In Reply To #2
I'm personally a fan of the Playstation2 games, along with the other games that Kojima illustrated. I like her designs, and to me, she has the true taste of what the game stands for. Obviously, Yamane's music is tied along with the art, but maybe that's just my bias since I myself am an artist.
Legends, I can see why people like the main character, since she's the only female protagonist of castlevania that's had the spotlight to herself.
And you're right, Castlevania has been through worse, but you'd expect that the last two installments would have been more than simply testing things, instead of developing a solid game. Dawn of Sorrow was a 'been there, done that' type of game, with prettier graphics, while Portrait of Ruin promised so much exotic flavour to it, yet not only did it feel bland, but I can't even remember most of the game due to the lacking design and monotonous gameplay. Too many things in the DS installments felt incomplete. The characters felt like their development was from child-like, to adult in a matter of the game's events, which felt unrealistic.
What I mean by that is, in HoD, LoI, CoD, even LoD, when you met the characters, they allready had depth, and established character. Portrait of Ruin and Dawn of Sorrow felt bland in that sense, and characters seemed like empty slates when first introduced.
I think ever since Curse of Darkness, Iga's been quite flaky of developing stages that actually have flavour. It's almost as if though his team lost inspiration to give vitality to the environment, and that's a major mistake considering that the surroundings have always been the one of the most important things in maintaining the game's mood. The main character/villain, and the music are probably right up there with it. Curse of Darkness had the music (save from the Infinite Corridor, and Dracula's castle
which sucked, bluntly put), and the character designs were fantastic, which is expected from Ayami Kojima. But the stage designs were unoriginal and kind of even repetitive, except for the Eneomaos Machine Tower and Garibaldi Temple, which wre interesting in their design. Also, one thing I didn't like about that game, that I think LoI did a lot better, was that the game almost never took place inside of ...well...
Castlevania! Except for the Abandoned Castle, and that shitty boxed-up excuse that was Dracula's Castle, the rest was all outdoorsy crap. Again, with the exception of the beautiful Clock Tower, and the elaborate Garibaldi Temple.
Castlevania, Castlevania, where is thy gothickness, Castlevania.