Choppy frame rate, few music "hooks", repetitive narration, tedious titan battles, QTE, shimmying, locked borders, not Castlevania enough, fantasy elements, few old-school enemies, half-baked character references: there's something for anyone here to take in a launch of criticism at the game.
Not saying it’s not justified.  It’s a raw and crude beast of a game at times, borrows from many, but it has its own character, has its charm.  It really took the game a few chapters and light/shadow magic until it fully grew on me.  There are positives: the graphics, cinematics, the puzzles, some of the jumping platforming elements.  Whip-swinging was mostly on rails, but it still felt good.  In fact, it felt like you were controlling a Belmont again on his way to destiny (even if the plot was a bit strange / took a bit to get going).  Necromancer’s Abyss I thought had a great mix up of action and featured a fantastic new enemy character.
Cox and the team at MS will know where they can improve, if they can improve it'll have to be within budget and time constraints.