Gaming off the Beaten Path

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence I must say I have never been a diehard Castlevania fan.  I really liked Symphony of the Night, but I always found the SNES and NES games too slow and plodding.  I recognize their quality, but in a world of Mario’s and Mega Man’s they could never really hold my interest.   Besides, it seemed like the series died out on home consoles after SOTN.  Sure, there were tons of them on handheld consoles, but I never really owned handhelds.  I think it had a lot to do with how poorly the N64 ‘vania games were (and make no mistake about it, they were bad).  That leads us to Lament of Innocence.  I don’t remember it getting much hype when it came out and I don’t remember it being reviewed too well or too poorly.  I also didn’t remember having it in my collection, but here we are.   I guess we will start with storyline and presentation.  For those that care, this is the first game in the franchise chronologically.  It tells the stor