I don't think this one aged well; the presentation holds up but the gameplay kinda doesn't now that this style of game is so common. The RPG elements combined with the exploration quickly wreck the difficulty curve (probably general balance issues too and maybe even some outright bad design) and as a result many bosses just could not do anything to me. And when the regular enemies don't pose a threat Alucard doesn't move fast enough. The game's second half was often boring and magnified all the other problems. Oh, and screw spells in this game. While I'm not a fan of fighting games, I'm fine with them existing as long as they keep their dirty awful diagonal controls away from the genres I actually like! Think I'll try this again with the 99 Luck code that minimizes other stats, fight bosses/navigate their areas by the order the librarian lists (presumably the intended one) unless hugely inconvenient, eliminate excessive exploration, equip poor armor (maybe none?), and see if it works out better. I'll try Richter Mode too.