the gameplay, and the tactical soul system in particular, received praise from reviewers. the sheer depth of the abilities of the numerous souls found in the game was lauded, and ign believed that the ability to have two customizable "profiles" of different abilities was "an extremely handy idea". the relative difficulty of the game and its length was also brought into question, with "gamespot" noting that the game could be finished in five hours and "is fairly easy as far as "castlevania" games go".