Castlevania: Bloodlines

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NTSC-U NTSC-J PAL
Castlevania: Bloodlines
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo Switch Online
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Distributor: Majesco Sales (US re-release)
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1994-03-18 ¥7,800 (8,034)7,800e T-95043 US 1993-12 T-95076 EU 1994 T-95076-50 DE 1994-03 T-95076-50 PT 199x UK 1994-03-25 £44.9944.99 T-95076-50 SE (Rental) 199x AU 1994 JP ▼ 2021-10-25 US ▼ 2021-10-25 EU ▼ 2021-10-25

Castlevania: Bloodlines, known in Japan as Vampire Killer (バンパイアキラー) and in Europe as Castlevania: The New Generation, is a Sega Mega Drive action platform game developed and published by Konami. First released in the United States in December 1993, it is the first title in the company's popular Castlevania series to be developed for a Sega system.

The game is a moderate departure from previous entries in the series, as gameplay is generally much faster and more dynamic, and for the first time, does not feature a member of the Belmont clan as a playable character (instead connecting the protagonists to those of the original 1897 Bram Stoker horror novel Dracula, and taking place exclusively in Romania.)

Story

In 1897, Quincy Morris defeated Count Dracula, but died afterwards due to the wounds from the battle. His son, John Morris, and his friend Eric Lecarde witnessed it.

Twenty years later, a vampire named Elizabeth Bartley - who had been executed in 1421 - was accidentally brought back to life by a witch named Drolta Tzuentes. Once back, Elizabeth wants to revive her dead uncle - none other than Dracula.

Now, it's up to John and Eric - descendants of a clan of vampire hunters, the Belmonts - to find Elizabeth and stop her, before she brings Count Dracula back to the land of the living.

“	The ancestors of the Belmont family are doomed to confront the power of evil incarnate......Dracula! In 1917, a countess sought to revive the long dead spirit of the vampire. Her name was Elizabeth Bartley. To revive him, she needed to travel all over Europe, enlisting help from all the powers of darkness. Two young vampire hunters set out to fulfill their destiny.... Push back the evil hordes and drive the vampire back into his dark netherworld.	„
— Opening sequence

Gameplay

In Castlevania: Bloodlines, the player travels through six different countries of Europe, controlling either John Morris — current owner of the "Vampire Killer" whip — or his childhood friend Eric Lecarde — a master lanceman. Macabre creatures such as zombies and skeletons are summoned by Countess Bartley to kill you.

Along the way the player can collect items to power-up their character's weapon (up to three times), as well as one of three special weapons, useful to hit enemies from afar. In order to use the special weapons, the player must collect jewels, which are hidden inside candles found all over the way.

By default attacks, jumps and uses the special weapon; controls can be changed at the options menu. Special weapons normally require one jewel per usage, though holding while pressing turns it into a smart bomb, which uses up four jewels. Also, if you collect three power-ups having at least eight jewels, the special weapon is temporarily replaced by an ultimate attack that costs eight jewels. Holding and pressing midair performs a straight down attack.

Passwords are given at the end of each stage, once the stage boss is defeated. When passwords are used, the weapon level, jewels count and score are reset — the special weapon is also lost.

Playable characters

	John Morris (Johnny Morris in the Japanese version)
	Born in 12 December 1895 in Texas, USA, he is the son of Quincy Morris (who died upon defeating Dracula in 1897), and a distant descendant of Trevor Belmont. His weapon is the sacred whip "Vampire Killer", used by the Belmonts for centuries and temporarily entrusted to the Morris clan, since the Belmonts are unable to touch it until the year of 1999. Morris has only one special move: Swing with Whip (hold , press midair — lashes the whip at ceiling blocks and swing forward).
	Eric Lecarde
	Born in 3 May 1892 in Segovia, Spain, he is also related to the Belmont lineage, though details are unclear. Eric decided to become a vampire hunter after Elizabeth Bartley changed his girlfriend, Gwendolyn, into a vampire. His weapon is the "Alcarde Spear", entrusted to the Lecarde family by Alucard, the son of Dracula, to assist the Morris clan. He has the advantage of being able to attack upward and diagonally, by pressing the desired direction on the D-pad. Lecarde has two special moves: Mega Jump (hold , press — jumps three times higher) and Spinning Lance (hold , press / — spins the lance back and forth).

