Castlevania: Bloodlines

Castlevania: Bloodlines is the only Castlevania game developed for the Sega Genesis. It was released in North America on March 17, 1994 and in Japan one day later. The game is notable for being loosely tied to the Dracula novel written by Bram Stoker.

Story
In the 19th century Europe's greatest nations had gone to great lengths to maintain a balance of power throughout Europe. The inhabitants sensed that a war would unfold sooner or later and countries formed several alliances, who in turned harbored feelings of distrust against each other. on June 1914 at Sarajevo, the Crown Prince of Austria was assassinated and resulted in a chain reaction of violence across the entire continent. It was said that a strange beautiful woman was involved within the shadows.

It was Elizabeth Bartley who had plotted together with the dark sorceress Drolta Tzuentes to unleash an international global war and use the souls of the dead to revive their Lord, Dracula.

Two men, descendants of the legendary Belmont family of vampire hunters, named John Morris and Eric Lecarde arose to counter the threat.

Together they traveled to the ruins of Dracula’s castle were unable to find any trace of the Vampire Lord. After learning that Elizabeth was nearby, they followed in hot pursuit while fighting their way all across Europe. With much effort, John and Eric were able to finally end the menace of Dracula and Elizabeth after a final showdown in Castle Proserpina.

Victory would soon be tainted when learned of the terrible price that came with using the whip’s full power.

Gameplay
Castlevania Bloodlines holds true to the premise of the original game but with notable additions. Making your way through six linear stages is required, facing enemies and obstacles along the way. A boss is fought at the end of a level but are usually also encountered when reaching its midpoint. Unlike most other Castlevania games that came before the setting is not limited to in and around Dracula's Castle, and is spread out over several other places in Europe as well.

The game allows two characters to be controlled, each of who control differently and can travel through different sections of a stage only accessible to them.

John controls like a traditional Belmont and thus wields a whip - which can upgraded three times instead of the usual two - and has access to three seperate sub-weapons. He is able to charge the power of the whip when holding down the attack button and then lands a powerful blow with it. The fourth powerup changes the Vampire Killer into a flame whip and boosts the capability of the sub-weapons as well. Something that sets John further apart from most of his Belmont predecessors is that he is able to whip downwards while in the air, and can also use his weapon to swing from ceiling to ceiling.

Eric is a more powerful character then John due to being slightly faster and his weapon - the Alucard spear - has a longer range. The spear can also be upgraded a total of four times, and Eric has access to the same additional weapons as his partner. He is able to attack in four different directions, upwards by lifting his spear and downwards by performing a dive attack while airborne. Eric's two special abilities are twirling his weapon back and forth, and using a huge leap to reach a platform stationed right above him.

The game is noteworthy for utilising special effects generated by the Sega Genesis sometimes resulting in unique obstacles that had never appeared in any of the previous titles. Notable examples include the rotating tower of Pisa and the upside down rooms in Castle Proserpina.

Heroes

 * John Morris ( ジョニー・モリス Johnny Morris) — Born on December 12 in Texas, USA, John Morris is the son of Quincey Morris, the hero who killed Dracula in 1897, but lost his life in the ordeal. John is a Next_Generation.jpgr of the Morris family, an offshoot of the Belmont Clan that was entrusted with the Vampire Killer whip when the Belmonts disappeared. Not only did the Morrises inherit the whip, but also the heavy responsibility of keeping Dracula from conquering the world.

When John discovers that Dracula's niece, Elizabeth Bartley, is on a quest to resurrect Count Dracula, he journeys to Europe for a grand chase that leads him and his best friend, Eric Lecarde, across the war torn continent in an effort to find Elizabeth, slay the Countess, and keep Dracula asleep.


 * Eric Lecarde (エリック・リカード Eric Ricardo) — Eric Lecarde is John's best friend. He comes from a noble family in Segovia, Spain and wields the Alucard Spear, which was forged by Dracula's son, Alucard. A pact with the Morrises and Lecardes are what enable John Morris to effectively use the Vampire Killer whip. As such, Eric assists John on his quest to stop Elizabeth.

That is not Eric's primary motive for hunting Elizabeth Bartley, however. Elizabeth kidnapped and vampirized Eric's lover, Gwendolyn. Eric, unable to cure her, had to put his beloved to death himself to release her from the cursed bloodlust. With hatred in his heart, Eric takes his spear and prowls Europe for signs of Elizabeth, but he keeps his main cause for hunting the Countess a secret from his best friend.

Villians

 * Elizabeth Bartley (エリザベート・バートリー Elizabeth Báthory) — Dracula's niece, Elizabeth, was brought back from the dead by a dark sorceress named Drolta. Elizabeth sought a means to bring her uncle, Count Dracula, back from the grave, as well. She learned of conflict between the greatest nations of the world over colonialism and decided to ignite a fuse that would send the world spiraling into the most vicious war it had ever seen at that time by orchestrating the assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria. The war of the nations, who had forged two opposing alliances, caused the death of millions, and Elizabeth seeks to use the lost souls and mass chaos as a means to revive Dracula.

While the world's nations tear each other apart, she journeys across Europe uniting the forces of darkness and preparing the rite for Dracula's resurrection, but she is followed by two unrelenting vampire hunters that will stop at nothing to see her dead.


 * Drolta Tzuentes (ドロテア・ツェンテス Dorothea Szentes) — At the core of the calamities of 1917 is the dark sorceress, Drolta. She resurrected Elizabeth Bartley and beseeched her to help revive Lord Dracula. Elizabeth hatched a nefarious and earth-shattering plan to bring back the Count. Drolta aids the Countess in this to satiate her desire to see the Dark Lord given flesh once again.


