Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is great

[A Black Falcon]

It's the first Metroidvania I actually own... like it a lot, I'm at Dracula at about 10-12 hours in (though there's also one other dungeon to explore, and then several hidden modes are unlocked, and there are the rest of the quests and stuff to do...). The main complaint seems to be "it's too similar to past Castlevanias/Metroidvanias" and indeed I do notice a lot of repeat enemies from past games (some sprites in the game even date back to Rondo of Blood...), but oh well... at least they mixed things up a bit with the dual character design (and the first playable-from-the-beginning female character in a 2d Castlevania game since the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night, and that was Japan-only... (if 3d games count, then Castlevania 64 would be the last one; not Legacy of Darkness though, you unlock the original characters after playing it with the first two.)) and the portraits (for some variation in environments and enemies)... it does have grind if you want to though, and seeing all those empty slots in the guides makes me want to... :)

... on that note, during Christmas break I finally really started Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness (it's actually a pretty good 3d action/platform game, unlike my expectations), and got almost to the end of Super Castlevania IV...