Items

	1up
	Awards the player an extra life.
	Bag of Kreutzers
	Awards 100 to 2,000 points.
	Red Jewel
	Adds 1 jewel for special weapon usage.
	Blue Jewel
	Adds 5 jewels for special weapon usage.
	Coat-of-Arms
	Powers up the player character's weapon.
	Mirror of Truth
	Hits all enemies on screen.
	Mutton Chop
	Restores one half of the player character's life.
	Spell Book
	Causes a random effect, such as a weapon power-up.
	Black Orb
	Makes the player character invulnerable for a short while.

Special weapons

	Battle Axe
	The Battle Axe thrown up then falls down, making it difficult to hit enemies in certain cases, though it's great to reach the ones above you. At level 3, it summons three axes which fly straight forward.
	Crystal Blade Boomerang
	The Boomerang thrown in a straight line then comes backward, possibly hitting enemies twice on its way. At level 3, it summons three boomerangs which fly forward forming a circle.
	Sacred Water
	Like the Battle Axe, the Sacred Water is thrown up then falls down, and can damage enemies in the air, though when it touches the ground a sacred explosion is created. At level 3, it flies through the screen in a spiral movement, hitting a good area.

Stages

	Stage 1 - Ruins of the Castle Dracula, Romania
	The first stage is divided into eleven sections, featuring a Hellhound at the end of 1-5 and the stage boss — Armor Battler, a giant mecha knight.
	Stage 2 - Atlantis Shrine, Greece
	The second stage has seven parts, featuring three mini-bosses — the Water Mage and two Armor Lords, all in 2-3 (the first one wielding a morning star and the other wielding an axe) - plus the stage boss — Golem, a stone giant.
	Stage 3 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy
	Stage 4 - The Munitions Factory, Germany
	Stage 5 - Versailles Palace, France
	Stage 6 - The Castle Proserpina, England
	There are three boss fights throughout this stage starting at 6-5, which is a fight with Death and rematches against the stage 2 through 4 bosses, Elizabeth and Medusa at 6-7, and a final battle with Dracula and Drolta at 6-9.

History

Censorship

Castlevania: Bloodlines was the subject of much debate at the time, as even though it features considerable amounts of blood and violence, the Videogame Rating Council awarded the game a "GA" (the lowest rating possible.) This later affected the European release, which was heavily censored and renamed Castlevania: The New Generation as a result. Interestingly, the Australian release retains the European name, but remains identical to the American release in content.

Legacy

Like most Konami games on the Sega Mega Drive, Bloodlines has become a highly desirable game and as a consequence is rather expensive. For many years, the game had never seen a rerelease on another system, which didn't help the game's rarity. In 2019, the game finally saw two re-releases - as part of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Steam, and as one of the 42 games pre-installed on the Mega Drive Mini. The Mega Drive Mini re-release includes all regional versions of the game accessible by changing the system language accordingly.

Versions

The game utilizes a region lockout mechanism, but it can be disabled by holding down the button during startup. Note that this doesn't affect the title screen and graphics modifications (so it's not possible to turn a censored PAL version into an uncensored NTSC-J or NTSC-U version). The PAL version included on all variants of the Mega Drive Mini disables all region lockout by default.

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Castlevania: The New Generation	Castlevania: The New Generation
English (US)	Castlevania: Bloodlines	Castlevania: Bloodlines
Japanese	バンパイアキラー	Vampire Killer

Production credits

The only regional difference in the ending credits is in the very first line, where it says "<regional game title> Staff". Also, if you beat the game in normal difficulty it ends with "Try Expert Mode!"; if you finish it in expert difficulty it changes to "Congratulations! You are the master of Vampire Killer".

