Good job br0. I definitely prefer the faster pace of action in Bloodlines over Castlevania 4. Many fans will probably like the classic level themes of Castlevania 4 (graveyard, haunted stable, treasure room, library, etc) but I actually prefer the "European tour" of Bloodlines.
Great vid, & very informative. Makes me want to fire it up now! You're gameplay has some awesome strats that I was clearly lacking on my last playthrough many moons ago..
🙏 Still learning with each video! it’s been some time since I took another crack at bloodlines. I never did a full play through with Eric Lacarde surprisingly not sure why…Ive always enjoyed bloodlines but I think revisiting it just gave me a far greater perspective of it overall
It's funny because I was so much a SNES kid over SEGA, but Bloodlines was easily the Castlevania I played the most times (until SotN--and now is probably only #2). I loved everything about this one, and it remains one of my favourites in the series. I had no idea the composer was the same as for SotN, which makes sense now since I love Bloodline's soundtrack, too.
Same! I had no idea until I did a bit more research for the video. But now that I listened again to the tracks I can hear the influence in the later games. The compositions always interest me the most especially mid 90s a lot of artist got their big break outs on some of these classics and it just snowballed for many of them from there
This is better than IV, it feels like Castlevania and has a final boss rush that’s a worthy successor to 3. It takes a little while but is designed well like the rest of the game so you have a lot of fun taking down Dracula and the rest.
This game is up there with Rondo. I perfer Bloodlines over Rondo but objectively they are the same quality. They just emphasize two different takes on the Castlevania formula. One more about precision and the other aggression. Both have shortcomings in the FVX and SFX but Rondo's shortcomings are really underplayed as opposed to haters overplaying Bloodline's SFX. Which I personally really like anyways so I don't get it really. The fastest playing game in the series up to that point (and to this day still up there) along with many obscure but game changing mechanics give it the highest skill ceiling. It's excellent and there's a reason why many games in the series and games that take after castlevania take after this game far more than super 4. Bloodlines will stand the test of time in comparison. Edit: Also, fun fact, Bloodlines came out *after* Rondo. Which came out after Super 4. Konami learnt and adapted to the mistakes and successes of each game for sure.
That’s an excellent take on it. I often times get torn between bloodlines and Rondo. For me I love the aesthetic and exploration elements of rondo but the trade of with bloodlines for me is the more classic feel and the Genesis sound. They both have two primary characters but I love how John and Eric compliment each others playstyles and how they differentiate there playthroughs
Nope. Not for me. And I'd actually say it's not quite as good as some people give it credit for. Certainly, I personally find it quite visually/aesthetically unappealing and even fugly at times. And the audio can get quite grating too, particularly some of the sound fx. It certainly plays well enough though. But it's not as good as say Castlevania IV or Rondo of Blood overall imo. It's a little overrated as far as I'm concerned, especially by certain people these days. But it's still a very good game in and of itself, which I think is true of most of the 2D Castlevania titles. I often wonder how much more I might have enjoyed it if it were on SNES where it could benefit from a lot more/nicer colours, proper transparency effects, some more background parallax, a proper overlaid HUD, that more orchestrated and slightly less harsh/grating audio (maybe even with added Dolby Surround sound), and possibly even some tweaked mapping of the controls to the SNES' default controller. Some dude is actually working on a SNES port of Bloodlines that adds some of that stuff I mentioned, but I'm not entirely convinced he'll be able to do it all quite right. Still, interesting to see some of the ways it can be tweaked and updated on that system. PS. I do wish the Dracula sprite in Castlevania IV was better drawn and that he had a second demon form too though.
I def get that SNES was just a beast in the hardware department and sound I believe still today it is home to some of my favorite musical comps. I would love to see a snes inspired bloodlines… now with that said you’re gonna have to play the Genny symphony of the night remake that’s being worked on. Would like to get your thoughts on that. Rondo of blood Super and Castlevania 3 are among my top vanias but for me I give bloodlines a bit more love bc of some of the genesis limitation and I do enjoy the dual characters and is why I love 3 so much. Did you play any of the PS2 of DS games
@@RockinKatReviews I think that Genesis port of Symphony of the Night is looking very good so far. Will be interesting to see how it all comes together. On that note, I totally want a port of Symphony of the Night for SNES too. I even did a couple of concepts on my own channel of how it could look. With the right artist and programmer, I think SNES could actually do a very nice job there. I remember a couple of the DS games being pretty good, but I never really got that invested in them. Not tried anything on the PS2 as I recall.
