A Beautiful example of amazing sound and art design married with great gameplay design.

It was 10+ years ago, when i first played on the playstation and even back then i was struck on how fun and amazing it all felt, the sound, the graphics, the backgrounds, and how fun it was, after all this time, i had the opportunity to get it via PSN and it still felt the same as it did years ago.

Just from the main screen you can notice the beautifully composed music,and this is the game's genius, every area of the game has it's own different feel to it which is greatly enhanced by the music, the composer deserves lots of praise, seeing how each theme matches the environments beautifully, it's one of those soundtracks that you could listen to again and again. The voice acting is solid, though Alucard's voice actor is the best performance along with Dracula's voice actor, they really nailed the parts in my opinion.

The art design is also a plus, every area is different and nicely detailed, sure it's an old game, but the game aged beautifully, the backgrounds are filled with great vistas, and the game just looks good along with the characters, i love the Gothic vibe everything has. The only smear on the graphics are the graphical glitches that are strewn through out the game.

The plot itself is simple really, go find out why Dracula's castle appeared yet again, but there are interesting moments in between the real ending which makes the experience that much richer, from some memorable bosses, to the few twists the plot goes through.

The gameplay itself is also simple but so fun, kill stuff, level up (no stat allocation though) collect and find gear, explore and discover new abilities, and that's where the game can get addicting, when you finally get X upgrade, you start thinking ' where did i need to double jump? and etc' and those ' ahaha! i remember where' moments feel so good that they keep you from setting the controller down until you figure it out and find a new area with new challenges and places to explore. I wish i would be able to sell items i didn't need, instead of carrying all that useless stuff around which makes the item selection a bit of a pain, nothing major though.

The spell system is a little weird though cool, instead of learning it the normal way, you have to figure it out yourself, by tapping random button combination, THOUGH, some spells are sold, most spells and techniques i figured out for myself, even if they aren't needed to finish the game, it makes the experience that much better, why slash away when you can teleport behind an enemy and slash him twice on the back and teleport back again?

This is one of those games that if you invest time in it and try to discover everything it offers, the game gets that much better, those who don't like exploring and finding secret stuff will probably don't enjoy it that much, same can be said with those who need to be told where to go.

The only defects i can find with it, it's that the secret level you discover (if you explored the first game area thoroughly and find some important items.....) while it has great music, a lot of the themes are repeated which makes the experience drag on a bit, though there are still areas with unique and beautiful themes. And even that secret area features good art design.

Graphics: 4.5
Sound: 5.0
Controls: 4.5
Fun Factor: 5.0

So in the end, you get an amazing, challenging (specially that secret
level) game filled with great atmosphere,music,art,interesting plot and cool characters, that oozes styIe and coolness,if you haven't yet played it, buy it now and love it, i seriously can't find much wrong with this game.