Huge fan of this game. It has so much going on, with two worthy characters to play with, arcade-like fast and smooth gameplay, great level design, a lot of memorable set pieces (the different play locations through Europe was such a good idea), a lot of creative visual effects (the reflection on the water, the rotation on the tower...), a more gory dimension than usual in the series, some crazy boss fights and that soundtrack is absolutely majestic!!! Only downsides are a few janky animations and a few empty backgrounds, all of which due to Konami cheaping out on the cart size (only 8 meg, it's rather low by 1994 standards) and rushing the development process. But still, overall, Bloodlines (AKA Vampire Killer in Japan) is the best Classicvania IMO and a strong contender for a top 100 best Mega Drive games. It's just a shame that a Bloodlines 2 never happened. It could have been great on 32X or Saturn.
+Parallax Craze Agreed, I owned this and Castlevania 4 and I've played through and enjoyed Bloodlines many more times as both characters. Great music that utilizes the Genesis synthesizer well too. Its too bad many (but a lot still did and I owned most of those games) devs didn't use extra graphical tricks and better sounds tools on the Genny more often. :/ It can closely match it in many cases regardless though.
+neogeomaster Nope. Bloodlines is one of the best Castlevania games and also one of the most unique with its fast pace, gore dimension and creative visual effects. Rondo of Blood is good but more conventional, too easy (the last boss LOL and I don't even talk when playing the game with Maria...) and it has a few technical shortcomings such as running in low resolution (256x224 pixels vs 320x224 for Bloodlines).
*****"too basic... Rondo destroy your shit castlevania, it is not castlevania look design of character... just put effect as contra on megadrive, but castlevania on megadrive and snes are shit, castlevania is well only 8bits period. 16bits= too easy..." Quoted for emphasis. Just LOL. 'Nuff said.
***** Sounds a bit better then saying all 16-bit Castlevanias are shit :P There is so much difference between SC4 and Dracula X on SNES. Simon's Quest is one of the weakest games in the series, 8-bit or not.
@Mysterious0Bob And then you see Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, and Dynamite Headdy, and suddenly Bloodlines and Hard Corps look kinda plain. Then again, Treasure was formed by former Konami employees, so...
The best game ever is Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I just Love that Masterpiece 💖. Anyway, Bloodlines is awesome, since it combines gameplay, challenge, graphic and soundtrack. Personally, I prefer playing with Eric: his skills with Alcarde Spear were really something, back in those years. Great longplay! 😉
i love the whole Castlevania series. I have been a fan since Simons Quest (the first one was psychotically hard!) I love watching all these videos you post. I especially like the fact that you do a great job of just playing the game and not adding anything else. Just the way it should be, no crap just straight up gaming.
God! You were/are a BEAST! I have NEVER thought I would live to see the day that someone would just beat a Castlevania game all the way through in less than an hour and not get hit once or die a single death. Just freaking AMAZING! :-P
man, they aught to remake this game with better graphics and a symphonic music. This one was my 2nd favorite Castlevania game, with SoTN as #1. Why? just the general atmosphere combined with AWESOME music! epicness
You won't believe that I've found this game three years ago on an old toy shop and in brand new condition for only 10 euros! The sad thing is that I didn't own a mega drive console and for that reason I didn't purchased the game, god If I only knew how rare this game is I'll surely had bought it back then!.. On ebay the cart of this game costs over 90 euros!!!
+BennyUrquidez86 It's not rare, just silly resellers have driven up it's value. Back in the day I got it and Contra Hard Corps from Toys R Us, both Majesco reprints, for $9.99 a piece.
I actually did some research and found out that "Dracula" (the book) can only take place during or before 1890, since the epilogue (even in the original edition) contains notes from Johnathan Harker seven years after the events of the book (which was published in 1897).
Phlebiax: Depending on who you chose in the beginning your route is slightly different. Like the Whip allows you to swing while the lance allows you to vault upwards. You go back to the same spot in the end.
