Apparently Symphony of the Night was Based on Zelda

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-21-koji-igarashi-says-castlevania-sotn-was-inspired-by-zelda-not-metroid

This comes as no surprise to me.  I've been saying as much for years, though I don't recall if I have on this specific blog.  I've been saying that I don't like the term "Metroidvania" as the game is clearly neither, it's Zelda II.

Granted, there are a fair amount of similarities between Metroid and Zelda to begin with.  I noticed in a recent playthrough of Metroid Prime (still my favorite of the three) that it felt an awful lot like playing a Zelda game.  Not just in the fact that you explore and you get health/armor/weapon upgrades by finding them, not by "leveling up," but in the almost zen-like experience when I was in the thick of the game, it felt almost Zelda-ish.  The 3D Zelda game that was never made.

It then occurred to me that talks of a futuristic Zelda started around the time Metroid Prime came out.  I can't be sure of that, since I first remember hearing it not long after Twilight Princess came out, which would put the conversations around the release of the 3rd Metroid Prime game, but I can't help but wonder if it was a result of Metroid Prime creating a hunger for Sci-Fi Zelda-ish-ness that the rest of the Prime series didn't satisfy.