The sega saturn while ported by a different team and much less visually appealing and has some sloppy moments adds a few extras ontop of the PSX version is a good port in its own right. Game is pretty awesome and you should try the pc engine/tubo grafx-16 super CD game if you can...

Dracula X - Rondo of blood

some regard it as a prequel to the SoTN

Em. Did you change the thread title for any reason in particular? I see that there were no replies for 5 hours for some reason.

Just some friendly advice. Changing the title to something more provocative just to get people's attention is against the rules, so if a thread seems to be flopping, let it flop.

As for the actual thread. Haven't played the game, but there is no such thing as overrated as far as I'm concerned.

SOTN is perfect in every way, I keep playing it just for the fun of it. Too bad you don't like it but everyone has diferent tastes.

Don't know if this reply is to me because I mentioned NitM.  Not sure if you've played Dracula X Chronicles, which I mentioned in that post, but it's a remake of Rondo of Blood and both RoB and SotN are included as unlockables.  DXC is the same with some minor changes that fix the shortcomings in RoB.  Also, stage 5' is completely remade so it's an actual stage rather  than a mish mash of different backgrounds.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey84svvU6_0&list=PLB905DD74DCE5746E 

I always finish games before spreading my opinion, even the worst ones. Nonetheless, SOTN isn't the worst game I've ever played. It's pretty correct actually, especially when we keep in mind the age of the game. But it is surely the most disapointing to me if we take his status into consideration. 

In fact, what strikes me first is the core mechanic of the game. Your character is slow and you can attack only once. Plus, except by being equiped with estoc your character stops when it attacks. Those little details prevent the game from being fast paced, fun and challenging. Because the character is slow, developpers had to dumb ennemy and pace of the game down. Plus, playing a rigid character is never really funny. 

Everyone keeps speaking about the possibilities the game's items and relics offer but they're often really useless. The only main trick is to equip shield or other protections that prevents damage for one type of element attack.

I can understand that SOTN bring a lot of cool concepts for 2D plateformer, especially when compared to games like Rayman, Super Mario and other bland 2D plateformer. But I am a young player, I don't have nostalgia glasses and unfortunately I played Guacamelee first... Guacamelee, aside from the atmosphere of the game is better to me than SOTN. Really similar, but most well made. 

I've got this on my PSPgo I think it's too difficult imo

Bland!! It really not the same kind of game to Mario. Rather Mario being bland I'd say he shine because he's about really great, empowering control mechanics. In both castlevania and 2d metroid games as you play a restrained figure with limited controls and combat. Even when heavily upgraded they feel wooden next to Mario, who can just goomba jump through levels, doing some very precise manoeuvres. This is far less true of rayman who is mechanically much simpler and less precise. Rayman is often about running forward and hitting jump at key moments as you're bounced though a visually pretty collapsing level which is designed in such a way as to bounce you though it with minimum skill and effort on your behalf. Fun, but light weight.

I've been playing darksiders 2 and thinking, if this was a 3d mario game and Mario had the darksiders ability to run across the walls, rather than simply run and jump against the wall at an angle and have your character run along it on auto pilot, Mario wouldn't relinquish control from you. You'd have to keep running forward or you'd start to fall. You'd have some freedom to be able to adjust the angle you run at, rather than follow a pre perscribed path. And you'd be able to do the maneuvre on any suitably flat wall, not just the walls the game designers choose for you.

Having played both, SotN is the better game. Guacamelee was good but it just fell short of being a great game, mostly because the game's design was rather hit or miss. Some areas and bosses (like Flame Face) were interesting others were rather forgettable and some areas a tad generic. It was a fun game the first time around but I am not sure if Guacamelee is worth a second playthrough.

It seems like you do not like the speed of gameplay in SotN, which is fair enough I suppose, different strokes for different folks. But I do not think that is a poor design choice, in fact I think that the game works really well around the pace of the gameplay, much better than games in it's own series. Enemies were easy to spot and were programmed in such a way to work around Alucard's movement, you will not have an enemy that will just instantly destroy you because it popped out of nowhere and started jumping in your face. Plus you have a lot of options (such as carrying potions or using magic to transform or attack) to make up for any mistakes and win any battle. The game rewards you by exploring the world to find treasures and to think your battles through. So, no I do not think SotN is overrated, it's an expertly crafted game.

It's the best 2D action game ever made.

I feel that the graphics were pretty good, but not great for the time. Not enough parallax scrolling backgrounds. The story is weak too, however, the game is very fun to play. The soundtrack was amazing. I would rate it a 9/10. It deserves to be in the top 50 games at least. I've barely heard of that other game. I think it has a stupid sounding name, but if it's good, I'll check it out!