@ I will def drop by and check it out! My close buddy is a big PS2 era Castlevania fan so i have done a few playtbroughs of lament and curse both really fun games. I think the stigma of the 64 games kind of kept me clear of them originally.
The sound design is love it or hate it and I love it. The SFX are some of the most iconic in my eyes. And while it is not advanced in the graphics department it at least has more going for it aesthetically than CV4. Which borders on new super mario bros equivalency to the castlevania series. Bloodlines also plays 10x better and has one of the best soundtracks in the series. CV4 may well be the worst playing entry in the series right next to haunted castle. I enjoy Adventure more honestly. On top of having a forgettable soundtrack (the worse version of simon's theme compared to bloodlines). It pales in ccmparison to rondo and bloodlines, the two best linear action games in the series. Bloodlines introduces staple mechanics like the backwards hitbox on the first frame of Johnny's attacks. Something that returns on and off but is a big deal for me in terms of skill expression and making the game very very fair. Bloodlines is way harder than CV4 but also way more fair. To this day it is *underated*. Not overated.
@@thomased22legoyodagaming Opinions. You will find that if you ask every gamer who has an opinion on both games though, more pick IV as the better game. As do I. It is what it is.
This game is very good. Of course, there are some wonky hurt/hitboxes. However, the music, atmosphere, and design are 16-bit bliss. Very good bosses as well. I prefer it over Super Castlevania. The length of the game is just right. Not too short, not too long.
My favorite Castlevania. The speed and design of the gameplay give it the slight edge over the other 16 bit Castlevania's
I always preferred Bloodlines..Enjoyed the pace and character variety.
Not to mention the music
It had a classic feel to it
Agreed!
this along with super castlevania were my favs
Both excellent
🔥 Rondo Next!
Maybe Dracula X instead 😆
@ good luck with that one especially that final Dracula fight
@ 🙏 I will need it on that one 😆
nothing like some sega flavored Konami!!!
Good job br0. I definitely prefer the faster pace of action in Bloodlines over Castlevania 4. Many fans will probably like the classic level themes of Castlevania 4 (graveyard, haunted stable, treasure room, library, etc) but I actually prefer the "European tour" of Bloodlines.
I agree the change of scenery really gives bloodlines a unique feel along with Eric unique play I think you can get really creative with ideas
No. It's not better than I thought ...
Because I always thought it was the best!
Let’s gooooooooo!
Great vid, & very informative. Makes me want to fire it up now! You're gameplay has some awesome strats that I was clearly lacking on my last playthrough many moons ago..
🙏 Still learning with each video! it’s been some time since I took another crack at bloodlines. I never did a full play through with Eric Lacarde surprisingly not sure why…Ive always enjoyed bloodlines but I think revisiting it just gave me a far greater perspective of it overall
It's funny because I was so much a SNES kid over SEGA, but Bloodlines was easily the Castlevania I played the most times (until SotN--and now is probably only #2).
I loved everything about this one, and it remains one of my favourites in the series.
I had no idea the composer was the same as for SotN, which makes sense now since I love Bloodline's soundtrack, too.
Same! I had no idea until I did a bit more research for the video. But now that I listened again to the tracks I can hear the influence in the later games. The compositions always interest me the most especially mid 90s a lot of artist got their big break outs on some of these classics and it just snowballed for many of them from there
I am loving these castlevania videos only played bloodlines briefly but definitely wanna check it out. Can’t wait for rondo of blood next 🔥
🙏 I’m looking for to Rondo I have a lot to cover with this one
One of the best for sure
It’s up there at the top for me
Can't be better than I remember, cause I remember it as being the best. And there is no better than best 😅
I want to wish John Morris a happy birthday! I'm gonna go pop in bloodlines on my Sega and beat the game as him.
Happy Flippin’ Birthday John! Crack some skulls for us Vania fans 😆
This is better than IV, it feels like Castlevania and has a final boss rush that’s a worthy successor to 3. It takes a little while but is designed well like the rest of the game so you have a lot of fun taking down Dracula and the rest.
This game is up there with Rondo. I perfer Bloodlines over Rondo but objectively they are the same quality. They just emphasize two different takes on the Castlevania formula. One more about precision and the other aggression. Both have shortcomings in the FVX and SFX but Rondo's shortcomings are really underplayed as opposed to haters overplaying Bloodline's SFX. Which I personally really like anyways so I don't get it really.
The fastest playing game in the series up to that point (and to this day still up there) along with many obscure but game changing mechanics give it the highest skill ceiling. It's excellent and there's a reason why many games in the series and games that take after castlevania take after this game far more than super 4. Bloodlines will stand the test of time in comparison.