@Warblefly41 No, they are there intentionally put in by Konami to make the stage a little harder, it's an illusion and impressive design for the old Megadrive/Genesis.
Nobody eats at Norway. Norwegians literally have no food specialty. Apparently Konami was hungry when they made this. "HEY, LETS INCLUDE COUNTRIES WITH FOOD IN THEM!" "Norway, you can stay seated."
@Mysterious0Bob The most notable thing was the great music, but that's because Konami's arcade machines used FM synthesis just like the genesis to make their music, so it was easy for them to make the genesis really sing.
The boss of Stage 4 was kind of... Interesting. I honestly don't know how to put it other than that. I'm thinking it was possibly a very powerful poltergeist possessing an amassment of gears. Also, the mini-boss of Stage 5 is supposed to be a reference to the optical illusion of an image that can be a vase or two people looking at each other. Though, obviously, the mini-boss uses two halves of a face instead of two profile-view faces, and a pillar instead of a vase.
@TechnoEstate This and Contra Hard Corp did things on the Megadrive that it really shouldn't been capable of. They had some great programmers at Konami.
To this day I still have this and Contra Hard Corps in mint condition, Majesco soft box re-releases though. Toys R Us was selling both for about $10 back in the late 90's. The clamshell versions for both fetch a bit of money now while the softboxes are cheaper. Usually the softboxes for some games, like Ristar, go for more because they only came in these, and these boxes are harder to keep intact.
Ugh, I remember this game..... awesome, but so damn hard. I could never beat that damn moth at the end of level 5. Ahh, the frustration and rage is all coming back to me. May have to hook up the old Genesis for another try
I am glad that I see this. I only heard of it and seen videos like this one. I wonder if they got this on the Virtual Console for the Wii, Playstation Network for the PS3, or Xbox Live Arcade for the 360? I am a huge Castlevania Fan and I want this one. It looks fun! : )
It might be a step back from Super Castlevania IV in terms of gameplay mechanics, but I actually like Bloodlines a bit more, mostly due to its art direction (which foreshadows the post-SOTN titles).
Great game and expectedly played. Still it's little fun to watch when you run and haste through this game as if Dracula itself is directly behind you. If you go any quicker you might hit the speed of light and the fun is over before you even started. :)
Man the amount of bosses in this game is just crazy =) I've always loved Bloodlines for that (and many other) reason. Are you going to do an Eric Lecarde run as well?
Didn't they had a Castlevania Bloodlines game on NINTENDO DS BEFORE?🤔(COULD'VE SWORN I SAW IT BEFORE AND SHIT BUT WHATEVER! AND SHIT!,WHATEVER BOTH CASTLEVANIA GAMES AND THE ONE ON DS WAS FUN I MISS THE GAMEPLAY OF CASTLEVANIA BACK THEN!😭)
+Simon v. Cleef While the gameplay is definitely the most important part, changing the way a game looks does make a difference. The SNES Castlevania was censored in a similar way (the dungeon stage has green blood on a green background), and the result is a very bland looking level. The blood also causes damage, and can be difficult to see due to the censorship. The graphics, music, and sound can affect the gaming experience almost as much as the way it plays.
rocketcon I'm not a fan of censoring either. But in these cases it didn't make a difference for me, I still enjoyed the games. You also have the example of mortal kombat on the snes. I didn't even notice it back in the days, I was probably too young to care about blood. I don't really care about it still but I do see it of course.
So John Morris is from Texas. So is Sonya Blade, the last time I went wikisurfing (not sure if the reboot changed that). Jeez, Don't Mess with Texas indeed.
Games like this is the reason why Nintendo comitted so many anti trust violations with their restrictive third party contracts. Konami was a great developer that was bound to make great games elsewhere. Konami was late on Genesis development as you can see that it doesn't have an overlay where the score and health is displayed like most 2nd generation and up Genesis games, or their own Super Castlevania 4 on SNES. Even then Bloodlines still holds up as one of the greats.
