Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PS4) - I played the Japanese version on T-16, but never got around to committing to it. I might go back to that one, because of the save states. Right now, I made it to Stage 5 and stuck there at the moment. I already unlocked Maria, but she's basically the game's easy mode. As far as the Holy Grail of Castlevania games, I think RoB has been overpraised due to lack of availability at the time. I remember all those retro reviewers and old-school experts goings nuts. Saying it's a "must own or worth the money to import!".
I will say the game has impressive achievements in terms of art style, graphics, tech, and ending the system on a high note. Music is a banger and I love the remixes they throw in. There are alternate paths you can find and women that need rescuing, if you want 100% completion. That includes fighting bosses too. The good news is that you can select any stage you beat at any time, by going to stage select, so you can alternate paths, or rescue the women. My problems are Richter is slower, lacks mercy invincibility of past and future vampire hunters, and does not get the mutli-directional whip. He doesn't even get Johnny's downward whip jump, nor upper angular whip/whip swing. I know Rondo came out first, but Super Castlevania IV came out before Rondo with all of the whip improvements What doesn't help matter is that enemies have way too many advantages over you or move quicker Richter. This supposed to be a young guy, he should be able to move faster than that. I know it's old-school difficulty design, but it's what I don't like about some of the older Vanias. Rich has that backwards flip, but it's only useful for speedrunners and very specific situations. Also, most bosses have a suicide/last desperation attack after draining their health. I don't care much for them. Thankfully, they don't insta-kill you, but you're gonna want to have at least half health before it happens. I am glad Konami never tried something like that again.
Rondo is a good game to be respected, but it takes some steps back and age only hurts it further. I do like the game, but Bloodlines still the best of the 16-bit Classicvania games.