I think this is the fifth Castlevania game in the series, though I can't be too sure (the chronology gets confusing). I know there was a European equivalent of this with a different title and less violence, but that's besides the point.
My first memory of this game was seeing a full-page advertisement for it in an issue of Sega Visions magazine. The ad was basically the box art, complete with three or four small screenshots, and a picture of an open grave reading the name "Belmont". That ad is probably the most memorable video game ad I've ever seen in any form. It conjured up all kinds of scary images in my mind of what this game could be like. I never got to play it until many years later, and it's super swell.