Proto:Castlevania: Bloodlines/Version 0.5

This is a sub-page of Proto:Castlevania: Bloodlines.

To do: *everything Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6pim59re5k and http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/2/bl-beta2.htm

A sample version of Castlevania: Bloodlines, known as '0.5' due to the cart label, which was released August 12th 2021. This version is dated October 7th, 1993, which is about 5 months from the retail's release. Five stages are implemented now, including the infamous zeppelin and molten steel areas.

Title Screen

The title screen itself is visually unchanged from the 0.1 prototype, and does not change based on region yet. The final title screen music is implemented.

v0.1 - v0.5	Final

Changed from the 0.1 prototype is that the European title is now displayed during the copyright screen when the system's region is set accordingly.

Japanese	American	European

Stage Select

Like 0.1 before it, entering the Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) at the main menu unlocks a stage select (technically, stage entrance) instead of Expert mode. After entering the code, a number will appear; press A to increase the value by one or C to decrease it by one. B jumps through a set list of numbers (12, 17, 37, 26, 50, 32, 45, 54, 63, then seven 0's before repeating). Upon starting the game, you will be warped to the selected stage entrance. The values this time go up to Stage 5-8, and all stage entrances that are coded appear to work properly.

NOTE: Due to differences in levels, the numbers below do not reflect the numbering of the final game.

Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Stage 4	Stage 5
0 = 1-1 1 = 1-2 2 = 1-3 3 = 1-4 4 = 1-3 (B) 5 = 1-3 (C) 6 = 1-4 (B) 7 = 1-5 8 = 1-6 51 = 1-6 (B) 52 = 1-6 (C) 9 = 1-7 10 = 1-8 11 = 1-9 12 = 1-10 13 = 1-11 14 = 1-7 (B) 15 = 1-6 (B) 16 = 1-10 (B)	17 = 2-1 18 = 2-2 19 = 2-3 20 = 2-5 (B) 21 = 2-4 22 = 2-3 (B) 23 = 2-5 24 = 2-7 25 = 2-6-1 36 = 2-6-2 37 = 2-6-3 38 = 2-6-1 (B) 39 = 2-6-2 (B)	26 = 3-1 27 = 3-2 28 = 3-4 29 = 3-7 30 = 3-6 31 = 3-3 47 = 3-3 (B) 49 = 3-3 (C) 50 = 3-5	32 = 4-1 33 = 4-2 34 = 4-3 35 = 4-4 40 = 4-5 (Molten steel room) 41 = 4-6 42 = 4-7 (Zeppelin room) 43 = 4-6 (B) 44 = 4-8 45 = 4-9 46 = 4-10 48 = 4-10-2 (Dracula Test?) 53 = 4-7-2	54 = 5-1 55 = 5-2 56 = 5-3 57 = 5-4 58 = 5-4 (B) 59 = 5-3 (B) 60 = 5-5 61 = 5-5 (B) 62 = 5-6 63 = 5-7

Controller 2 Commands

Most of the controller 2 commands from the v0.1 prototype still work here. The C button doesn't seem to do anything, though.

• Stage skip: Hold Up or Down and press A to warp to the next or previous stage entrance, respectively, in the same order as the above table.
• Life refill + 99 gems: Press B to instantly max your character's life bar and gem count.

General Differences

• Game difficulty is now set to Normal by default. Expert still seems to be nonexistent in this build.
• Players (amount of lives you start with) is now set to 3 like in the final.
• The "PRESS START TO EXIT" text in the options menu is absent.

v0.5	Final

• The final opening cutscene is implemented, with Eric having the feminine face that's used in the Japanese version instead.

