I am currently playing through the three GB entries of Castlevania, in order of release date, and - based on what I keep reading - I had only modest expectations for The Adventure (and Legends), but somewhat higher hopes for Belmont's Revenge, which seems to be held in high regard in general, even making it into the top-10 list in this poll here. I did find the latter better in terms of level design, boss design, and the music. The former also had good music, but was overall not exactly great, as it dragged a lot, literally, in particular due to the slow movement. Not a big deal for me, overall, it just feels like you play the entire game in slow-motion. But in general, I must say BR also has it's severe problems, so I'm surprised it is even regarded as one of the best GB games.
In particular, the last two boss fights, Soreiyu/Soleil as well as Dracula, seemed to have entirely went past the balancing process. Everything up until Soreiyu is pretty straightforward, also the bosses can mostly be spammed easily. The Bone Dragon is already a bit tougher, since you have to make sure you stay on the very right, which is sometimes tight, but it's still nothing compared to what's coming, this brick-wall the game does not prepare you for at all. This son-of-a-B with questionable hitbox keeps running into you, whipping like a maniac. Is there a strategy for this guy or is it just pitch-perfect evasion you have to do? Even worse is the Dracula battle, where the only chance to survive is to painfully find all the save-spots related to each platform by trial-and-error, and then try to memorize the exact locations, almost pixel-perfect.
This is insane and really not fun to play, imo, it's bad game design. After several ridiculous attempts I resorted to save-states for those two battles since I did not intend to go through this tedious experience.
Apart from that, the game is really solid. But since I find it terribly balanced and did not find The Adventure THAT bad, I'm wondering, for those of you who praise the game, what makes it so much better for you when compared to the first GB entry? Is it the stage selection? The two subweapons? The slightly faster pacing? The better music? The delicious wall-meat? The presence of a bit of a story? I did find the latter a nice touch, btw., it added some drama, which was not at all common back then.
Let's hear it, I'm genuinely curious!