Great game, to bad its always in the shadows of super castlevania 4, i love the FM synthesis for the music especially, that's why more horror based games seem better on the genesis to me, that and Nintendo censors allot of things.
That's funny, I've used to play Bloodlines alot for the Genesis, and I don't remember seeing a Frankenstien at Level 4 or a huge Dragonskeloton in Level 3. Is this on the harder levels?
*Resurrects a comment* Actually, that was true to almost every platform that Konami made games. I can't remember any bad or simple game from this company at all @_@
![NES Longplay [020] Castlevania](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lRcHk8ixyKE/mqdefault.jpg)
![NES Longplay [020] Castlevania](/img/tr.png)
![Mega Drive Longplay [034] Bio-Hazard Battle](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/B2IgqcHC4Ms/mqdefault.jpg)
Huge fan of this game. It has so much going on, with two worthy characters to play with, arcade-like fast and smooth gameplay, great level design, a lot of memorable set pieces (the different play locations through Europe was such a good idea), a lot of creative visual effects (the reflection on the water, the rotation on the tower...), a more gory dimension than usual in the series, some crazy boss fights and that soundtrack is absolutely majestic!!! Only downsides are a few janky animations and a few empty backgrounds, all of which due to Konami cheaping out on the cart size (only 8 meg, it's rather low by 1994 standards) and rushing the development process. But still, overall, Bloodlines (AKA Vampire Killer in Japan) is the best Classicvania IMO and a strong contender for a top 100 best Mega Drive games. It's just a shame that a Bloodlines 2 never happened. It could have been great on 32X or Saturn.
Night Driver he is using tool assisted
+Parallax Craze Agreed, I owned this and Castlevania 4 and I've played through and enjoyed Bloodlines many more times as both characters. Great music that utilizes the Genesis synthesizer well too. Its too bad many (but a lot still did and I owned most of those games) devs didn't use extra graphical tricks and better sounds tools on the Genny more often. :/ It can closely match it in many cases regardless though.
Mr_x 1992 This does NOT look like a TAS.
this is my favorite castlevania, everything is perfect.
+neogeomaster Nope. Bloodlines is one of the best Castlevania games and also one of the most unique with its fast pace, gore dimension and creative visual effects. Rondo of Blood is good but more conventional, too easy (the last boss LOL and I don't even talk when playing the game with Maria...) and it has a few technical shortcomings such as running in low resolution (256x224 pixels vs 320x224 for Bloodlines).
*****"too basic... Rondo destroy your shit castlevania, it is not castlevania look design of character... just put effect as contra on megadrive, but castlevania on megadrive and snes are shit, castlevania is well only 8bits period. 16bits= too easy..."
Quoted for emphasis. Just LOL. 'Nuff said.
***** Super Castlevania IV is not shit. Back then it was (and in my opinion still is) THE shit! ;)
***** Sounds a bit better then saying all 16-bit Castlevanias are shit :P There is so much difference between SC4 and Dracula X on SNES. Simon's Quest is one of the weakest games in the series, 8-bit or not.
The best castlevania is part 3 on the nes, after that 1. All of them are good though, also this one on the megadrive/genesis.
Wow, that water reflection in the second stage is epic!
Castlevania Bloodlines: Even Speedwagon Can Be the Protagonist!
Nice longplay.
Soundtrack is so good...and more fun than SC4. That first wolf battle with the glass breaking is cool
Loved the music when I was 9, love it now. Fuck yea Castlevania.
@Mysterious0Bob And then you see Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, and Dynamite Headdy, and suddenly Bloodlines and Hard Corps look kinda plain.
Then again, Treasure was formed by former Konami employees, so...
The best game ever is Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I just Love that Masterpiece 💖.
Anyway, Bloodlines is awesome, since it combines gameplay, challenge, graphic and soundtrack.
