Maybe the hype is partial to the blame but when I finally got a chance to play it I couldn’t help but to feel underwhelmed by SCIV. The gameplay is the main problem here. I think that people who have always complained about the older Castlevanias for their slow and archaic controls must have loved the more nimble Simon Belmont with better control over his whip and jumping abilities. I probably wouldn’t have minded these chances so much if they had focused the level design more around these new abilities. However, the level layout and enemies still feel like they were designed around the older control scheme of NES Castlevanias: 8-way whipping simply makes things too easy and subweapons become redundant. Case in point, skull dragons and axe knights, some of the most challenging enemies from the original games are hardly a challenge anymore when most of the time you can simply keep whipping them from a safespot before they even have a chance to attack you directly. In the end, not a bad game but it just doesn't have the same replay value as the first one or Rondo of Blood.
Despite of my ranting, overall I really enjoy this series and it would be nice to hear other people's thoughts about it - maybe someone can even explain what makes SCIV such a great game
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