I really enjoyed Castlevania. But then i -actually- enjoyed Castlevania 64 too. Yep, i'm one of those super rare folk who don't grab the pitchfork and torches at what many decry as the 'dark horse' of the series.
You know, i get the whole 'every action adventure game tries to emulate God of War ffs' but, you know, you could say the same about anything. First person shooter? Let me get out my 'Like Goldeneye but...' stamp. Third person cover based shooter? Let's go for something more contemporary; i'll just get out my 'like Gears of War but...' stamp. Or we could go back to the N64 era and say 'let me get out my like Jet Force Gemini but stamp...'. In fact forget games, you might as well say every single plot it any movie and TV show has been done by one before it and perhaps even done by literary geniuses like Shakespeare. A love story? Oh please, Romeo and Juliet did that shit four hundred years ago!
The point is that recycled mechanics is of course expected, but it's how the game implements them. If it's fun to play but feels like God of War, then just say it's fun to play. If you don't like the combat mechanics used in God of War, you're not going to like them implemented in anything else, plain and simple.
Anyhow, i thought the stunning visuals and visceral combat were very entertaining, with light platforming sections to provide a bit of breathing room between the combat sections. And as mentioned, the logic puzzles were some of the highlights. I don't see why you should ***** about including an option to remove them by the way, since i'm sure there's a couple more casual players who would be seriously pissed off if they couldn't proceed because of a puzzle. You should be praising extra options for players who want or need them, not bitching about them. Also, you're complaining about a game being too long? Jesus christ man, in a world where people charge £40 ($60 for the Americans) for a 6 hour game (i'm looking at you, Force Unleashed 2, Vanquish and Enslaved) anything that pushes itself over the 10 hour mark is a real treat.