Forget whether it was justified or not, there actually was that many people 'crying out about LoS'.
he still calls it a minority though, and the fact is, if he cares at all about the franchise, (which according to him he does) it makes sense to as the what was it, producer? give fair warning that this entry in the series will be somewhat different than what people are used to.
by the same token however, i can't help but feel that the "forget what you know about castlevania" was just a buzzword for marketing, considering he also says how LoS had lots of inspiration from Super Castlevania, his personal favorite. And I see it, as well. Lots of the early environments (swamps, ruins etc)give off that sort of vibe, not to mention the only classic CV music is, (aside from the Dracula battle from CV1 used for Carmilla, the portion of "The Beginning hidden at the end of Final Confrontation, and the death jingle ) from SCIV. The Waterfall, the Courtyard, are the two most prominently used tracks in the game. Arguably Vampire Killer as well, though that's more of a franchise staple, not so much "because it was in SCIV"
it really feels like a 3D modernized classicvania to me, and it feels like, if notsimply marketing, the phrase was aimed more at Metroidvania fans, or fans in general, who had grown very accustomed to IGA's metroidvania outings. i mean, in regards to that- LoS is certainly alien.
The "aesthetics" were likened to Lord of the Rings, or something out of high fantasy, and not in a good way.
Which i always felt was rediculous, and really weeds out those who never played classicvanias in their life. Games like SCIV, or CV3, don't take place in the castle entirely. They go through ancient ruins, forests, swamps, all that shit. MS took those concepts and fleshed them out. so the ancient ruins are sort of a sunset-like environment, leading up to the "dark" land of the vampires, which starts out daytime, and quickly becomes dark and snowy.
It also sounds rediculous when it was nothing like Lord of the Rings, which makes me wonder if those people ever watched that either.
"b-but trolls and goblins!!!!" they'll say. And yet, those were all in IGAvanias. Along with curry throwing skeletons and all other manner of strange creatures. Why is it suddenly a problem when LoS does it? It's not like you find those beasts in the castle, or in the land of the dead. they exist only in the early, forest/ruins areas, when you aren't fighting werewolves and wargs.
It's probably best left unsaid what some people thought of its story and narrative,
Story and narrative was really fine, and not really all that different from standard fare. "belmont wants to save his girl". the only twist being the fact that she's dead and he wants to bring her back to life, and the reveal that Zobek mind controlled him into killing her himself. I'll agree on the plot twist of SURPRISE, IM DRACULA! being really unnecessary, especially when the ending was fine as it was. a bittersweet "I saved the world, but could save my girl" type deal, sort of paralleling Leon's story, where he defeated Walter, but couldn't save Sarah. In retrospect i kind of wish they hadn't gone about the Dracula thing the way they did. Overall, while unneeded, I was ok with gabe being Dracula, if they played it right, but they seemed to have NOT done that. His transformation is ridiculously hamfisted as a pair of rushed DLC's, when it could have been something that took more time to develop. then there's LoS2 which fucks with his characterization further, after MoF had established it fairly well.
and the musical score.
maybe i'm just more accepting of change, but I found literally nothing wrong with the music outside of the fact that they opted for "atmospheric" music instead of stage by stage music- which is fine- if they hadn't used "stage" music for that. it's somewhat awkward. although, Waterfall does serve as a pretty serene choice for platforming/puzzle music.
Its titans? Let's not go there.
definitely a bit too derivative, but they didn't really bother me either. they reminded me of golem bosses with a twist.
Let's not bury our head in the sand and say it was a smooth ride for the fanbase. There was great division here, and it felt to me like there was real animosity and hostility at times towards Dave Cox and the new direction.
there definitely was, but I still dont get why. it's one thing to not be 100% onboard with it, but.... I dunno. maybe it's just because I enjoyed LoS for what it was, and as a Castlevania game, that people hating it so venomously just seems so weird and I just don't get it. It just seems like, compared to other fanbases, Castlevania is impossible to please, as everyone has totally different opinions on what makes a "true" castlevania game.