I honestly prefer Bloodlines over Super Castlevania 4. I have both collections on Switch and I always find myself playing a run as Eric LaCarde. I prefer the speed of Bloodlines to S. CVania 4. But after I got the Advance Collection, I'm either playing Circle of the Moon, or Aria of Sorow.
I love Bloodlines, was one of the first castlevanias I played as a kid. I really enjoy playing Eric, the sounds of his charge jump is very nostalgic. I also liked to show friends the spear spin you can do by attacking and pressing left and right back and forth. Sorta useless but really flashy for the time
Yoko Shimomura is the Kingdom Hearts composer (and also the best soundtrack, Parasite Eve). Michiru Yamane mainly composed Konami games (Suikoden, Symphony of the Night).
0:53 Elizabeth Bartley is supposed to be Elizabeth Báthory. In Japanese her name is written as バートリー (Baatorii). The translator probably didn't make the connection.
You bet your fuggin ass. The genesis was a horrendously programmed mess by devs resulting in diarrhea sound and music 80% of the time.absolute dogshit. This game is the pinnacle genesis music. In instrumentation, samples,m and composition. Above phantasy star and a lot of the other touted musical gems. The genesis has digshit music. And bloodlines music seems like it was programmed by something not human
@@NintenDub I disagree! When people make statements like that, it's clear to me they didn't play many genesis games growing up or at all. When it came to american composed games, they usually left much to be desired. Japanese composed games worked magic around the genesis soundchip, cause they used a entirely different programming system for the music. Listen to the Sonic franchise, shinobi franchise, Thunder force franchise, SOR franchise, Dynamite headdy, Gunstar heroes, Midnight resistance, Gauntlet 4, Devilish, Musha, Ristar, capt America & The avengers... just to name a few. All had sum of the hottest soundtracks in the 16 bit generation
I was a HUGE Sega Genesis guy when I was a teenager (the Genesis and SNES were the two big consoles back in my teen years). Thank you for doing this video. Please do more Sega Genesis videos.
16-bit speaking, I think Super Castlevania IV was the best possible showcase of what the Super Nintendo was capable of. I played Bloodlines recently though and it's a great title. I love your videos my dear !
Ends by saying "looks aren't everything", all while dressed up in a very appropriate (and very stunning) outfit. Love the sense of humor behind that. One of the reasons this is such a great channel.
I've literally learned more in this review that the last 20 years of reviews. I'm not sure how others left SO MUCH out. You're criticisms were fair enough. No diagonal whip slash. Bad backgrounds. Crappy sound effects. But all in all, still a pretty good game. Now, what about Rhondo of blood??? And it's comparisons?
I found weird the criticism of the Sountrack. Reincarnated Soul, The Sinking Old Sanctuary , Calling From Heaven and, obviously, Iron Blue Intention are great tracks. The only track I would call weak is The Prayer of a Tragic Queen. The Discolored Wall (Stage 3) is also a little lacking but that's more like an ambiance track. Obviously, Michiru Yamane would outdo herself a few years later in Symphony of the Night.
Nice video, I have very fond memories of this game from childhood, which is why I find this one to be almost my favorite, only being eclipsed by Castlevania III.
@@dextersbeard3472 I'm good, bought the digital version on sale. The waiting with LRG, kinda bugs me. Great product, and price though. Just the whole 3-4 months (who knows how long) till it arrives
Your outfit is so on point for this review! And even though I love this game, I do agree with you about the skies being a bit ugly. Great review as always and thanks for the shout out!
Absolutely love this game and its music. It was my first Castlevania and have so many happy memories sat in front of the Megadrive as a kid trying to beat this!
Castlevania will always be one of my all time favorite games ever... The original castlevania was the third game I ever owned and symphony of the night is still one of, if not, my favorite games ever...
Man, I loved bloodlines. It's one of my favorite Castlevania games. LeCarde was my favorite character. He also has a move that allows him to spin the staff, damaging anything in front of him, above him, and then the opposite direction, and sometime striking things multiple times as the staff spins (my favorite move).
