Castlevania - Lament of Innocence not really a reason to be lamenting.
Gameplay:
You control Leon Belmont while he goes through the castle known as Eternal Night. You bassicly make your way through a central Hub in the Castle to various different areas in the Castle. Your Weapon is of course is nothing other than a whip while you battle away at a diverse cast of monsters and demons. You gain levels as you progress through castle gaining you more life and mana which you can use to power your various sub weapons. The unfortunate thing is, that you can only carry one subweapon at a time, such as the daggers, Cross, Holy Water and so forth.
To make these weapons more powerful as you progress, you can also gain orbs. These come in many colors and are mostly gained for killing bosses, these can power up your subweapon to insane strength. The boss battles in this game are a highpoint, you will meet various creatures that are just fun to battle, while not being to difficult, though there are exceptions to that rule as well. Another Problem or Challenge, depends on how you look at it, is the real time item system. Healing Items can be used only in real time, meaning you have to use the anolog sticks to use your items, while this can be a problem, it mostly just ads a bit of realism to the game. The Combat system has been done ok. You use your whip and a subweapon in combat, as well as a variety of magic as well. The more you use the whip, the more moves and techniques become available to you. Blocking is also very important because its one of the few ways to recharge your power, by perfect blocking a enemy directly before it hits you, you gain energy. All in all the system works and is fun most of the game.
Graphics:
The Graphics are good, all the movies are done in game, no videos to marvel at, but the sequences are good none the less. The enemies unfortunately to some part look rather unrefined, they could have been done better. Another point of the game is the lack of different Textures, everything kind of looks the same in one part of the castle or another, one hall looks like the other, and it can lead to confusion, fortunately there is a map to help you out.
Sound:
The Sound is very well done, and deserve a great deal of applause, the music is good, the voice cast has done their job very well. The Weapon's all sound very well, and the monster voices while not exactly awesome, do their job without becoming annoying.
Value:
This is where i have to say, shame on you, the game is unfortunately way to short. There is alot of room for aditional content, extra stages or whatever. Unfortunately this was left out for whatever reason. But unlockables are fortunately not missing. Plus an additional playable character when the game has been beat.
All in all its a good game, albeit short, but still worth the cash it costs, if you can find a copy that is.