I've been playing through the Neo Geo collection and Samurai Shodown V and its variants Special and Perfect stand out the most to me.

The roster is well rounded and features a lot of unique gameplay opportunities. The arcade mode isn't punishingly long like it is in earlier entries, which was a massive relief after grinding through the others.

Special maneuvers like Overkills and Rage Explosions are easier than ever to activate in modern versions due to control remapping, and so flashier content isn't put away behind a skill wall. And mash events to disarm opponents feel more fairly balanced than in other entries, meaning the AI doesn't always get to disarm you for free.

Additionally, and this is where spoilers come in, the ability for players to chain additional final bosses by performing overkills on each final boss until reaching the secret boss Mizuki, is an extremely climatic way to allow players with deeper game knowledge to feel powerful and cool.

All in all I think this is my favorite Samurai Shodown game and I highly recommend it.