The SNES version is way longer with better graphics and music. Bloodlines is OK but its kinda dumb the animation on the characters is jerky and the special FX are not very impressive
@@worsethanhitlerpt.2539 More pixelated, best sound but worse soundtrack, less smoother playability, too easy and worse performance. On the other part, the FX are different, not better or worse. Both are great games but Super Castlevania IV has more name than game.
I played some Gunstar Heroes to get the footage I used in this and I did so badly at it. I could not remember how to pick up items, and wasn't planning on playing long enough to bother figuring it out.
Imo it's one of the best genesis games, it may lack in some colour areas but the soundtrack and atmosphere is just incredible (I actually loved the tunes to this) and like you say the sprite work on bosses. I think it's my favourite atmospheric castlevania next to rondo of blood.
I disagree with some of your criticisms, but you know what? That's OK! It's a videogame. I'm more likely to criticize the wonky stair-walking animation where the characters themselves do not place their feet on the top of the stairs. Also the goofy walking animations in general. It seems like your main complain was the skies. And there's no accounting for taste when it comes to music. While I love Bloody Tears, Vampire Killer, and Beginning (the 3 standout tunes from the original 8-bit games) I love the "new" stuff even more, and that goes for Super Castlevania IV as well. I've always considered Eric as the game's "Easy Mode" but it's worth it to play through the game with both characters as there are (very small) parts of the game you'll see with Eric that you won't see with John. I'm glad that you had fun with the game! Everyone should play it.
There were more dull looking levels that I didn't mention, the clockwork and pistons were quite plain in their design. But overall, the looks aren't as important as how fun it was and how good the movement controls are. I probably should have played with Eric first.
Pretty sick video, James Rolf would dig this. Great history tie in, I didn't know about her. Castlevania needs more love, and I was unaware of the mechanics of this game. Makes it seem like they wanted you to pick the lance guy. We all know Rondo of blood Japanese release is king of this era though
I'm impressed by some effects in this game, like the fake reflections and the rotation of the sprites (even the snes needed the Super FX chip!). I suspect the reason of the lack of detail in the backgrounds could be due to all these sprites and effects on the screen (maybe the developers decided to simplify in order to gain speed?). Thanks for the extensive review Pam, you're the best!
Yes. Some of those special effects are very costly. Plus, it's only an 8 mbit cart, which is pretty low for a game with such level variety. Shinobi 3 is also an 8 mbit cart but that game mostly avoids the gimmicky special effects, choosing to maintain a constant level of excellent sprite and background detail throughout. Gunstar Heroes had the effects AND detail on an 8 mbit cart, but Treasure were simply wizards with the Genesis, so that doesn't count. :) Konami were no slouches either though. I am guessing that Bloodlines was probably rushed to meet the 1993 xmas season. It's telling that the US version came out first, in December of 1993.
I honestly always thought the effects in this game looked really cheesy. My brother actually thought the reflections in the water weren't displaying properly on his emulator. The first level of Sparkster for the SNES does this effect far better. Where are there sprites rotating anywhere in this game? It's been a while since I played through it but I don't think there are any.
@@davidaitken8503 The reflection does look slightly better on the SNES because they applied a transparent layer over it. The Genesis obviously doesn't do true transparencies, so they couldn't do it there, making it look a bit less impressive. On the other hand, the Genesis effect is a bit more technically impressive simply because transparency moves to mimic the water swaying. I don't know why your brother thought that it looked "broken". Maybe his emulator was indeed shitty. Then again, it does looks A LOT better on a CRT as opposed to modern displays. It was pretty amazing back in the day. There is sprite and background rotation effects all over this game. For an obvious example of sprite rotation, check out the big statue head that rolls to the side as you hit it, on the "reflection level". Seamless sprite rotation done in software. I do agree that a lot of the effects in this games, while being very impressive during the xmas or 93, look a bit gimmicky now. The game would've aged better if they invested into more traditional graphics detail and animation instead of all the (then) cool special effects.
