I heard as much bad stuff about this game as Castlevania II, but I disagree in a lot of stuff with this one. It's not as cryptic as the first one, the fighting system is much better, the leveling up system is decent and I find the dungeons more fun, even tho all of them are basically a monster corridor (which makes the game also pretty damn hard). Also, always starting from the same point when you die is bullshit.