Topic: Castlevania: Bloodlines The first uncensored Castlevania (in the US) Review

[TheForthcoming01]

I came across this review of CV Bloodlines for Genesis on gamesfaq's by Bugs72740
and it's one of the better reviews I've seen so far so I
thought I'd post it here for all to see. Bloodlines is such
an awesome CV game and hard to boot. I'm new to the series
and these forums still so maybe the game is actually easy.

From http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/563315-castlevania-bloodlines/reviews/review-1004
by Bugs72740.

"Castlevania is definitely one of the greatest action-adventure series of all time; its only real competition being the likes of Mega Man and Metroid (my own personal favorite series). However, Castlevania sets itself apart by nearly always having quality level design and fantastic music, areas in which Konami has excelled for years (heck, even the few original tunes in CV 64 were pretty good, when the music was actually playing), and it just exudes tons of Gothic atmosphere.

Bloodlines is the sole Genesis entry in the series, one of only three games in the series to make it to a Sega system (one of which hasn't been released yet and the other being mostly a port from another system), thus making it, for now, the sole original Sega Castlevania game. Due to Sega's relaxed guidelines on violence and gore in its games, this Castlevania also made it across the Pacific intact, blood and all (not that there's really that much blood or whatever compared to other Castlevanias).

Graphics: 9/10

I take off mostly because of the Genesis' limited amount of colors (512, as opposed to the SNES' tens of thousands of available colors), which makes the game a little odd looking in places. The graphics aren't as detailed as in CV 4, but they are very well designed and very good for the Genesis. With the statue head in the Greece stage, and a few parts in the Italy stage, Konami even got rough approximations of Mode 7-ish effects solely through programming. These are very well-handled, even if a bit crude compared to Mode 7. Very good job all around.

Control: 10/10

The control is perfect. The whip whips, the spear... um, spears, you get the idea. Jumping is handled pretty well, and better than in the 8-bit NES games (hardcore CV fanatics love any game in the series where they can jump on and off steps). Side note: If this game, optimized for a three-button pad, could have a separate item button, why didn't Symphony of the Night?

Story: 9/10

The usual. Setting the story in the years around the time of World War One was a novel touch, though, and a new major villain(ess) was finally introduced to the series, along with the usual cast of Frankenstein, Death, and that goshdarned Bathead himself, Dracula. On the other hand, making the good count rise once every century, while a bit contrived, is still a handy way of explaining why each game repeats the same damn plot. I'd like to see the Belmonts and Belmont-manques hunt other vampires once in a while, and the continuity has long since collapsed under its own weight, but hey... whatever works. It doesn't get in the way of the game, anyway.

Gameplay/Difficulty: 9/10

This game is easier than CV 4, and much shorter as well. Although the stages are nice and big, there's only 6 of them (counting the last level), as opposed to over ten in CV 4. Being able to choose characters from the start is a nice touch; even nicer is the fact that John and Eric both play differently, as opposed to just being the same character with different weapons or what have you. Eric's spear is slightly weaker than the whip but has about the same range, plus it can be spun and used to pole-vault, enabling Eric to get extra power-ups that John can't reach as well as take slightly different paths through a few levels. John Morris is the generic Belmont-type, but he attacks faster than Eric and can do more damage to a few enemies, as well. Although he looks constipated whenever he climbs stairs. On the other hand, he can play Spider-Man and use his whip to swing across ceilings.

The bosses are all right, though the gear boss looks like it belongs in Vectorman. They're a pain at first, but once you learn their patterns, most of them fall down easily. Frankenstein in particular is almost ludicrously easy to defeat, compared to other CVs.

The options are definitely worth mentioning. Unlike almost all other Castlevanias, this one allows you to set the difficulty yourself and to choose how many lives you can start with (from 1 to 4). There are two available difficulties, easy and normal, and you can earn an expert mode by means of a code or by beating the game. The expert mode is actually as hard as the default difficulty for most Castlevanias...! Anyway, you earn different endings based on which difficulty you're playing at. A further plus is that you are automatically given a password between stages, instead of having to die to get one. Cool! They should have followed some of these ideas up more closely in other CV games.

Strictly speaking, if you're very, very good at this game, you can beat it in an hour or a little less. Not exactly as finger-busting as the NES games, is it?

Music/sound: 8/10

The music is very good, though not as good as on a SNES game thanks to the limitations of the Genesis sound set-up. The sound effects aren't so hot, though; they have that weird, yucky squishing sound many Genesis games have. Although the Countess screams when you beat her and Dracula bellows. Fair enough. Check out the sound test--BGM 20--and hear the Vampire Killer theme, which plays when you go to the final part of the final stage to beat up the Bathead.

