Thank you for the nice review.
I like this castle as much as the big old grey from 1984 and I think it's too difficult to say that the one is better than the other. There is 8 years difference in designing and that could be a very big distance (look to Knights Kingdom 1 which was still available at the beginning of 2002) .
I like the design of the big front tower very much which is probably an grandson of the 1984 castle, but the building on the right is very great and have a more civilised feeling to it.
The return of a ghost (after the first ghosts in 1990) is very nice and gives, with a wolfpack guy, extra playability.
Some people don't like the raised baseplate, but you always could build a different castle with a flat plate. I even have bought a second hand raised baseplate, because I never had one and just want to try something with it.
Although I will admid that it is sometimes annoying to fill the gap in the middle.