I recently finished Aria of Sorrow. Played through the entire game legitimately without save states until the final boss, which would subject me to unskippable cutscenes both before the fight and unskippable cutscenes AND bad ending credits after dying. I used two save states. One at the start of the fight and one at the start of phase 2. I didn't 'beat' the game, but I got to see the true ending so that's good enough for me. Worst Castlemania.