Metroidvania.

Even the most casual of game enthusiasts have heard the term. Metroidvania is an action-adventure sub-genre popularized across multiple platforms after the 1997 release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

By abandoning the earlier level-to-level action adventure elements established by every preceding Castlevania title (with the sole exception of the heartbreak-in-a-cartridge Castlevania II: Simon's Curse) Symphony of the Night propelled the franchise into a new era. SoTN combined non-linear exploration with RPG elements and an expansive map by presumably adopting gameplay elements from the highly successful Metroid series.* It also reintroduced Alucard, the son of Dracula who we last saw as an accompanying character in Dracula's Curse, as the game's lead character.

I already know what you're going to say.

You love Symphony of the Night. Of course you do, because everyone loves Symphony of the Night. It's a neat anime-style evolution of the Castlevania franchise, with neat music and neat graphics and neat plot twists. I don't blame you for liking Symphony of the Night, because it's a really legitimately neat game. And for what it's worth, not that you care, I love it too.

But it's not a true Castlevania.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... True-Castl

Not sure I agree, but very interesting article...