Overall: 9/10

This is one of my favorite Genesis games (right up there with Sonic 2), and certainly one of the high points in the series. It's usually compared unfavorably to 4, but apart from hardware differences, the two games are really just about equal. This game is much better than its reputation and reviews from the time suggest (Jeff Rovin--remember his stupid Gamemaster and "How To Beat Everything" books?--claimed this was a remake of Castlevania 4...). If you own a Genesis, you owe it to yourself to play this game, if you haven't already.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01"

I pretty much agree with his review. He summed my thoughts up on Bloodlines nicely!

Note: You can find the game on ebay and Amazon.com along with the Sega Genesis console.

Castlevania Bloodlines (Stage 1)

[X]

I think Bloodlines is the first uncensored game in CV history due to the fact that it was on the Genesis and SEGA is known for not 'editing' their titles. mortal Kombat being another well-known game. And it sparked a lot of controversy too. While the Europian version and the Japanese version were the same game as the US version, ours was the only one out of all three that was uncut. And it's about time too as I was getting tired of all the censorship bullc**p. 

-X

[TheForthcoming01]

Thanks for the info!

I did not know that really lol.

[Harrycombs]

I think Bloodlines is the first uncensored game in CV history due to the fact that it was on the Genesis and SEGA is known for not 'editing' their titles.

Sega censored the game in Europe oddly enough. http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Games/cvbforeign.html

[narkolepsi]

That was a great review. With SotN, Bloodlines is my favorite Castlevania (halfway through, and it is amazing.) Regarding the sound test music, since he mentioned Vampire Killer in the review, I may as well mention the version of the theme of Simon found in the sound test. Does that play in-game like in CVIV, or is it included as a goodie? I'm still on stage 3.

Those are interesting circumstances surrounding Eric, too...I knew he looked different in the boxart, I wasn't sure if his sprite was affected though. I still like him better in this game than in Judgment or PoR.

[Foffy]

That was a great review. With SotN, Bloodlines is my favorite Castlevania (halfway through, and it is amazing.) Regarding the sound test music, since he mentioned Vampire Killer in the review, I may as well mention the version of the theme of Simon found in the sound test. Does that play in-game like in CVIV, or is it included as a goodie? I'm still on stage 3.

Those are interesting circumstances surrounding Eric, too...I knew he looked different in the boxart, I wasn't sure if his sprite was affected though. I still like him better in this game than in Judgment or PoR.

Simon's Theme plays before the final bosses (Dracula, Drolta, and True Dracula) in Stage 6.

[X]

Sega censored the game in Europe oddly enough.

And that's due to Europe's even more stringent laws. 

-X

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

"No Ninjas, No Blood, No Nazis!" or something like that.

"Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles..." doesn't roll off the tongue at all!

[narkolepsi]

Germany is the most stringent of all the European countries when it comes to their censorship policies. Blood would often be changed to a green color to give the impression that the beings killed were not of this world, just as the zombies were changed to green in the European version of Bloodlines to make it less frightening. Kill a zombie in Bloodlines and their guts spill out. It surprised me when I first played it, actually, because I thought it looked a little more graphic than the Metroidvanias I was used to, and it was made during the 16-bit era. (Also: rib-cage title screen.)

Bloodlines, in its uncensored form, is darker and more atmospherically satisfying than many new Castlevanias. This is a game I'd love to play with the lights off. There's just something heavy hanging in the atmosphere that really, really makes it Castlevania for me. I wonder if it's the same way in the other versions.

[X]

you forgot about Contra there narkolepsi. In Europe, it's called 'Probotector' and the heros were replaced with robots.

-X

[TheForthcoming01]

Good points guys and narkolepsi I find that
very interesting!

Also I agree that the music is pretty good
and moody.

This is a game I have played with the lights off
like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

Scary! 

[Successor The Cruel]

Never really got into Bloodlines much.  Interesting level design, but strange graphics and animations and often painful or silly sound effects.  Decent game, though not one I revisit often.

[Joachim]

what? that was a mediocre review, at best. there were a lot of questionable claims and statements:

Bloodlines is the sole Genesis entry in the series, one of only three games in the series to make it to a Sega system (one of which hasn't been released yet and the other being mostly a port from another system)

what is he even talking about? if you're going to bring something up, you might as well specify it. i'm only left to assume that this is a very old review (which the date at the bottom confirms) and he's talking about the "upcoming" Castlevania: Resurrection with the first one. as for the second, i'm lost; is he trying to talk about bloodletting/symphony? its just kind of poorly phrased and artless, with nothing to give worth to the statement.

