Castlevania: Bloodlines Review by The Successor

loodlines is a stepchild of a Castlevania game. It is a Cinderella that is often overlooked or forgotten while players fondly remember or raptly enjoy other 16-bit Castlevania offerings born of that age. This isn't "just because". This isn't only because it was released on the Sega Genesis, though that is a contributing factor. There are other reasons for this and they need to finally and clearly be brought to light.

The setting of Castlevania: Bloodlines is . . . very interesting. Canonically, it serves the peculiar function of linking the classic horror novel, Bram Stoker's Dracula, with the Castlevania video game series, which is a bad idea.
It's true that if you dig deep enough into Castlevania's inspirational roots, you will undoubtedly run into Bram Stoker's Dracula, as you would with just about any pop culture usage of the Count.

Though this marriage may be poetic for classic horror buffs, the reality is that ever since Castlevania's earliest conceptions, it forged its own identity and take on Count Dracula that is starkly different from the novel's, despite drawing creative ideas from it. In the novel, Dracula is an eccentric, if monstrous and bloodthirsty man, who buys land in England, and creeps around at night terrorizing women. In Castlevania, he is a Demon Lord with legions of monsters, living in an enormous highly supernatural reality bending castle, who desires to subjugate and/or destroy the human race.

The concept of binding the two doesn't work well unless Konami creates their own event using Stoker's characters and settings to override the novel's event, rewriting the whole thing to suit Castlevania.
Perhaps the developers were trying to get a little rub from the success of the 1992 Dracula film, which Castlevania admittedly took ideas from later on, most notably the concept of eternal love between Dracula and Elisabetha.

The main character of this adventure is John Morris, a Texan with a powerful upper body and a pair of Levi's who is the son of Quincey P. Morris, the cowboy from the novel. The Morrises are relatives of the Belmonts and they've been entrusted with the Vampire Killer whip.

In the midst of World War I, a countess named Elizabeth Bartley is attempting the resurrection of Count Dracula by manipulating the souls of the millions lost due to the global conflict. John and his Spanish friend, Eric, attempt to bring her to justice. Another daft turn by the story is that Elizabeth is the niece of Count Dracula, which is truly bizarre.

For a reason that is never explained, the resurrection ceremony has Elizabeth journeying across Europe, and John and Eric follow in hot pursuit. The developers made an excuse to get outside Castlevania and brainstormed a Euro tour.
It's an intriguing and fresh idea. The first stage takes place in Dracula's Castle, but after that, the heroes campaign all across the map, going to other real world landmarks, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Palace of Versailles, until they reach Elizabeth's castle in England.

Before embarking on the globe-trot, players choose which hero they want to play as - John or Eric. It is John's calling to see that Dracula stays dead, and Eric's out for cold blooded revenge against Elizabeth for vampirising his love, Gwendolyn.

Motives aren't the only difference between the two.
John Morris is the quintessential whip bearing Castlevania hero, while Eric is armed with a spear given to him by Dracula's noble son, Alucard. John can latch onto ceilings and the underside of platforms to swing from them with his whip, allowing him to pass large gaps. Eric can use his pike to perform a poll vaulting maneuver, launching him high into the air, enabling access to elevated places. Eric is a bit more fun to play as because, aside from passing chasms, John's whip swinging isn't as practical as Eric's springy attribute. Furthermore, Eric can swing his spear around for a weaker attack and thrust it directly vertically and diagonally while grounded, and perform a diving attack when airborne. John can whip diagonally and straight down when aloft.

Because of John and Eric's differing abilities, their paths change here and there. There are select areas where only each character can go. Even though this is a great idea that is implemented well, when it is implemented, it's just not used enough.
Playing as a different character does not change the experience sufficiently. They both have just about the same speed, base leaping ability, damage threshold, attack strength, sub-weapons, and so forth.
Mega Man X4 is an example of realizing the dual character concept much better. Granted, it came out three years after Bloodlines, but there's no reason why its philosophy couldn't have been applied here. In X4, we have the character X, who is projectile based, and Zero, who specializes in close range melee combat. That right there makes them vastly different, but X4 goes on to give each one their own weapons, story sequences, music themes, and special boss fight. Kudos to Bloodlines for applying the idea, but it leaves it rather elementary.

Concerning the weapons of the main heroes, in traditional fashion, they can be powered up, which increases their length and attack strength. This time, they can be upgraded three times, with the final upgrade causing a sacred blue flame to encircle the weapon as well as sometimes granting a devastating sub-weapon that attacks everything on screen. Like Castlevania: The Adventure, if you suffer damage while wielding this upgrade, you will lose it. Unlike The Adventure, this is the only upgrade that's lost from taking basic damage. This creates a good balance and encourages players to avoid damage as much as they can, and rewards them for it, but doesn't make for an excessively punishing experience.