 * Dracula (ドラキュラ Dracula ) — The embodiment of evil. He was killed in 1897 after a confrontation with Quincey Morris, but his devoted servants would see him return to the world of the living at any cost. Elizabeth and Drolta seek to bring the Dark Lord back to life, but they are pursued by two vampire hunters. The Count's body rests in Elizabeth's Castle Proserpina, located in England.

Music
The music from Castlevania: Bloodlines was composed by Michiru Yamane, who would later continue to work on several other games in the series, including Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Some of the tracks would become recurring in later titles in the series. The Sinking Old Sanctuary, would later be reused in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. Iron Blue Intention was reused in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and in Castlevania Judgment as a character theme for Eric Lecarde.

Themes from the Castlevania trilogy for the NES can be accessed using a password and can be played in the sound test as well.

Graphics
Castlevania: Bloodlines displays effects like rotating backgrounds, reflections in the water, a tower that sways from left to right, and very diverse colors. Keeping in line with Super Castlevania IV, the game's mood is more dark and gruesome then the previous titles, resulting in censorship in European versions. While the environments are a step back from the earlier mentioned title, due to lack of multiple scrolling layers and animation in some instances, the game provides very richly-detailed backgrounds. Another noticeable feature is the multi joint effect seen in several enemies.

Textual Reference
Castlevania Bloodlines attempted to make a connection with the novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker and does this by writing one of the characters - Quincy Morris - into the continuity of the Castlevania series and claiming that he was a Belmont descendant. This leads many people to assume that the novel is part of the official timeline, which in some instances would cause severe inconsistencies, though is reality this is not the case. The book itself was never included in any of the official timelines, and only an (as of yet) unchronicled event involving the character.

The backstory of the game refers to real life accounts of World War I, suggesting that one of the main antagonists ordered the assassination of a real life person called Franz Ferdinand of Austria and thereby causing the conflict.

The vampire Countess Elizabeth Bartley is loosely based on the actual historical figure Erzsébet Báthory. Drolta Tzuentes is based on one of her servants who aided her in murdering several young women.

Regional Variations
The game underwent censorship when localized to PAL regions in both Europe and Australia because of its dark themes. Because it was forbidden to use the word blood in video game at the time, the game was redubbed Castlevania: The Next Generation. The Japanese and North American title screen was originally red and depicted a sea of blood. This was changed to blue to make it look like water and also has no dripping effect. The palette colors for some enemies like Zombies and Medusa Heads were altered to make them less menacing looking. This also effects backgrounds and foreground structures. Finally, Eric's death animation is different; his spear doesn't impale him the moment he dies like in other versions.

Other differences include decreased play-speed, enemy placement that makes the game unbalanced (sometimes more difficult and sometimes easier), worsened hit-detection, different sound effects, and some mid-bosses like the Water Magician don't use the boss energy meter.

The Japanese version is more closer to its American counterpart but still includes some changes. The game is there called Vampire Killer, the normal mode is less difficult (fewer enemies and more powerful heroes), and the password screen doesn't show after a stage is completed but only appears when your character runs out of lives.

Other notable things are that Drolta Tzuentes plays a much bigger role in the storyline, being a powerful dark sorceress instead of an amateur as claimed in the American and European version, and is also the second to last boss; also, Eric's facial features in his artwork are more feminine (Bishōnen), which was changed in the other versions by making his face more masculine looking in the intro.

Staff

 * Programmer: M K1 Hanaten Bloodlines7.jpg


 * Enemy Program: Takashi Takeda


 * Trap and Enemy Program: Kenichiro Horio


 * Wandering Programmer: Koji Komata


 * Program: Hidenari Inamura


 * Main Designer: BUNMIN


 * Design: MAMUUN


 * Special Design: TAT, Norio Takemoto


 * Sound Program: Atsushi Fujio, Osamu Kasai


 * Sound Design: Michiru Yamane


 * Package Design: M. Yoshihashi, Kaori Sasaki

Endings
There are four endings in Castlevania: Bloodlines. The ending players receive depends on which character they choose to play as. The ending simply depicts the respective character witnessing the crumbling of Castle Proserpina.

For John Morris, the ending says that he has stopped the resurrection of Dracula, and if you beat the game on Expert mode, you will receive another screen of John striking an action pose that says the blood of Vampire Hunters courses through his veins. Eric's ending tells us that he's fulfilled his destiny, and if the game is beaten on the hardest mode with him, the reward is a close up of the Spaniard and the declaration that greater unknowns await him in the future.

After that, the credits roll while a sequence of the bosses is displayed.

Trivia

 * The game is first to refer to the legendary Belmont whip as the Vampire Killer. The whip is called "Vampire Killer the Sorcery Whip" (妖鞭バンパイアキラー).


 * The game was originally released as a side story of Castlevania series.


 * The American Bloodlines manual states that Drolta was an amateur witch who casts a spell which inadvertently brings Elizabeth Bartley back to life. However, Drolta plays a much more prominent role in the Japanese game; she is in actuality the second to last boss.


 * The Belmont warrior and the woman shown at the intro are most likely a reference to Trevor and Sypha, or Simon and Serena.
 * The game was rated "GA" for "General Audiences" by Sega's VRC ratings board, but possesses a considerable amount of violence and gore for an "all ages" game.
 * Interestingly, almost all the fire effects used in the game are a bluish tint.