v0.1 - v0.5	Final

• The background brick cell of the character select screen is still less detailed as with the previous prototype.
• The Scroll Map is present, but cutscene before Stage 1 is not.
• The "STAGE X START", "PAUSE", and end-of-stage score tally text is absent.
• "GAME OVER" text is animated much slower than final.
• Like the previous build, the player character cannot jump off the stairs, or under narrow paths which are one character's height (an attribute which was carried from Castlevania III).
• An exclusive behavior to this build, touching the enemy during invincibility frames after getting hit will result in the enemy taking damage as well. It doesn't seem to work against bosses however.
• Picking up a gem or a subweapon now count instantly in the upper HUD as they do in the final game, but the pickup sound for gems are still the same as v0.1.
• Subweapon system had been tweaked to be similar in final at this point; the unique powered up variant of sub weapons from version 0.1 becomes the Item Crash in this build instead, activated by pressing Up+C. Unlike the final's system, picking up a similar subweapon twice and getting the power up the second time does not revert back to the character's unique subweapon.
• Prototype exclusive soundtracks had been ditched in favor for final tracks at this point.
• Several traits from version 0.1 were also ditched - the timer in the HUD, extra life reward for reaching either every 20,000 score points or maxing out gem counters.
• Damage taken would only be reflected on the health bar after a small delay.
• When the player grabs an orb at the end of a stage, the gameplay pauses immediately instead of slowing to a stop after a few seconds.
• Alternate soundtracks for picking a third coat-of-arms power up is implemented, and it plays by default upon pickup. In later builds, this requires the BGM and SE values in the Option Menu to be set to 5 and 73 respectively. This also introduces a bug, where the music will keep playing even after the player take damage - by entering the midboss fight, get hit, and then finish the fight. The alternate music will play on the next room.
• Floating platforms has dodgy hitbox, causing players to fall through platforms that could simply be walked on. In some cases the platform's hitbox is placed elsewhere nearby, allowing the player to stand mid-air.
• Enemies introduced in this prototype are susceptible to hold-down attacks (performed by holding down the attack button after a swing, thus damaging the enemy twice instead of once with a single tap). This would be altered in later builds.
• Whip upgrades appear a tad sooner in this build - the first coat of arms will drop at 0 jewel held, the second at 4, and the third will drop at 15. Final changes the second coat of arms to drop at 5, and the third one to 30.

Character Differences

• Dying in this build will now play the death theme.

Eric Lecarde

• When moving the spear to the other side, instead of spinning, it moves diagonally to the other side.
• Spear jumping makes no sound at all during the charge, and unlike later builds the spear jump has a delay before it is usable.
• When spear jumping, Eric will shift to the left or right at the apex of the jump depending on the direction he's facing before the jump.
• Eric's walking animation is still the same as v0.1's, as he's still holding his spear up on his shoulder instead of carrying his spear down by his side.
• His spear will now impale him upon dying.

John Morris

To do: Find out more differences with John Morris.

v0.1	v0.5	Final

• Instead of disintegrating into blue light when dying, John's body will bounce onto the ground once and turn into a pile of bones afterwards. The animation here is more detailed than in 0.1, but the last frame seems to be using incorrect mappings compared to 0.1.
• Just like In version 0.1, the grip detection instantly occurs when the whip's tip collides with ceiling during a diagonal upward whip swing, while in final extra hold of attack button is needed to make John grip the ceiling.
• When performing a ceiling swing with John's initial whip, his whip will remain leather until he reaches halfway through the swing where it becomes the chain whip momentarily. This behavior was changed in between this prototype and the December 1993 prototype, where the whip will always be a chain whip during a ceiling swing, regardless of the whip's unpowered stage.
• John's whip doesn't make a sound when attack button is held against certain enemies.

Level Differences

Stage 1

• The opening cinematic hasn't been implemented yet.
• Item placement has been redone, now almost looking as the final's.

v0.1 - v0.5	Final

• The goofy-looking Mermen received noticeable redesign in later builds, as well as their water splash shot.

v0.1 - v0.5	Final

• The Hellhound midboss in stage 1-2 still has his v0.1 design, but unlike earlier builds, attacking the Hellhound will no longer reset its animations.
• Exclusive to this build, lingering around after killing the midboss will cause the screen and music to fade out and move the player to the next room.