@@Prizrak-hv6qk My criticisms of the graphic effects are in comparison to other games of the era, including Super Castlevania 4. I'm not unfairly comparing it to some newer game nor am I dissing games from this era in general as they are some of my favorites. Though I didn't get the opportunity to play Bloodlines on original hardware, I grew up on 8 and 16 bit game systems and have seen plenty of games on NES, Turbo Grafx 16, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo on a CRT the way they were intended. The water bobbing up and down is part of the reason it looks so cheesy. It doesn't really make sense, and the vertical line heavy pillars in the scene doesn't help matters. I hate to tell you this, but that big statue head is not using sprite rotation in any form. They are just shifting horizontal and vertical lines a bit. This is the same way they pull off the even cheesier wobbling tower that has the center of the screen as its' central axis and not the base of the tower as it should. If you want to see what the effect should actually look like with proper rotation that actually affects gameplay, you should play the introductory level of Super Metroid. While escaping the space station, the tower starts to sway from side to side. It's very cool. Every time someone claims a Genesis game is using rotation effects of some kind, it seems like it's usually just the horizontal and vertical line shift trick. It isn't particularly hard to do and it offers extremely limited range because you can only shift things a little bit off before the image falls apart. It isn't rotation, just a little bit of wobble. The first level boss of Contra 3 and the helicopter in Time Trax are examples of some of this image manipulation on SNES. Mega Turrican on the Genesis actually has some sprite rotation, scaling, and even mozaic effects in it, but that is done by the master coders at Factor 5. No one else can even come close.
@@davidaitken8503 I don't get your point. Of course none of the Genesis games have true sprite or background rotation and scaling. It's just not something that the Genesis VDP had built into it. So, every time you see it in a Genesis game, it is simulated using various software tricks. However, some devs did make it look pretty convincing/seamless. The stock SNES couldn't do sprite rotation (or scaling) either... only background. They often used the trick of switching a sprite to a background tile and rotating that, in order to make it looks like a sprite is scaling or rotating. I am very aware of Super Metroid. For (simulated) rotation that effects the gameplay on the Genesis, check out the bonus stages in Sonic 1. Red Zone rotated the whole play area and Panorama Cotton has scaling and rotation effects all over the place. Anyway, I rented Bloodlines when it came out, long after I had a SNES as well and I still found it to be a pretty impressive looking game. The graphics had a lot more depth to them on a CRT than you get with an emulator on an LCD. Some Genesis games are just like that. Off the top of my head, Alisia Dragoon is another really good example of a Genesis game that suffers greatly from being played on an LCD now.
Here because of a RU-vid recommendation as well. For once they were spot on. You are more professional than most reviewers. Great job and subscribed as well! Keep it up great content!
So glad that I found your channel. Have been digging through your back catalog and your intonation along with facial expressions show that you are working to be engaging. Truly a pleasure to view.
This was my first Castlevania game and I still love it. Missed out on the NES titles when they were new as I was still ZX spectrum bound in those days.
I didn’t even know that it was a mega drive game, I know it’s Capcom now but I always thought it was a Nintendo thing. I guess it’s the same sort of situation as final fantasy. I can’t think of a Square game on Sega.
I have no idea what Mugwump is even trying to say. This was Konami. But I don't what happened with Konami releases in Europe. There was the whole proboctor thing. Super censored.
@Slope's Game Room It's still the same game dude. Although,if you're talking about the 50hz issue then i can definitely agree that it sucked that games played slowly.
This game has interesting level's designs, and I like how versatile are the weapons and bosses. Your review explained very well the strengths and weaknesses of this Castlevania: Bloodlines.
Great video, great thumbnail. Something about this video feels much more grounded/grass roots than heavily over produced content, while still having really good quality and effort put in. It's refreshing for sure. Keep up the good work!
I loved Konami's Sega Genesis output. Everything felt like an alternate universe take on a hit SNES game. Can only imagine what a Metal gear game would look like on the Genesis.
@@candmmi Nope. Not even close. Like Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps felt like a big step backward from the SNES game, not only in visuals and audio, but especially with the much more limited control.
@@mrlaidback83 It's hilarious how Sega fanboys always bash the overhead levels of Contra 3 even though they were excellent additions to the game, much like the hallway levels in the original Contra and the overhead levels in Super C. Contra 3 is a bonafide masterpiece.
@@davidaitken8503 You sound exactly like a Nintendo fan boy calling me a Sega Fan boy just because because of a difference in opinion. Contra 3 may be a masterpiece to you but not to me. I had a lot more fun with Contra Hard Corps and so therefore, it's definitely the better game imho.
