Vampire Killer (Castlevania: Bloodlines / The New Generation)

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Vampire Killer (Castlevania: Bloodlines / The New Generation) for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Seph]

If memory serves me right, The New Generation was the first Castlevania game I ever played. I don't recall ever touching any of the Nintendo versions; and while I had a Super Nintendo, it was pretty much a Mario machine to me. Either way, as I was very much in action platformer mode when I played this as a youngster I remember enjoying it a fair bit despite its difficulty.

I think I maybe played as Eric once or twice for variety, but I was always a John guy because I thought he looked cooler and the whip is iconic. As a kid I never questioned the weird enemies or locations, because in those days we were used to random levels and odd-looking things to kill. I managed to beat the game once when I was younger, but it definitely took a few weeks of grinding and learning patterns.

I replayed the Castlevania collection version game a few months ago to refresh my memory for this show. I opted for the Japanese version, Vampire Killer, due to it being the original and because it has the uncensored gore. I found the game more difficult this time, which is either due to the Japanese version being harder or because I've lost my gaming skills in my advancing years (can the hosts please confirm).

Like a lot of games from the 16-bit era, the visuals still hold up today and the music is fantastic. It was still enjoyable and, though it may be controversial, I rank this above Super Castlevania IV and consider it the best of the "linear" Vanias. I love that the setting and story take leads from Bram Stoker's novel and this game made me aware of Elizabeth Báthory, the inspiration for one of the final bosses, whose life is fascinating. The cover art is also one of the best of the entire series. But not the North American version that makes John look like a half transformed Incredible Hulk and makes it seem like the main villain is some kind of Wolfman knock off.

[AndrewElmore]

In research, I've found that most people seem to compare Bloodlines directly to Super Castlevania IV on the SNES, which seems a bit odd to me. I can certainly follow the logic, but in my mind, Bloodlines has always been most closely kin to Contra: The Hard Corps. That pair of planet-cracking Mega Drive games certainly sent the console out with an ear-splitting bang in 1994. The global release of these two games within six months of each other always felt like a mission statement to me, like a studio at the height of their power putting an exclamation point at the end of a hardware generation, planting their flag as if to say "All right, this is the best that we can possibly do, and we are proud to present it to the world with confidence."

I suspect that these games were primarily made for Western markets, due to the Mega Drive's relatively low sales at home in Japan, lagging well behind the Super Famicom and PC Engine. As a point of illustration, my copy of Vampire Killer on Mega Drive is now (absurdly) the most "valuable" game I own these days. The Japanese version of the game is a little bit less mean as well, which is welcome some times. I don't consider Bloodlines to be a particularly cruel game by Castlevania standards, but the American version certainly has all the telltale signs of an action game tuned for a rental market, as was the style at the time, etc. Though the difference is perhaps not as pronounced as that of its Contra sibling, where the Japanese release opted to give the player an actual health bar. Imagine that!

Castlevania: Bloodlines reminds me a great deal of similar games from Treasure and the like during the era, in the way it just loves showing off feats of technical wizardry as often as possible. It's almost like an Amiga demoscene reel wrapped up in an excellent action game. Each of the six stages is built around these hugely impressive set pieces that squeeze every drop out of the 68000, setting its very heart ablaze, as it were. I love these stages, as they manage to expertly weave a fantastic traditional Castlevania game into those setpieces, and it's just magical. The one point where the game begins to falter a bit for me--and just a bit!--is the boss fights. They're also technical flexes and artistically stunning, but the actual act of fighting them usually plays out much more simplistically than I would like. The boss fights in Rondo of Blood work so well for me because they feel like intense one-on-one battles with fast, dextrous foes or otherwise hugely intimidating creatures that read as an unstoppable force that Richter has been tasked with defeating. The boss fights in Bloodlines are creative and whimsical, but they tend to lean more into the thematic and technical hooks of their stages, serving more like individual crescendos for the stages themselves. I don't think that's an invalid game design aesthetic, but it kind of sums up why Bloodlines doesn't quite reach the watermark of Rondo for me. There's a blockbuster appeal to Bloodlines that makes it very fun to revisit often, and in that way I think it beautifully captures the heart and essence of the original Castlevania game. There is something to be said, however, for the inclusion of Eric Lecarde and his dramatically increased skill ceiling for advanced play that simultaneously makes the game easier and more difficult, while being significantly more complex in nature. It's not quite Alien Soldier, but there are two very different experiences to be had here between the two playable characters, that make for a very different game, which is a huge boon to replayability and study.

