Game:

Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994)

Duration: 15:25

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Gameplay Performed by: TrevorDFox

Castlevania: Bloodlines is a platform game developed and published by Konami for the Sega Genesis, released worldwide in March 1994. It was the only Castlevania video game released on the Genesis.

The game's storyline concerns a legendary vampire named Elizabeth Bartley, who is Dracula's niece, suddenly appearing in the 20th century. Plotting a sacrificial war in order to bring her uncle back to life, she orchestrates the beginning of World War I. Quincy Morris' son, John, and his best friend Eric Lecarde, vow to take up the fight against evil. Together they manage to prevent Dracula's full resurrection.

The game was originally released as a side story of Castlevania series. Eric's facial features were more feminine in the Japanese version. When brought to North America, his facial design was changed in the intro to seem more masculine. Oddly, although also changed for the European and Australian versions intro, his feminine face was kept for the cover of those releases.

Castlevania: Bloodlines underwent censorship during localization to PAL regions in Europe and Australia. The word blood was kept out of the title at the time. Therefore, the title was altered to Castlevania: The New Generation. When the game starts, the blood from the bottom of the title screen was changed to water. Another thing that was changed for the title screen is that the North American and Japanese versions had blood dripping effects from the title to the blood pool, but in the European version, the title screen just faded in through pixelated text and had no blue water dripping effect. The zombies were changed from pink to green to make them less gruesome. In the European version, Eric's spear does not impale him after he dies. There was a rearrangement of enemy placement as well, making the difficulty either easier or harder depending on where in the game the player is. Only some sub-bosses use the life bar meter to show damage, whereas others do not.

The packaging artwork for the North American version was created by Tom Dubois, who also designed the packaging for many other Konami titles outside Japan.

The music of Bloodlines was composed by Michiru Yamane, who later garnered acclaim for her score for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and subsequent handheld Castlevania adventures. Though she once admitted to have worked under extreme pressure and deadlines, this soundtrack met the standards of the previous entries and is highly regarded on its own for its gloomy atmosphere. The music for the second level, titled "The Sinking Old Sanctuary," was reused in later Castlevania games, Circle of the Moon, for the Game Boy Advance, and Legacy of Darkness, for the Nintendo 64.

The main themes for each of the first levels of the three NES Castlevania games (Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Beginning) are accessible in-game with a code, can be played in the sound test and one will be chosen randomly to play when the player obtains the maximum weapon power level. Also, Nothing to Lose (the Castle Keep theme for the NES Castlevania) was played in the final part of the first stage. Theme of Simon (from Super Castlevania IV) plays after defeating Elizabeth and before the battle with Dracula.

Bloodlines was an "instant hit" upon release. GamesRadar named Castlevania: Bloodlines the 8th best Genesis game of all time out of a list of 25. Game Informer's Tim Turi praised the level of gore relative to other Castlevania titles at the time. He also called it "one of the most overlooked treasures in the franchise." GameZone ranked it as the fourth best Castlevania title.

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