Personally, I prefer playing with Eric: his skills with Alcarde Spear were really something, back in those years.
Great longplay! 😉
I love this game, specially the song "Calling from Heaven". In fact, all the OST is amazing.
I'm so glad to be subscribed to this channel.
i love the whole Castlevania series. I have been a fan since Simons Quest (the first one was psychotically hard!) I love watching all these videos you post. I especially like the fact that you do a great job of just playing the game and not adding anything else. Just the way it should be, no crap just straight up gaming.
You thought CV1 was hard? CV 3 and the X68K Akumajou Dracula would love to have a word with you, those two are balls to the wall hard.
Iron-Blue Intention and Simon's Theme remain my favorite themes from this game :D
Ditto for me as well as the ones gor italy and france
Best Gameplay ever !!!!!!
Thanks
For not being directly related to the Belmonts, John Morris sure knows how to get the job done.
This game was the main reason I bought a MegaDrive, then I realized how many good games were on the system not too long after.
God! You were/are a BEAST! I have NEVER thought I would live to see the day that someone would just beat a Castlevania game all the way through in less than an hour and not get hit once or die a single death. Just freaking AMAZING! :-P
love the color in this game and compared to other oldschool Castlevanias you and your enemies are nice and big so you can tell what you fighting
I love this longplay. I've watched it so many times.
Used to play this on a regular basis on Sega Channel. Love this game.
28:16 this damn corridor with the frantic sound of the knights rushing out of nowhere always scared me when I was a kid..
El mejor castlevania.
Very AWESOME CV game! I still have it to this very day! Like the far darker tone of this game! Woulda been cool to get a direct sequel back then!
Juegos que jamás mientras este en vida olvidaré ☺💪🌹🎮🎮♥️♥️♥️♥️
man, they aught to remake this game with better graphics and a symphonic music. This one was my 2nd favorite Castlevania game, with SoTN as #1. Why? just the general atmosphere combined with AWESOME music! epicness
Retroplay, impressive your performance... Thank´s for playing and posting!
this video just changed my opinion on this game completely.
You won't believe that I've found this game three years ago on an old toy shop and in brand new condition for only 10 euros! The sad thing is that I didn't own a mega drive console and for that reason I didn't purchased the game, god If I only knew how rare this game is I'll surely had bought it back then!.. On ebay the cart of this game costs over 90 euros!!!
+BennyUrquidez86 It's not rare, just silly resellers have driven up it's value. Back in the day I got it and Contra Hard Corps from Toys R Us, both Majesco reprints, for $9.99 a piece.
One thing that I never understood -> at 1:01 it says Johnathan Morris was born in 1895 even though his father Quincey Morris died in 1893. WTF?
You are the best Castlevania player I saw ever.
I actually did some research and found out that "Dracula" (the book) can only take place during or before 1890, since the epilogue (even in the original edition) contains notes from Johnathan Harker seven years after the events of the book (which was published in 1897).
Your skills are fantastic!
as a kid i was freaked out by about 85% of genesis games i came across. this was one of them
This video looks like a TAS. The jumping to get up the steps gives it away, and on the first boss, he got hit by the glass, and took no damage.
BEST Castlevania EVER!!!!!!
Phlebiax: Depending on who you chose in the beginning your route is slightly different. Like the Whip allows you to swing while the lance allows you to vault upwards. You go back to the same spot in the end.
@Warblefly41 No, they are there intentionally put in by Konami to make the stage a little harder, it's an illusion and impressive design for the old Megadrive/Genesis.
my favorite castlvania ever! Music is awesome and story is even same as the novel said
Nobody eats at Norway.
Norwegians literally have no food specialty.
Apparently Konami was hungry when they made this.
"HEY, LETS INCLUDE COUNTRIES WITH FOOD IN THEM!"
"Norway, you can stay seated."
