Lords 1 was a great game, but aside from MoF's cast and atmosphere none of the LoS games feel like Castlevania to me, or the direction I would have preferred for a reboot.
In the end LoS is a God of War clone with a lot of ideas and mechanics borrowed and mishandled from other games, I would have preferred gameplay that was a bit more slow and tactical like Dark Souls instead of the heavy hack and slash feel and damage sponge enemies.
LoS did a nice job of breaking up the pace of platforming and combat though, but I would have preferred a game that blended both magnificently.
The music overall does not stick with me besides a few tracks; Belmont's theme and Dracula's theme, and that heavy arrangement of Beginning from LoS1's final battle.
I think the biggest offender though is the story, it is an absolute convoluted mess from start to finish. Dracula's origin being locked behind a DLC, the origin of the "Belmonts," and Satan in general. Just awful. It's like they just winged it with the first game and didn't really have a planned roadmap going forward, then tried to make it all feel more like Castlevania responding to criticism which resulted in MoF and LoS2.
The whole series feels more like a big spin off, I won't remember them as positive highlights for the series.
Surprised Konami hasn't does a Lords of Shadow remastered collection yet.
If Konami couldn't care less enough to do even that, then they're truly done with gaming and Castlevania as a series is dead.
It absolutely seems that way. My hopes lie in Bloodstained to carry the torch.