One of the reasons why deciding between two games is so hard. (This is a long review)
First of all, the game is plain fun, really quite a great sense of action platforming, not only that , but you can get the abilities of your enemies, which really shows alot of effort put into the game, it's also cool, because sometimes an enemy has a really cheap move, now you have it. You can combine souls, put them in weapons to make them dramatically more powerful, but it can be hard, because you can trade boss ones. If you do tha before you get the chaos ring, say bye bye to it. So sometimes it really can be a hard decision, especially since some souls are really hard to get (*=Easy to get, **= A little annoying to get, ***= it's going to be a while before you get the soul, unless you're lucky).
Of course, seeing you have the ability to get some very powerful abilities, by the end of the game we have very long to get you save points, very hard bosses, and very unfair enemies. (The iron golem) By the end of the game, if you get the bad ending (which is actually very cool), you can get Julius mode, of course I don't know if you get it if you beat the game on the good ending.
What also makes this game cool is if you get the worse ending, the game ends very soon compared to the good ending. The worst ending is plain bad, just not worth playing the game, so if you get an ending that really isn't worth it, that's not the real ending. When you get the bad ending, the game is progressed for a little longer, and if you get the good ending you have to beat two other bosses, including the final one. So it's a big difference.
Once the game is beaten 100% (Which is actually enjoyable), enemy set mode can be exploited to the fullest, and boss rush mode with the best items in the game is alot of fun, and challenging. There are alot of unlockables for the boss rush mode, and it can be pretty challenging, considering you only have up to lvl 50, which is low by the time the game is completed 100%.
What's also especially great about this game is that when you get a weapon, you can stick with a knife, a mace, a claymore, a short sword, or a long sword, all obviously varying in size, attack speed, and power. (knife= fast but weak, even the final level one, mace= Really slow, almost unbearable, but extremely powerful by most of the upgrades) Some may even get attatched with their weapon, considering if you get one you like, you'll stick with it almost immediately for the game, and how you can upgrade it throughout the game, I still have my claymore from the beggining of the game(vastly upgraded).
The graphics in this game are pretty good, considering it's a 2D game, it looks pretty similar to most of the castlevania games, except they look better and more 3D. What makes it different, the animations, monster animations, fire animations, all the animations, are perfect. The framerate, is perfect, there's even a 3D monster in the game(which is actually kind of pretty to look at). The graphics in this game are great, and some of the times you get to notice the backrounds in the game, you'll realise almost each one in the game is different, some of the backrounds in the game are 3D even. It's really a pretty game to look at if you look at the 3D especially. It looks pretty.
The music in this game is very good, one of them I don't neccesarily like, but everything else is awsome to listen too, there are about 25 different songs in the game, each of the suiting the area perfectly, and they all sound very good (except for one). The boss songs, and big boss songs, the final battle song, the final area songs, the special area songs, everything is so well placed and nice to listen to (except for one). It's very nice to listen too, and the audio for the monsters, there are about alot of different sound effects for every monster, boss, the characters in the game(about 200), so many of them. When you start to listen to some of the sounds that come from monsters, they all seem to explode with realism and life. It's actually suprising.
Considering how this game is really made for everyone, you can pick your favorite souls, favorite weapons, alot of effort is shown in the end product of the game. Konami did an amazing job trying to make this game perfect, and the end result is nothing less than spectacular. Buy this game, it's made for perfection, it's made for fun in mind, and you'll have a good 2 months getting EVERYTHING in normal, hard, and julius mode.(Including trying to get the RPG. Have fun,and remember, if you have a choice between two games, buy this one, why? That's a stupid question.