Well, at least you gave it a chance. I, personally, think the game is a solid 9.
Only cons I can think of are:
-victor is underused, but the presence of the mirror shard does explain that he could be being controlled by fate itself
-stealth sections, while simple puzzles in a more active form, could've been more forgiving.
-Golgoth guards should've became late game enemies
-ending is lackluster, but it does convey hope for the future in Gabriel, who spent the beginning wanting to die.
-modern sections are a bit bland
But enemy variety, combat, story (pretty good. Not great, but pretty good), atmosphere, music, and the castle environments are just spectacular. Lovely game, though it seems that its a "love it or hate it" sleeper hit situation.
All these problems and a solid 9 eh? Ok then.
I agree with everything. And that's why I can't give it a better score. In fact, playing this game was a chore. I completed it only because I started it already. 6.5~7 for me is playable, but not essencial. A regular game.
The castle areas were too short. They were pretty, but too short. In fact, I would have preferred if MS dropped the city altogether and made 4 more areas inside the Castle. When you get to the map room and see the Castle, you think it'll be huge... but it really isn't. Total bummer.
Victor AND Alucard are fucking useless on this game.
Stealth sections are ridiculous. Completely unnecessary, I dont care if it makes sense on the story, it simply sucks. And RAT Dracula... someone is using some great shit on MS, WORST IDEA ever. Seriously... why? Everytime I had to transform into a rat I was already getting angry.
The music is completely forgetable, for most part. Besides the battle themes and one the plays when you visit Chupacabra, which was pretty cool. It's no news that I simply don't like this type of music at all.
The gameplay, while improved from the first game, after you master your weapons it tends to make you rely on 3 or 4 movements. The weapon variety was cool, so, it was more like 12 movements, which is ok. Void Sword was my preferred weapon. The movement where Gabriel spin the sword and goes in one direction was OP as fuck!
The story is a complete joke. Sorry for people who liked it, but it's objectively bad. What about the redemption? Fuck.this.shit MS. In fact I didn't want redemption at all, but this open end was lame.
Bring the new Castlevania already. I don't want to see more LoS in my life. In fact, I'll simply forget everything about it in the future.