Indeed, the entire series revolves around the concept of entering Dracula's castle as a vampire hunter, and destroying Dracula. (Although much of the later titles are somewhat different, some of them no longer having Dracula in them at all.)
But in Symphony, the player controls Dracula's son, who is a dampyl, half human, half vampire, bent on destroying his own bloodline forever.
Ayami Kojima did the artwork for this game as well as many other Castlevania titles, and with her influence from the film Dracula Love Never Dies, she so completely captured the essence of the series. This game is so perfect, in my opinion, in everything.
So yes, you get all these specific vampire abilities, and are proficient with over one hundred different weapons, so it makes the fighting different and fun.
I did not know this site was seeing a face lift though. I thought Alex pretty much abandoned it or forgot about it or something?