Castlevania: Bloodlines

Castlevania: Bloodlines
Also known as: Vampire Killer (JP), Castlevania: The New Generation (EU) Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform: Genesis Released in JP: March 18, 1994 Released in US: March 17, 1994 Released in EU: March 20, 1994 This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Castlevania: Bloodlines is the first Castlevania game on a Sega system. You don't play as any Belmonts this time around, and chase Countess Elizabeth Bartley around Europe as she tries to resurrect her uncle, Dracula, instead of confronting the big man from the get-go, but it's still the same old stuff set in a different timeframe. This game later saw a direct sequel in the form of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Graphics

Years ago, a prototype of Castlevania: Bloodlines was put up for auction on eBay. Many images were included in the auction, one in particular showing a very different version of Stage 4-5. This earlier stage was flooded with molten steel – black platforms can be seen floating in the steel, and a stream of it can be seen falling from a spout in the ceiling. One of the platforms that is touching the stream is melting, implying that the platforms would have moved through the steel. In the final release, Stage 4-5 is the clock tower filled with gears that the player must traverse vertically.

The platform and stream graphics from this early stage can still be found at 0xAE352 in the Castlevania: Bloodlines ROM.

Another image from the prototype auction showed a zeppelin in the background of Stage 4-7. In the final release, Stage 4-7 is the Frankenstein monster boss room.

Some of the zeppelin's tiles can still be found in the ROM, although nothing else seems to remain.

(Source: http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=21890)

Regional Differences

To do: More differences, including difficulty differences. Source:http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/cvbl/game-castlevaniabl.htm

Title Screen

Japan	US	Europe

The Japanese title, strangely, is not some variant on Akumajou Dracula but instead simply Vampire Killer. The censorship of blood in the European version extended to the title, and not only graphically, as the game is called Castlevania: The New Generation.

Characters

Japan	US/Europe

Eric Lecarde's face was significantly less masculine looking in the Japanese version's introduction and Expert ending.

US/Europe	Japan

John Morris is called Johnny Morris in the Japanese version.

Blood

Blood has been removed from the European version in various ways:

US/Japan	Europe

The dead zombie outside of Castle Dracula, which some crows are feeding on, was removed in the European version.

US/Japan	Europe

The zombies were changed from pink with red blood to a greenish blue with green blood in the European version.

US/Japan	Europe

Hung corpses and blood dripping from the platforms of Stage 1 and Stage 6-2 were removed entirely in the European version as well.

US/Japan	Europe

Due to the aforementioned objection to blood itself (again!), the blood fountain in Stage 5-1 was changed to a boring regular fountain when walking past it. The Blood Skeleton surprisingly survived the censorship.

US/Japan	Europe

Eric no longer gets impaled when he dies in the European version.

Other Changes

• The Japanese version handles passwords differently. Instead of showing passwords in-between levels, they are shown after the End option is chosen on the game over screen.
• The Japanese version's normal mode is less difficult than the international versions', equivalent to the latter's "easy" mode, with a lower enemy rate and the player being able to deal more damage per attack.
• In the Japanese version, the storyline in regard to Elizabeth Bartley is more sinister.