The superfluous stuff doesn't get in the way of the game though. There is too much of it, but I never found it confusing or anything.
Yeah, it's certainly not intrusive, but it's a bit of an annoyance considering the sheer number of trivial items/weapons you can acquire, since you always rush to the item screen to see what sort of goodie you've just picked up, only to realize that it's yet
another pork fried rice or corned beef and cabbage or whatever. Or, worse yet,
another generic short sword equivalent.
I mean, even looking beyond items/equipment, the entire familiar system, while nice in theory, just serves no practical purpose really (aside from the Sword familiar).
Fist of Tulkas owns you, though (that's the one that allows you to spit out fireballs
and has a rapid combo attack for massive damage).
I played SOTN so to death. Alucard controls so fluidly and he has a number of moves that look cool and feel smooth as hell to pull off. I just loved roaming around the castle skillfully killing enemies.
Yeah, the controls are really ace for the most part. I wish the normal walk was a bit faster, but I generally do the backslide anyway when I want to traverse ground in a hurry.
Also, the lack of a "sort" option for your items annoys the crap out of me. Oversight total. 
True dat.
I mean, it's a
really huge oversight. I have no idea how that got by playtesting given the sheer volume of items and equipment in the game.