Stage 2

• Just like in version 0.1, drowning in water is instant death, while the final release shows some degree of mercy by changing it to just remove several units of the life meter.
• The watermancer midboss in stage 2-3 now locks the screen, but still doesn't start the midboss theme and still takes far fewer hits to defeat than in the final game. He can still raise the water level, though.
• The Two Armor Lord midbosses in stage 2-3 have now been implemented as well... except they don't start the midboss theme either and their explosions don't give off any sounds.
• The stairs at the beginning of stage 2-4 are still present, meaning you can climb back up to stage 2-3. Doing so allows you to refight both midbosses... at once (with the watermancer midboss using the other midboss' graphics).
• Standing on these same stairs when the water begins to drain will cause you to essentially float through the level as the screen scrolls down. You can still attack the Medusa heads but moving will drop you into proper position.
• Stage 2-6 has been added. Instead of immediately bringing you to 2-7 upon exit with the stairs below, there's another 2-6 with slightly different layout with both rooms using the same background. Later builds excise the second room, and tweaking layout the first one - mainly opening up the walls to reveal a background that's used in 2-6-3 and also brightening up the palette a little.

Stage 3

To do: This stage has some confusing structure. So far here's what I gathered: The stage counter DOES NOT increment from 3-3 to 3-4, it stays at 3-3. There is no Bone Dragon King miniboss, so this section ends earlier. The 3-4 in this prototype corresponds to 3-5 in the final. 3-5 is 3-6 and 3-6 is 3-7. There doesn't seem to be an area corresponding to the final's stage 3-8 So, 3-7 in the 0.5 corresponds to 3-9 in the final (it's the boss but nothing happens because it loads the wrong graphcs)

v0.5	December 1993	Final

• Stage 3-6 contains smaller platforms than the ones in the final. These would remain in the December 1993 prototype.

• Gargoyle uses the completely wrong graphics and missing its sounds, but its functions are intact. Failing to grab the end-level orb would however cause it to fall through the tower, and thus making it impossible to proceed to stage 4 without using the level skip command.

Stage 4

To do: map rips of Stage 4-4, 4-5 and 4-7 as well as screenshots of the Dracula test room

• The layout of Stage 4-4 is different; the 0.5 prototype verison starts from top left and ends at bottom right exit, while the later revisions changed the layout so that the stage starts from bottom left and ends at top right exit - A change to reflect the different Stage 4-5?

• Stage 4-5 is a room not seen in the final version at all! It's a molten steel factory where you need to ride on steel platforms in order to not fall down into the molten steel while avoiding molten steel coming out of pipes. In this build, though, the falling molten steel can't actually hurt you and there's no exit. It's also a very linear and repetitive stage, which could explain why it got cut. WARNING: Very prone to crashing! In later revisions a more traditional Castlevania-oriented Gear room, originally located at Stage 4-6, takes the place of Stage 4-5.

• Stage 4-7 is a room not seen in the final version at all! It's a vertical platforming challenge with stairs and swinging platforms, with a static zeppelin serving as a backdrop. The stage ends with a crane you need to stand on in order to open the door to the next area. Similar ideas for the crane would be adapted to later revisions in finalized Stage 4-6.

• Gear Steamer (the Stage 4 boss) loads up the wrong palette during the intro. It then reverts back to its final palette after the intro is done. Like the Gargoyle boss in the previous stage, its functions are intact and lack sounds, but upon defeating the boss the end-level orb will not spawn, thus necessitating a level skip command.
• There's also a duplicate Stage 4-10 which houses an early version of Dracula (presumably for testing purposes). All 3 of his phases seem to be implemented, in varying degrees of completion, though all 3 of those phases have no sound whatsoever. Defeating Dracula's final form actually spawns an orb that lets you end the stage, but all it does is loop you back to Stage 1.

Stage 5

To do: lots and lots of screenshots

• Stage 5-1 is in a very rough state, with incorrect graphics almost everywhere.

• Stage 5-2 has no sun rays.
• All the other areas in Stage 5 are completely devoid of any objects whatsoever. Stage 5-5 in particular is unbeatable because of that.
• Reaching the Silhouette Demon in Stage 5-6 plays the midboss theme and locks the screen, but the midboss never shows up.

• Princess of Moss is the only enemy to spawn in this entire stage. She has a completely different design from the final, and like the previous two bosses before her, she lacks sound. Picking up the end-level orb after defeating her loops you back to Stage 1.

Graphical Differences

Scroll Map

• The world map displayed between stages in the final game is now present, albeit with a few graphical differences.

v0.5	Final
N/A