It took me a while to come around to this game, but eventually I managed. I still don't like it all that much though. The simple elegance of a lot of the prior Castlevania games is gone, changed for this frankenstein-esque mix between classic and metroidvania style gameplay that combines most of the worst aspects of both. Exploring these tiny little locations isn't nearly as fun as the castle of the last games or even the paintings from Portrait of Ruin, and the linear sections are often just frustrating in enemy layout. The game has its strong moments, but ultimately it's carried by the fact that Metroidvanias, even when done this poorly, still make for fun games.

This is definitely the best Metroidvania I have ever played. Almost everything about this game is prefect: the castle is fun to navigate, and because of the portrait feature, it's chunked up into manageable sections that make getting lost nearly a non issue, Many of the enemies are fun and challenging, the swap system works super well and is balanced, and the locations are all interesting and well thought out. The only things keeping this from a 10 are the fact that the bosses can still be a little much (it is a castlevania game after all) and the awkward writing and voice acting ruin parts of the (admittedly limited) story. Other than that, the game is nearly flawless.

I don't think I've ever turned around on a game quite like I did with Circle of the Moon. It frankly makes a terrible first impression, with stiff controls and an impossible poison filled hallway. I hated it so much that just 15 minutes in ! gave up and played the other 2 GBA Castlevania games, along with Dawn of Sorrow first, hoping to put this off as long as possible. But, upon returning to this game, I grew to really enjoy it. It's not perfect of course, the knockback is still really irritating, there's a boss or two without a save point near enough, the bosses aren't great, and of course the controls are still a bit clunky, but it's a genuinely great game. It's shorter and a lot more condensed than the other two GBA games, which I personally prefer, and I'd even say it has the best music out of all of them. It has an incredibly cohesive map that's fun to navigate, and the more linear structure combined with its smaller size makes it less irritating to get lost in. The moment to moment gameplay is just really fun. However, all of those little faults drag it down to the point that I don't think I'll be revisiting it, but I'm glad I had my one playthrough.