It's hard to describe how much this game gets right,despite being a very sharp left turn compared to its predecessors. Fantastic visuals,it's fun as fuck to hit stuff and seeing that damage rack up,as well as leveling up and finding cool shit to put on and try.
Now that said,it didn't completely blow me out of the water. Maybe it's because I was constantly comparing it to Aria,which I played first,but I can't help but see some cracks here. The back half with the inverted castle particularly drained some of my goodwill,and unlike what I feel most Metroidvania manage to do, I felt like I stopped meaningfully progressing in my abilites 40% of the way through,partly because of it. Plus I kinda wish that they went harder on some of those weapons.
Overall though,still a fine banger. Yuri Lowenthal Alucard will haunt my nightmares for the rest of time.