This was a classic pick. One of my faves on the system. Plays great. Slapping the heads off harpies never gets old. Channeling Ms. Velour, as well. Very nice. 👍
Yeah, the old fashioned tunes are great. The sound effects from the Atari days stick with me. Megaman’s music has got to be the best though. Castlevanias tunes are pretty good. It sounds a bit cheesy to say, but how anyone can’t see that games are art must be crazy. I bought the vinyl of Hyper Light Drifters sound track, sounds fantastic when not digitally compressed. The composer at team Cherry is pretty cool as well. Some massive talent in the indie scene.
Of all the old Castlevania games, this one is my favorite. Sure the attention on the graphics are not on the sky, but there's so many good little ideas that brings the game to life (windows blowing while the dog howls at the beginning and ravens eating corpses). The last stage is crazy and the music is fantastic. The first soundtrack composed by Michiru Yamane. Still interesting to hear a totally different view on the same game.
I adore the game and admire the visuals and audio (not the sound effects) more than you did, but I do see where you're coming from. And considering ROM hacks changing the color pallette exist, clearly colors and details could've been better. Great work, as always
Believe it or not, Bloodlines is actually my favorite Castlevania. I loved the early 20th century setting in contrast to the medieval one of it predecessors. For me, the music and bosses were highlights of the game. Even though the Genesis had some serious sound issues, the original music in Bloodlines is some of the most original and melancholy of the series. Definitely respect your criticisms, though. I just never paid a lot of attention to the backgrounds, although I always did find John's lack of a standing diagonal whip attack weird, too. Like Contra: Hard Corps, I really respected Konami for not just rehashing the same game they made for the SNES, but making something original and distinct.
How fortuitous that your videos popped up on my feed! Excellent games, excellent reviews and excellent cosplay! Nice work, Pam, you just got a new subscriber!
I always played this game with Eric, if not for the fact he's the most unique Castlevania protag until we got Alucard. Also Dracula himself did a double take when he saw the thumbnail. Lets the Sega marathon continue!
I kind of like the limitations on diagonal attacks. The eight-way whip really overshadowed the subweapons in 4, so it makes sense that they wanted to tone it down.
Thanks for creating a video that actually goes through the unique perks & quirks of this game. This was a great video & I subscribed after checking out a few others. Keep up the great work!
The algorithm gifted me with this video this morning, and I like it. I have to stick up for the OST though - this was composer Michiru Yamane's first Castlevania game, and I think she did an outstanding job on a system not known for great music. Several of the tracks in this game became fan-favorite parts of the series canon and were remixed in later games.
People usually prefer SCIV, but I always thought this had more of the NES Castlevania feel. There's a decent patch that improves the game's color palette, as well.
I prefer Bloodlines, but IV always felt so much more ploddingly slow like the NES titles. Honestly, I put Bloodlines closer to Rondo as the characters and the entire game feels faster. The only thing that holds this back is lack of an 8 way whip like Pam mentioned.
@@personavisceration371 I agree with all your points. I will say that the lack of an 8-way whip can be good or bad depending on the style of CV you're in the mood to play.
This game often gets overshadowed by it's Super Nintendo counterpart, but I feel that its soundtrack is superior, having two characters to choose from is better, and the locales are more varied. #4 does have better character mobility and actions, but there's just something about Bloodlines that makes it more replayable to me.
Everything you said. I like to play up until munitions factory just to hear iron blue intention. I never grow tired of that track. This and the first game are my favorites. If i have to hear one more time about 4's amazing multi-directional whipping, and Symphony being the best installment I'll vomit. NES Castlevania, Rondo, Chronicles and Bloodlines are my personal favorites. They're all tied for first place. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
@@generaftery9351 Yes, sometimes the metroidvania aspect of newer Castlevania's feels daunting and not as repayable to me. Sometimes I just like to spend one afternoon in the castle and call it a day, rather than a weeklong adventure...which is also great, just a bit too much sometimes.
Better soundtrack than Super Castlevania 4? LOL no way. It is good but Super Castlevania is by far the better game with a superior soundtrack. To each their own, I guess. I actually do not like Bloodlines much, the bosses are cool, as is some of the graphic effects. But the characters, the animations of John, the fact he is not even a damn Belmont, and the control limitations are horrible. The Genesis color limitation rears its head again, but graphics are really good.
