A gothic themed romance closely related to early century stories.
Any way, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence takes place there the first Belmont goes to kill Dracula, in modren tongue, it would be Leon going to kill Gabrial as a Vampire, (if the time lines cross). Essentially, Leon Belmont gets gifted a magical whip that is the bane to Dracula and he journeys into a castle to save his beloved. Now the game is not a love story, nor is the game itself really a story driven game besides the firsty couple of cutscenes and the ending scene. But what the game does have is addictive gameplay and a smooth control scheme.
Though the boss battles ae not all to memorable in compared to its spiritual successor Lords of Shadow, Lament of Innocence as a smoother flow of gameplay, and actually feels pretty unique. Where Lords of Shadow feels similar to God of War, Lament of Innocence feels like a stand alone game, and one that even 10 years later holds up as a solid action title.