People love to call games "Metroidvania" any time you have to backtrack, like it's some kind of accomplishment. VS:AC goes beyond this and actually captures a lot of the fun that I had playing Symphony of the Night. But on top of that, it adds in combat that is a little deeper. I've only played one of the characters you can play as, but the skill tree looks to be pretty thoughtful, and I wonder how they differ over the different options. Also, the magic system gets a big thumbs up from me: initially I thought "This seems complicated, I probably won't use it," but the game forces you to delve into it, and I'm glad that it did. It is a bit overwhelming at first, but once you get it, it becomes second nature. I'm not sure how long it is, but I'm enjoying it a great deal up through now.

FOLLOW-UP -- Having returned to this game a over a year later, they have finished adding in the other characters and the devs have done an awesome job of substantially differentiating the four playable characters from each other in fundamental ways. A+