Castlevania: Bloodlines is the only Castlevania video game to be released on the Sega Genesis. It was developed and published by Konami, and was first released in North America, on March 17, 1994. Its Japanese title is Vampire Killer (バンパイアキラー), and its European title is Castlevania: The New Generation.

Storyline

The heroes of the game are John Morris, the son of Quincey Morris (inspired iby the novel Dracula) and Eric Lecarde, John's best friend. The game takes place in 1914 and the evil Countess Bartley is attempting to resurrect her uncle, the Count Dracula. The heroes set across Europe, in order to defeat the Countess before Dracula is resurrected.

Textual references

This game attempts to bridge the Castlevania games with the Dracula novel written by Bram Stoker from which the series has always been based off of. The game even refers to one of the stars of the novel, Quincey Morris. However, in doing this, there are some big storyline problems.

• According to the North American manual, John Morris was supposed to witness his father's death. Quincey did not survive the gash inflicted by gypsies under the influence of the Count's hyponotism. But at the time, John Morris was only 2 years of age, since he was born in 1895. Also, John wasn't mentioned in the novel. The original Japanese and European instruction manuals makes no mention of John being witness to his father's death.

• Quincey attempts to court Lucy early in the novel, but it's not mentioned that John has a two year old child (meaning, he either is in a relationship, or just got done with one).

Additionally, the Countess Bartley is loosely based on the actual historical figure Erzsébet Báthory. The game also references the real-life death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, suggesting that the assassination had been ordered by the Countess.

The character of Eric Lecarde may also be an oblique reference to Alucard Tepes, a recurring character in the Castlevania franchise.

Censorship

Castlevania: Bloodlines underwent censorship during localization to PAL regions. The word blood was kept out of the titles at the time. Therefore, the title was altered to Castlevania: The New Generation. The bottom of the title screen was changed from red to blue, because red liquid depicts blood, and blue liquid depicts sea water. The zombies were changed from pink to green to make them less gruesome. In the European version, Eric's spear does not impale him after he dies.