I'd like an explanation on what exactly you want in a Castlevania game because I'm a bit confused. IGA's game are not Castlevania, but LoS is? One could argue that LoS has little in common with the older games as well. Do you want Castlevania to still retain level-based 2D side-scrolling gameplay like the older games? You stated that LoS is a fresh new game and that's what you want, but I feel that if we kept level-based 2D side-crolling gameplay then they would eventually stop feeling so fresh. I'm not trying to pick your post apart and attack you, so please don't take it that way.....I just want you to clarify what exactly you want.
Sorry, maybe I have to explain better.
It has nothing to do with 2D or 3D, for God sake. We can have good Castlevania in 2D or 3D. What determines a good game and a bad game ? Fun factor, difficulty, lengh, graphics, music, polish, originality.
On all these points, the franchise offers us the same and the same at a standart or poor level since HOD. Games are finished in 1 day, musics are always the same, it's always the same mechanics - find how to slide, find the double jump, find a powerful armor and keeping it until the end, finding a good weapon and keeping it until the end, killing Dracula in 2 slashes, making Level 99 to destroy everything in just RUNNING, finding lots of Save Rooms to get the life bar full again, or teleports to spare some walk time in the Castle, buy all that you want in a merchant shop, see poor dialogue with always the useless girl and always the traitor.
And make stupid things : save a cat on the tree, decorating a room, find a chair, throne or sitting on a water-closed, play a Guitar Electric, finding rubies/stuff to make a robe, ..... All these elements are NOT Castlevania. It's just out of the mind of IGA and his crew, who don't know how to give us some fun, and don't have any genious.
They have nothing to offer the player anymore. The last game : Judgment is a horrible "thing". I don't hate this game because it's a VS game. I hate it because it's non-fun at all, boring and repetitive. The same with LOI and COD which have no identity, full of useless rooms and same-corridors, with a dull level design because jumping is useless in these game : they are totally FLAT and there is almost no-platforms sequences. And portable games are each time the same with repetitive mechanics, ennemies and challenge.
You know, I'm not a LOS fan, but it was full of new ideas, fresh air, new atmosphere, dark story, gloomy levels, new areas to travel (Tower of Malphas), platforms, interesting music score and new artistic direction for the series. Old Castlevania are all differents, with always new Artworks made by different Designers, different producers, different composers --> this way we can say that Chi no Rondo has nothing to do with the first Castlevania, Simon's Quest is totally different from Super Castlevania IV, etc etc...
About LOS, one simple illustration : I loved to fight epic combats against Vampires. Iga and his team totally forgot during 8 years that Castlevania was a fight between a Hero/Vampire Hunter against evil creatures of the Night, including Vampires ! Althought we have a crazy large variations of Skeletons in IGA games, but absolutely no vampires (just final boss).
So Castlevania LOS is a Castlevania game because it's a very long and challenging gamen, it's not Level Up based, with Save Rooms, Teleports, and all I described sooner. I hope you understand what I mean now. Yes, I played Castlevania since I'm a little boy, but at least, I know WHY I like Castlevania. That's why I want a new direction for the series for each new entry. I don't want IGA games forever because they are useless for the gamers.