The only thing really shitty about it was so many of the dungeon areas have the exact same layout. Story and character-wise I found it to be better than Origins in ways. And it being more actiony didn't bother me.
I never saw the second series. I saw they were one of the streaming services and tried watching the first season again to catch up, it is not as good as I had remembered.
About 90% sure this was a Christmas present.
100% sure this version was one and it was a pretty good port. (atleast I thought it was in 2000.) Either way it was a great gift as it was got me to be decent at playing it after not playing it on SNES for years.
I played this with my bro on his Xbox about a year ago and we got half way through I think? These types of games are generally even harder in co-op. I did pick it up on Switch during the last sale but haven't tried a solo run yet.