The usual sub-weapon formula is broken up a bit. There are only three. The dagger and stop watch are missing, and the cross has been replaced with a standard boomerang. The Item Crash system from Rondo of Blood returns, though I really don't even want to call them Item Crashes, because they're not nearly as spectacular visually, conceptually, or technically. They're not bedazzling, but this isn't a bad thing. Keeping them from decimating everything on screen prevents things from getting too easy, and also doesn't usurp the worth of the special sub-weapon attained by upgrading the main weapon to full strength or finding a magic book.

Sub-weapons are powered by jewels instead of the traditional hearts. No one but the developers knows why Bloodlines strayed from ideas that had become iconic for the series. While inconsequential from a technical viewpoint, it's decisions like substituting hearts for jewels, the link with Stoker's novel, and replacing Belmonts with Morrises that accumulate and somewhat alienate Bloodlines, which has something to do with why it's, to some extent, a black sheep. Add on top the premise of journeying across Europe instead of exploring Count Dracula's Transylvanian realm, and it's a Castlevania game that furrows brows in suspicion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying new ideas, but there is something wrong with new ideas that come at the expense of old ideas that were better.

Of course, there are those that say, "I don't care about those superfluous connections. Is it a fun Castlevania game, or not?"

The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is yes, but with every leap Bloodlines takes forward, it takes three paces back.

Though it has great accomplishments, they're usually hampered down by something, one example being the audio. The music is predominantly very good, reflecting the serene and regal with such pieces as "The Sinking Old Sanctuary" and "Prayer of a Tragic Queen", as well as more beat driven combative tracks, like the farcically spooky "Reincarnated Soul" and the shadowy, graceful "Iron Blue Intention". There is classy sophistication in Bloodlines' music, despite the raw buzz of the Genesis' FM chip that pumps out the sound.
That's part of the allure. The music has punch; a hard lined edge that gives it a solid impact. The best theme plays at the final stage. "Calling from Heaven" is a mixture of conviction, gallantry, and sadness with a hint of sinister intent lingering behind it all. It has an air of immensity that befits the climax of the game. Composer, Michiru Yamane, works her blocky and wavering synths with regality.

Unfortunately, Bloodlines isn't pure audio bliss. Far from it. Some of the sound effects are literally painful and outright offensive. A good instance is heard as early as the first stage when the mini-boss, a Hellhound, appears.
The undead canine lets off an obnoxious howl that causes the glass in the room to break, perhaps as a self aware joke. The shattering glass adds to the clamor, and the most rankling explosion sound tops off the cacophonous session when the beast dies. Talking from experience, I strongly recommend against playing this game while wearing headphones with the volume turned up loudly, for doing so can be hazardous to your health.

Aside from the lethal, there's an assortment of other sounds that are just Mickey Mouse, like the blipping produced when John swings the Vampire Killer whip, as well as the musical flops. All the battle themes are poor. Not only are they uninspired, the instrumentation makes them hard to take seriously. Some try to alleviate the blame from Bloodlines by placing it on the hardware - the Sega Genesis. That is understandable to a degree, but there are plenty of games on the console that make the most out of its sound capabilities; standouts being Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, and Ghostbusters. Complaints about Sonic the Hedgehog's music or sound effects are seldom heard, despite it utilizing the same hardware as Bloodlines. Bloodlines shouldn't be fully exonerated for its instances of horrible audio, no matter how enjoyable some of the music tracks are.

Like the audio, the graphics range from great to goofy. The animation is weird; creatures, characters, and backgrounds are often bouncing in rhythm with each other, giving off the feeling of a string puppet show, and the main characters have especially clumsy walking and stair climbing animations. That, paired with exaggerated, cartoonish sprite work gives Bloodlines a wacky look. The funny thing is it clashes with notably grim attributes that speckle the adventure, so it's hard to tell what the developers are going for. There's a lot of thick and gooey blood splattered and dripping throughout the game, more so than any Castlevania preceding it, giving it an odd macabre, murky aesthetic.

Bloodlines doesn't beat around the bush with its morbid characteristics. The title screen brazenly showcases a sea of blood, which works very well with the buzzy horror theme that plays when the logo presents itself. In the first stage players encounter ravens pecking at ensanguined corpses, blood oozing zombies whose pulsating flesh is a sickly purplish red hue, and butchered, leaking bodies presented as decoration. It got to the point where the Europeans felt they needed to heavily censor the game.

