Here's how I rate the Castlevania games I've played:

Castlevania 1: 90
Castlevania 2: 98
Castlevania 3: 85
Castlevania 4: 92
Dracula X SNES: 78
Symphony of the Night: 88
Castlevania Legends: 75 (didn't beat it)
Castlevania for N64: 88

As for SotN's soundtrack, I disagree that it was the best of the series. It's melodies were all watered down, and a departure from the music style of the series. There were no hard-hitting tracks, and none I could even remember the next day, but musical taste is a very strange thing. There was no music at all from earlier games. Also, while you can change direction in midair in CV4, you can also do that in SotN. The only real differences in CV4 is the eight way whip (an improvement if you ask me) and the ability to swing from hooks (which is a cheap gimmick used in almost all early SNES platformers, not so bad, but doesn't seem right in a CV game). I don't see what's so bad about having to press R to throw a weapon.

Oh yeah, here's my Final Fantasy scores:

Final Fantasy 2: 90
Mystic Quest: 84
Final Fantasy 3: 99 BEST GAME EVER, and I'm not even a big fan of RPG's
Final Fantasy 7: 88