Of course, I'd be remiss to talk about any Castlevania game without praising the immaculate music. Bloodlines marks the series entry point for legendary composer and outspoken fascist Michiru Yamane. Her work needs no introduction at this point, I imagine, and I'm sure she'll be brought up quite often through the rest of these issues. Yamane is a legend for a reason, and while Bloodlines may not be her most well-known work in the annals of Castlevania, it's an exceptional suite of composition that makes deft use of a notoriously temperamental FM synthesizer chip (ask me how i know) to pump out a series of absolutely unassailable bangers at all times. Every track in this game is a brilliant work of applied musical theory, but crucially they also go extremely hard and are a major component of the game's rhythm and flow. Even the arrangements of existing Castlevania tunes are masterworks here. I just wish she wasn't all-in on so many silly conspiracy theories. It's tragic and frustrating to see such a talented and prolific artist (and one that that I've looked up to for so long) fall into an abyss of fear and hatred like this. It's genuinely impacted my enjoyment of Castlevania: Bloodlines, as well as the rest of her (otherwise excellent) career works.

All in all, Castlevania: Bloodlines is a game that I adore, and one that I have the utmost respect for. It's a hugely impressive effort, and I believe that effort paid off in spades. Run, don't walk, to play this however you can.

[Alex79]

I bounced off this the first time I played it, having come straight off a run of Castlevania 1, 3 and 4 on the Konami collection. Something about it put me off, it just looked, felt and sounded a little too...Mega Drivey? It just didn't feel like the other games I'd played before it.

I gave it another try a couple of years later on the Mega Drive collection included with the Switch Online service and for whatever reason it clicked. I have nothing particularly insightful to say about the game other than it was a lot of fun and had some cool graphical tricks. It felt just the right amount of challenging and is an easy recommend to anyone fan of the series or genre.

[Tolkien]

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First I'd like to share a quick disclaimer for Leon and the forum:

I am Tolkien, but not the Tolkien you might be thinking of. Over the years, many have taken up this nickname, so it can get a bit confusing, I know. But I am Tolkien now and 'My name is Tolkien, for we are many!'

So, if you remember a Tolkien from the 70s, 80s 90s, early 2000s, or even last week, that's probably not me (or is it?) . But I'm glad to be here with you and looking forward to keep nattering about our favourite videogames.

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Castlevania: Bloodlines is an intriguing entry in the Castlevania series, though I personally consider it inferior to Super Castlevania IV for the Super Nintendo, which was released about two years earlier. So much so that when I saw it in magazines, I used it as ammunition against Sega Genesis owners (whether they were friends or foes in the console wars): tiny character sprites, a dark and uninspired color palette, and not a single Belmont—who are these people? I’m not sure if they’re considered canon anymore, given how convoluted the Castlevania timeline and story can be. Iga did use their descendants in Portrait of Ruin, so I suppose they are?

Anyway, when the game was finally released, I had to eat my words. In terms of gameplay, it's classic Castlevania 1-on-1 but has some quirks and improvements with the two characters. The movement is slightly faster than Simon's in Castlevania IV, but it never felt as fluid or organic to me.

The graphics and animations didn't seem as jaw-dropping as those in Super Castlevania IV, but they weren’t bad at all. It felt like they tried to push the envelope by emulating some of the effects the SNES was capable of with the mighty Mode 7 effects, such as the mirror water in Stage 2, the pseudo-3D Tower of Pisa, or the final castle, which, let’s be honest, looked like a glitch fest.

The music is good but not particularly memorable, except for the arrangements of classic tunes (included as a treat) and tracks like "The Sinking Old Sanctuary" and "The Prayer of a Tragic Queen." This was Michiru Yamane's first of six works in the series, and that alone is very significant.

To wrap up, Castlevania: Bloodlines is a solid entry in the series and a good game in its own right. It may not surpass Super Castlevania IV, but it served as a starting point for many ideas and innovations that were explored in later titles in the franchise.