Speaking of backgrounds, despite the often silly characters that inhabit the environments, there are some very nice sights in stages to behold, as well as some neat technical showboating, like the mirroring seen in the second stage, making for lovely reflections in pools of water, and impressive scaling and rotation effects seen further on. There are gorgeous areas like the Atlantis Shrine, with its starry sky, spotless, shimmering water, and finely crafted cerulean architecture; the Castle Proserpina and its ghoulish environs; and the Munitions Factory; a maze of metallurgic technical terrors. Another noticeable feature is the multi joint effect seen in several enemies.

Bloodlines has a bizarre aesthetic. There are a lot of conflicting elements. In one sense, the game is sophisticated, clean, and fancy; in another, it's grim, dirty and bloody. There are things that are laughable and cadaverous at the same time. Its sillier features don't seem intentional, but are due to graceless spriting, animation, and sound effects.

There is one outstanding element of Bloodlines, which, regardless of different stances on the visual, aural, and narrative decisions, can be held high and championed. It is the level design.

The stages are dynamic and continually introducing new ideas to players, demanding that they stay sharp. Space within stages is never taken for granted, or used merely to fill up time. Every moment is well calculated and has something worthwhile to bring to the table, and every stage has its own unique deadly and creative quagmires to confront. In the second stage, players must race against rising water while climbing the Atlantis Shrine to keep from getting sunk. There are tantalizing treasures throughout the area, but going after them makes for a riskier situation.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is filled with memorable predicaments. In one tower, the screen continues to rise, and if the player doesn't stay ahead of it, they die. The catch is that the actual stage leans and shakes back and forth, changing the location of platforms a bit, and medusa heads waver in to cause further turmoil.

Some of the most inventive design is found in the final stage, where mirrors create the optical illusion that the hero's upper body is separated from his legs, putting the body in one spot and the legs in another. Players must use careful discernment in how they maneuver to avoid plummeting down one of several pits interspersed throughout the room. Directly following that, there's a sequence where the whole room and characters are upside down, and the player's brain needs to quickly adapt to the situation and answer the challenge being demanded by axe armor enemies. There are too many examples of outstanding level design to name. Complimenting them are mini-bosses bestrewed throughout stages. It's captivating to see how stages evolve and what new thorny situations they throw players into.

The only things the stages leave to complain about are the amount of them. Bloodlines has only six, but they have a lot of weight. They're lengthy and there's much to see and do, but it would still be nice to see more European landmarks with smart design. A clock tower stage in Big Ben would have been ideal, or perhaps even participating in the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, except the bulls are undead (think the Behemoth scene in Rondo of Blood).

It's really a mixed bag we've got here. Bloodlines has a lot to offer, but it trips along the way. As mentioned, sometimes Bloodlines' lack of recognition is attributed to the Sega Genesis. This is partially justified.

Despite its merits, Bloodlines is a regression after Castlevania made several leaps forward with Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood, which is why it's overshadowed by them. Whereas IV and Rondo controlled with fluidity, Bloodlines goes back to mulish controls. IV and Rondo pushed the limits and reached new heights with their soundtracks. In spite of some great music, Bloodlines can be an audio nightmare at times. IV painted astonishing environments with depth and feeling in abundance, and Rondo staggered players with bold visuals rich with vibrant colors and amazing sprite work. In several instances, Bloodlines can be somewhat of a joke to look at.

Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood are hard acts to follow. They raised the bar pretty high and Bloodlines doesn't quite measure up in many ways. This doesn't mean it is a bad game, but explains why it is often disregarded and doesn't make a huge splash.

Considering things as a hardcore Castlevania fan - that is, caring about things your generals or casuals won't - Bloodlines is still a blurry section of Castlevania's history. Niggling reasons include highlighting Belmont wannabes for apparently no reason, much like the KCEK studio behind Castlevania 64 and Circle of the Moon had a knack for. Replacing traditional items with other stuff that's not as cool or iconic, and a story that creates a link with Bram Stoker's novel, which doesn't jive that well with Castlevania, are further strange characteristics. These aspects only serve to estrange Bloodlines, and the awkward sounds and visuals certainly don't help, nor does coming right after two of the greatest games in the series. It's in a situation where it's easy to look past this thing if it doesn't completely step up to the plate.

If you ignore all that, and disregard what Bloodlines doesn't do, or doesn't live up to in the face of its contemporaries, it's a pretty good game that is an example of very keen stage design, and this offbeat adventure still has a lot to offer, even if it isn't what typically comes to mind when thinking back to Castlevania during the early to mid '90s.