that uses the same system, wherein instead of getting progressively more powerful weaponry you get a tighter variety of stuff that's all useful at various points. And different people would have different experiences depending on which ones they got first.
I don't think they need to go that far, they just need to design the items better. I've had one huge gripe with all the metroid style CV's... there are tons of unique weapons with really fun abilities, but then they turn to crap and there is never another one that emulates it. Yet at the end there are a bunch of completely broke items as well.
There is no reason they can't carry over abilities through several weapons.
Errr, the soul system was pretty obnoxious. At best it lead to soul farming and wasting time bogging the game down to a grind. At it's worse it was so boring you'd skip upgrading entire sets of weapons, or flat out just stop playing the game or fist fight through it.
Plus abilities didn't carry over, each weapon was unique and then you didn't have the prior weapon.
I'm glad that's gone, I've always hated it with a passion.
I'm sick of weapons in games in general being useful for ten minutes and then garbage when you get a better one. Make that weapon better instead! Reduce, reuse, recycle and all that shit.
I'mf fine with upgrades if it's items you have to find in rooms, or win (100% get from say a boss).
What I object to is the random farm concept soul system brings in. It seriously ruins the games. You can be moving along at a great pace and then blamo, have fun farming golems for 3 hours. It breaks up the game. In an RPG you can get away with it, but in an action style game like Castlevania it's a pain.
I think it can be done well if they did it right. But until they do random weapon drops are the best. At least with those you don't have to go through your items in a linear line (the key and core problem), you can opt to farm when you want, rather then farm for it all or you're stuck with a certain weapon level.
I want to play CV, not korean MMO grind for drops.
The platforming in SotN didn't really offer a whole lot of menace. Yes, you lose some progress if you fall, but you aren't exactly losing your last life and forced to restart the stage.
With a real penalty, platforming is both a challenge and a threat. With virtually none at all save for time lost, it's an annoyance.
I'll say this though, to play Symphony is to realize the kind of piss poor level design we've accepted from its successors.
And I see no reason why increases in air control eliminates the possibility of good platforming, possibly with instant death traps. If anything, that should increase the potential for ingenious platforming, since now you can throw all kinds of things at all kinds of angles at the player, and he is endowed with the tools to overcome it.
The problem with dropping the player down a tower is that often times that tower wasn't much or isn't much challenge to get up: it's just a waste of time. Admittedly, when you offer save points or retry points near places where death looms, it's not much better; in the end, you still get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before you pass it, and that's really the most important issue of all. Do you allow the player a way to victory that is ultimately inevitable (e.g. if you can't win by manual control, grind until the boss becomes trivial) or not? If not, how?
I have never liked the concept of the bottomless pit though. It always seems like a cheap way to keep the player from being cool and having fun. Especially in newer games. I'm looking at you Sonic Adventure.
I never asked for this!
You know damn it you're right.
I never asked for this!
It's acceptable in the few zones that have a lot of them in Sonic 1-3&k.
I never asked for this!
My friend and I found a certain button combination that made Reinhardt blow up instantly while carrying that nitro.
The boss after that was even cooler, a bull with lasers! The way it fell apart during the battle was amazing when I first played it. I used to go easy on it so I could watch the bull slowly decompose.
Your Current Signature Picture[/SIGPIC]
I've always felt like the game really nailed the progression of a Castlevania game. The slow build-up to entering the Castle's upper towers was fantastic, and I agree, the artistic direction was some of the best in the series.
But, it suffered from alot of design changes, and generally, from being born in the early days of 3D action/adventure titles.
Yet another reason CotM is a great game.
You also never got the same sense of enormity out of the thing in the hand held games, for obvious reasons.
But in Symphony...it really is just a fifty foot ball of corpses.
Circle of the Moon was about a real vampire hunter that might have been a Belmont so pitiful things like Legion aren't even a thread, that's why it was a relatively small normal enemy in that game. :P
Rufus, CV64 hasn't aged great like most games of that time, but replaying it a bit again (from reading this thread) the controls actually still feel very responsive compared to, say, Tomb Raider 2 or Crash Bandicoot or the other big names of the time. I'd go so far as to say that it's held the test of time much better than its contemporaries.
What bothers me about modern 3D attempts at Castlevania are that they seem to feel obligated to pay service to the RPG flavor of the better respected entries like Symphony, as opposed to being completely original attempts at reimagining the basic Castlevania concept in 3D.
Castlevania 64 was probably the only such game to attempt that, and it's a damn shame it didn't get a warm enough reception to become better developed in future entries.
Sure Lament of Innocence was pretty bereft of RPG elements...but it also tried to ape the Metroidvania archetype with the open castle, limited platforming, and, you know, lots of backtracking.
Supposedly playing through the game is a totally different experience and feels like a straight action game due to his more traditional move set and faster speed. I never completed the main game.