Zelda burdened by the weight of her having to carry a massive ass

Belmont's Curse is a game I desperately want to like so SO bad but has unfortunately tested my patience and won. The game starts out super strong, before Dracula's castle the game has this borderline divine flow state where its so beautiful to control. But suddenly at Dracula's castle, there's an immediately noticeable spike in what the game asks of you and what it demands. I can't call the game BAD. Because objectively, I don't think it is. But something I kept asking myself when playing was "Am I having fun" and the answer was ultimately no. One of the best things about a metroidvania is how fun the world is to traverse. Because of the very nature of the genre, you will be going back and forth alot. Which is fine! Getting lost in the sauce is part of the fun of this genre. But there's a very clear balance needed to make that work fluidly. For me personally, Belmont's Curse is far FAR too tedious to run through. If it was more level by level base, it probably wouldn't be an issue. But trying to explore the entire map with an ABYSMAL warp system is so tedious and time time consuming. I don't understand how we go from warps that only require you to press up on the D-pad to now needing its own whole ass zone to load into. Ik they made a mirror world a part of the exploration, but restricting what is supposed to be THE FAST TRAVEL to it is an insanely questionable design choice I cannot wrap my head around. I was aiming to 100% this game. I love Castlevania and wanted to love this game, and I got pretty close. But once it finally dawned on me, when I thought I was close to being done, that there's the entire mirror world I have yet to even touch, is when my patience broke. I didn't enjoy traversing this world, and having to do an entire zone was the final straw for me. This game is functionally different, I didn't want to judge it for something it wasn't trying to be. It wasn't trying to be an Igavania, and thats perfectly fine! Bloodstained is carrying that legacy, so I understand Konami wanting to do something different. At the same time however, I kept thinking to myself "This isn't what I play Castlevania for". Its why I can't say BC is objectively "Bad". Because there are plenty who are loving this game, and I can't stress enough how much I envy them. But I'm also not gonna lie to myself and force enjoyment from a game out of fear that Castlevania will go back to Pachinko hell if I don't lick Konami's boots clean enough. I want Castlevania to continue, but personally, not like this. I can't call Belmont's Curse a bad game. But I CAN say that I did not enjoy my time with it

Me to whoever designed the constellation puzzle for The Library in Belmont's Curse