Okay so here we are, the era of sixteen bit Castlevania experimentation is complete, three games on three consoles, each with a markedly different philosophy on what they’re trying to accomplish. If Super IV is a reimagining of the original Castlevania that recreates the vision of that game with new ideas and new possibilities, and Rondo of Blood is a successor to the original style of Castlevania that only utilizes the new hardware for style while essentially keeping the spirit of the originals intact, then Bloodlines seems to really embrace the fact that it’s entirely unburdened by legacy and just get a little wild with it. We’re left with something that’s still very obviously Castlevania, just looking and sounding and feeling a little different than usual in a way that’s been reserved for handhelds and remakes and spinoffs so far and honestly? Tbh?? It rules dude this game absolutely owns.

We’ve advanced far enough along the timeline now that we are just fully in the twentieth century, and which means that this game has to reckon with both the fact that the novel Bram Stoker’s Dracula has happened and that the first World War is ongoing. Wait did I say “has to” because actually they didn’t have to do either of those things at all but DO they? Yes. So, gone are the Belmonts, who do have some sort of descendant here but he’s a gigantic buff American with the biggest shoulders and funniest walk cycle I’ve ever seen named John Morris who is presumably not directly of Richter’s line (Richter stays losing, poor guy). Also present is John’s best friend Eric Lecarde who fights with a spear (my personal favorite Video Game Weapon Archetype) and is a trans icon, definitely taking her estrogen, excited to find out what name she chooses. This pair of fucking knucklehead losers evidently...saw? The climax of Dracula? The Book? Maybe the Coppola movie? That was out a couple years before this. I would use it as the basis for my hardcore edgy vampire game too, that movie is unbelievably cool. I dunno so they saw Dracula get dusted in 1897 and now it’s 1917 and his NIECE who is also an evil vampire and a sorceress is trying to revive him early by CAUSING WORLD WAR ONE and generating enough Bad Vibes all over the continent to rehydrate Dracula early. So our heroes trek across a nightmarish hell version of Europe to go kill her. Does this, like? Are you reading this shit. It’s so cool. It’s also incredibly funny to me that this woman, she’s called Elizabeth Bartlet but she’s very clearly based on Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian noblewoman from like the 1500s or something who MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN but probably actually wasn’t a prolific serial killer, who, after her death, became an international subject of myths and folk tales about how she would kill girls and drink their blood and shit. It’s funny to me that the devs of this game were like “are there any other historical figures associated with vampire stuff who we could turn into real cartoon vampires in our video games? Oh yeah just one? Fuck yeah dude hell yeah let’s go” like yeah guys go for it this rules she killed millions of people and turned the leaning tower of Pisa into fuckin nightmare tower sure.

It’s just such a different tone, even as it hits all the formal beats and nothing in the game is SO far removed from anything we’ve seen previously. All the small stuff adds up. We’re on the Sega Genesis and there’s such a fuckin Genesis-y vibe to the whole thing, particularly the way there is suddenly a TON of gore. We’re not censoring shit over here like over on your fuckin Nintendo Baby Box Goo Goo no sir, we’ve got as much goofy cartoon blood as you could possibly ask for. It’s still schlocky and haunted housey, it’s just the kind you see on midnight block horror movies or the kinds of haunted houses you don’t take eight year olds to now. It’s great! Less great are some of the visual tricks used, with the mind-bending screen cutouts in the evil late game hallway certainly less offensive than the genuinely cool mode 7 stuff that Super IV was doing or the simple but effective parallax and color usage of the Rondo on the PC Engine. Still though, the game looks good when it’s sticking to fundamentals, and the setting of a continental trek leads to a lot of jaw dropping vistas you just can’t find in other Castlevanias so far; the highlights for me being the aforementioned Evil Tower of Pisa and the long trek across a jewel-toned lake at sunset, scrabbling over ruins as the cool, supernaturally flat water bobbed up and down beneath my feet.

The other way it FEELS like we’re on the Genesis is just like, how it plays. We look more like the kind of arcadey brawlers that were at home on this console and we play more like them too. John and Eric move a little faster than their ancestors did, and they’re more maneuverable in general. Platforming isn’t nearly as forgiving as it is in Super IV but there’s way less emphasis on it than there’s ever been before in the series. Instead you’re bombarded with enemies almost nonstop; this is a game of combat attrition and reflexes, and fittingly both characters are kitted in interesting ways to make that focus both fresh and challenging. John doesn’t have the full Super IV moveset but he can attack diagonally, while Eric has more reach and a jump attack but can’t aim in diagonal directions or make quick back attacks. OBVIOUSLY I played as Eric partly because I immediately found a true kindred spirit (spear, extremely gay, obviously trans) and partly because I just took some variety from Whip Guy when it was offered to me! But the game is easily completable with both of them and their stylistic differences do make that second run interesting as you adapt to the feel of the second character, which is truly and meaningfully different beyond just having a different special attack.

So I dunno man! I dunno how much more there is to say, I feel like this game has really frazzled me, this game is ridiculous. It feels ridiculous to play, slaughtering your way through a munitions factory full of German zombies and then stomping through a fountain that’s creating skeletons out of blood outside the palace of Versailles! On your way to go stab Dracula’s serial killer niece through the chest! Death makes you do a tarot themed boss rush! It just rules. Nothing else to it really. All of these three experiments in what Castlevania IS and what is CAN be have been really successful I think, even the one I didn’t like personally very much. Even if I were to stop playing through these right here I think this would be a really rewarding journey, a really interesting look into the way these kinds of things can evolve. So many what ifs happening in this period and like I know Symphony is next, I know everything is about to change and, to some degree, homogenize. I’m just glad we got something like Bloodlines before it did.

PREVIOUSLY: RONDO OF BLOOD

NEXT TIME: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT