Castlevania is slick at first, but then I went back and played Hollow Knight & Silksong demo, and it became obvious how shallow Castlevania is. It's difficult to explain, but those modern classics feel more "embedded", more fleshed out and fully realized, in their overall presentation and even their gameplay. There's something annoyingly fucking synthetic about Castlevania in every aspect to where it feels it was made by people who hate whimsy & fun. Those modern classics feel like WORLDS whereas Castlevania is just a pretty video game; same with the characters — the voice lines in Hollow Knight are cheesy as hell but they have a charming genre feel. Castlevania feels like a design textbook.