[showka]

Yeah, that route can definetly be boring, and the levels where you have to wait for the acid to break the blocks suck, though it makes the game feel fucking epic and more satisfying somehow. I remember playing the Japanese version on my Dreamcast a few years ago, and starring in awe when one of the cavern levels opened up (ie the rock wall in the background had these cracks and openings) and showed a lake. I suddenly realized that what I was looking at was that same lake you can see in the outer wall in Symphony of the Night, and what the characters were doing was scaling the mountain side by traveling through the caverns. In a way, Castlevania III has the same kind of powerful artistic direction as SOTN, it was just made for inferior hardware so it was harder to tell (I beat Castlevania III every which way years before and never noticed the detail described above).

[showka]

I think Castlevania III, Ninja Gaiden, and possibly Battle of Olympus made me a master at controlling my anger and cursing violently under my breathe.