Just in case you didn't know, there's actually two FOV-altering eyepieces: the Convex Glasses (zoom in), and Eye of Horus (zoom out). The werewolf I think you might mean (ground level of the leftmost Clock Tower, entering from the elevator shaft) dashes in from ridiculously close, even with Horus equipped... and some later enemies do exactly the same thing, making me think that's their entire gimmick. Not good. -_-
The clock tower, both inside and out, gives me some good Castlevania 64 vibes, with the damp, weathered stonework and long-suffering gears toiling away... but getting bad camera-blindsided by a werewolf is just a little
too reminiscent of CV64, which outgrows that nonsense by the end of its first stage.

Lament of Innocence is a first-rate combat engine, trapped in Wolfenstein 3D-calibre map design. Just like Wolf3D, it's not without charm and deviousness (some great secret-hunting), but it's perpetually limited by boxy angles and a sense of flatness. An old internet acquaintance, who worked for Konami Hawaii at the time, claimed management brought in a gold copy to show off - and he almost got fired on the spot when, assuming he was playing a beta, he enthused that it'd be
"great once they got some actual stage design in." He was a trustworthy chap, but true or not, that's too funny (and justified) to question.

It's a fun time if you can get it cheap. Damn shame Igarashi was so shit-eatingly slagging off CV64 at the time, while nuzzling Hideki Kamiya's hindquarters, to boot... because LOI's fierce combat and deadeye control combined with 64's perilous verticality would've been a legitimately great 3D Castlevania. Instead, it's just a mildly notable highlight of the wilderness years between DMC1 and DMC3.
Never got around to Curse of Darkness myself, but people I trust seemed to find it more or less Lament Again, for good and bad. I wish he'd gotten to do pseudo-sidescrolling PS2 Castlevanias back then, instead - I could imagine something very similar to ROTN resulting, but maybe with a bit less grindy crafting (to be fair, that stuff is incredibly relaxing in its "gone fishing" way).
---
You know, it's especially funny how arrogant Igarashi came across pre-LOI's release, given the only Castlevania he'd headed up to that point was Harmony of Dissonance. Which is, whether you like it or not (it's so nice I bought it thrice), a sophomore trainwreck ala DMC2. SOTN was directed by Toru Hagihara (Rondo) with Nobuya Nakazato (FC Bucky O'Hare/Contra Spirits/HardCorps/Rocket Knight) assisting. COTM was directed by Shigeharu "Umechan" Umezaki (FC Contra, Super Contra, Salamander & Gradius II), again with Nakazato contributing. That's a lot of precision 2D expertise.
Apart from producing an at-the-time welcome, but in retrospect glaringly inaccurate PS1 port of X68k, HOD was Igarashi's first time in the director's seat. The only other notable I see in HOD's credits is Takashi Takeda, enemy designer for HardCorps and Bloodlines (Great Takeda Robot mirite). That figures, as while I'm sure he's a nice chap, HOD's boss roster reflects the most vacuous tech demo aspect of those two games, with precious little of their underlying grit. There's also its flabby, redundancy-pocked map, astonishingly ill-judged air handling, dog-ugly sprites, and an OST with a
couple hard hits and
wheelbarrows of shit.In short, Igarashi had no place whatsoever posing as a Castlevania or even action gaming luminary, and it's first-rate schadenfreude that his big console debut turned out the way it did. Or it
would be, except I love this series, and I bought all of these games at release. Then nearly went blind playing the (vastly superior) handheld followups.
BAWWWWWW
"Buh buh but did you RLY give HOD a chance? Hmmm?"
Open wide. 
("Igarashi considers HOD a demo game" is something I vaguely recall hearing over the years, the obvious and immediate retort being that I sure as shit didn't pay demo price for it, or the two JP copies - Super Happy Funtyme Value Print, then OG because I'm a blazing shelfqueen - I got years later. WTB one killer game, not a heaving misstep and its superior next-year rebound)
(I recall something very similar happening with Akira Yamaoka, post-SH4, where he was suddenly the all-knowing series guru. my Konami Hawaii pal reckoned this was a symptom of the company's beancounter-driven disintegration from the mid-00s onward. it was even worse in Yamaoka's case, because while he hadn't contributed shit to the games' content, he'd done a wonderful job with their soundtracks, making it hard to write him off. in the end, while Igarashi undeniably improved in his stewardship, Yamaoka became an absolute non-entity. this all makes me kinda sad!
BATMAN would just punch and kick those lousy bigwigs until they paid talented people to make good games again!)