• Programmer MK1: Hanaten
• Enemy Program: Takashi Takeda
• Trap and Enemy Program: Kenichiro Horio
• Wandering Programmer: Koji Komata
• Program: Hidenari Inamura
• Main Designer: Bunmin
• Design: Mamuun
• Special Design: Tat, Norio Takemoto
• Sound Program: Atsushi Fujio, Osamu Kasai
• Sound Design: Michiru Yamane
• Package Design: M.Yoshihashi, Kaori Sasaki
• Special Thanks to: H.Takeuchi, K.Iketani, K.Kinjyo, T.Shinguu, N.Tanaka, S.Yomota, H.Jyuni, A.Shizuno, T.Niimi, T.Yabe
• Copyright by: 1994 Tokumashoten Intermedia Inc.
• Supervisor: Yutaka Haruki
• Producer: Tomikazu Kirita

© 1994 Konami All Rights Reserved

Source:

In-game credits

Digital manuals

• CastlevaniaBloodlines MD US digital manual.pdf

  Mega Drive Mini US manual

• CastlevaniaBloodlines MD EU digital manual.pdf

  Mega Drive Mini EU manual

• Vampirekiller MD JP digital manual.pdf

  Mega Drive Mini JP manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Castlevania: Bloodlines/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Castlevania: Bloodlines/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) NTSC-U 70 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) PAL 60 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) NTSC-J 40 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 63 Console Mania (IT) PAL 91 Consoles + (FR) 82 Computer & Video Games (UK) 83 Digitiser (UK) 83 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 91 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 83 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 70 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 7 (RU) 70 Game Players (US) NTSC-U 88 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 80 Gamers (DE) 73 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 70 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 78 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 72 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 70 Hyper (AU) PAL 79 Joypad (FR) PAL 86 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 78 Max Overload! (UK) PAL 72 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 91 Mega (UK) PAL 82 Megablast (DE) PAL 80 MegaTech (UK) PAL 83 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 90 Player One (FR) 92 Power Up! (UK) 78 Power Unlimited (NL) 74 Score (CZ) 75 Secret Service (PL) 70 Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 86 Sega Power (UK) PAL 70 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 84 Sega Zone (UK) PAL 85 Sega Force (SE) 88 Sega Mega Drive Review (RU) 84 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 74 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 87 The Zone (AU)The Zone (AU) 82 Todo Sega (ES) 85 Tricks (RU) 74 Tricks 16 bit (RU) NTSC-U 84 Tricks 16 bit (RU) PAL 80 Video Games (DE) PAL 85 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 80

	79
Based on 48 reviews

Castlevania: Bloodlines

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US (cardboard)
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, PT
Cover

Mega Drive, SE (Rental)
Cover

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 fb1ea6df MD5 0f04fc1b5bf8c9a887abcf14ce96b0cd SHA-1 4809cf80ced70e77bc7479bb652a9d9fe22ce7e6	1MB	1994-03	Cartridge (US)
✔	CRC32 4dd4e4a5 MD5 10d2e8576380e5c22d8771f470747c98 SHA-1 61aabb1053f090fb6c13968c86170357c5df4eba	1MB	1994-03	Cartridge (EU)
✔	CRC32 91b57d2b MD5 3453bcc79345872034845cc5a7a1b15f SHA-1 3e709bd27577056abbbd6735021eaffd90caa140	1MB	1994-03	Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 6a5e58cd MD5 d6f1bdb9ca9a4137bcdb31611fb35bee SHA-1 2572d121758ce2ecb89f8ee7e3de3e9503cd1b9f	1MB	1994-03	Mega Drive Mini (EU)	Region lockout disabled.
✔	CRC32 ca0df45b MD5 a2611f0a06d059afaa685e869e789951 SHA-1 a7ed6359456e7a6f730e77c7b8aeb86562d6a31b	1MB	1993-08-04	EPROM cartridge	v0.1			Page
?	CRC32 64d46357 MD5 9ff57bfc91102b513d7db8ba7c229d49 SHA-1 95fc97ebfe1fda753319f27518c301551596adaa	1MB	1993-10-07	Cartridge	v0.5			Page
?	CRC32 84cd103a MD5 b7ab3ef9d51d2ed9228deaad0203adce SHA-1 8c4004c0d8cbe211ffa3919fd609653221a0078b	1MB	1993-12					Page

References

Castlevania games for Sega systems
	Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994) | Super Castlevania IV‎ (unreleased)
	Castlevania: The Bloodletting (unreleased)
	Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (1998) | Castlevania: The Bloodletting (unreleased)
	Castlevania Resurrection (unreleased)