Reviews... I don't give a fuck about them regarding Castlevania.
Are you even going to try playing this game objectively? I know i'm not, because I'm one of those guys playing Castlevania since i was 10 years old, so I've never been objective regarding it from the start until today. It's just about the game "ringing the bell" for you, really. Take the N64 games for example, you know you enjoyed them, you naughty naughty Boy.
So, if you feel your expectations getting eroded by those mediocre, at best, reviews, just think about that.
Two more things:
That Kotaku guy is an ASS, and kotaku rating system is "do play / do not play", literally. Seriously, WTF?.
I Don't know if you guys tried, but I installed the LoS2 demo on both my Xbox and PC and there's a HELL of a difference, and I dont even have a top-spec computer at all, believe me. The game looks SO much more beautiful on the PC, there's no possible comparison, even at low settings.