Would anyone dig a few more areas beside the castle?

Haunted forest, dark cave, eerie cemetery, dilapidated town,evil garden.
These would all be nice to see in the game. Like the OP said, I wouldn't want them too take up too much of the game but a few of these as mini areas would be a welcome addition for me.

Bleh much rather the game focus entirely on the castle. That doesn't mean we can't have gardens or outside themed areas but I don't want any attention taken away from the main location of the game by working on more outside locations

Based on the two concept art pieces to the left that take place on a ship, you are probably right.

and to clarify... a lead up to the castle i'd be fine with, and a ghost ship was used on a small scale IN aria's castle which I loved. It added character to the underwater location.

My issue stems from when they make whole locations that aren't apart of the castle which takes the focus away from making a spectacular castle.

I guess that's all a matter of opinion because i thought the level design in OOE was largely bad, and I attribute a lot of that to a focus on outside areas and less of a focus on making a good castle that is the focus of the experience. Even though the castle was more of an extra. Was it cool that the game included the castle as a secret? Sure, but for me it was a waste because a lot of the design was very very repetitive. As long as the castle gets the attention it deserves and the focus it deserves I wouldn't mind some outside castle locations even though it seems pretty obvious they aren't doing that based on what they've said numerous times.

What I know is SOTN had some of the best locations in the series and a well designed castle. You don't NEED locations outside the castle if the castle is well designed and varied. Variety is always great sure, but you can have gardens, you can have underwater caverns, you can have courtyards, you can have a ghost ship, you can have all these great locations within the grounds of the castle one way or another when it's well designed.

I feel like having locations outside the castle flattens out the level design and the coolness of discovery. To me finding a garden within the castle in a very well designed way would be infinitely cooler than it being a flat location that you pass by on your way to the castle. 

It reminds me of the hub system of Lament of Innocence. Part of the greatness of SOTN was how all the areas were connected, the discovery of how to get to a vastly different looking areas. Putting a hub system in OOE or Lament kills that off and then you just have separate areas that have no thought into how they connect. Which kills part of the enjoyment of exploration. My love for newer Castlevania games were that there was a real thought on how you discover a new location and that if you don't search or think about things or test things out you might miss a cool new location. Hubs and locations that just pop up on a map kills it and makes it overly streamlined.

I wasn't crazy about the level design of OoE but I don't want to get into an OoE hate train because I know there's a lot of fans of it. So I will say one aspect I absolutely love about the game is the variety of spells, lot of cool visuals, and ideas. Lol

I'm open to areas outside the castle. However I do think it should be areas like rooftops or gardens that are pretty much around the perimeter of the castle. Like 95% inside the castle.