Retro Game Audio - Episode 30: Castlevania BloodlinesHey ya'll, long-timer lurker. A few days ago we uploaded a podcast episode about the Bloodlines soundtrack. The soundtrack was sampled from a modded genesis to get a crisp sound, and we explore some of the sound design elements that went into crafting this soundtrack for the Sega Genesis. It's our first-ever episode dedicated entirely to a Castlevania soundtrack, but there are also a bunch of other times we've discussed CV music in the past:
Episode 02: Konami's Wai Wai World soundtracksThis one includes lots of comparisons of how the Castlevania music was changed when ported to/covered in the Wai Wai World soundtracks.
Episode 08: The Famicom Disk SystemAround 42:50, we review and dissect the FDS soundtrack of Dracula II (Castlevania 2).
Episode 10: The VRC6A review of the sound expansion used in the Japanese version of Castlevania 3, Akumajou Densetsu.
Episode 17: Konami's NES MusicA lengthy tour through Konami's NES soundtracks in chronological order, showing how their sound design evolved over time. Castlevania 1 appears at 43:50, and in context, we reveal how it was essentially Konami's first "good" soundtrack on the system. 1:12:07 - Brief return to Dracula II. 1:30:47 - Castlevania II, in context, it's presented as a sort of one-two punch following The Adventures of Bayou Billy. This marks a turning point where the quality of their sound design takes a noticeable increase. 1:51:22 - Akumajou Densetsu kicks things off for non-FDS sound expansion.
Hope these deep dives into the technical-side of classic VGM is interesting to some fans of Castlevania music, thanks for checking it out!