I couldn’t agree more about the backgrounds. No parallax scrolling and lack of texture detail make it look very 8-bit. It’s still a really fun play! I think what makes Bloodlines so amazing is it came out 2 years before Symphony, so that is quite some progress haha
1- I had never heard of Elizabeth Báthory before you mentioned her in this video. Her story was fascinating. 2- your shirt has the perfect gothic vibe for this review.
Spot on with the comments on the backgrounds. I didn't play this back in the day like I did Castlevania IV, but something has always felt a bit lackluster about its' design; the comparison to Shinobi III hit the nail on the head.
Love your outfit Pam. It's like cinnamon on a latte. Plus this game and Contra Hard Corps were Konami's finest games on the Genesis as well as Hyperstone Heist and Buster's Hidden Treasure.
Their best Megadrive game was Rocket Knight IMO. Turtles and Tiny toons on SNES were much better versions. I prefer Castlevania and Contra on SNES more but the Megadrive games were pretty good.
@@Ninten70 Yeah i love that. Not on the Megadrive like we were discussing obviously. I would say Goemon (mystical ninja) on snes is one of my favourite snes games of all time. I also love one of the Goemon games on the PS1 which followed a similar template to the snes one.
@@theoldpcgamer77Agreed on Rocket Knight Adventures being the best of Konami's Genesis efforts. However, I always found buster's Hidden Treasure to be better game than Buster Busts Loose, with the latter feeling more like a very easy kiddy game. Hidden Treasure is a sublime little mix of Sonic and Mario, which gets pretty challenging in the later levels... a real hidden gem on the Genesis. The Hyperstore Heist was definitely more a half-assed remix of Turtles in Time than an original effort though. Still a great game to play and a taste of things to come for us Genesis lovers back in 92.
Thanks Pam! This is the first video of yours that I've seen. First of all, great review!! I remember playing this when it first came out (it was my first video game), and so I have a lot of memories with this one. I loved your analyses and I mostly agree with your criticisms. I'd like to address the atmosphere within the game. Sega let Konomi make the game they wanted to without forcing censorship on them. The added macabre details and brief gore was something new to the series (in America). Nintendo of America mandated that Konami had to heavily censor Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Super Castlevania IV for North American releases. Sega, seeing an opportunity to stand out, did no such thing. Oddly, other parts of the world (mostly European countries) had censored versions of this game for a change. In my opinion, this uncensored vision added a lot of foreboding atmosphere that made up for the less detailed visuals.
I never thought the backgrounds were plain or ugly, quite the opposite. I like a lot of black also, like in NES games, because it's mysterious. For those who do think the backgrounds are plain, fortunately the examples in this video belong to segments that take up only a little bit of the game.
makes it look like a nes game in that regards or one of those instances where a genesis game gets ported over to the mastersystem. Like it shows it's struggle with colour. I also tought bloodlines looked quite beutifull, bloodlines definitely looks better then the europe version but then i saw shinobi 3 aggainst it and good god. My brother once had the europe version but he's and impulse seller sometimes. Now goes up towards 2/300 in stores. Tough some things this castelvania does are technical marvels, like the tower of pisa. But could have been done better i agree, they could have done more.
Great video! Everyone has there own opinion. The first 16 Bit Castlevania I played back in the day was Rondo Of Blood and back then the PC Engine was my favorite system of all time. Later on I got Vampire Killer for my Mega Drive and I was stunned with the Arcade feel of it, the Soundtrack and the effects. When I played through the second stage I was saying this might be better than Rondo Of Blood. When I got to the 4rth stage I made the decision that it was and still is better than Rondo Of Blood. Man the effects on Vampire Killer/Bloodlines and the overal soundtrack is a Masterpiece. I love the Soundtrack on Rondo Of Blood as well but it doesn't beat out Vampire Killer/Bloodlines soundtrack overall. This was another time I was like Man the Mega Drive beat out the PC Engine CD game again (Strider on the Mega Drive (Cart Game)) beat out Strider for the PC Engine (CD game) IMO as well. Now Castlevania IV for the SNES is good but the stages are kind of boring and are to similar for me and the soundtrack is not as good as Vampire Killer or Rondo Of Blood. Im a give it another few trys but I think I like Castlevania 3 on the Nes better than Castlevania IV on the SNES. I have to say playing the Mega Drive in RGB has pushed the console to my all time favorite and I just love the 320 resolution in most of the games and the Mega Drive having the better CPU when compared to the PC Engine's and SNES (very slow) CPU. Which is the reason Mega Drive games overal have more fluid and better gameplay. Now also even though tech wise the PC Engine and the SNES can both put more colors on the screen than the Mega Drive. Surprisingly the Mega Drive has many games that are more colorful when comparing in RGB. Now im my Composite video playing days. The PC Engine was my favorite but when I switched to RGB for my PC Engine, SNES and Mega Drive. The Mega Drive moved into first place after awhile and til this day the Mega Drive has the most stunning RGB and best RGB picture I have ever seen.