Edit: Also, fun fact, Bloodlines came out *after* Rondo. Which came out after Super 4. Konami learnt and adapted to the mistakes and successes of each game for sure.
That’s an excellent take on it. I often times get torn between bloodlines and Rondo. For me I love the aesthetic and exploration elements of rondo but the trade of with bloodlines for me is the more classic feel and the Genesis sound. They both have two primary characters but I love how John and Eric compliment each others playstyles and how they differentiate there playthroughs
@@RockinKatReviews so valid
Such a good game. I actually prefer it over Super Castlevania.
It was the closest game story wise to the dracula novel.
Nope. Not for me. And I'd actually say it's not quite as good as some people give it credit for. Certainly, I personally find it quite visually/aesthetically unappealing and even fugly at times. And the audio can get quite grating too, particularly some of the sound fx. It certainly plays well enough though. But it's not as good as say Castlevania IV or Rondo of Blood overall imo. It's a little overrated as far as I'm concerned, especially by certain people these days. But it's still a very good game in and of itself, which I think is true of most of the 2D Castlevania titles.
I often wonder how much more I might have enjoyed it if it were on SNES where it could benefit from a lot more/nicer colours, proper transparency effects, some more background parallax, a proper overlaid HUD, that more orchestrated and slightly less harsh/grating audio (maybe even with added Dolby Surround sound), and possibly even some tweaked mapping of the controls to the SNES' default controller.
Some dude is actually working on a SNES port of Bloodlines that adds some of that stuff I mentioned, but I'm not entirely convinced he'll be able to do it all quite right. Still, interesting to see some of the ways it can be tweaked and updated on that system.
PS. I do wish the Dracula sprite in Castlevania IV was better drawn and that he had a second demon form too though.
I def get that SNES was just a beast in the hardware department and sound I believe still today it is home to some of my favorite musical comps. I would love to see a snes inspired bloodlines… now with that said you’re gonna have to play the Genny symphony of the night remake that’s being worked on. Would like to get your thoughts on that. Rondo of blood Super and Castlevania 3 are among my top vanias but for me I give bloodlines a bit more love bc of some of the genesis limitation and I do enjoy the dual characters and is why I love 3 so much. Did you play any of the PS2 of DS games
@@RockinKatReviews I think that Genesis port of Symphony of the Night is looking very good so far. Will be interesting to see how it all comes together.
On that note, I totally want a port of Symphony of the Night for SNES too. I even did a couple of concepts on my own channel of how it could look. With the right artist and programmer, I think SNES could actually do a very nice job there.
I remember a couple of the DS games being pretty good, but I never really got that invested in them.
Not tried anything on the PS2 as I recall.
@ I will def drop by and check it out! My close buddy is a big PS2 era Castlevania fan so i have done a few playtbroughs of lament and curse both really fun games. I think the stigma of the 64 games kind of kept me clear of them originally.
The sound design is love it or hate it and I love it. The SFX are some of the most iconic in my eyes. And while it is not advanced in the graphics department it at least has more going for it aesthetically than CV4. Which borders on new super mario bros equivalency to the castlevania series. Bloodlines also plays 10x better and has one of the best soundtracks in the series.
CV4 may well be the worst playing entry in the series right next to haunted castle. I enjoy Adventure more honestly. On top of having a forgettable soundtrack (the worse version of simon's theme compared to bloodlines). It pales in ccmparison to rondo and bloodlines, the two best linear action games in the series.
Bloodlines introduces staple mechanics like the backwards hitbox on the first frame of Johnny's attacks. Something that returns on and off but is a big deal for me in terms of skill expression and making the game very very fair. Bloodlines is way harder than CV4 but also way more fair.
To this day it is *underated*. Not overated.
@@thomased22legoyodagaming Opinions.
You will find that if you ask every gamer who has an opinion on both games though, more pick IV as the better game. As do I.
It is what it is.
Luh-card-eh... NO.
Konami said “here a castlevania on your crappy console now shut up!” The one and only good game on genesis 😂
Ain’t no party like a hater party 😆
Thems fightin' words
Clunky controls. Overrated game.
This game is very good. Of course, there are some wonky hurt/hitboxes. However, the music, atmosphere, and design are 16-bit bliss. Very good bosses as well. I prefer it over Super Castlevania. The length of the game is just right. Not too short, not too long.
I agree! The boss battles really impressed me all very very animated and well thought out creatively
They made it six stages like the original.