Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an action adventure game released by Konami on the PlayStation in 1997.

Status

I do not own the game, but have beaten it and seen the ending where you kill Richter.

The background art is really beautiful.
The character animation is amazingly detailed. In addition to movement consisting of numerous frames, there is even a lot of dialog animation.
The game has a solid soundtrack. The music keeps a Gothic sound while incorporating a contemporary sound.
There are a wide variety of interesting monsters.
It's kind of interesting to have to collect items for things that are normally commonplace in Castlevania games, like obtaining items from candles, or seeing a monster's name.
Gaining vampire-like powers (turn into wolf, bat, mist) is a really cool idea.
The familiars are a great system.
The inverted castle is a wonderful addition to the game.

The voice acting is just terrible.
The items aren't very balanced. The cross and Agunea are far better than the rebound stone of Bibuti. So, the weaker ones just get in the way. And the way item changing is handled is annoying. It's common to accidentally hit a candle with a weapon you do not want, and, if it's near a pit, you lose your desired weapon.
Having to equip potions and food items to use them was a poor design choice.
Some of the items are humorous, but totally out of place, like a snorkel, a corn dog, etc.
It's annoying that your inventory gets filled with old weapons and armor. Since you can't sell them, you should at least be able to drop them.
Alucard's spells are annoying to have to input for as little as they do.
Having to jump to reach most of the candles and duck in the reverse castle is annoying.
A couple of the enemies are a pain in the ass, like the gremlins and imps.
The gear puzzle in the clock tower is really annoying.
A lot of the items you get are useless. Either a weapon/armor that's weaker than what you already have.
The display of the item you get and monster you kill sometimes gets in the way of the action.
The menu system is bland looking.
The CD icon at the top of the rooms when you change sections is out of place.