New sub. Thanks RU-vid for the recommendation! Been watching a bunch of old game/retro reviews lately, took them forever to recommend yours. Keep it up!
Very few games really take advantage of the music the Genesis can play. Bloodlines Vapor Trail Super Hydlyde Jurrasic Park Those games have some of the very best music the system has to offer. Check them out if you get a chance.
Finally decided to watch one of these. Like "Erin Plays", I first saw you in AVGN's "Aladdin Deck Enhancer" episode. I was thinking of checking you out, but I've been beyond distracted. This is the first video I've watched on here and it is excellent, you have a way with analyzing a games pros and cons. I've heard mostly food things about this installment, and it even won on "Console Wars". While the game does look great in most aspects, the backgrounds do look like they could've had a little more done. Anyway great video Pam, you just earned a subscriber. 😀
The fractured and upside down levels would mess me up. Always enjoy an Elizabeth Bathory character even thouhh she is a murderer she's super interesting.
@@Cannotbetamed1 there was another that popped into my head. I think it’s called “Immoral Tales”, but it’s just one segment of the movie that depicts E.B. It’s a pretty freaky movie.
Best work of art about Elizabeth Bathory is the CRADLE OF FILTH concept album CRUELTY AND THE BEAST (the original one, not the recent Re-Mistressed version).
RU-vid sneaked you into my feed and well, for the first time did not disappoint. I saw "Castlevania review" and I said "Don'tmind if I do !" . Great video and will definitely check out the rest of your video's.
Good video! Have you played Rondo of Blood? It’s the Castlevania game that came out around this time for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16. Arguably the best of the 16 hit Castlevanias.
Excellent review Pam and i agree with you about how the game is on a visual level but still fun. Super Castlevania IV is probably the best. And i see you are Team Eric for this!
Very informative vid thank you. Looking forward to giving this a try in the Anniversary Collection as Portrait of Ruin is my favourite game and I am going through each game.
That look is absolutely stunning, I can see you are a lady with great taste! ! I always loved both games, they are both great, but Castlevania 4 to me will always be the best Castlevania game.
It also has the stages set in real world inspired locations, each with some form of gimmick. Rising sands, shifting walls etc. It’s not just related in plot. Only these 2 use that style.
@@RyanLeCocq That's really cool, I never thought of those games that way although you're right _Portrait_ does seem to deliberately take inspiration from _Bloodlines_ in that way. I also feel like the next game, _Order of Ecclesia,_ takes inspiration from _Castlevania II: Simon's Quest._ You have a village with townsfolk to talk to, and you don't enter Dracula's Castle until the end -- most of the game takes place in the surrounding countryside. Shanoa even opens the game saying: "I am the morning sun, come to vanquish the horrible night," referencing the text that would appear in the night/day cycle in _Simon's Quest._ Now that I think of it, _Ecclesia_ is also largely based on being fed lies and misinformation, which was an infamous flaw that saturated _Simon's Quest_ as well.
Likewise SoTN is a direct sequel to Castlevania rondo of blood, Castlevania Dawn of sorrow is a direct to Aria of sorrow, Portrait of ruin is to bloodlines and Castlevania netflix anime to Castlevania 3 the dracula's curse linking story some extent to Curse of darkness. A glimpse of Castlevania Lament of innocence can also be seen (where Trevor belmont sees picture of Leon belmont while descending to underground library).