I take off mostly because of the Genesis' limited amount of colors (512, as opposed to the SNES' tens of thousands of available colors), which makes the game a little odd looking in places.

stupid reasoning: rate the game based on how it worked with what it had to work with, its own individual quality, not on the limitations of the machine. further: research a claim and understand it before you purport it, as I suspect that the "color limitations" are not as responsible for the gaudy colors in the graphics that we received as he might think.

The music is very good, though not as good as on a SNES game thanks to the limitations of the Genesis sound set-up.

same as above: judge it based on how it worked with what it had to work with, not the inherent nature of the technology itself.

This game is easier than CV 4,

what?
this is the only person out of 6.2 billion that i've spoken to that has said that. this is such a bizarre (and more importantly unsubstantiated) claim. this isn't really something you can substantiate all that well.

Strictly speaking, if you're very, very good at this game, you can beat it in an hour or a little less. Not exactly as finger-busting as the NES games, is it?

Castlevania I isn't very hard to beat in under an hour. again, a weird, unsubstantiated claim based purely on one-sided anecdotal evidence.

Story: 9/10

why have a rating based purely on story?
actually, why limit your review to this lame structure to begin with?
its kind of an artless regurgitation of the sentiment that "this is a good game", but it offers no interesting observations about the game nor does it delve into why it might be a good game.


http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=386
only bloodlines review one need ever read (ps. its a textwall (goofy as hell, but its a reflection of the game, so its fitting))

[X]

That was an informative read! I had no idea that the which Drolta, was based on an actual person who had real life connections to Bathory. I never even thought that Bartly was acutally a miss-translation of bathory. Sweet.

-X

[narkolepsi]

@Foffy: Thanks for the clarification.

@X: Hmm, never knew that about Contra. Upon looking into it further, the reason for the renaming and censorship of Contra was to get around the German censorship laws. It's pretty amusing though. With a name like "Probotectors" I wouldn't be able to guess it was the same game, and with robot heroes I'd think it was a ripoff.

@TheForthcoming01: Thanks! If I didn't have an exam tomorrow I'd make it a point to play Bloodlines in the dark soon...but I'm getting my first Silent Hill game (SH2) for Christmas (I don't know if I'm starting in the right place, haha) as well; maybe I should make a "games to play with the lights off" list!

@Joachim: You have a lot of good points.

what? that was a mediocre review, at best. there were a lot of questionable claims and statements:what is he even talking about? if you're going to bring something up, you might as well specify it. i'm only left to assume that this is a very old review (which the date at the bottom confirms) and he's talking about the "upcoming" Castlevania: Resurrection with the first one. as for the second, i'm lost; is he trying to talk about bloodletting/symphony? its just kind of poorly phrased and artless, with nothing to give worth to the statement.

He's most likely referring to the Saturn port of SoTN.

stupid reasoning: rate the game based on how it worked with what it had to work with, its own individual quality, not on the limitations of the machine. further: research a claim and understand it before you purport it, as I suspect that the "color limitations" are not as responsible for the gaudy colors in the graphics that we received as he might think.
same as above: judge it based on how it worked with what it had to work with, not the inherent nature of the technology itself.
what?

True. I think the environments in Bloodlines were gorgeous for the time. I thought the same as you did when he brought up the music limitations. Yamane milked that chip for all it was worth, and the music shouldn't be faulted because it had to be played within the limitations of the Genesis, they're still amazing contributions.

this is the only person out of 6.2 billion that i've spoken to that has said that. this is such a bizarre (and more importantly unsubstantiated) claim. this isn't really something you can substantiate all that well.
Castlevania I isn't very hard to beat in under an hour. again, a weird, unsubstantiated claim based purely on one-sided anecdotal evidence.

I've never played CVIV, but from what I've heard and seen of it, I'm assuming it's a million times harder than Bloodlines.

why have a rating based purely on story?
actually, why limit your review to this lame structure to begin with?
its kind of an artless regurgitation of the sentiment that "this is a good game", but it offers no interesting observations about the game nor does it delve into why it might be a good game.

Some people have a better time following an organized outline, and to those people it's not necessarily a "lame structure," just a way to organize thoughts so the review doesn't jump all over the place (which does end up happening in many reviews). However, Castlevania doesn't really have much in the way of story; it's a series based mostly upon a set formula, a "variations on a theme" kind of thing, so I guess you could say that a story section would be null and void in this respect.

http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=386
only bloodlines review one need ever read (ps. its a textwall (goofy as hell, but its a reflection of the game, so its fitting))

It's quite tongue-in-cheek, but it's extremely well-written at the same time. Thank you for the link, it was a lot of fun to read.