I was looking at KH1 again and having Jun Akiyama as co-writer and cutscene director for KH1 did so much for this game. The cutscenes were full of Disney-style dynamism and small gags under him.
"That's a great Castlevania game you got there buddy and yeah it might have the best level design, bosses, music, atmosphere and the most branching paths giving it a lot of replayability but you can't WHHHHHIP in 8 directions so it'll never be the best."
"skip it it's optional" is such a bad argument against a flaw in a video game. Imagine criticizing a book and telling someone to skip a page if they don't like it.