The most thing i like about Castlevania games is the music
@Mysterious0Bob The most notable thing was the great music, but that's because Konami's arcade machines used FM synthesis just like the genesis to make their music, so it was easy for them to make the genesis really sing.
The greatest Castlevania game ever.
my god, the music of the second stage bring back some good old memories!
The boss of Stage 4 was kind of... Interesting. I honestly don't know how to put it other than that. I'm thinking it was possibly a very powerful poltergeist possessing an amassment of gears.
Also, the mini-boss of Stage 5 is supposed to be a reference to the optical illusion of an image that can be a vase or two people looking at each other. Though, obviously, the mini-boss uses two halves of a face instead of two profile-view faces, and a pillar instead of a vase.
@TechnoEstate
This and Contra Hard Corp did things on the Megadrive that it really shouldn't been capable of. They had some great programmers at Konami.
John Morris.
Takin' out evil, Texas style.
Don't forget about Treasure and their technical marvels such as Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy or Alien Soldier ;-) .
love this game so much :) thanks for posting this :)
SOTN is a love letter to this game this is my favorite next to SOTN and draculas curse
To this day I still have this and Contra Hard Corps in mint condition, Majesco soft box re-releases though. Toys R Us was selling both for about $10 back in the late 90's. The clamshell versions for both fetch a bit of money now while the softboxes are cheaper. Usually the softboxes for some games, like Ristar, go for more because they only came in these, and these boxes are harder to keep intact.
I love how the candles are still lit as the water drains out. Video game logic FTW
i love this game!
Ugh, I remember this game..... awesome, but so damn hard. I could never beat that damn moth at the end of level 5. Ahh, the frustration and rage is all coming back to me. May have to hook up the old Genesis for another try
Great Video, great game. Thanks.
wow this guy is a castlevania expert
I swear the two best Castlevania games are this and SotN. Hell I'll even throw in Dracula X Chronicles as #3.
I am glad that I see this. I only heard of it and seen videos like this one. I wonder if they got this on the Virtual Console for the Wii, Playstation Network for the PS3, or Xbox Live Arcade for the 360? I am a huge Castlevania Fan and I want this one. It looks fun! : )
It might be a step back from Super Castlevania IV in terms of gameplay mechanics, but I actually like Bloodlines a bit more, mostly due to its art direction (which foreshadows the post-SOTN titles).
lol 28:35 he really thought he could sneak up on him with all that noise
Great game and expectedly played.
Still it's little fun to watch when you run and haste through this game as if Dracula itself is directly behind you.
If you go any quicker you might hit the speed of light and the fun is over before you even started. :)
This game had some of the best music, stage and enemy designs. Too bad it came out on the Megadrive rather than SFC
34:37 The best part of this video :)
Quincey died in 1897. Its also John Morris. Johnathan was in P.O.R. It was stupid that it says John was 2yrs old when he saw his father die.
Greatest music on the Genesis/MegaDrive. But what did the developers have against Norway?
My favorite peice of music in this entire game is when he gets the invisibility item at 1:57
Actually in Europe, the came is called Castelvania: Bloodlines too. And the console is named MEGADRIVE too :p.
the moth/fairy ws always my fvourite boss ^^
Eric got a modified face in the intro.
Man the amount of bosses in this game is just crazy =) I've always loved Bloodlines for that (and many other) reason. Are you going to do an Eric Lecarde run as well?
The best game of the sega master sistem :D
this was on Genesis/Mega drive, not Master system
I like this game one of the best castevania genesis
the candle keep in flame underwater at 6:20
Didn't they had a Castlevania Bloodlines game on NINTENDO DS BEFORE?🤔(COULD'VE SWORN I SAW IT BEFORE AND SHIT BUT WHATEVER! AND SHIT!,WHATEVER BOTH CASTLEVANIA GAMES AND THE ONE ON DS WAS FUN I MISS THE GAMEPLAY OF CASTLEVANIA BACK THEN!😭)
Portrait of Ruin, basically a sequel to this game, except Eric LeCarde is dead, and John Morris's son is continuing the battle against Dracula.
