I just had the rare pleasure of reading this brilliant article while browsing the latest E3 news.
Although Castlevania is not mentioned, these issues should speak to the heart of all hardcore gamers. Lords of Shadow is but one example of how cinematics and heavy-handed, linear narratives have undermined the fundamentals of the hardcore gaming experience...
http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6380559/gameplay-is-dead-long-live-gameplay
I know I'm going to get shit for this, but...
I cringe when the word "hardcore" gets thrown around, because its very usage attempts to classify gamers into a value system, where "hardcore" gamer experiences are somehow more complete than "non-hardcore" or "casual" experiences.
This article, in particular, makes me cringe because this guy does a lot of complaining without really explaining what he expects.
His argument is somehow based around how he wants games to be less cinematic, but then references Watch Dogs as this breath of fresh air, when the Watch Dogs trailer was a very passive, cinematic experience. I mean, I dislike what the Call of Duty franchise has done to AAA gaming during the recession, but in the same 9 minutes of gameplay that trailer took place over, I'd be forced to shoot over 70 Russians (or whatever you shoot nowadays) in CoD, which is arguably a ton more gameplay that actually requires some skill from the player.
Then he pays some lips-service to how he doesn't think 'linear" is a bad thing, but then he passively implies how games with flexibility and open-endedness are somehow more 'hardcore' than the games that guide the players through content 'on-rails'. The problem I have with this is that, if hardcore implies a traditional gaming experience, then flexibility and open-endedness are in no way a traditional aspect of gaming. Castlevania was hyper-linear up until the advent of the Metroidvania, and even then Metroidvania's (and by extension Metroid) were notable and unique for their exploration elements.
By the end of it, all I really gathered from the article was that:
A. The author doesn't like explosions
B. The author doesn't like quick-time events
And my response to that is while I agree that our industry is having a big problem with copy-catting and stale gameplay, particularly among shooters, the AAA industry isn't under any big threat of losing the "soul of the gamer" or, to the topics implied message, that Castlevania is by any means becoming a victim of the "cinematic excess" that the author is accusing the industry of because of some longer, honestly far-inbetween cutscenes, and the occasional, and many times completely option, button mash QTEs.
EDIT: To be clear, I think all of his complaints are very valid, and he makes a few good points, but the ultimate message of the article is completely lost in how it was written.