I'm so immersed in the Castlevania community that I'm unsure if this was intentionally made to make nerds like me panic, but I'll warn you that Castlevania 2 is an infamous black sheep of the franchise. It plays very differently from 1, and the more direct successor to that gameplay is 3. However, 3 is legendarily difficult, so what I may recommend is playing the Japanese version instead, Akumajou Densetsu. It's easier and has better music, so with your Castlevania experience, you might be able to get through it without savestates, which would be pretty satisfying.

Cheers, I'm playing through the Anniversary Collection so I think the Japanese version is on there. I'm vaguely aware 2 is an odd one, but I'm going to give it a try :)

"(because who has the time to git gud at brutal NES difficulty these days)"
me somehow

You should try out super castlevania IV and rondo of blood. Both of them are on the easier side for classic castlevania standards and I think you'll like them a lot if you liked the original castlevania.

Super and Rondo are in the queue, I'm going though that collection first though