What sucks in the Europe Version of this game, all gore was removed and the title of the screen was water instead of blood.
You guys got screwed on a lot of games in Europe. That sucks.
Even the word blood in the title was censored and is called The New Generation there, man, I thought NOA was strict (yet Europe got Devil World, odd)
The game is the same besides those things. The color of the blood is not important the gameplay is.
+Simon v. Cleef While the gameplay is definitely the most important part, changing the way a game looks does make a difference. The SNES Castlevania was censored in a similar way (the dungeon stage has green blood on a green background), and the result is a very bland looking level. The blood also causes damage, and can be difficult to see due to the censorship. The graphics, music, and sound can affect the gaming experience almost as much as the way it plays.
rocketcon I'm not a fan of censoring either. But in these cases it didn't make a difference for me, I still enjoyed the games. You also have the example of mortal kombat on the snes. I didn't even notice it back in the days, I was probably too young to care about blood. I don't really care about it still but I do see it of course.
are those graphical glitches in stage 6 emulation problems, or are those really part of the game?
Was rough to finish this game back then
My only gripe about this game is that they put two slower levels with less action-oriented soundtracks one right after the other (Greece and italy)
The fact you can beat bosses so easily is a big con. Otherwise this would be my favourite Castlevania game
Bloodlines was the start of violent castlevania games. Tsk tsk. But still, Good game.
So John Morris is from Texas. So is Sonya Blade, the last time I went wikisurfing (not sure if the reboot changed that). Jeez, Don't Mess with Texas indeed.
Great longplay...anyone going to do the Eric Lecarde game?
Games like this is the reason why Nintendo comitted so many anti trust violations with their restrictive third party contracts. Konami was a great developer that was bound to make great games elsewhere. Konami was late on Genesis development as you can see that it doesn't have an overlay where the score and health is displayed like most 2nd generation and up Genesis games, or their own Super Castlevania 4 on SNES. Even then Bloodlines still holds up as one of the greats.
17:07
I came for this!
Let me fix this with modern technology. 17:07
Great play through!! I thought I was good...I think you only got hit like three times...
Yep, imo Bloodlines has the best track in the saga, "Calling from heaven"...
Great game, to bad its always in the shadows of super castlevania 4, i love the FM synthesis for the music especially, that's why more horror based games seem better on the genesis to me, that and Nintendo censors allot of things.
There were much more games that did this.
Red zone, Toy story,pulseman,adventures of batman and robin are just a few examples.
i don't know if it is the emulator or what, but you have some glitches bro, particularly in the boss fight against the countess...
Genesis's/Megadrives FM chip might have produced some pretty unpleasant sounds at times, but Jesus, the music @ 05:41 pleases even my nipples.
He plays very good...
Dracula shows some tiny balls in this game.
Wasn't Wallachia under Austro-Hungarian control back during WWI, and Atlantis being Rumoured to be in the North African coast?
Maury says Quincey IS NOT THE FATHER
@cubex55 You got an emulator or you just play it on the normal mega drive?
I played castlevania bloodlines all the way through, it just doesn't FEEL like a castlevania game, I cant explain it
omg when i was 6 this game was so scary to me
And She is Niece of my Country King Stephen Báthory
That's funny, I've used to play Bloodlines alot for the Genesis, and I don't remember seeing a Frankenstien at Level 4 or a huge Dragonskeloton in Level 3. Is this on the harder levels?
Yup
So before kitchen nightmares and hells kitchen Gordon Ramsey was Dracula in this videogame.
*Resurrects a comment* Actually, that was true to almost every platform that Konami made games. I can't remember any bad or simple game from this company at all @_@
But she wasn't a VAMPIRE, for Chrissake.
34:36 Epicness overload