Well, I played through Chronicles...
I give it: (on a scale of 1-10)
Graphics: 6
Really old-school, not quite up to the level of part 4 on the SNES.
Gameplay: 8
Good, but old-shool game design allows you an extremely limited range of movement and attacks.
Music: 9
There are some really cool tunes here. I thing that Konami put more effort into sound than anything else.
Review: Castlevana Chronicles is as old-school as it gets. When I first started playing, I was a little let down by the lack of animation in the redrawn Simon Belmont, but I quickly got over it and tried to appreciate the game for what it is.
The levels at the beginning of the game are pretty weak, but they get stronger as the game goes on. The Death/Grim Reaper level is COOL, with dismembered bodies, Frankenstein chasing you and haunted wall mounted paintings.
Most of the bosses are somewhat lame when compared to many of the later games, especially C:SOTN. But Death and Dracula are very cool.
Overall, this game is probably only for Castlevania fans(like most of us)...
The gameplay is much more like the NES titles than anything from SNES or Playstation/Saturn, so if you enjoy going back to the originals, then you will like this game.
One final thing: The cover for this game is probably my favorite of the whole series... I always though Simon looked like some kind of lame Rastan/Conan type before, now he looks like a total badass!
If Konami made a sequel to Symphony of the night, with the redesigned Simon in lead again... oooh, think of the possibilities.