PS: red jewels? why??

Cheers,
Tolkien (one of the many)

[Mr Ixolite]

Having last played Bloodlines more than a decade prior to this episode, I remembered it as a short but fun game, but struggled to remember things distinguished it from other Castlevanias. Certainly it was not my first 16 bit Castlevania, nor my first with multiple playable characters braving levels outside of Draculas castle itself.

Revisiting Bloodlines this year, all these things are still true, but I came away appreciating the games identity as possibly the most idea-rich, dense and varied of the Classicvanias. The game simply can’t stop throwing new ideas at you – new enemies, new hazards, even the stage backdrops almost change on a screen by screen basis. And though the levels may be few they beefy, and I would often catch myself being surprised that a level continued after what turned out to be merely a mid-boss. You get the sense that the game wants to impress you at every turn, from memorable setpieces like scaling the in/outside of the leaning tower of Pisa, to the vibrant colors and small flourishes, such as literally beating the bones off of Draculas final form.
I recently dubbed Rondo of Blood the “rollercoaster of Classic Castlevanias”, but this monicker may fit Bloodlines even better. And while Rondo is still my favorite, Bloodlines is a top tier choice if you just want a quick bite of vampire-killing action.

3 word review: colorfully gothic eurotrip

[psychohype]

Castlevania: Bloodlines was the first game in the series I ever owned. I still remember the day I found the game in a discount section of the local K·B Toys. I had known about the Castlevania series by that point, but that was the first time I realized the series had come to the Sega Genesis.

And what an awesome game it turned out to be! It was genuinely surprising to me when I got the game up and running for the first time. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a game with the word ‘bloodlines’ in the name, but there was the title screen with the Castlevania logo suspended above some kind of crimson-colored cistern. This was a fairly bloody game for something that wasn’t Mortal Kombat. I must have been a teenager by this point, because I’m pretty I got to play the game alone on a small TV in my bedroom.

Playing through the first level, I was blown away by the decrepit art direction of Dracula’s castle. It was like playing through a ruined version the same locations of the original Castlevania, only many years after Simon Belmont’s NES adventures. I hadn’t yet realized that revisiting or remaking the original Castlevania levels was basically something that happened in almost every Castlevania sequel. Nevertheless, it left a strong first impression, and I still think the art direction looks incredible.

The other thing I learned is that the game was hard. I remember being able to get through Greece without too much trouble. But getting through the Tower of Pisa was a bit more taxing. And I just couldn’t seem to get through the fourth stage, which took place in a German munitions factory. So for a long time the game remained in my collection of cartridges, enjoyed but never completed.

Until, that is, I went back to the game in high school. Determined to at least try and cross the game off my checklist of game’s beaten, I sat down and really tried to give the game the focus it seemed to demand. Before long, I had managed to get to the fifth stage, my favorite in the game. It was the opulent and demon-infested royal Palace of Versailles. The enemies here were the most bizarre yet. Laser-shooting eyeballs that clung to the walls and ceilings. A steampunk armored creature with a Gatling gun for an arm. A decorative column that doubled as an optical illusion and confusing mini-boss.

Nothing was quite as head-scratching, however, as the final level that—in one early section—ramped up the difficulty by splitting the screen into spliced-up, incongruous layers, causing you to lose sight of where your character was in relation to the pits and platforms.

Through some perseverance and memorization, I managed to reach the end of the game with both characters. Then I kept playing some more. I got to the point where I could reliably finish the game in one sitting with not too much effort. Then I learned from the internet that you could unlock an extended ending for the game by completing the game’s second loop. So I did that with both characters as well, but only once. Just to prove to myself I could do it.

Over the years, it felt like having some kind of insider knowledge or Castlevania street cred having gotten to experience Castlevania Bloodlines on original hardware. For the longest time, it felt like the game might forever be a lost and forgotten relic of the Castlevania series, having never appeared in an official collection or re-release. Fortunately, that all changed in 2019 thanks to the Sega Genesis Mini and Castlevania Anniversary Collection.

I heartily recommend any retro game fans to give this game a try. I’d even go further to suggest you should start with Eric Lecarde. You’ll have a lot of fun smashing that spear straight through Dracula’s skeletal minions.